Anyone had luck purchasing a business from direct outreach?

I acquired through a mailed letter. I sent several hundred letters total. It was a worthwhile expense for me be but everyone will have a different experience with it. Since jumping into this world 3 years ago I've heard dozens of stories from people doing acquisitions from brokers, family friends, professional service providers, cold calling, cold emails, etc. In my instance I was a full-time searcher limited to five metro areas. Once I had some level of relationship with brokers in those metros I needed to be productive with all the time non-broker time I had. That's when I really ramped up the email and physical mail outreach. I suggest utilizing brokers AND doing a massive proprietary outreach.

It has worked well for me. I obtained a list from an association which consisted of more than 5,000 contacts. I had VAs call every one of them while another team gathered LinkedIn profiles and sent connection requests. I'm in negotiation with 2 and another 3 more companies I am evaluating. It all depends on the industry but if the business requires a specific license it's easy to get the details and VAs are cheap at $5 - $7 per hour. Using this method has generated more than 100 leads and without a broker involved allows me to be more creative in the deal structure. I intended to acquire 100% of one company but instead I will likely be acquiring a majority interest in 3 companies over the course of the next 2 years. This was not my plan but evolved out of discussions with potential sellers. The lesson here is not to stop if they say I don't want to exit now.