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Epic Search Engagement™

The channel that wins you the founder who's also being chased by big PE.

4
Channels
~400
Priority owners hand-mailed
6–9
Months to typical LOI
98%
Coverage guarantee
Best fit

Who Epic is built for.

Epic is the default engagement. Most acquisition targets in the lower-mid market are founder-operated, partner-stage, or older. Those owners ignore email by reflex and read every envelope their assistant brings them.

They're also being approached by other buyers. Strategic acquirers. PE platforms running add-on programs. Independent sponsors with similar theses. The question isn't whether they've heard of you when they're ready to sell. It's whether they want to sell to you.

Common fits are independent sponsors, family offices building a multi-year acquisition cadence, holding companies, and any buyer competing for the same owners big PE is also chasing.

The channels in action

Four channels. One coordinated story.

Email, LinkedIn, phone, and the handwritten layer that reaches the segment institutional outreach can't. Every artifact is built from research about the specific owner.

Aligned Profit
San Francisco, CA
FOREVER
Mr. David Reyes
Hartwell HVAC
Phoenix, AZ
Handwritten mail · The Epic lift

Real ink. Real envelope. USPS.

Hand-addressed letters to your top ~400 priority owners. The channel an owner can't filter or delete, and the one their assistant always brings them. Founders, partner-stage owners, and trades operators read every envelope and ignore email by reflex.

The physical artifact that signals seriousness and a longer time horizon than another templated outreach.

Email
Jordan Reeves
Jordan Reeves · Aligned Profit
Tue, 9:42 AM
Re: Hartwell HVAC
David, caught the Camelback retrofit + the two techs you brought on this spring. We represent a sponsor building a Southwest residential HVAC platform: operator-led shops, tenured crews, $1–3M EBITDA. Your profile is the anchor they're looking for…

From a real mailbox, written from real research.

5+ warmed sender mailboxes with SPF/DKIM/DMARC clean. Each opening sentence references something specific about this owner's business.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn David Reyes
David Reyes
Owner · Hartwell HVAC · Phoenix, AZ
"Hi David, your Camelback retrofit caught my eye. We represent an independent sponsor building a Southwest HVAC platform: operator-led, tenured crews. You're exactly the profile. Worth 15 min when timing's right?"
+ Connect

A note that earns the connection.

Sales Navigator surfacing, research-driven connection notes, and follow-ups tailored to what each owner has actually said publicly.

Phone screening
Sara Chen
Sara Chen
M&A Analyst · Aligned Profit
14:32

An M&A operator on every seller call.

No BDR scripts. Every owner who responds gets a real conversation with someone who has talked to hundreds of sellers and qualifies fit before it lands in your inbox.

Why this works

How a non-institutional buyer wins the deal.

In any vertical with active PE consolidation, the owner you want is being approached by three or four institutional buyers running the same playbook. Same templated email. Same merge-field LinkedIn note. Same junior sourcing analyst on the first call.

Founders notice. They built something they care about, and they pay attention to who's asking about it. A handwritten envelope on the desk reads differently than another email that gets archived. So does the conversation that follows when it starts with a real person who did real research instead of a script.

The PE firms that source the bulk of their deals proprietarily built their pipelines this way. Handwritten letters, plant visits, multi-year follow-ups. Conversations that close years after they start. It's the patient approach that wins on relationship instead of on bid.

Epic gives you that channel. Handwritten outreach to your top 400 priority owners, paired with the digital sequence to the rest. The buyer who shows up like a person, not a firm.

Inside the engagement

What's included.

01 · Foundation

Everything in Focused Search

Email outbound across 5+ warmed mailboxes, LinkedIn outreach via Sales Navigator, phone screening by an experienced M&A analyst, and the multichannel cadence that defines the methodology. Same base layer Focused runs on.

02 · The Epic lift

Handwritten mail to your top ~400 priority owners

Real ink, real envelopes, sent USPS. We hand-address each one and write a short personalized note referencing why this specific owner could fit your specific mandate. Older founders, partner-stage owners, and trades operators ignore email entirely but read every piece of mail their assistant brings them. This is the channel that reaches them.

03 · Cadence

5+ touches across 4 channels

Email, LinkedIn, phone, and handwritten mail in a coordinated sequence. Each channel reinforces the others. An owner who sees your name in three places at once is far more likely to take a call than one who saw it once. The physical artifact also signals seriousness and a longer time horizon.

04 · Lift

Higher response from priority segment

Response rates on multichannel sequences with handwritten mail run several times what email alone produces in the same population. The lift comes from reaching owners who would never have responded to digital outreach, not from getting better response from digitally-reachable owners.

