Even in the traditional model in which you should be searching for investors first it is usefull to start searching for potential opportunities. Fundraising will be a lot easier if you have some potential targets in pipeline as you are demonstrating your capacity to generate deal-flow

Often it is hard to get a deal under LOI without investors behind you. The owner wants to know you are a real buyer and that means having capital behind you. I know some people have been successful going deal first but there is more risk. If you aren't able to find capital it reflects poorly on the searcher community. Every broker has a story about a deal that died at the finish line because the searcher couldn't find capital