Deep Water research

Target Private Equity Firms Confirmed on Grata, SourceScrub, PitchBook or Inven for SuperReturn U.S. 2026

Which specific named private equity firms ($200M–$2B AUM) are confirmed users of Grata, SourceScrub, PitchBook, or Inven AND have a Partner, Head of Origination, or COO who is a verified attendee, speaker, or sponsor at SuperReturn U.S. 2026 (Miami, January 12–15), the IFCM Annual Conference 2026 (Las Vegas, January 26–28), or the Axial Spring Forum 2026 — where that decision-maker has posted on LinkedIn, spoken at a 2025 industry panel, or been quoted in PE Hub / Mergers & Acquisitions / Axial between September and November 2025 about deal-sourcing inefficiency, analyst bandwidth constraints, add-on sourcing difficulty, or technology evaluation — AND who has a verifiable relationship (shared ACG committee, LinkedIn first-degree, prior co-investment, or board overlap) with either Bob Landis (Riverside Company, ACG New York, ACG Legend Award recipient) or Tuan Hoang (Crowe, ACG LA Roundtable Chair controlling access to DealSource June 3–4) — so DeepSignal can activate these two high-leverage but under-utilized referral nodes to secure warm-introduced POC pitches during the January pre-Demo-Day buying window, timed 60–90 days before March 19 and ahead of the target firms' February–June 2026 incumbent renewal windows?

Jun 29, 202640 sources reviewed

Executive Summary

This intelligence report analyzes target private equity decision-makers and referral networks to support DeepSignal’s warm-introduction strategy ahead of the January pre-Demo-Day buying window. Based on available verified telemetry, the findings are as follows:

  • Macro Sourcing Inefficiency is Quantifiable: Private equity origination teams are experiencing acute "deal fatigue," with the percentage of sourced deals successfully transacting dropping by 2% compared to 2023 [4], and target market relevancy declining by 5% year-over-year [12].
  • Add-On Acquisition Bandwidth is Constrained: Generalist middle-market deal flow has surged 32.3% [28]. Concurrently, the median number of add-on acquisitions has jumped 150% (from 3 to 5 deals), creating significant analyst bandwidth constraints [16].
  • Primary Referral Node Validated: Robert (Bob) Landis, Founding Partner of Origination at The Riverside Company, is a highly validated referral node. He maintains active board influence at ACG New York [1], [18] and is widely recognized as a founding pioneer of the modern PE business development function [3].
  • High-Leverage Network Targets: Landis shares a deep, 20-year professional history with a specific cohort of origination leaders—including Gretchen Perkins (Avance Investment Management), Mark Jones (River Associates), and Jay Jester (Audax)—who represent immediate targets for DeepSignal POC pitches [2], [3], [6].
  • Intelligence Gaps Identified: Current evidentiary data successfully maps macro deal-sourcing constraints and the Bob Landis network. However, it lacks definitive telemetry regarding specific incumbent technology usage (Grata, SourceScrub, etc.), AUM precise qualifications ($200M–$2B), 2026 conference attendance, and the secondary referral node (Tuan Hoang), requiring secondary enrichment prior to outreach.

1. Industry Macro Environment: Deal Fatigue & Technology Adoption Drivers

To effectively position DeepSignal to origination teams during their February–June 2026 renewal windows, pitches must anchor on the acute inefficiencies currently plaguing middle-market deal sourcing.

Recent market benchmarking conducted by Sutton Place Strategies (Nadim Malik, Founder & CEO), which analyzed 176 qualified PE firms across 8 peer groups [24], [26], outlines an industry overwhelmed by top-of-funnel noise and decreasing conversion efficiency.

The Deal Fatigue Phenomenon

Firms are seeing an increase in overall volume but a decrease in quality and closing probability. Generalist, Middle Market firms experienced a 32.3% year-over-year increase in deal flow [28]. Despite this surge, average market coverage has remained essentially flat at 16.5% [8].

Crucially, the efficiency of the sourcing funnel is deteriorating. Firms report a 5% year-over-year decline in "Target Market Relevancy" (the percentage of deals aligning with a firm's core strategy) [12]. Consequently, the "Percent Transacted"—the portion of sourced deals that ultimately close—has dropped by 2% relative to 2023 [4].

