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Hi all, welcome back to the AI x PE series. Two weeks ago, we ran an AI x PE workshop with 50+ PE professionals, walking through how to create a market map and then build a verified list of acquisition targets.
Building that target list was the most valuable part of the session, and since we've already covered how to create a market map, we thought we'd focus this article on automating deal sourcing with AI agents.
We'll build a workflow that searches for companies, screens them against your criteria, and finds the founder's email address with a Hunter verification result attached. It then prepares an outreach draft in your mailbox. Once you're happy with a few runs, we'll put it on a daily schedule.
If you’re an AI or tech provider serving the PE ecosystem interested in supporting AI To Carry series with sponsorships, please reply to this email with your company website and budget!
Several PE and indy sponsor backed portfolio companies in the Road To Carry network have worked with Chariot Labs, and the feedback I’ve heard has been very positive, with all engagements leading to additional projects. So if you’re interested in how AI can be embedded into portco to drive real value creation, reach out!
Chariot Labs helps PE-backed companies identify and prioritize where AI can create value, then embeds AI engineers to build and deploy those workflows into their existing systems.
Founded by former PE investors and AI engineers, we specialize in business services, industrial services, and multi-site retail. Our engagements range from field services companies to education services, and include work within the Apax and Stirling Heights portfolio.
Want to know how your competitors are using AI? Book a free call with the Chariot Labs founding team today.
State of Play
Hi, I'm Davis, an ex-PE investor who builds and deploys AI tools for investment firms and portfolio companies. Every Wednesday, Edwin and I will be closing the gap in AI knowledge in PE, one use case at a time.
A lot of folks reading this newsletter are currently sourcing for their next acquisition. In the middle and lower middle market, we all know how inconsistent that search can be. One person works through an industry directory, another searches Google city by city, and everyone has a slightly different way of keeping track of what they've found.
Today, we’re going to discuss one of the most simple sourcing automations in our opinion. It's straightforward to set up and brings the research, contact verification and outreach preparation into one workflow.
The end goal is to wake up to outreach drafts for companies that fit your mandate, with the founder or president's email already verified. You open your mailbox, review why each business was selected, and just press send.
Here's the sequence the AI agent works through each morning:
Only companies that fit your mandate and have a verified email move through to a draft.
Each run updates your CRM and reports back on its decisions.
Note: We're sharing how you can automate the process of sourcing, but in a world where everyone is getting spammed with AI emails, quality matters more than quantity. So, we'd recommend starting with a small batch and using the time saved to understand each business and give its founder a real reason to reply (vs. sending more emails for the sake of just hitting send).
Here's how we'll set it up:
Connect your tools: email for drafts, Hunter for verified addresses, and your CRM to keep the record.
Set up your sourcing prompt: define the mandate, then have the agent source, enrich, verify, draft and report back in one run.
Make it recurring: schedule the tested workflow to run each morning.
