Dear SearchFunder community:

This is my first real post in the community. Quick background on me: Just kicked off a self-funded search in January but working toward this goal for the past 4 years. Long-term operator in healthcare, most recently running two portfolio companies for PE sponsors. My search is only in health services in the Southeast. I am based in Atlanta.

Thank you to many already in this community for your help with my questions - this community is terrific and very generous with its help. I thought I would broaden a question on how to get more input on the topic of deal sourcing support. As a single searcher, I am looking for help and strongly leaning toward hiring an outsourced analyst. I know many have successfully recruited and trained interns from undergrad/MBA programs like ^Searchfunder member‌ and ^Searchfunder memberand gotten a lot of value from them. I just know from personal experience in setting up such programs that it is quite an investment and harder for someone going solo. On the reverse side, finding a skilled freelancer/analyst from another country isn't easy and quality/consistency may be challenging. If you have a strong feeling, I would love to get your thoughts on:

1. Ways to mitigate the downside of either approach: Knowing the pains of either approach, do you have a strong preference for interns vs. a freelancer? Any suggestions on what you did to limit the amount of time wasted for recruitment/education/etc?

2. Job description: Is anyone willing to share a job description for the exact duties they used for deal sourcing help? My preference is less on data mining / target lists and more on trusted, ongoing sourcing support. (To be clear, I am still leading all seller negotiations and meetings.)

3. If you had luck outsourcing: Any tips you recommend for finding a fit? I know others have used Fiverr, Upwork, Guru, etc. Any better job boards or agency firms to look first? Any specific tactics that proved most helpful?

Thanks so much for any input!

Marc