Building an effective lead-gen engine

November 08, 2025

by a searcher from University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Context I’m running a self-funded, industry agnostic search in the LA area for businesses with $750K - $2MM in cashflow. Thus far, I’ve relied on the major search platforms and large brokerages. However, given the relatively tight search parameters, I’m lead-constrained. However, paradoxically, there's still enough noise that I'm also slow to reply to good deals. Questions: 1. I feel like I’m checking###-###-#### platforms, each with fees, that mostly overlap. Have you boiled down your lead sources or do you check everywhere daily? Anything missing? Table-stakes: BizBySell, BizQuest, Deal Stream Aggregators: Skarp, Interexo, X5 Upmarket: Axial, PrivSource 2. Have you used an offshore resource / intern to maximize your responsiveness when new deals hit? 3. Do you know of any LA-specific resources for deal sourcing?

Reply by a searcher
from University of California, Berkeley in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hey Sam, For brokered deals, I recommend choosing one aggregator, setting tight filters, and checking once per day (first thing in the morning). Here’s a list of the top SMB deal aggregators:
https://evergoldpartners.com/best-brokered-listing-aggregators-for-on-market-smb-deals/ For self-listed deals (ie no broker, talk directly with sellers), check out: https://evergoldpartners.com/best-platforms-for-off-market-smb-deal-flow/ PS I’m an LA based searcher as well 👋Happy to chat and exchange notes any time

Reply by a searcher
from Babson College in Boston, MA, USA

Hi Samuel, have your tried sourcing deals before they hit the market? 80% of businesses listed for sale never even end up selling - you can probably guess all the reasons why. Since you're industry agnostic and in a specific geography, you can be proactive and built out a list of companies to target. If you want to chat about building up your proprietary deal flow let me know.

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