Does anyone here use Pitchbook for deal sourcing? Worth it?

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October 12, 2022

by a searcher from University of Guelph in Toronto, ON, Canada

Does anyone here use Pitchbook for deal sourcing? Or any other pay-for-data platforms? Worth it?

Looking to beef up research and deal-sourcing initiatives, and curious to know what people are finding effective.

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Reply by a searcher
from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO, USA
Anecdote: I was given access to PitchBook for a demo. I was targeting a niche that requires state licensure in most cases. Most are under $1M in EBITDA, a minority may be in the $2-3M EBITDA range. I could not find any data brokers selling lists of licensed facilities.

PitchBook identified 35 targets in one state, about a dozen of which were actually in a different industry. Google revealed more than sixty targets in the same state on one single website found in the top ten results. A VA could have found 100+ in an hour max digging through the first fifty or so results.

As others have suggested, I would try to get a demo or access through a library or alma mater. See if the data is there for the industry / size you are targeting before committing.
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Reply by a searcher
from University of Wisconsin in Los Angeles, CA, USA
I used Pitchbook and ZoomInfo when I worked in private equity. They are good sources for finding acquisition targets and contacts but they are also expensive. If you have plenty of money you will find valuable information but if you are a searcher with a tighter budget I do not think those tools will be worth it. You can find deals without a fee by networking with brokers (who charge the seller a fee) and you can find proprietary deals on Linkedin, Google and networking in the community.
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