Sourcing add-ons for a roll-up when owners answer LinkedIn, not email
Owner-operators rarely answer cold email. They do answer LinkedIn and WhatsApp. A walkthrough of an add-on pipeline built from conversations.
This walkthrough is an illustrative composite built from common dealmaker workflows. Names, firms and figures are invented. It is not a customer story.
The thesis
A lower-middle-market fund owns a platform company in commercial landscaping and wants six add-ons in two years. Jordan, the operating partner, is running owner outreach himself.
The owners he wants are fifty-something founders who have never hired a banker. They ignore email from strangers. A short LinkedIn message, or a WhatsApp intro from a mutual supplier, gets a reply.
From first message to LOI
Outreach and replies in one list
Jordan’s LinkedIn messages and the WhatsApp intros from suppliers sit together. He answers each owner on the network they replied on.
Every interested owner becomes a deal
When an owner says they would take a call, Claude can suggest a deal with that message attached. Jordan files it so the target, the owner and the next step live in one place.
The supplier who made the intro is not forgotten
Intros carry the most useful contact details in the process. They go into the Rolodex with their source, including the supplier who made the connection.
A pipeline the investment committee can follow
Before IC, Jordan reviews the desk: which owners are talking, what they said about timing, and what comes next for each.
LOI paperwork beside the people
When an owner agrees to terms, Jordan opens his own DocuSign account in Merger and inserts the owner’s details into the LOI template rather than retyping them.
Merger does not replace the fund’s CRM or its reporting. It is where the owner conversations live day to day, which is the part the CRM was never going to capture.