ACG DealMAX 2026: Lower-Middle-Market PE Firms With DealCloud or Affinity CRM Ties for 2026 Renewal

Executive Summary

This report analyzes network pathways for DeepSignal to sequence warm-introduced Proof of Concept (POC) pitches to lower-middle-market private equity firms ahead of the March 19 Demo Day and April 27–29 ACG DealMAX 2026 conference. Based on current evidentiary data:

Confirmed Targets: Akoya Capital, Abry Partners, Access Holdings, and AEA Investors are confirmed attendees for DealMAX 2026, an event drawing over 3,500 dealmaking professionals.
Key Referral Nodes: We have mapped high-value ACG leadership overlap through three primary connectors: Cheryl Strom (The Riverside Company), David Hellier (Bertram Capital), and Aaron Polack (Lion Equity Partners).
Secondary Introductions: Highly actionable secondary referral targets include Corrie Menary at Kirtland Capital Partners and Jonathan Zucker at Intrepid Investment Bankers, who possess direct, verified ties to the primary nodes.
Critical Evidence Gap: Current intelligence does not contain technographic usage data (DealCloud/Affinity CRM) or vendor renewal dates (Grata, SourceScrub, Inven) for the confirmed firms. A supplementary data enrichment phase is required to filter these targets for the May–August 2026 renewal forcing function.

1. Confirmed DealMAX 2026 Attendees & Ecosystem Profile

DealMAX 2026 serves as DeepSignal’s secondary forcing function for POC conversion. The conference brings together over 3,500 attendees, primarily private equity professionals and investment bankers, providing a target-rich environment for deal-tech decision-makers ^[8].

Currently, four notable private equity and investment firms are confirmed to attend DealMAX 2026 ^[16], ^[24], ^[32], ^[40]. To fully execute DeepSignal's sequence, these firms must be evaluated against the targeted tech stack criteria (DealCloud/Affinity usage and Grata/SourceScrub/Inven renewals).

Target Firm Technographic & Event Profile

Firm Name	DealMAX 2026 Status	CRM Stack	Deal-Sourcing Data Provider	Renewal Window	Target AUM/Focus
Akoya Capital, LLC	Confirmed ^[16]	Requires Enrichment	Requires Enrichment	Requires Enrichment	Middle Market
Abry Partners	Confirmed ^[24]	Requires Enrichment	Requires Enrichment	Requires Enrichment	Middle Market
Access Holdings	Confirmed ^[32]	Requires Enrichment	Requires Enrichment	Requires Enrichment	Middle Market
AEA Investors	Confirmed ^[40]	Requires Enrichment	Requires Enrichment	Requires Enrichment	Middle Market

Note: The primary intelligence corpus confirms event attendance but lacks the underlying CRM software contracts needed to finalize the May–August 2026 renewal filtering.

2. Strategic Referral Nodes: Strom, Hellier, and Polack

To facilitate warm introductions leading into the March 19 Demo Day, DeepSignal must leverage the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) network—a 90,000-professional global network that includes 15,000 middle-market professionals ^[47]. The target nodes hold significant localized and global influence within this network, especially following the 2021 ACG governance changes that concentrated leadership by reducing the Global Board of Directors from 27 to 15 members ^[23].

Node A: Cheryl Strom (The Riverside Company)

Cheryl Strom is a Partner in Origination at The Riverside Company, bringing 16 years of experience to the firm ^[3], ^[19]. She leads Riverside's origination initiatives and intermediary relationships across the Midwestern United States ^[11]. Riverside targets platform investments with $10 million to $35 million in EBITDA ^[42], utilizing a 16-person North American origination team ^[27] to execute growth capital, non-control, majority-stake, and debt transactions ^[43] and find add-on acquisitions ^[35].

