Should we just make the switch to sell-side?

I'm going to try to keep this short but I work for a small buy-side investment bank (Software focused). Our deal flow is strong and our sourcing is extremely streamlined. We are looking at 5-10 deals at any given time (lower market $5-20m ARR). Only problem is these PE firms either move to slow or just sit on their hands given that there is no competitive timeline or formalized bidding process (and because they pay us - not the seller). In result, most of the actionable deals tend to sit on the sideline for months at a time. Not to mention we've seen a lot of our old deals sign sell-side bankers and transact with some of the same firms we worked with. Being a start-up, we are flexible and obviously have the deal flow to back any specific route we take. But it seems like as of lately that pivoting to sell-side might be more appealing. 

(For background on our process we have simple one page teasers & CIMS on all our vetted deals)

Thoughts? 

2 Comments

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