M&A advisors · brokerages · search funds

M&A lead generation that finds sellers nobody else is talking to.

We run owner-direct cold email and LinkedIn outreach for M&A firms, business brokerages, search funds and acquirers across the United States. Off-market sellers on the sell side, private equity and strategic buyers on the buy side.

Short answer

M&A lead generation is the practice of contacting business owners and buyers directly, instead of waiting for listings or inbound enquiries. For acquirers it creates proprietary deal flow that no one else is bidding on. For brokerages it creates sell-side mandates and qualified buyer interest. TamGen builds the owner-direct list, runs the email and LinkedIn sequences, and hands over the replies worth a call.

32,000+
Owners contacted
39
Interested sellers, Florida trades alone
45.5%
Best positive reply share
5
PE firms into one urgent care process
Mandates

Three ways M&A firms
use outbound.

The same machine points in different directions depending on what you need this quarter. Sell side, buy side, or a live mandate that needs buyers.

01

Off-market seller sourcing

Owners who have never been listed and have never spoken to a broker, reached at their desk by trade, revenue band and county.

02

Buy-side deal origination

You have a thesis and a target profile. We find every business that matches it and get you in front of the decision maker.

03

Buyer search for a live deal

You have a mandate and need buyers. We take the teaser to private equity firms, strategics and platform acquirers who fit the thesis.

Case studies

Mandates we have run,
and what came back.

Client names are withheld under confidentiality, so each engagement is described by market and mandate. Every figure comes from the campaign dashboards.

Sell side · Florida trades

A search fund buying HVAC, roofing and contracting businesses

Context
A search fund with capital committed and a clear acquisition profile, competing for every business it saw.
Challenge
Every target had already been shopped by brokers to dozens of other buyers. They needed owners nobody had approached, and no way to reach them at volume.
What we did
Built owner-direct datasets segmented by trade, revenue band and county across Florida, then ran eleven separate campaigns on dedicated warmed domains so a roofing owner and a behavioural health owner never received the same email.
9,574
Owners contacted
19,734
Emails sent
193
Total replies
39
Interested sellers
Buy side · urgent care

One Florida urgent care mandate, marketed to institutional buyers

Context
A single sell-side mandate needing credible buyers fast.
Challenge
Private equity healthcare teams receive constant deal flow and ignore nearly all of it, so a generic blast would have gone nowhere.
What we did
Researched funds with an existing urgent care or multi-site healthcare thesis, then wrote each subject line around that specific firm and why the deal fit their portfolio, rather than sending one teaser to everybody.
5
Institutional buyers engaged
1
NDA signed
1
Platform acquirer referred in
100%
From a single mandate
Sell side · healthcare

A brokerage sourcing physical therapy clinic sellers in New York

Context
A finite regional market of roughly twelve hundred clinic owners.
Challenge
No room for volume. Burn the list with a generic campaign and the market is gone for a year.
What we did
Treated the whole market as one careful three-step sequence, written for clinic owners specifically and addressing succession rather than opening with a valuation pitch.
1,263
Clinic owners
3,344
Emails sent
44
Replies
45.5%
Positive share
Replies

Owners agreeing to sell.
Funds asking to get in.

Word for word from live campaigns. Names, companies, email addresses and phone numbers are permanently redacted.

M&ASellerSequence 1
"Short answer: yes, I’m actively in conversations now. Florida residential HVAC, $1.6M revenue. Running live discussions with PE-direct buyers and brokers this week, including indicative valuation conversations. I’d take a 15-minute triage call to see if there’s a fit."

Owner & President,

M&ABuyerNDA signed
"I signed the NDA. I have availability for a call tomorrow afternoon."

Private equity firm

M&ASeller
"Send a check!!!"

Owner, Construction

M&AStrategic buyerReferred internally
"I received your contact info and note about this FL based urgent care opportunity from our PE firm. As we are their urgent care brand in the southeast, it made sense to loop me in. I lead the inorganic growth initiative, focused on acquisitions and conversions across the country."

