Deal Sourcing & Proprietary Outreach

December 17, 2025

by a searcher from New York University - Leonard N. Stern School of Business in New York, NY, USA

First-time searcher here. I’m early in proprietary outreach and would really value perspective from those who’ve done this successfully: what one change most improved your owner response rate? For those who started with proprietary sourcing but ultimately acquired a brokered deal—what made you decide the tradeoff was worth it? I’m trying to be disciplined about outreach volume vs. personalization. For operators who’ve been through this, where did you land and why?

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Reply by an investor
from University of Virginia in Tampa, FL, USA

Welcome to search! Volume matters but personalized follow ups and messaging that clearly shows value to the owner certainly moves the needle. If helpful, I'll cover deal sourcing in an upcoming webinar on Jan. 7 and include various strategies help bring inbound deal flow. Happy to share a link to register if you're intereted in attending.

Reply by a lender
from Cornell University in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hi ^redacted‌ - nice to meet you. I believe keeping it low pressure and curious is important here. Owners respond more when the message says you want to learn about their business and long-term plans, not that you are trying to buy it. Short, respectful emails with light personalization work better than highly polished or aggressive ones. Most searchers who switch to brokered deals do so because time starts to matter more than price. We have a lot experience financing various companies via the SBA. If you ever need help talking through a deal, I am happy to help. We work with all the major SBA lenders. The bank pay us after your loan closes, so this is a 100% free service for you.You can email me directly at redacted or schedule a meeting with me: https://cal.com/francodeguzman/30min. Look forward to chatting!

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