Deep Water research

Target Private Equity Firms for Datasite Replacement by ACG Middle Market AI Demo Day Attendees

Which specific named private equity firms ($200M–$2B AUM) have a Head of Origination, VP of Sourcing, or Director of Business Development who is a confirmed registered attendee or speaker at the ACG Middle-Market AI Demo Day on March 19, 2026 — AND whose firm is a current confirmed Datasite, SourceScrub, or Grata subscriber that has posted publicly on LinkedIn or been quoted in PE Hub, Axial, PitchBook, or Mergers & Acquisitions between October 2025 and January 2026 specifically about (a) evaluating or piloting alternative deal-sourcing or CIM-processing tools to replace or supplement SourceScrub/Grata post-Datasite-acquisition, (b) analyst bandwidth strain from elevated add-on deal flow requiring automation, or (c) frustration with Datasite's post-acquisition bundling, pricing changes, or workflow integration delays — AND who is NOT reachable through the existing Holland (ACG LA), Strom (ACG Cleveland), or Landis (ACG New York) warm-introduction paths — so DeepSignal can identify 8–12 firms with a documented incumbent-displacement trigger, a confirmed March 19 touchpoint, and no warm-path conflict, enabling pre-Demo Day outreach in January–February 2026 that positions DeepSignal as the 'single source of truth' replacement for a SourceScrub/Grata workflow their team is already frustrated with, converting them into signed POC design partners at or before the March 19 pitch?

Jun 29, 202632 sources reviewed

Executive Summary

  • Zero target firms successfully identified: The current evidence yields 0 of the requested 8–12 target firms. The provided dataset lacks specific sentiment data regarding Datasite, SourceScrub, or Grata, and contains no attendee lists for the March 19, 2026 ACG Middle-Market AI Demo Day.
  • Warm-path exclusions explicitly disqualify Riverside: The requested exclusion of ACG chapter leaders Jeremy Holland (LA), Cheryl Strom (Cleveland), and Bob Landis (NY) effectively blacklists The Riverside Company, where all three serve as origination partners.
  • AUM constraints rule out available PE data: The only private equity firm with detailed AUM data in the provided dataset is The Riverside Company, which holds over $10 billion in AUM, far exceeding DeepSignal's $200M–$2B AUM target parameters.
  • Recommendation for DeepSignal: To construct the targeted 8–12 firm POC pipeline, DeepSignal must ingest secondary datasets, specifically: (1) the March 19 Demo Day registration list, and (2) scraped social/PR sentiment data (LinkedIn, PitchBook, PE Hub) from October 2025–January 2026 targeting SourceScrub and Datasite workflows.

1. Target Firm Identification & Tech Stack Sentiment

DeepSignal’s outreach strategy relies on identifying mid-market private equity firms ($200M–$2B AUM) currently expressing public frustration with their deal-sourcing tech stacks (specifically Datasite, SourceScrub, or Grata).

A review of the available intelligence reveals a complete absence of tech-stack sentiment data. No professionals from the identified private equity firms have documented quotes or social posts regarding incumbent displacement, analyst bandwidth strain from add-on deal flow, or frustration with post-acquisition bundling between October 2025 and January 2026.

We can, however, map the private equity firms and professionals that are present in the dataset against DeepSignal's criteria to illustrate the current pipeline gaps:

Private Equity Firm Key Contact (Origination/BD) AUM Target ($200M–$2B)? Tech Stack Frustration Noted? Warm Path Exclusion Triggered?
The Riverside Company Jeremy Holland [4], Cheryl Strom [20], Bob Landis [13] ❌ No (>$10B) [12] ❌ No ❌ Yes (Holland, Strom, Landis) [13], [14], [20]
Lion Equity Partners Aaron Polack [3] ❓ Unknown ❌ No ✅ Clear
Trivest Partners Tony Hill [10] ❓ Unknown ❌ No ✅ Clear

Note: Additional individuals in the dataset belong to advisory, accounting, or staffing firms rather than private equity (e.g., Lynn Sommer at BDO [17], Jen Cuello at EisnerAmper [30], Christina Bui at Robert Half/Protiviti [36], Cathy Logue at Stanton Chase [40]), disqualifying them from the POC design partner search.

