Deal origination for M&A advisory & lower-middle-market PE

Your first 2 qualified seller meetings,
before your first invoice.

Konverrt is the deal origination engine for lower-middle-market M&A advisors and PE firms. We put owners who are open to a conversation on your calendar - and we don't send an invoice until the first two qualified meetings land. One firm per vertical, exclusively.

Qualified, defined in writing before launch / One firm per vertical / No long-term contracts

Watch: how we originate qualified seller meetings for M&A advisors (3 min)

01 - The origination engine

Most agencies start your pipeline from zero. We don't.

Konverrt runs always-on origination campaigns across our verticals. That means we maintain a rolling pipeline of business owners who have already expressed openness to a conversation.

When a new firm starts a pilot, we don't begin by warming up domains and hoping. We re-engage owners in your vertical first. That inventory is why we can put the risk on our side.

No invoice until your first two qualified meetings are on the calendar.

"Qualified" isn't our word to define. Before launch, we agree your mandate criteria in writing: deal size band, industry, owner intent threshold. Meetings that don't meet the bar don't count.

Launch in days, not weeks

Pilots run on pre-warmed infrastructure; dedicated infra is built when you convert.

Criteria in writing

Qualification is defined before launch, not argued after.

One firm per vertical

Your campaigns never compete with another client's for the same sellers.

The owners we originate

Always-on campaigns keep a rolling pipeline of owners open to a conversation.

Owner-Operated Businesses ($1-50M)Founders Considering ExitThesis-Fit Acquisition TargetsLower-Middle-Market SellersFamily Offices & HNW InvestorsIndependent Sponsors & Search FundsOwner-Operated Businesses ($1-50M)Founders Considering ExitThesis-Fit Acquisition TargetsLower-Middle-Market SellersFamily Offices & HNW InvestorsIndependent Sponsors & Search FundsOwner-Operated Businesses ($1-50M)Founders Considering ExitThesis-Fit Acquisition TargetsLower-Middle-Market SellersFamily Offices & HNW InvestorsIndependent Sponsors & Search Funds

By the numbers

What discipline at scale looks like.

2.1M+
Emails sent, zero domains burned
640+
Qualified meetings originated
$3.5M+
Pipeline originated
50+
Firms running on Konverrt

02 - Where origination breaks for finance firms

You've probably tried this before. Here's why it didn't work.

Most M&A advisors and fund managers we talk to have already been through two or three lead-gen vendors. The channel wasn't the problem. The way it was run was. It breaks in the same three places every time.

01

Vendors that deliver "leads," not seller conversations

Wrong-size companies. Wrong industries. Replies that say "stop emailing me" counted as deliverables. And the worst version: your owner introductions quietly resold to the firm across the street. When every reply costs you an hour of diligence to discover it's garbage, the vendor isn't saving you time - they're billing you for wasting it.

02

Deal flow capped by your rolodex

Referrals built the firm. But a referral pipeline is feast-or-famine by design - it caps deal flow at the size of your personal network, and it fails exactly when you need it most. The owners you should be talking to exist. They're just not in your network, not on LinkedIn, and nobody is reaching them first.

03

Outreach that risks the reputation the firm runs on

A seller considering exit is making the biggest financial decision of their life. One automated-looking blast, one leaked hint of a sale process, one email from your main domain that lands in spam - and the damage outlasts any campaign. Most vendors don't even understand the risk. In this business, you can't uncork a sent email.

Qualification, targeting, and reputation discipline. Miss any one of them and origination doesn't just fail - it costs you trust in a market that runs on it. Getting all three right is the entire job. That's where we come in.

03 - The Konverrt way

A deal origination engine, built like infrastructure.

Five steps. No shortcuts. Each one earns the next. This is the system that turns a cold market into compounding, proprietary deal flow.

01
Foundation

Who do you actually need in the room, and why would they take the meeting?

Before we touch a sender or write a line of copy, we map your buy box the way you would - industry, revenue and EBITDA band, geography, ownership profile, deal-readiness signals. We co-author the mandate criteria with you: what counts as a real seller conversation, in writing, before launch. And we'll kill mandate criteria that don't survive the math.

  • + Sharpened mandate / thesis brief and TAM model
  • + Mandate criteria in writing - what we will and won't send you
  • + Disqualification rules - the owners we won't email
02
Research

We build the list like an analyst, not a lead vendor.

The owner of a 40-year machine shop isn't in Apollo and never made a LinkedIn page. So we combine business databases, Google Maps scraping for hyperlocal owner-operated companies, and public regulatory data - filings, licenses, registrations - then verify that the contact is the actual equity holder, the business is still active, and it hasn't already been sold. Signal-based triggers (retirement demographics, consolidation waves, distress filings, fund raises) tell us who to reach and when.

