I needed an omnichannel, direct-to-owner sourcing engine to buy my next business. It didn’t exist for buyers like me, so I built it. Today, OutSearched serves private equity firms, family offices, independent sponsors, and search funds across the lower middle market.
I’m a serial entrepreneur. My last company specialized in meristematic tissue culture and genetics. After stepping back from day-to-day operations, I went looking for the best way to buy another business.
I had been on the receiving end of a strong proprietary outbound campaign once, and it worked. So I went looking for a service that delivered the same thing on the buy side. Nothing fit. Brokered deals were too expensive and too competitive. Banked processes drove valuations up before I could build a relationship with the owner. The firms with serious origination infrastructure were running it in-house, with budgets the typical lower middle market buyer can’t justify.
In parallel, I was working with private equity and independent sponsor clients at SRS Real Estate, helping them structure sale leasebacks. Those clients started asking me to find them deals. I structured outbound campaigns. The campaigns brought forward quality opportunities. The model worked. So I built a team around it.
There are more buyers in the lower middle market than ever before. Brokered processes have become more crowded and more expensive. The buyers who win are the ones who reach owners before a process exists.
Reaching them requires more than a Grata or Sourcescrub subscription and a templated cold email. Generic list blasts don’t get founder responses, and they don’t build the trust required to bring an owner to the table on a direct-to-owner basis.
What works is active origination. A dedicated team, a defined mandate, multichannel outreach, and the discipline to qualify every conversation against your buy-box. That’s what firms with institutional sourcing infrastructure have been doing for years. It’s what OutSearched delivers for buyers who don’t want to build it from scratch.
Database subscription plus a junior BD hire blasting templated emails. Low response, no trust, no pipeline.
Dedicated team, omnichannel direct-to-owner outreach, mandate-specific messaging. The model OutSearched runs.
Qam
Target universe construction, data enrichment, and the sourcing infrastructure behind every campaign. Built per mandate, not recycled.
Saad
Multichannel outreach, response management, and appointment setting. Every channel staffed, every reply followed up, every meeting on the calendar.
Mariano
Nate
Internal Business Development engagements operate under your firm’s brand. Fractional engagements operate under ours. The team structure is the same.
Independent sponsors win on entry multiple. Auction-bid deals don’t pencil. We help you get to owners early, build conviction, and bring LPs deals they couldn’t have found themselves.
Across client mandates in 2025
Outsearched and Nate’s team have provided me with valuable assistance during my search.
We have passed on several opportunities after working with them and digging further into asking better questions and reviewing deeper financials
I’m an independent sponsor and my goal is to close one business a year. Missed that in 2025 by relying too heavily on brokered deals. With OS we’re on track for three closes by Q1 2026.
Working with OutSearched is great – Nate is highly responsive and does a phenomenal job from end to end!
We hired Outsearched to build out our buyside pipeline for a PE rollup. Generally we source that internally but for this particular scenario, we couldn’t find anything worthwhile either online or through direct outreach.
Additionally, our team was fairly unsophisticated with our outreach and it made more sense to find someone who really knows their stuff. We were on the fence about who to go with but Nate and Outsearched are the real deal. They found us multiple high quality companies ready to start conversation and within 5 months we were moving towards LOI.
Highly recommend, they were one of the only companies in the space that seemed to actually know what they were doing, bringing a truly fresh perspective into our buyside campaigns.
Our BD function was already performing well, but we hired OutSearched under the belief that no matter how well-oiled our machine is, we’re likely still missing great opportunities. Nate proved that quickly.
Within three weeks, we were in active conversations with attractive acquisition targets. The speed, quality, and professionalism of the process stood out.
Could not recommend Nate and his team more highly.
Nate and his team have done an incredible job in sourcing off-market acquisition targets for our firm. The OutSearched team worked with our team to build comprehensive target lists based on industry verticals, geography, size, and other pertinent metrics. Their team has provided strong communication throughout the engagement that has benefited us greatly in sourcing actionable acquisition targets. I would highly recommend Nate and his team to anyone that is looking to build their proprietary deal sourcing pipeline
Outsearched got going quickly and kept me well updated on status. They brought several quality deals within the first 60 days or so. I was pleased with the results and enjoyed working with them.
Nate and team did a great job generating off-market leads! They were very easy to work with, honest and communicated clearly throughout the entire search process.
Would definitely recommend them and plan to work with them again in the future!
Great outbound capability. Submitted an LOI on an actionable target in the first 60 days
The team at OutSearched got going quickly. They found several deals for me to look at in the first 60 days.
I was skeptical, but three of the first deals were great. They just keep adding deals to my pipeline. Which helps, so I can focus on closing deals.
Not sure what else you can ask from a team. Super hard working and diligent throughout. I could purchase any one of these businesses. Good problem to have, but we have too many options!
Nate Niehuus at Outsearched is the real deal. Nate has been helping me target small business owners in a very narrow geographic target area. I’m his toughest client (no joke), and yet, in spite of my tough assignment, Nate has done an amazing job working his sourcing magic and generating introductions that have led to quality conversations. This guy relishes a challenge, and he works incredibly hard to deliver. I don’t think he ever sleeps.
Nate brings the unique combination of in-depth technical knowledge (allowing him to keep up with the latest and greatest in sourcing) and high-caliber people skills, honed over many years of commercial real estate negotiations. He knows how to talk to business owners, what questions to ask, how to determine fit, and generally how to run a tight, comprehensive process that is highly efficient and proactive.
In addition, Nate is a super solid dude with integrity and ethics. I trust him 100%.
I’m extremely happy to have Nate on my team. He is a true asset, and I can recommend him wholeheartedly.
Nate and the Outsearched team have been a fantastic asset to The Origination Group’s operations. Since working together with Outsearched, we have been presented with over $300MM in proprietary EV deal flow and are excited to continue building off of our newly developed relationship for years to come.
Nate and his team at OutSearched have played a critical role in helping us uncover and pursue off-market opportunities across several industries. They took the time to understand exactly what we were looking for and built customized prospect lists tailored to our specific parameters. Throughout the entire engagement, their responsiveness and transparency made collaboration seamless. The pipeline they helped us develop has directly translated into meaningful conversations with quality targets. I stongly recommend OutSearched to any firm serious about strengthening its proprietary deal flow.
Nate and team did a great job of laying the foundation for our sourcing efforts. We are able to issue 3 LOIs within a few months of getting up and running. Definitely would recommend to any searcher, independent sponsor, or platform looking to acquire at scale.
I’m the founder of The Edelweiss Company and I decided to use OutSearched to help bring deals forward. They were professional, fast, and I have a deal (nearing LOI) on my plate already with less than 60 days of outbound. We’re just getting started with them. Highly recommended.





