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An owner's first response isn't about whether they'll sell. It's about whether they trust you enough to keep talking. Here's what we've heard from owners who replied, and what they were really saying.

In 2025, we sent 82,035 emails to small business owners. We got 1,815 replies (3.87% reply rate) and 454 owners who wanted real conversations. That means that of the people who replied, 34% expressed genuine interest in exploring a sale.

If you served, you already know what it feels like to lead people, manage resources, and make decisions when the stakes are real. Most veteran searchers are not struggling with confidence or credibility. The friction shows up somewhere else. It appears the moment they start talking to civilian business owners who have never worked inside a military environment.

A business can have phenomenal margins. Recurring revenue. Insane retention. All the things the gurus obsess over. But if the owner isn’t interested or isn’t reachable, it doesn’t matter. So we looked at actual outreach results across nine industries, and the thing that mattered most wasn’t the business model. It wasn’t the revenue mix. It wasn’t even the size of the companies.

“Not now" is one of the most valuable responses you can get because it means the owner is considering transition. They're just not ready yet. The question is whether you'll be the person they call when they are ready.

A solid buy box answers four questions: Industry, geography, business characteristics, and who you'll be working with.Most searchers nail the first two, but the last two make the real difference.

We've watched dozens of searchers open their outreach with credentials. Wharton MBA. Goldman background. Well-capitalized investor backing. They think it builds credibility. It doesn't. Most of the time, it builds skepticism.

We've talked to hundreds of business owners, and we can tell you this with certainty: the reason many people sell their business usually has nothing to do with getting the highest price.

Search isn’t in a bubble. The real constraint isn’t capital, it’s talent. With more professionals entering ETA as the white-collar job market softens, investors and business owners have the freedom to be more selective. The result isn’t collapse but a sharper filter, where disciplined operators with clear narratives and proven processes rise above the noise.

When you launch a search fund, your budget is more than just a financial plan. It’s your oxygen tank. It dictates how long you can...

Email deliverability is the hidden force behind every successful proprietary search. You can write the perfect message, but if it lands in spam, owners never see it. Small business owners already face more than 120 solicitations a day, which means your outreach only works if your setup is airtight. One of our clients came to us for this reason alone — they weren’t struggling with messaging, they just couldn’t reach inboxes. Once we fixed their deliverability, conversations st

In 2023, a record 94 search funds launched, yet only 29 acquisitions closed. That mismatch is why proprietary search matters. Once a deal hits a broker, it turns into an auction — valuations climb, timelines shrink, and returns get squeezed. Stanford’s latest study shows median multiples at 7.0× EBITDA, already pushing higher in competitive processes. Proprietary search flips the dynamic. It gives buyers direct conversations with owners who care about legacy as much as price.