What are the most effective deal flow sources?

June 12, 2025

by a searcher from Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business in St. Louis, MO, USA

Hi all, curious -- for those that have submitted LOIs (regardless of whether they were accepted) how did you find the deal? (e.g., if an online platform, which one? was it a broker that you had a relationship with and reached out to you? broker newsletter? proprietary outreach?). Would love to focus my approach.

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Reply by a searcher
from Georgia Institute of Technology in Charleston, SC, USA

Path for my current deal and most of my other LOIs: 1. Find a listing on an aggregator like bizbuysell or this site. 2. Research broker to determine if they have multiple deals that fit my size, location, and industry criteria. 3. Call broker about one of their deals. 4. Find out that the deal I called about doesn't work. Ask about other deals and provide my criteria. 5. Get a CIM for a different deal that is a better fit. 6. Seller calls and preliminary due diligence. 7. Negotiate LOI.

Reply by a professional
from Tufts University in Medfield, MA 02052, USA

My entire sponsorship is built around creating proprietary deals, so that's an obvious one for me. However: 1. I have relationships with lawyers in the area and you might be surprised what they see falling off the bottom of the list. 2. I also have relationships with larger LMM funds and family offices. Sometimes they can't prosecute a deal on their own and it can become a nice JV (I have actually done a deal this way with a family office). 3. Lastly, your network! If you're old like me, people know people who are looking to get out of their business. 4. I don't see acquire.com on here, not much different than bizbuysell. Tends to be more e-comm focused.

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