How Search Fund JANUS scaled its deal sourcing by more than 6x with dealspec

JANUS is a search fund led by Felix Wolters, who is looking to acquire and take over a SME business from its direct owner. With a small team covering a large market, increasing outreach through manual processes would have required additional staff. dealspec therefore built an efficient sourcing infrastructure, automated key steps and delivered practical workshops to help the team develop its own workflows. Since then, JANUS has increased its deal sourcing and outreach volume more than sixfold.

Status Quo: A small team searching for targets in a large market

A search fund needs to do two things well. It must cover enough of the market to identify the few companies that genuinely fit its acquisition criteria. At the same time, it must approach the owners of those companies in a personal and credible way that can lead to a conversation. Both requirements create a considerable amount of work before the first owner conversation even takes place. Potential markets and industries need to be assessed, companies identified, financial and shareholder information collected, contacts researched and each opportunity evaluated against the search fund’s investment criteria. Once a suitable company has been identified, the team needs to prepare personalised outreach, coordinate communication across email, LinkedIn and letters, and track each company throughout the outreach process.

For JANUS, there were three operational bottlenecks:

1. Sourcing: Identifying relevant industries and companies across a large and fragmented market requires extensive research. As JANUS expands its search into additional segments, the volume of potential targets and the associated research workload increase further.
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2. Enrichment and analysis: Shareholder, financial and contact data needs to be collected from separate sources and consolidated in a structured format. This includes identifying the relevant business owners and their contact details. Industries and individual companies then need to be assessed against JANUS’s acquisition criteria to determine which opportunities warrant closer attention.
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3. Outreach: Once a relevant company and its owners have been identified, the team needs to prepare personalised content, coordinate communication across email, LinkedIn and letters, as well as manage the status of each company throughout the outreach process. As the number of companies grows, maintaining personalisation while keeping outreach activities and responses organised becomes increasingly demanding.

JANUS has a small team to manage this entire process. Felix’s time is most valuable when speaking directly with business owners and evaluating potential acquisitions. However, the research, data preparation and coordination behind those conversations can easily consume a significant share of the working day.

"As a search fund, we need to combine two things in deal sourcing: broad market coverage and a highly targeted approach to the business owners who are truly relevant to us." (Felix Wolters, Managing Director @ JANUS)

The Goal: Increase sourcing capacity and free up time for owner conversations

From the outset, JANUS wanted to build its search around processes that could scale. The objective was to increase market coverage and sourcing throughput without having to grow the team at the same rate. At the same time, Felix wanted to spend less time managing data and repetitive process steps and more time evaluating opportunities and speaking with business owners.

The desired setup therefore needed to:

1. Expand market coverage: Enable JANUS to identify relevant industries and companies systematically, without increasing the manual research workload at the same rate.
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2. Structure enrichment and evaluation: Bring financial, shareholder and contact data together in a consistent format and assess industries and companies according to their own acquisition criteria.
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3. Scale personalised outreach: Support personalised communication across email, LinkedIn and letters while giving the team a structured way to manage companies, activities and responses throughout the outreach process.

Simply adding more data or another standalone tool would not have achieved these objectives. JANUS needed a coherent infrastructure that connected sourcing, enrichment, evaluation and outreach around its own acquisition criteria. The purpose was to automate repetitive work while preserving the judgement and personal engagement required to identify suitable opportunities and build relationships with business owners.

Delivery: AI-enabled Sourcing, Enrichment, Scoring & Outreach Infrastructure tailored to Search Funds

An integrated sourcing and enrichment stack

dealspec supplied and implemented a sourcing and data enrichment stack tailored to JANUS’s internal processes and acquisition criteria. The workflow begins with industries that have already been identified as potentially relevant to the search. Within these pre-filtered industries, the infrastructure supports the systematic identification of companies that may fit their acquisition profile. For each company, the workflow sources and consolidates relevant financial, shareholder and company data from multiple sources. This includes information on company size, financial performance, ownership structures and the relevant business owners. Bringing these data points together creates a structured company profile that the team can use to assess whether an opportunity warrants closer attention.

The work began with the underlying process: which information is required at each stage, where it can be sourced, how the different data points should be connected and where manual handovers occur. dealspec then connected the relevant tools and data flows, implemented the workflows and tested them together with JANUS.

This process-led approach was essential because the value of the infrastructure depends on the relevance and quality of the information it produces. Instead of collecting large volumes of generic company data, the setup focuses research and enrichment on pre-filtered industries and applies JANUS’s criteria to the companies within them. The workflows were subsequently refined based on the team’s experience in its day-to-day search activities.

