Breaking into LMM PE from MM IB – Should I Reach Out to Funds Directly?

Current MM IB analyst (ignore title) looking to move to the buyside, ideally at a lower middle market PE fund. I’ve identified a handful of firms I’m particularly interested in, but many are smaller shops (~$100M funds with 1–2 associates), so I’m not sure whether they even use headhunters.

For funds of this size, is it worth reaching out directly to express interest, or is there still a typical recruiting channel I should be aware of?

Curious if anyone has navigated recruiting with smaller LMM funds and how they approached it.

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