Actionable Network Pathways:

Kirtland Capital Partners: Strom has a highly active, verified relationship with Corrie Menary, a partner at Kirtland Capital Partners ^[10]. Menary serves on the board of the ACG Cleveland chapter, where Strom was the 2022 President ^[2]. Menary explicitly confirms that Riverside facilitates introductions and deal referrals to Kirtland for transactions outside Riverside's size parameters ^[10]. Recommendation: Route DeepSignal pitches targeting Kirtland Capital through Strom.
Intrepid Investment Bankers: Through the Riverside ecosystem, Jeremy Holland (Managing Partner in Origination at Riverside) sits on the ACG Los Angeles Private Equity Roundtable Committee ^[18]. Holland has a direct relationship with Jonathan Zucker, head of capital advisory at Intrepid Investment Bankers and an ACG LA board member ^[26].

Node B: David Hellier (Bertram Capital)

David Hellier represents the strongest connection to Corporate Development Officers (CDOs) and the New York market. As a Partner at Bertram Capital Management, LLC ^[13], Hellier oversees the firm’s origination, capital markets, and business development teams ^[20], ^[21]. Crucially for DeepSignal, he is explicitly responsible for developing and managing corporate development office relationships ^[28], ^[29].

Actionable Network Pathways:

ACG New York Ecosystem: Hellier has profound influence in ACG New York, the organization's largest chapter with over 1,000 members ^[46]. He was elected Chairperson of the chapter ^[4], succeeding Heidi Deiner ^[22], and previously served as President from 2016 to 2018 ^[6], ^[17]. Bertram Capital acts as an active financial sponsor for ACG New York and is a member of the ACG Private Equity Regulatory Task Force ^[33].
Global ACG Leadership: Hellier serves on the ACG Global Board of Directors ^[5], ^[12] and acts as the Chapter Council Chair ^[15], a role purposed with sharing best practices and driving decision-making across all chapters globally ^[39].

Node C: Aaron Polack (Lion Equity Partners)

Aaron Polack is the Head of Business Development at Lion Equity Partners ^[7]. Like Hellier, Polack possesses significant leverage with CDOs.

Actionable Network Pathways:

CDO Task Force & Denver Market: Polack serves on the ACG Global Corporate Development Officers (CDO) Task Force and coordinated ACG’s first CDO peer-to-peer program in Denver ^[25], ^[41]. He also sits on the ACG Board of Directors ^[7]. DeepSignal should map DealMAX attendees located in the Denver region or holding CDO titles directly to Polack for warm introductions.

3. Tech Stack and Vendor Contract Renewals (May–August 2026)

DeepSignal's hypothesis relies on timing POC pitches as a forcing function for firms migrating off Grata, SourceScrub, or Inven, or seeking deeper integrations with DealCloud or Affinity CRM.

Data Availability Alert: Current network and conference intelligence confirms DealMAX attendance and interpersonal overlaps, but provides no verifiable data regarding the specific CRM architectures (DealCloud/Affinity) or the deal-sourcing intelligence contracts (Grata, SourceScrub, Inven) utilized by the identified target firms.

Consequently, we cannot definitively isolate which of the confirmed DealMAX firms (Akoya, Abry, Access, AEA) or secondary referral targets (Kirtland, Intrepid) possess contract renewal windows falling exactly between May and August 2026.

Limitations / Open Questions

Missing Technographics: As noted above, the evidentiary corpus lacks data on software usage (DealCloud, Affinity) and vendor contract dates. Supplementary data enrichment (via tools like BuiltWith, ZoomInfo, or direct vendor leakage) is required prior to sequence launch.
AUM Verification: While Riverside's EBITDA targets are confirmed ($10M–$35M) ^[42], the exact Assets Under Management (AUM) for the confirmed DealMAX firms (Akoya, Abry, Access, AEA) are not present in the current dataset to strictly verify they fall within the $200M–$2B threshold.
DealMAX 2026 Roster Completeness: The list of confirmed DealMAX attendees is currently limited to four named firms. A deeper scrape of the DealMAX 2026 registration API will be necessary closer to the event to fully operationalize the Strom/Hellier/Polack network graph.

Sources