Portwatch — AI deal sourcing for SMB acquisitions
PORTWATCH
Live in beta

Find off-market businesses before anyone else.

Portwatch is an AI deal sourcing platform designed for buyers of SMBs, and built by industry experts. It builds your thesis, finds companies that match it, researches each one, and runs outreach — replacing the tools and retainers a search normally requires.

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Portwatch rating four nursing home companies against a buyer's thesis as Strong, Moderate or Weak, with the reasoning attached: owner age 63, 28 years tenure, and a declining review trend.

Why are so many small businesses changing hands right now?

An entire generation of American business owners is retiring at once, and most of them have no succession plan. The companies are sound; the infrastructure to route them to new buyers does not exist at scale.

$5T
in assets held by boomer-owned businesses
1,500
owners turn 65 every day, and only a third have a succession plan
6M
SMB ownership transitions projected by 2035
"Closed on 45-year-old family-owned Hopewell Sheet Metal... home with my family every night. It's great."
— Adam Kurzrok, Forbes, 7/2026
"Dairy Witch Ice Cream, open 74 years, will not reopen. No sale. No successor. Just a closed window."
— Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, 2026

How much does proprietary deal sourcing normally cost?

Either about two weeks of your own time per thesis, or roughly $45,000 to hire it out. Both scale poorly, especially in today's hyper competitive lower-middle market M&A environment.

Do it yourself

14 days

Per thesis, before a single conversation with an owner.

  • ✓Scour industry reports and professional networks
  • ✓Build and maintain spreadsheets
  • ✓Hunt for contact details manually
  • ✓Verify and clean the data

Hire it out

$45,000

Typical first-year cost of a managed sourcing engagement.

  • ✗$7,500/mo typical retainer
  • ✗6-month minimums
  • ✗+2–6% success fees

How does Portwatch find and qualify companies?

In four steps, from a thesis to a sent email. Portwatch reads your criteria, searches primary records rather than listings, scores every company against your mandate, and drafts outreach under your name.

What is in a Portwatch company profile?

Six sections, built in minutes rather than days. Every profile covers what a buyer needs before deciding whether the company is worth a call, including who actually owns it and how to reach them.

  • ·Executive Summary
  • ·Financial Signals
  • ·Ownership and Decision-Makers
  • ·Technology Stack
  • ·Contact Details
  • ·Market Position

Questions buyers ask

What is Portwatch?

Portwatch is an AI deal sourcing platform for people buying small and mid-sized businesses. It builds an acquisition thesis, finds companies that match it, researches each one, and runs outreach, replacing the separate tools and retainers a search normally requires.

Who is Portwatch for?

Portwatch is built for SMB acquisition buyers: first-time searchers, searcher-operators running roll-ups, independent sponsors, family offices, and private equity firms.

How does Portwatch find off-market companies?

Portwatch draws on business registries, map data, professional network profiles, and automated web crawlers, then normalizes the results with large language models. Because it starts from primary records rather than listings, most companies it surfaces are not for sale on any marketplace.

How much does Portwatch cost?

Portwatch is free during beta. Pricing will be announced closer to public launch.

How is Portwatch different from a broker or a search fund service?

Managed sourcing services typically run about $7,500 per month with six-month minimums and success fees of two to six percent. Portwatch is software, so there is no retainer, no minimum term, and no fee on close.

How long does it take to build a lead list?

Minutes. Building a comparable list by hand takes roughly two weeks of scouring industry reports, hunting contact details, and cleaning data.

What is in a Portwatch company profile?

Each profile includes an executive summary, financial signals, ownership and decision-makers, technology stack, verified contact details, and market position.

Can I upload my own lead list?

Yes. Upload a CSV of companies and Portwatch will run enrichment and scoring across the entire list.

Can I upload my investment thesis?

Yes. Upload a PDF, DOCX, or PPT and Portwatch will extract the criteria and pre-populate the search filters.

Does Portwatch handle outreach?

Yes. Personalized outreach goes out under your own name across email, professional networks, and social channels.

Does Portwatch need access to my email account?

Only permission to send. Connecting Gmail is optional and you start it yourself. Portwatch requests one narrow Google permission, gmail.send, which lets it send the messages you have approved and nothing else. It cannot read, search, or download your mail, and it does not track opens or replies. You can disconnect at any time in Settings or from your Google account permissions.

How are companies scored?

Every company is scored against the specific criteria in your thesis, including industry, geography, revenue, and headcount, so the ranking reflects your mandate rather than a generic quality score.

Is Portwatch available now?

Portwatch is live in beta. Request access and the team will follow up.

Request beta access

Tell us about your acquisition search and we'll reach out with access.

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