  • + Multi-source lists verified to the equity holder
  • + Signal-based timing - ownership age, filings, raise events, hiring
  • + Enrichment for personalization that reads like homework, not mail merge
03
Infrastructure

Your firm's domain never touches outreach. Ever.

Pilots launch on our pre-warmed sending infrastructure - running under our origination entity by design, so campaigns go live in days and seller confidentiality is protected from day one. When you convert to a full engagement, we build a dedicated environment under your own setup: separate domains, full DNS authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), mailboxes capped at human volumes, business-days-only sending. It's the boring layer most vendors skip - and it's why our clients' emails land in the inbox while their firm's reputation stays untouched.

  • + Pre-warmed infra for pilots; dedicated domains built for full engagements
  • + Full deliverability stack and real-time inbox placement monitoring
  • + Sending patterns that mirror how humans actually email
04
Execution

Short, specific, plain-spoken emails - in the owner's language, never agency-speak.

No fake personalization, no "just bumping this." We research your market first: what owners in that niche are worried about, the words they use, and what's happening right now that makes the timing right. Copy is approved by you before anything sends - compliance-friendly by design. Owner replies route to your calendar through our confidential handoff process: we verify the company, assess fit against your mandate criteria, and decline the ones that don't qualify on your behalf.

  • + 8-12 angles tested in parallel, every email under 75 words
  • + Client copy approval before launch - compliance teams welcome
  • + Owner replies routed to your calendar with full context
05
Iteration

The system compounds. That's the point.

Every reply - including every "no" - is categorized and fed back into targeting and copy. "Not now, call me in two years" gets logged with its timeline and becomes a warm follow-up asset no competitor can replicate. By month six you don't have a campaign. You have a proprietary deal flow system that gets smarter every month.

  • + Weekly reviews, monthly strategy briefings
  • + Objection and reply intelligence fed back into the list
  • + A compounding "not now" pipeline logged with real timelines

04 - Proof

The work, in their words.

Two sell-side M&A engagements in full - numbers untouched, breakdowns published in the open.

Midwest M&A Advisor case study thumbnail

Managing Partner · 19-Year M&A Advisory Firm, Midwest

FeaturedSell-side M&A

No referrals, no ad spend - and a $19M+ divestiture now in motion.

Before

A previous outbound vendor billed for unqualified replies - wrong-size companies, targeting that ignored the firm's mandate. Radio, TV, direct mail, and referrals worked, but couldn't reach owners who weren't already looking.

After

A CVA-certified firm targeting $5-25M businesses in manufacturing, construction, and trades. We built the owner list from Google Maps scraping across 86 geographic coordinates plus regulatory data, verified every contact to the actual equity holder, and wrote in the owner's language.

16,000+
emails to 8,500 owner-operators
3.3%
reply rate
4+
in-person meetings ($3M-$20M+)
$19M+
manufacturer divestiture in motion

"I don't buy companies. I help owners understand what theirs is worth." - the line that outperformed everything, written in the owner's language.

Read the full breakdown →
Boutique M&A Advisory New York case study

Managing Partner · Boutique M&A Advisory, New York

Sell-side M&A

5 LOIs signed. 3 transactions closed.

Before

Deal flow came almost entirely from referrals and a decades-old network - feast-or-famine, impossible to scale on demand. A prior outbound vendor delivered volume but billed for unqualified replies that ignored the firm's mandate.

After

We agreed the mandate criteria in writing - deal-size band, sector, owner intent - then originated seller conversations from a researched, verified owner list. Every reply was qualified against those criteria through our confidential handoff before it reached the partners.

27
qualified seller meetings / 90 days
80%
met deal criteria
5
LOIs signed
3
transactions closed

"We spent less time on unqualified calls and more time evaluating real opportunities."

Read the full breakdown →

We also run outreach systems for B2B SaaS and services firms

The same method works across industries - only the research and the language change.

B2B SaaS · Adspert

23

qualified signups · 91% trial activation · +24% signup-to-won vs paid

Read details+

Before

An AI PPC optimization platform relying on paid acquisition, where signup quality was inconsistent and cost per won account kept climbing.

After

We targeted the exact agency and in-house profiles that convert, so signups arrived pre-qualified - 91% activated their trial and signup-to-won ran 24% above paid.

Read the full breakdown →

Services · Dylan · Email Marketing

4

clients in 40 days · 8 calls booked in the first 10 days

Read details+

Before

A specialist agency with strong delivery but no repeatable pipeline - new business arrived through referrals and personal network only.

