Connecting retiring business owners to search fund buyers

Ten thousand US business owners retire every day. Thousands of search fund buyers are actively hunting for their next acquisition. The two rarely meet because nobody sits in the middle.

01The two sides

Demand side. US business owners aged 55 and older, running businesses with $500,000 to $5,000,000 in annual revenue, who have started signalling exit intent through advisor changes, estate planning, or slowed reinvestment. Most have never spoken to a buyer directly.

Supply side. Search fund buyers, self-funded searchers, and micro private equity firms. Every one of them is actively hunting for one acquisition per year. They pay $2,000 to $10,000 per qualified seller introduction, with larger success fees on close by prior arrangement.

02Why they cannot find each other

Retiring owners do not list on BizBuySell because listing means employees find out, competitors find out, and customers find out. So the best deals stay hidden. Owners wait for a broker who never calls, and eventually sell to their nephew for half of what the business is worth.

Search funds send thousands of cold letters to owners on public tax records. Response rate is near zero because the letters are obviously templated. A warm, respectful, off-market intro is worth more to a searcher than any list.

03What Falah does

1. Build the exit-signal list. Cross-reference business registration data, LinkedIn age and title changes, state SOS filings, and industry directories to identify owner-operators showing exit signals in the searcher’s target verticals.
2. Screen for fit. Confirm revenue band, industry, geography, and that the owner is not already engaged with a broker. Discard businesses too small, too large, or too complex for the searcher’s thesis.
3. Warm the owner. Reach the owner directly with a respectful, human message referencing their business by name. Not a template. Explain that a serious buyer is quietly looking in their vertical and asking to be introduced.
4. Deliver the introduction. A written intro to the searcher with the owner’s name, business, revenue estimate, and preferred first-contact method. Every intro is an owner who has explicitly said yes to a conversation.
5. Replace anything invalid. If a delivered owner turns out to be misaligned on size or already in an LOI, Falah replaces the intro at no extra cost.

04Timeline

Fee is set per engagement. Depending on the market and the specifics, Falah may charge the demand side, the supply side, or both. The amount and the party paying it are agreed in writing before payment.

05What success looks like

The searcher walks into a first call with an owner who has heard of them by name, is genuinely considering an exit, and is not simultaneously talking to three brokers. Diligence starts earlier, LOI conversion is higher, and closed acquisitions come from the top of the funnel. Falah does not participate in the transaction. The introduction fee is the whole compensation.