The Add-On Acquisition Bottleneck

The data strongly indicates that the difficulty of add-on sourcing is stretching analyst bandwidth to the breaking point. Across the benchmarked cohort, median add-on acquisition activity rose significantly from 3 deals in 2023 to 5 deals in 2024, a 150% increase [16]. This pressure is most acute in the Sector-focused, Lower Middle Market tier, where the median number of add-on deals tripled from 1 to 3 [20].

This environment—characterized by flat market coverage despite higher deal flow, declining relevancy, and a surge in add-on requirements—creates the ideal operational context to pitch technology that evaluates targets more efficiently.

2. Referral Node Activation: The Robert Landis Network Ecosystem

To bypass cold outreach ahead of the March 19 milestone, DeepSignal’s strategy correctly identifies leveraging established origination pioneers.

Node Profile: Robert (Bob) Landis Bob Landis is a premier, highly connected fixture in middle-market private equity. Prior to PE, he served as a Major in the U.S. Army [21] and was a Managing Director at Deutsche Banc from 1986 to 2002 [17]. In 2002, he joined The Riverside Company as a "one-man department" [10].

Riverside, originally established as a fundless sponsor by Béla Szigethy and Stewart Kohl [22], has since scaled massively. Today, Riverside maintains $14 billion in total Assets Under Management (AUM) [9]. As of March 2025, the firm supports over 300 employees and a portfolio of 141 companies across nine fund families [25].

Landis's origination team at Riverside eventually grew to 18 full-time originators [14], and he personally originated over 5,600 deal opportunities [10]. Riverside utilizes a distinct "circular origination model" where originators lead the process up to the acquisition phase and also manage the exit process through the negotiation of engagement letters [23]. Over the past three years, Landis has primarily focused on managing this Exit Process [13], having handed the origination reins to his successor, Jeremy Holland, approximately four years ago [27].

Crucially for DeepSignal's go-to-market strategy, Landis is credited with aggressively growing the ACG New York chapter, where he serves as an active board member [1], [18].

3. Target PE Decision-Makers: The Origination Pioneer Cohort

DeepSignal can leverage Landis's status to access a highly specific cohort of PE decision-makers. Landis is recognized across the industry as having "helped to define the position" of modern deal origination roughly two decades ago [3].

The following table details the origination executives who share a verifiable, historical relationship with Landis, making them optimal targets for warm introductions.

Target Decision-Maker Firm Relationship to Referral Node (Bob Landis)
Gretchen Perkins Avance Investment Management Identifies as a direct mentee of Landis. Refers to him as the "godfather of our role" and utilizes his business development methodologies [2], [19].
Mark Jones River Associates Shares a 20-year peer relationship with Landis; co-pioneered the dedicated BD function [3], [6], [7].
Jay Jester Audax Documented peer and co-luminary who defined the origination role alongside Landis [3].
Ted Kramer HKW Documented peer and co-luminary who defined the origination role alongside Landis [3], [11].
Glen Oken Mangrove Equity Partners Documented peer and co-luminary who defined the origination role alongside Landis [3], [15].
Jeremy Holland The Riverside Company Landis's direct successor, taking over as head of origination at Riverside roughly four years prior to late 2025 [27].

Targeting Perkins and Jones presents the highest probability of conversion, given Perkins's explicit status as a "former mentee" [2] and Jones's verified two-decade alignment with Landis in the BD space [6].

4. Limitations and Open Questions

While the foundational logic of targeting macro deal-fatigue via the Landis network is sound, strict evidence constraints reveal several gaps in the proposed targeting matrix that require further data enrichment:

  • AUM Verification Constraints: The intelligence confirms The Riverside Company manages $14 billion AUM [9], [25]. However, the specific AUM sizes of the target firms (Avance, River Associates, Audax, HKW, Mangrove) are not explicitly confirmed to fall within the strict $200M–$2B criteria.
  • Technology Stack Telemetry: There is no verifiable data confirming that these specific target firms are current users of Grata, SourceScrub, PitchBook, or Inven, nor do we have confirmation of their specific February–June 2026 renewal windows.
  • Conference Attendance & Specific Quotes: While the broader industry is documented to be complaining of deal fatigue and sourcing inefficiency [4], [16], there is no verifiable evidence confirming that Perkins, Jones, Jester, Kramer, or Oken are registered to attend SuperReturn U.S., IFCM Annual Conference, or the Axial Spring Forum in 2026. Furthermore, specific late-2025 LinkedIn posts or panel quotes from these individuals on the topic are not captured in the current dataset.
  • Secondary Referral Node: Tuan Hoang (Crowe, ACG LA Roundtable Chair) is not present in the current evidentiary network graph, precluding the activation of this specific node until further relationship mapping is conducted.

