Is “Good Enough” deal flow actually good enough?

Many investors rely on online deal listing services to fill their pipeline. Deals arrive in your inbox, you filter them by criteria, and it feels like you’re “seeing the market.” It’s easy to convince yourself this is good enough.

But easy isn’t the same as effective. If every buyer reviews the same listings at the same time, where’s your edge? You might be busy, but you’re not necessarily building a differentiated funnel that sets you apart.

The limitations of listing services

Because anyone can post on listing services, deal quality varies widely. Some opportunities are worth exploring, but many are incomplete or simply outside your strike zone. Sorting through the noise takes time and energy.

Even when a deal looks attractive, you’re rarely the only one evaluating it. By the time a listing goes live, dozens of firms are already circling. Competition drives up valuations and makes speed matter more than thoughtful diligence.

Most importantly, listing services only reveal a fraction of what’s out there. Many boutique intermediaries don’t broadcast their deals broadly, and a surprising amount of volume lives in that fragmented, off-the-radar world. Relying on listings alone means missing entire segments of the market.

The hidden costs of settling

Investors who stick with “good enough” deal flow often underestimate the costs. Time is the most obvious: how many hours do you and your team waste reviewing deals that should have been screened out earlier? There’s also the competitive cost, since chasing widely marketed listings almost always means paying more for thinner margins of safety.

Finally, there’s the opportunity cost. Every hour spent on noisy listings is an hour not spent building relationships with business owners or uncovering deals through less-trafficked intermediaries.

Listings may supplement your sourcing, but they are not a strategy.

A better model

A stronger sourcing strategy goes beyond convenience. It blends coverage and curation in ways listings cannot. That means combining two critical channels:

• Proprietary conversations with business owners, cultivated through direct outreach
• Broader coverage of the fragmented intermediary landscape, particularly those smaller firms who rarely market their deals publicly

The value isn’t in volume, but in surfacing the right opportunities: those that align with your thesis, arrive earlier in the process, and are not being chased by a hundred other buyers.

The easy thing is to keep telling yourself your pipeline is fine. Deals are showing up, so you must be covered. But ask yourself honestly: is your deal flow truly good enough, or just easy enough?

If you're looking for smarter deal sourcing, explore our Retained Buy-Side Search and Intermediary Coverage offerings, and let's schedule a time to discuss your strategy.