Outsourcing Proprietary Search – Any Experiences?

September 26, 2025

by a searcher from Ivey Business School at Western University in Toronto, ON, Canada

Has anyone here used outside firms to help with deal sourcing? Did it actually lead to quality off-market conversations, or did you find it more effective to keep everything in-house? I’d also be interested in: How you structured the arrangement (retainer, per-lead, success-based, hybrid). Whether outsourcing saved you time or ended up being more trouble than it was worth. Any Canadian providers you’ve come across (or global firms that worked well in the Canadian market). Would appreciate any refferals, lessons, success stories, or cautionary tales.

Reply by a searcher
from Northwestern University in Minneapolis, MN, USA

Personally, I’d not recommend it. I think you want to be reaching out to owners with a short simple message yourself to improve your response rates. There’s a lot of value in being in the guts of evaluating the types of business you’ll reach out to, noticing patterns when reviewing a category, etc. if you outsource it, you lose that pattern matching.

Reply by a professional
from Simon Fraser University in Toronto, ON, Canada

https://shaughnessy.group/entrepreneurship Entrepreneurs partner with Shaughnessy Group to outsource their acquisitions and mergers, reducing fixed costs and freeing up time by collaborating with us on a targeted buy-side search. We take an active role in supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs by leveraging our experience, knowledge, networks, technology, and capital resources. In selective situations, we invest our time and, in some cases, our fees.

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