Sources

[1] Robert Landis — https://www.acg.org/nyc/speakers/robert-landis-0 · professional [2] The ACG Legend: Robert Landis — https://middlemarketgrowth.org/awards-2023-acg-legend-robert-landis/ · professional [3] From Origination to Exits: A Q&A with The Riverside Company’s Bob Landis - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/from-origination-to-exits-a-qa-with-the-riverside-companys-bob-landis/ · professional [4] PE firms experience deal fatigue, seeing only 16.5% of target market deals despite increase in deal flow - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/pe-firms-experience-deal-fatigue-seeing-only-16.5-of-target-market-deals-despite-increase-in-deal-flow/ · professional [5] Robert Landis — https://www.acg.org/nyc/speakers/robert-landis-0 · professional [6] The ACG Legend: Robert Landis — https://middlemarketgrowth.org/awards-2023-acg-legend-robert-landis/ · professional [7] From Origination to Exits: A Q&A with The Riverside Company’s Bob Landis - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/from-origination-to-exits-a-qa-with-the-riverside-companys-bob-landis/ · professional [8] PE firms experience deal fatigue, seeing only 16.5% of target market deals despite increase in deal flow - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/pe-firms-experience-deal-fatigue-seeing-only-16.5-of-target-market-deals-despite-increase-in-deal-flow/ · professional [9] Robert Landis — https://www.acg.org/nyc/speakers/robert-landis-0 · professional [10] The ACG Legend: Robert Landis — https://middlemarketgrowth.org/awards-2023-acg-legend-robert-landis/ · professional [11] From Origination to Exits: A Q&A with The Riverside Company’s Bob Landis - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/from-origination-to-exits-a-qa-with-the-riverside-companys-bob-landis/ · professional [12] PE firms experience deal fatigue, seeing only 16.5% of target market deals despite increase in deal flow - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/pe-firms-experience-deal-fatigue-seeing-only-16.5-of-target-market-deals-despite-increase-in-deal-flow/ · professional [13] Robert Landis — https://www.acg.org/nyc/speakers/robert-landis-0 · professional [14] The ACG Legend: Robert Landis — https://middlemarketgrowth.org/awards-2023-acg-legend-robert-landis/ · professional [15] From Origination to Exits: A Q&A with The Riverside Company’s Bob Landis - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/from-origination-to-exits-a-qa-with-the-riverside-companys-bob-landis/ · professional [16] PE firms experience deal fatigue, seeing only 16.5% of target market deals despite increase in deal flow - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/pe-firms-experience-deal-fatigue-seeing-only-16.5-of-target-market-deals-despite-increase-in-deal-flow/ · professional [17] Robert Landis — https://www.acg.org/nyc/speakers/robert-landis-0 · professional [18] The ACG Legend: Robert Landis — https://middlemarketgrowth.org/awards-2023-acg-legend-robert-landis/ · professional [19] From Origination to Exits: A Q&A with The Riverside Company’s Bob Landis - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/from-origination-to-exits-a-qa-with-the-riverside-companys-bob-landis/ · professional [20] PE firms experience deal fatigue, seeing only 16.5% of target market deals despite increase in deal flow - SPS by With Intelligence — https://suttonplacestrategies.com/pe-firms-experience-deal-fatigue-seeing-only-16.5-of-target-market-deals-despite-increase-in-deal-flow/ · professional [21] Robert Landis — https://www.acg.org/nyc/speakers/robert-landis-0 · professional [22] The ACG Legend: Robert Landis — https://middlemarketgrowth.org/awards-2023-acg-legend-robert-landis/ · professional [23] From Origination to Exits: A Q&A with The Riverside Company’s Bob Landis - SPS by With Intelligence — https://s