PE Outreach Email to Industry Professionals

I will preface by saying that we rarely used a cold sourcing model and instead were invited into deals being run by BB banks but on a handful of occasions I would reach out to companies that were not officially on the block. Sometimes these targets were recommended by my IB colleagues (a warm introduction) or they came across on an industry screen.

Dear CEO,

My name is "x" and I currently work for "firm y" covering the "z" sector. I have spent the past 12 months following your impressive growth (or whatever is relevant to stroke the CEO's ego) and would like to schedule a call to learn more about your company and future plans. (see note below) Your company's expansion into "m" products should allow you to diversify your product offering and expand your customer base...blah blah blah. I look forward to scheduling a time to speak with you in the near future. Thank you for your time.

Note: I would usually follow with a relevant industry trend/insight or company specific development so that he didnt think I was blasting every single company CEO using a template. As an alternative, where relevant, I would reference a person that we had in common (i.e. MD at a bank, industry professional, alumni, etc.). Finding this link can be an important way of hitting it off with a potential contact and getting them to actually listen. I would also possibly include references to relevant industry deals that I had worked on.

The primary goal of the email is to build a rapport and get them on the phone or in a meeting.