After

We built the list and wrote in the language of the operators he serves. 8 calls landed in the first 10 days and 4 clients signed inside 40 days.

Read the full breakdown →

Services · Alpha Lead Academy

~$90K

revenue in 6 weeks · 15 calls · 2 clients

Read details+

Before

Michal had a proven program but a pipeline that stopped whenever he stopped manually prospecting.

After

A researched list plus short, specific outreach produced 15 sales calls and 2 signed clients - roughly $90K in revenue within six weeks.

Read the full breakdown →

05 - Working together

Your first 90 days, in detail.

No black box. No mystery onboarding. Here's exactly what happens, week by week.

Pilots launch on pre-warmed infrastructure - first campaigns go live in days and first meetings can land as early as week 2-3. Dedicated infrastructure under your own setup is built when you convert to a full engagement.

Week 1-2

Foundation

  • · Kickoff and mandate / thesis deep-dive
  • · Mandate criteria co-authored and signed off - what counts as a qualified seller meeting
  • · Dedicated sending domains and mailboxes provisioned - your domain stays out of it

Week 3-4

Launch on warm infra

  • · Pilot goes live on pre-warmed mailboxes - no waiting on warm-up
  • · 1,500-3,000 verified, owner-confirmed contacts ready
  • · Copy variants drafted - you and your compliance reviewer approve every word before launch

Week 5-8

Launch

  • · First campaigns go live, 8-12 angles tested in parallel
  • · First qualified seller meetings typically land week 6-7
  • · Every reply researched and fit-assessed before it reaches your inbox

Week 9-12

Optimize

  • · Performance review: reply rates by industry, interest by angle, objection mapping
  • · Winning mandate criteria scaled, weak ones killed
  • · "Not now" pipeline logged with follow-up timelines - the compounding asset starts here

Two qualified seller meetings before your first invoice.

One firm per vertical. Four questions - if the vertical's open and the fit is right, you'll get calendar access.

Apply for a pilot →

06 - Receipts

We don't talk about results. We show them.

Real campaign dashboards, real replies, real calendar invites. Names redacted, numbers untouched.

Smartlead · Campaign performance

10-24% positive reply · <3% bounce rate

Calendly · 90-day window

30 / 24 seller meetings booked · completed

Slack · First close

A client's team, the day their first deal closed from our campaign.

Slack · Client win

Janet, reporting another sale sourced from outreach.

Slack · Pipeline update

Three live opportunities out of one day of meetings.

Inbox · Positive reply

"I was impressed with your emails - happy to speak."

Pipeline · Single sequence

$14,249 qualified pipeline from one sequence

Inbox · Positive reply

"Not often I answer a cold email, but you got my attention."

Names redacted. Numbers and copy untouched. Click any image to expand.

07 - Voices

Operators, not influencers.

"

Maybe 5 to 10% of agencies actually know what they're doing. These guys are in that bracket.

Michal

Michal

Founder, Alpha Lead Academy

"

I'm really happy with the types of leads coming through - the quality is what stood out. I don't know what you're doing, but your AI system is really hitting the target we're trying to reach.

Joe Braier

Joe Braier

CEO, M&A Advisor, Wisconsin

"

We'd been burned by two agencies before Konverrt. The difference was they actually qualified everything before it reached us.

Janet

Janet

Founder, Bartoli Consulting

"

What sold me was how they handle replies. Nothing reaches me until it's been checked - it protects the brand.

Dylan

Dylan

Founder, Email Marketing Agency

"

Predictable, qualified signups from a channel we could never crack ourselves.

Maria

Maria

Head of Marketing, Adspert

"

They run it with the discipline of an operations firm, not a growth-hack shop.

JP & Pacco

JP & Pacco

Founders, Markeity

"

Steady, qualified conversations - no theatrics, no vanity metrics. Exactly what we wanted.

Stefan

Stefan

Founder, B2B Services

"

Maybe 5 to 10% of agencies actually know what they're doing. These guys are in that bracket.

Michal

Michal

Founder, Alpha Lead Academy

"

I'm really happy with the types of leads coming through - the quality is what stood out. I don't know what you're doing, but your AI system is really hitting the target we're trying to reach.

Joe Braier

Joe Braier

CEO, M&A Advisor, Wisconsin

"

We'd been burned by two agencies before Konverrt. The difference was they actually qualified everything before it reached us.

Janet

Janet

Founder, Bartoli Consulting

"

What sold me was how they handle replies. Nothing reaches me until it's been checked - it protects the brand.

Dylan

Dylan

Founder, Email Marketing Agency

"

Predictable, qualified signups from a channel we could never crack ourselves.

Maria

Maria

Head of Marketing, Adspert

"

They run it with the discipline of an operations firm, not a growth-hack shop.

