Sourcing in Growth Equity

I am just curious on what are the steps that an analyst takes when sourcing. Please be as detailed as possible. How do they find new targets? Who do they cold call? What questions do they usually ask?

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It depends on the fund. Some of the bigger shops just get a lot of inbounds because they’re the go to name when you need some ca$h. If you’re smaller I’d say it’s a lot of cold calling and legwork. You’re really trying to sell the firm. I’d say what makes an amazing analyst over an ok one in this regard is someone who leveraged their personal network. No one is expecting you to be friends with CEOs, but it’s kind of expected you have friends. Reach out to people in your network working at cool companies and get a feel for the business. Worst case you’ve cultivated a relationship that might be helpful later - this business is a long term one anyway

 

I've actually always wondered about this. Associates who source at shops like Summit or TA, where is that rolodex coming from and is there any proprietary sourcing involved as well?

 

Day by day I grow more jaded and elated on associates and the industry, respectively.

Outer circle:

  • ex. you have an uncle that was CEO of a LMM biz, who went to school with the current chairman of a target. Uncle makes the introduction, and you take it from there.
  • ex. you went to school with the current janitor of a firm in your target industry, janitor connects you with his supervisor. Supervisor routinely visits a certain hole-in-the-wall diner, and tips a certain waitress well. Waitress is the niece of the general counsel of your target; supervisor connects you to the niece, then the niece connects you to the general counsel. And so on
  • ex. aforementioned current chairman of a target says there's nothing he can do at the moment. You contact him 3 months down the line when you hear he's in town, and set up lunch. You bullshit for 15 minutes, then get into business, and he tells you one of his "competitors" is looking to have someone else take the reigns. You call up the competitor and make good use of your "proprietary knowledge."
  • ex. aforementioned waitress' birthday is coming up, so you go in person to give her a gift, chit chat for 1 minute, and then leave -- and then pretend like you've just remembered "oh, and let me know if you know of anyone that works in target industry."

And so on and so forth, until you have an excel sheet with thousands of names and corresponding info, with automatic calendar reminders for important events/follow-ups. 

The rest is cold-calling. It's faster, more direct, and you don't need to be living, breathing human-scum to get what you want. 

 

Super helpful man. Heard stories about this but good to hear it corroborated. I have heard too that at TA, the comp structure for even associates who source and execute a transaction is pretty crazy 

 

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