PRIVATE EQUITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Deal origination for investors, and business development for companies selling into PE.
Crescent Capital Advisors has a national network of private equity funds and independent sponsors, built over decades of industry relationships and transaction work. Investors use it to find companies that are not yet in a process. Companies use it to reach the funds and portfolio companies they are trying to sell to. The same relationships are used for two different jobs.
THE PREMISE
We use the same network for investors and for companies selling into PE.
After decades of transaction work, we know which funds are deploying right now and which sponsors move quickly. We also know which operating partners answer the phone, and who inside a portfolio company owns the budget. An outside origination or business development effort is paying for that knowledge.
It gets used in two directions. On the buy side we originate acquisitions against an investor's mandate. On the other side we run business development for companies whose buyers are private equity funds and the operating businesses those funds own. Both draw on the same network, and the work on each side is very different.
We take selected clients rather than all of them. A network keeps its value only while the introductions made through it are worth taking. The relationships themselves, rather than our capacity, limit how many mandates we can run at once.
TWO DIRECTIONS
Two kinds of work, run as two separate services.
For funds, sponsors, and family offices
Buy-Side Origination
We work with a wide range of family offices and sponsors to support their buy-side efforts. Origination is aligned to the investor mandate, the timeline, and the geographic preferences already written into the strategy, rather than to whatever happens to be in the market this quarter.
- Retained proprietary search: staying out of an auction should keep the multiple down and leave the deal timeline under your control
- Search coverage without the hire, so origination capacity does not become permanent payroll between funds
- Opportunistic flow on a subscription, when the brief is breadth rather than a narrow thesis
For public and private companies selling into PE
Outsourced Business Development
For companies looking to grow their business with private equity funds or their portfolio companies, we take on the business development effort itself. That means defining what you are selling to this audience, finding the accounts worth approaching, and making the first conversation a warm one.
- The opportunity and value proposition defined and made specific to a private equity audience before anything is sent
- Potential funds and their portfolio companies identified by region, investment sector, and fund size
- Existing relationships used to facilitate a warm introduction, rather than a cold list worked from the outside
Buy-side origination is a search. It begins with a mandate and ends at an owner who was not planning to sell. Outsourced business development is a sales function. It begins with a value proposition and ends at a buyer inside a portfolio company. Presenting them as one offering would mislead the client, so they are scoped, staffed, and reported separately.
HOW IT IS ENGAGED
Three ways to buy this, depending on how specific the brief is.
Every mandate starts written down: what you are looking for, and what you are not.
Buy-Side Search
A proprietary acquisition search run against your mandate: sector, size, geography, timeline. We approach owners directly rather than waiting for them to come to market. That keeps the process out of an auction and leaves the pace under your control.
Deliverable
A qualified pipeline of off-market targets, owner contact made, and the mandate revised as responses come in.
Opportunistic Deal Flow
For investors who want to survey a broad range rather than work a narrow mandate. We work with a range of stakeholders who share deals on a recurring basis, and we circulate what comes through as a deal sheet.
Deliverable
A periodic deal sheet, sent to subscribers directly and under the terms it is circulated on.
Business Development into PE-Backed Portfolios
The business development function for a company whose buyers are private equity funds and the operating businesses they own. We define the proposition, map the accounts, and work the introductions through relationships that already exist.
Deliverable
A target map by region, sector, and fund size, an agreed value proposition, and introductions worked through to a first meeting.
Retained or subscription. Scoped before we start.
HOW A MANDATE RUNS
From the brief to the first meeting.
- 01
Define
What you are looking for, or what you are selling, written down. Sector, size, geography, timeline, and the proposition stated in the words the other side of the table would use.
Checkpoint: a written mandate both sides sign off on before any outreach starts.
- 02
Map
Potential funds and their portfolio companies identified by region, investment sector, and fund size, then narrowed to the ones where a relationship already exists or sits one step away.
Checkpoint: a named target list, ranked by reachability rather than by size.
- 03
Introduce
Outreach goes through those relationships, so the first contact arrives with somebody's name attached to it.
Checkpoint: introductions made, meetings booked, and every no recorded with the reason it was a no.
- 04
Work the list
The mandate is revised as responses come in. Sectors that stop responding are removed from the list, and accounts that respond get more attention. When the evidence changes, we rewrite the brief instead of defending it.
Checkpoint: a standing cadence with the pipeline, the changes, and the reasoning in one place.
WHAT WE DO NOT PUBLISH
Live opportunities stay off this website.
Deals in the market and the companies inside them are not published here, and they are not attached to a downloadable sample for anyone who wants to see the format. The deal sheet goes to subscribers directly, under the terms it is circulated on. If you want to judge what comes through it before you subscribe, ask for references from clients who have taken introductions from us.
THE OTHER PRACTICE
Technology diligence on an originated deal.
Diligence starts after origination ends. The technology practice at Crescent runs the technology diligence: five PRISM™ dimensions translated into dollar impact, remediation window, and thesis risk. It is written by an operator who has held the CTO and CISO seats through a full hold and exit. It is a separate engagement. A client who finds a deal through us is under no obligation to buy the technology diligence.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What clients ask before sending a brief.
- Are you a bank running a sale process?
Not in this practice. Business development finds opportunities and makes introductions. Sell-side process management is advisory work, and it sits in the firm's M&A Advisory practice under its own mandate, so the two are scoped and staffed separately. If what you need is a large-cap auction run by a bank, we will say so rather than take the mandate and learn on your deal.
- What counts as 'proprietary' here?
That the owner was not already in a process when we reached them. It does not promise that nobody else will ever look at the company. It means you are early, the timeline is negotiable, and no banker is setting the pace for you. Those conditions help keep the multiple down.
- We already have a business development team. Where does this fit?
Alongside it, on the accounts it cannot reach. An internal team works a named list well. What it usually cannot do is get a first meeting inside a fund or a portfolio company where nobody knows them. We take on those accounts.
- How is this priced?
It depends on which of the three engagements you are buying, and it is agreed in writing before any work starts. We do not publish fees on this website, for the same reason we do not publish live opportunities: the terms belong in the engagement letter, not in marketing copy.
- Can we see the deal sheet before we subscribe?
We will tell you what it covers, how often it goes out, and where the deals come from. We will not send live opportunities to someone evaluating the format, because the companies in it did not agree to that.
- How quickly does this produce anything?
Introductions can begin within weeks of the mandate being written. A closed acquisition runs on the seller's timetable rather than ours. A firm that quotes you a close date at the mandate stage is quoting a timeline it does not control.
Send a brief
Tell us what you are looking for, or who you cannot get to.
A few lines is enough: the mandate you are working, or the buyer inside a portfolio company your team has not been able to reach. We will tell you whether this network reaches it, and what the first month would look like.
Bass reads every brief. If the network does not reach where you need to go, we will say so rather than take the mandate.