2. Event Attendance Data: March 19 Demo Day vs. DealMAX

The DeepSignal outreach sequence is anchored to a confirmed March 19, 2026, ACG Middle-Market AI Demo Day touchpoint.

The current dataset contains no attendee or speaker records for a March 19 event. Instead, the data focuses heavily on later Q2 2026 ACG events:

  • DealMAX 2026: Scheduled for April 27–29, 2026, in Las Vegas, expected to host over 3,200 dealmakers [35], [42]. Jeremy Holland is a confirmed speaker/attendee for this event [1].
  • ACG Los Angeles PE/IB Roundtable DealSource: Scheduled for June 3–4, 2026, at The Regent Santa Monica [9]. This is an exclusive, invitation-only event for over 250 PE/IB professionals [16], [29], chaired by Tuan Hoang of Crowe [23], with Jeremy Holland on the committee [2].

If DeepSignal intends to execute an outreach campaign in January–February 2026, the absence of the March 19 Demo Day registration list is a critical blocker. The team must either ingest the specific March event data or pivot the campaign to target DealMAX (April 2026) attendees.

3. Warm-Introduction Path Exclusions

DeepSignal requires a "clean" outreach strategy that does not conflict with existing warm-introduction paths established through designated ACG chapter leaders. The specified exclusions are:

  • Holland (ACG Los Angeles)
  • Strom (ACG Cleveland)
  • Landis (ACG New York)

Analysis of these individuals reveals that all three are senior origination leaders at The Riverside Company. This establishes a strict firewall, completely excluding Riverside from DeepSignal's targeted outreach.

Breakdown of Excluded Contacts

  1. Jeremy Holland: Managing Partner, Origination at The Riverside Company [4], [5]. He has been with Riverside since 2010 [11], [15] and leads the origination team across North American funds and strategies [18], [19], focusing on the Western U.S. and Canada [31]. He is a member of the ACG Los Angeles PE/IB Roundtable Committee [2] and sits on the chapter's board of directors [6]. (Note: Conflicting raw data suggests he is also the Director of Facilities at CrossAmerica Partners LP [21], [34]; however, the overwhelming majority of ACG-related professional evidence confirms his primary role as a Riverside PE dealmaker [14], [15].)
  2. Cheryl Strom: Partner in Origination at The Riverside Company. She serves on the board of the ACG Cleveland chapter and was its president in 2022 [20].
  3. Bob Landis: Founding Partner in Origination at The Riverside Company. He currently chairs the ACG New York chapter [13].

Riverside's Disqualification on Firmographic Grounds

Even if DeepSignal waived the warm-intro exclusion, The Riverside Company is entirely disqualified based on firmographics. DeepSignal targets firms with $200M–$2B AUM. Riverside manages over $10 billion in AUM [12] and has completed more than 650 transactions since 1988 [32]. They operate at a scale requiring 70 operating partners [27], executing 32 platform investments and 87 add-ons in a single recent year [38]. Their strategies range from Micro-Cap (<$10M EBITDA) [41] to Capital Appreciation ($10M–$35M EBITDA) [33], targeting enterprise values up to $400 million [26], [28]. This highly complex, up-market operational profile does not align with DeepSignal's specified mid-market ICP.

Limitations / Open Questions

This report is heavily constrained by gaps in the provided intelligence. To fulfill DeepSignal's strategic objectives, the following data vectors must be sourced:

  1. Event Registration Lists: Sourcing the exact attendee and speaker roster for the "ACG Middle-Market AI Demo Day on March 19, 2026."
  2. AUM Validation: Identifying the precise Assets Under Management for the non-Riverside firms mentioned in the periphery (Lion Equity Partners, Trivest Partners) to see if they fit the $200M–$2B window.
  3. Tech Stack Sentiment Scraping: Ingesting LinkedIn API data and PR archives (PitchBook, PE Hub, Mergers & Acquisitions, Axial) strictly filtered for October 2025–January 2026 to detect keywords like "Datasite," "SourceScrub," "Grata," "CIM processing," "add-on bandwidth," and "software bundling."

Sources