JP & Pacco

JP & Pacco

Founders, Markeity

"

Steady, qualified conversations - no theatrics, no vanity metrics. Exactly what we wanted.

Stefan

Stefan

Founder, B2B Services

08 - Questions

Things people ask, honestly answered.

Is this a guarantee?

add

We don't promise meeting volume - anyone promising you 20 meetings a month will book you 20 bad ones to hit the number. What we do instead is structure the pilot so the risk sits with us: no invoice until your first two qualified meetings are on your calendar, with "qualified" defined against your mandate criteria in writing before launch.

Do you work with firms that compete with us?

add

No. We take one firm per vertical. Your origination campaigns never compete with another client's for the same sellers, and owner introductions are exclusive to you. If your vertical is already taken, we'll tell you on the first call.

Who actually does the work?

add

A small senior team, not an offshore content farm. The people who research your market, write the copy, and qualify your replies are the same people you meet on the first call. One clean identity: Konverrt, start to finish.

How do you protect seller confidentiality?

add

Owner conversations run under our origination entity, not under your firm's name, until an introduction is made with the owner's explicit consent. One seller, one introduction. Many of our clients are in M&A and finance - mutual NDAs are the default before any work begins.

How do you define a "qualified" seller meeting?

add

You define it - with us, in writing, before launch. Industry, size, geography, ownership profile, deal-readiness signal. Every reply gets researched against those criteria before it reaches you, and the ones that don't fit get declined on your behalf. If something slips through that doesn't meet the bar, it doesn't count.

Won't outreach damage our reputation with sellers?

add

It would, if it were automated-sounding - which is exactly why ours isn't. Emails are short, specific, and written in the owner's language, sent at human volumes from dedicated domains that never expose your firm's own. You approve every word before launch. A seller considering exit is making the biggest decision of their life; the entire system is built around not spooking them.

We're a regulated firm. Can you work within compliance?

add

Yes. Every piece of copy is approved by you (and your compliance reviewer) before anything sends. We work with FINRA-regulated broker-dealers and capital advisory boutiques where a single wrong sentence is existential - content approval before launch, documented processes, and full data portability if you ever leave.

How is this different from hiring an SDR?

add

A business development hire runs $150-200K loaded, takes months to ramp, and still needs lists, infrastructure, and copy. We're the whole origination engine - research, infrastructure, execution, qualification - for a fraction of that, with no invoices for empty months and no severance if it's not working.

What industries do you work with?

add

Our core is lower-middle-market M&A advisory and sell-side origination, plus lower-middle-market PE and independent sponsors. We also run outreach systems for B2B SaaS and services firms on the same discipline - but the origination engine was built for finance first, and that's where most of our work lives.

How long until we see results?

add

Pilots launch on pre-warmed infrastructure, so first campaigns go live in days, not weeks - and first qualified meetings can realistically land in week 2-3, even on a cold-start vertical. After you convert to a full engagement, we build dedicated infrastructure under your own setup. Either way, your first invoice waits for the first two.

What's the minimum engagement?

add

We work in 90-day pilots. That's the honest minimum for warm-up plus enough live sending to read real signal. No long-term lock-in beyond that - the engagement should earn the next quarter on its own.

What does it cost?

add

Pilots start with no invoice until your first two qualified meetings land. After that, most M&A engagements run a few thousand dollars a month, scaled to the size of your sending program - real numbers we'll put in front of you on the first call. No hidden setup fees, no per-meeting billing. For firms whose fees run six and seven figures per closed transaction, the math is straightforward: one win pays for the year.

If we stop, what happens to the data?

add

It's yours. Lists, replies, the "not now" pipeline with follow-up timelines, campaign learnings - everything transfers to you. We're confident enough in the compounding value to make leaving easy.

09 - The founder

I write and talk about this work in public.

No account managers you'll never hear from again, no black box. I built Konverrt because the outreach most finance firms get sold is exactly the kind that burns their reputation. This is the opposite of that - built quietly, run with the discipline of an operations firm.

10 - Apply for a pilot

Apply for a pilot.

We run a small number of pilots at a time, one firm per vertical. Four questions, two minutes - if the vertical's open and the fit is right, you'll get calendar access on the next screen.

If your vertical is taken or the fit is wrong, we'll tell you on the first call - not after three.

Two qualified seller meetings before your first invoice.

One firm per vertical. Apply below - if the vertical's taken or the fit's wrong, we'll tell you on the spot.

Four questions, two minutes ↑

Apply for a pilot →
No pitch deck/No hard sell/NDA by default/100% confidential

2 meetings before your first invoice.

Apply for a pilot →