"What stands out is that dealspec doesn’t simply implement individual automations. They first examine and optimise the underlying process and data flow. The solutions are then tested together and developed iteratively." (Felix Wolters, Managing Partner @ JANUS)

AI workflows built around JANUS investment criteria

JANUS already had a clear view of the industries and company characteristics relevant to its search. dealspec translated its Deal Evaluation Matrix and Industry Scorecard into AI-enabled workflows that could apply these criteria consistently across a much larger number of potential opportunities.

The workflows first assess industries against the factors that matter to JANUS. They then evaluate individual companies within the most relevant segments. Shareholder, financial and contact information is collected and processed, while companies and their business models are analysed against their specific acquisition criteria. This gives the team a structured basis for deciding which opportunities deserve closer attention. Instead of starting each assessment with a blank page, JANUS receives prepared information that can be reviewed, challenged and supplemented by the team.

The workflows also support the transition from analysis to outreach. Based on the available company and owner information, they help prepare personalised outreach content. dealspec complemented this with the implementation of the full email, LinkedIn and postal outreach process, enabling JANUS to coordinate both channels within the broader sourcing workflow. The aim was not to automate the relationship with the business owner. It was to reduce the repetitive work required before that relationship can begin and give the team more capacity for the conversations and judgement that cannot be automated.

Practical workshops using JANUS’s own processes

Technology alone was not enough. JANUS also wanted its team to understand how the workflows operated, where they could be adjusted and which additional use cases might be suitable for automation. Alongside the implementation, dealspec therefore delivered several practical workshops, including a full-day session on site in Düsseldorf. Rather than relying on generic examples, the sessions used JANUS’s own processes, data and operational challenges.

Together, the teams reviewed existing workflows, answered practical questions and developed further automation ideas that could be applied directly to the search. This made it possible to connect the technical setup with the way JANUS actually works from day to day. dealspec remained available after the workshops to answer questions and support the continued development of individual workflows. Over time, this enables the JANUS team to take greater ownership of the infrastructure rather than depending on external support for every adjustment

"Instead of discussing AI and automation through generic theoretical examples, we worked directly with our own processes, data and specific challenges. […] The goal was to give our team the knowledge and tools to understand many of the automations themselves, develop them further and identify new use cases." (Felix Wolters, Managing Partner @ JANUS)

Results: More than 6x the sourcing & outreach with a small team

JANUS now handles more than six times its original outreach volume. More efficient and structured processes allow the team to manage that increase without expanding its headcount at the same rate or compromising the quality of its approach to business owners.

"This allowed us to make our existing processes significantly more efficient and structured, and handle substantially more outreach with a small team without compromising the quality of our approach. Specifically, we increased our outreach volume to more than six times its original level." (Felix Wolters, Managing Partner @ JANUS)

The infrastructure also analyses several hundred companies and datasets automatically each week. Information that previously required repeated manual research and processing can now move through a consistent workflow, giving the team a larger and more structured basis for evaluating potential acquisition opportunities.

"This gives us the infrastructure to achieve high sourcing throughput without having to scale our headcount accordingly. Specifically, we now automatically analyse several hundred companies and datasets each week in a structured way." (Felix Wolters, Managing Director @ JANUS)

The increase in volume is only one part of the result. By connecting the individual stages of sourcing, JANUS has also created a clearer operational process. Data moves more consistently between research, evaluation and outreach, while the team can focus its attention on reviewing the most relevant opportunities and speaking with their owners. Following the workshops, the JANUS team can understand and refine many of the automations itself and identify further use cases as the search evolves. Routine work increasingly runs through the infrastructure, giving Felix more time for the conversations and decisions where his personal involvement creates the most value.

What this means for Search Funds

Search funds typically operate with small teams but need to assess a large number of markets and companies before finding the right acquisition opportunity. This makes sourcing capacity a central constraint: greater market coverage usually creates more research, evaluation and outreach work.

A connected sourcing infrastructure changes that relationship. By linking company identification, data enrichment, evaluation and outreach, search funds can process more opportunities without increasing manual work at the same rate. At the same time, scoring and outreach can remain grounded in the searcher’s individual acquisition criteria rather than relying on generic filters.

dealspec builds and implements these sourcing workflows around the processes of each search fund. This can include the sourcing and enrichment stack, AI-assisted evaluation based on the searcher’s own scorecards, and coordinated email and postal outreach. Practical workshops help the team understand the infrastructure, develop it further and identify additional opportunities for automation.

If you are launching or improving your Search Fund and want more time talking to business owners and less time managing software and data, we're happy to support you.

MIND advises buyers and sellers on M&A transactions in the small and mid-market. For the launch in Q3 2025, we created an entire public-facing presence: logo, slide master, website and branding assets. dealspec supported in building the brand, designed and developed the website and the company valuation calculator and took on search engine optimization as well as ongoing advisory regarding website features and their implementation. Since the launch, leads for M&A transactions have been coming in through the website on a regular basis.

