The thesis and criteria sprint
Most searches start with a thesis that reads well on paper. This sprint turns it into filters, counts the companies behind it and tells you whether the field is deep enough to search in.
What we look at
Your criteria, translated into something a machine can actually select on.
Criteria
Sector, size, region, year of incorporation and ownership structure. We translate each criterion into a filter and show what it costs you in target count.
Market size
How many companies match, split by segment and region, so you know where the depth is and where it runs out.
Ownership and succession
Company age, ownership structure and what is publicly known about the people behind the business, as an indication of who might be open to a conversation.
Reachability
Which segments you can actually reach, through which channel, and what the approach has to look like to get a reply.
What you get
A one page targeting spec: your criteria as filters, the exclusions that belong with them, the signals we score on and the rubric behind the score. Next to it the sized target universe, broken down by segment and region, with the criteria that produced each number.
And a do first shortlist, cut to what you can realistically approach in a year, with a short reason per company. Not a deck for the drawer, but filters that can run on the platform tomorrow, whether or not you go further with us.
What the sprint does not give you
Better to know this before you start than three months in.
- Revenue or EBITDA for companies that file no detailed accounts. For Dutch SMEs of this size that data does not exist, and anyone who promises it is estimating.
- A list of owners who have said they want to sell. Willingness to sell shows up in a conversation, not in a dataset.
- A valuation or a deal structure. We map the field and tell you where the depth is.
- An introduction. We do not act as a broker and we do not sit between you and the owner.
How we run it
Three steps, usually within three weeks.
- 01
Intake
A session on your thesis, your mandate, your constraints and the kind of company you want to own.
- 02
Mapping
We translate the criteria into filters, run them against the register and test the result against reality.
- 03
Session and shortlist
We walk you through the numbers, the segments worth searching in and the first companies to approach.
Want to know how deep your market really is?
Book 30 minutes. We go through your thesis and what the sprint would produce for it.