05 · Targeting

Tighter cadence on top-tier targets

Your highest-priority owners get a denser sequence: more touches, shorter gaps, and the handwritten layer to break through. We escalate cadence based on engagement signals and your input on which segments matter most.

06 · Guarantee

"No Stone Left Unturned"

98% reach of every prospect in your buy box, at least five touches each, or we refund the retainer. The guarantee applies to Epic the same way it applies to Focused, the only piece of the engagement with refund consequences attached.

Learn about the guarantee →

Why handwritten mail?

A real handwritten note in real envelope ink, sent USPS, is one of the only channels an owner can't filter or delete. We use handwritten mail to reach the segment of your universe that doesn't respond to digital outreach, and to give priority targets a tangible artifact that signals seriousness. It's the single highest-lift addition you can make to a digital sequence in this segment.

Starting at
$2,500/mo

*Pricing varies based on industry, geography, and scope. Includes a consulting fee at close that credits dollar-for-dollar against the monthly retainer. See the economics.

Get your free market analysis
How it runs

One month to ramp. Five to run.

A standard Epic engagement runs six months of active outreach. Month one builds the universe and warms the channels. The next five run the search itself, with handwritten mail timed to land alongside the digital sequence. First LOI-worthy conversations typically surface in months six to nine from kickoff. Engagements can extend.

Month 1

Ramp

Universe construction, contact validation, sender warmup, handwritten-mail vendor coordination, kickoff with your team.

Months 2–3

Launch

Email + LinkedIn waves go out. First batch of handwritten mail to top-priority segment. Phone screens begin on replies.

Months 4–5

Cultivate

Follow-up sequences across all four channels. Second handwritten wave to priority owners. Qualified introductions land.

Month 6

Sustain

Continued cultivation of warm-but-not-ready owners. Monthly coverage report. Decision point at month-end: renew, pause, or wrap with the cultivation list handed to you.

Other engagement options

When Epic isn't the right tier.

Epic is the default for a reason, it fits most buy-side mandates in the lower-mid market. But if your buy box is tightly defined and your timeline is flexible, Focused will get you there for less. And if your timeline is tight or your vertical is heavily PE-rolled, Ultimate's full channel stack is the right step up.

Step down to

Focused Search

If your universe is reachable through email + LinkedIn + phone alone, younger operator-led businesses, tech-forward verticals, founders who live in their inbox, the handwritten layer may not earn its keep.

Learn about Focused →
Step up to

Ultimate Search

Adds full-universe handwritten mail plus Meta ad campaigns. Built for compressed timelines, larger universes (1,000+ owners), and verticals under heavy PE consolidation pressure.

Learn about Ultimate →
Common questions

The engagement, timeline, and what happens next.

How long is the engagement?

Six months of active outreach. Month one builds the target universe and warms the sending channels. The next five run multichannel sequences across your buy box, with cultivation continuing on every owner who engages. Six months is what it takes to cover the universe properly. Engagements can extend.

How long until there's an LOI-worthy deal?

Typically six to nine months from kickoff. First qualified conversations land in the 30-to-45-day range, but the path from first conversation to LOI runs another four to seven months on average. Most owners aren't ready the day we first reach them — they're six to eighteen months from the event that turns interest into action, and the cultivation discipline is what carries them across the line when they are.

What if a deal goes into due diligence partway through?

That's your call. Keep the outreach running through LOI and diligence (recommended — the visible pipeline gives you leverage and a fallback if the deal doesn't close). Pause with 30 days' written notice; just know a pause exceeding 14 days during the Engagement Term voids the Coverage Guarantee. Pivot the buy box by mutual written agreement if your criteria have shifted. Full mechanics in the Search Agreement and the full FAQ.

What happens after the six months end?

The agreement continues month-to-month after the Engagement Term until either party gives 30 days' written notice, so the term doesn't end abruptly unless someone cancels. Most engagements keep going for at least another month or two, since the long-tail owners (six to eighteen months from action) often reply right around that window. When you do wrap, the full cultivation list is handed off to you as a self-managed CRM.

How do you charge?

A monthly retainer (scoped to the channel mix and intensity) plus a consulting fee of 1% of deal value at close. The retainer credits dollar-for-dollar against the consulting fee, so the retainer effectively pre-pays the close fee rather than stacking on top.

See the full FAQ →
Next step

See if Epic fits your buy box.

We'll put together a Market Viability Analysis on your target industry and geography. Twenty minutes, yours to keep. If a different tier is the better fit, we'll say so.

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