Status Quo: A new M&A advisory firm ahead of its launch

In June 2025, the MIND was preparing to launch it's M&A boutique. In M&A, business owners and buyers look closely at who they are dealing with before they agree to a conversation: through the website, through the documents they are sent, through social media and through whether it all fits together. A firm that is launching has to bring all of this into existence at once. There is no older website to fall back on, no library of documents that has accumulated over the years, no search visibility that has built up on its own. For an advisory firm that is just starting out, the public-facing presence is therefore part of the basic equipment and it needs to be complete on day one.

The Goal: A complete brand at launch and a website that brings in leads

MIND wanted everything the firm needed for the outside world ready at launch: a logo, a slide master for pitches and mandate documents, a website and all media assets, coordinated with each other. Beyond that, the website was not just meant to inform. It had to reach business owners who are considering a sale and give them a concrete reason to get in touch. A brochure site describes what a firm does; it does not create the moment in which someone decides to make contact. Brand, website and documents therefore had to be developed in parallel, under one deadline, and had to fit together at the end of it.

Delivery: Branding, Slide Master, Website, Valuation Calculator, SEO

Brand, Slide Master & Assets

dealspec started with the brand: the logo and the visual identity, and from there a set of illustrations and icons that gives MIND a visual vocabulary of its own instead of stock imagery. From that identity we derived a slide master of more than 75 slides, covering the layouts MIND needs for pitch decks and mandate documents. Deriving it from the identity rather than building it separately is what makes it hold up in daily use: mandate documents are written under time pressure, usually by whoever is closest to the deal, and a master that already carries the firm's typography, colours, icons and layouts means the result looks like MIND without anyone having to think about it. Alongside it came the media assets, along with templates for the formats a boutique publishes regularly, deal tombstones among them.

Website & Valuation Calculator

In parallel, we designed and developed the website, including a company valuation calculator that gives business owners a first indication of what their company is worth and puts them in touch with MIND in the process. Most owners considering a sale have one question before any other, and it is not which advisor to appoint. It is what the business is worth. The calculator answers that question at the level an early enquiry needs, an indication rather than a valuation, and in doing so it gives the owner a reason to leave their details at a point where "contact us" would still have been too big a step. For MIND, the effect is that a conversation starts with a subject already on the table instead of a blank message.

Search Engine Optimization & Sector-specific Landing Pages

Search engine optimisation was not set up as a one-off project for the launch but as an ongoing task that has been running ever since. Rankings move, competitors publish and the way owners search changes, so a position won at launch is not a position held. That ongoing work runs on two tracks. The first is the technical condition of the site, which we monitor rather than assume: MIND currently sits at a health score of 97 out of 100, and keeping it there is what allows everything published on the site to compete in the first place. Broken links, slow pages and crawl errors accumulate quietly on any site that is actively growing, and they cost rankings that the content itself has already earned. The second is content. We have published 18 articles and 6 sector-specific landing pages, which answer the search queries of business owners in each segment. An owner looking for advice on selling their company rarely searches in general terms; they search with their industry attached. A general homepage is a weak answer to that query on both counts: it ranks less well, and the visitor who does arrive has to work out for themselves whether the firm has handled anything like their business. A page written for their segment does both jobs at once, and we keep improving those rankings continuously

Results: ready at launch, incoming leads ever since

MIND went to market with a complete public-facing presence. The website has been a channel in its own right ever since, one that business owners regularly use to get in touch with MIND, carried by ongoing search engine optimisation and by the sector-specific landing pages that have built visibility in their segments. Today the site ranks in the top 10 for 221 keywords and in the top 3 for 154, built on the 18 articles and six sector-specific landing pages published since launch. Positions in the second half of page one rarely produce an enquiry, because the clicks concentrate at the top, and that is where 154 of MIND's rankings now sit. For a firm that had no search presence at all in June 2025, this is the difference between a website that has to be sent to people and one that owners arrive at on their own. The collaboration has since expanded: since December 2025, dealspec has additionally supported MIND with deal sourcing.

"We have been working with dealspec since June 2025. They supported us through the initial launch of MIND and have supported us continuously ever since. [...] dealspec designed and built our website and the company valuation calculator based on our specifications. Search engine optimization has been running continuously ever since. It gave us a finished public presence right at launch and by now, owners are getting in touch with us through the site regularly." (Philipp Köppe, Managing Partner @ MIND)

What this means for M&A Advisors ahead of a launch

Anyone setting up a new M&A boutique, Private Equity or Search Fund needs the same list: logo, slide master, website, assets, visibility. What is difficult is having all of them finished, consistent and live on the same date, while the founders are occupied with mandates, capital and hiring. We deliver all of it and know the audience, the business owners and investors who check how an M&A advisory firm presents itself. A valuation calculator, sector-specific landing pages and ongoing SEO turn the website into a channel that brings in leads.

If you are approaching a launch or relaunch, we're happy to talk and support you.