If I were building a sourcing strategy today, I’d poach the CMO from a DTC brand.

Not a junior banker. Not a former consultant. A DTC CMO.

Because sourcing deals today isn’t about knowing everyone, it’s about being known by the right ones.

Traditional sourcing is still stuck in the Rolodex era:

• Conference drinks
• Warm intros
• “Let’s grab coffee”

That’s not a strategy. That’s hoping the right deal walks into the bar.

Meanwhile, a CMO from a scaled DTC brand knows how to build a brand that cuts through noise.

They’re fluent in:

• Segmenting audiences to identify under-the-radar opportunity
• Running targeted campaigns with clear conversion metrics
• Scaling trust, at speed
• Creating inbound deal flow, not just chasing outbound scraps

You want to meet 100 founders next quarter? Great. A DTC CMO will have 1,000 of them coming to you.

Why does this matter for PE?

Because the next generation of platform deals won’t come from the same 12 intermediaries. They’ll come from overlooked founders running profitable, low-profile businesses that don’t even know they want to sell yet.

You don’t find those with a spreadsheet and a cold email template.

You find them by building a brand, an audience, and a message that resonates.

You don’t need more origination associates.
You need better marketers.