Head of inorganic growth, PE-backed urgent care platform

M&ASeller
"Yes, we would be open to a conversation regarding a potential sale. Approximately 25 years in business, with a substantial recurring service operation, repair division and commercial accounts."

Owner, Pool & Spa

M&ABuyer
"Thanks for reaching out. Yes, we would like to be included in the process."

Partner, private equity firm

M&ASeller
"What are you proposing and what are your fees? Send them to me in an email."

Owner, Construction Services

M&ASellerTimeline set
"We will be starting the broker process in February. If you are planning on offering a 2 to 4x multiple we can end this as friends now. At the right time, we will open up."

Owner, Cooling & Heating

M&ABuyer
"This is a space we are interested in. I cc’d my work email. What is the revenue and EBITDA profile?"

Private equity firm

M&ASellerCall scheduled
"We would certainly be interested in discussing potential business opportunities with you. Please let us know if this week Thursday or Friday works for you."

Principal, Staffing

Sectors

Where we have run
M&A campaigns in the US.

Every sector below has produced interested sellers or engaged buyers on a live campaign.

HVAC and plumbing

Residential and commercial operators across Florida, owner-direct by county and revenue band.

Roofing, solar and impact windows

Storm-exposed markets where backlog and crew stability drive valuation.

General and commercial construction

Contractors and platform targets, including fixed-price risk questions from buyers.

Urgent care and multi-site clinics

Sell-side mandates marketed to private equity and platform acquirers.

Physical and occupational therapy

Clinic owners approached on succession rather than valuation.

Behavioural health and ABA

Multi-state practice owners, including larger group practices.

Healthcare staffing

Agency founders and CEOs, several of whom opened acquisition conversations.

Diagnostic and medical labs

Owners responding to investor interest in the category.

Food and snack manufacturing

Confidential sale processes taken to strategic and private buyers nationally.

FAQ

M&A outbound, answered.

What is M&A lead generation?
M&A lead generation is the practice of proactively finding and contacting business owners who might sell, or buyers who might acquire, instead of waiting for listings or inbound enquiries. For acquirers it produces proprietary deal flow. For brokerages and advisors it produces sell-side mandates and qualified buyer interest. It is usually run through cold email and LinkedIn outreach aimed at owners and principals.
How do you find off-market business sellers?
We build an owner-direct list segmented by trade, revenue band, headcount and county, verify the contact data, then run a short multi-step sequence written for owners rather than brokers. Off-market sellers are businesses that have never been listed anywhere, so the only way to reach them is direct contact.
What is proprietary deal flow, and why does it matter?
Proprietary deal flow means acquisition opportunities you sourced yourself, that no other buyer is competing for. Broker-listed deals go to many buyers at once and get bid up. Outbound origination is the most reliable way to build proprietary flow at volume, which is why search funds and independent sponsors invest in it.
Can you find buyers for a deal we already have?
Yes, and it is one of our strongest use cases. On one Florida urgent care mandate, buy-side outreach brought five institutional buyers into the process. One signed the NDA and offered a call the next afternoon, and a private equity firm forwarded the opportunity internally to their urgent care platform, whose head of inorganic growth replied directly.
Will this damage our firm's domain reputation?
No, because we never send from your primary domain. Outreach runs on separate domains bought and warmed for the purpose, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured, rotated out at the first sign of degradation. Your firm's mail keeps working normally.
Is cold email to business owners legal in the United States?
Yes. B2B cold email is legal in the United States under the CAN-SPAM Act, provided the sender identity is accurate, a real physical address appears in the message, opt-out requests are honoured promptly, and subject lines are not misleading. We build every campaign to that standard and suppress anyone who asks out, permanently.

Tell us the thesis. We'll tell you how many owners match it.

Twenty minutes. We map your target market, say honestly whether outbound origination fits it, and show you what the first campaign would look like.

Also selling software? See SaaS lead generation.