§ Buy-side acquisition search · United States
The company you should buy is not on anyone’s list.
We work only for buyers. We map your acquisition thesis against 162 million company domains, approach the owners of the companies that fit, qualify them, and bring you the ones worth your time. No auction, no listing, no other side of the table.
- 162M
- company domains in the database
- 34M
- company websites read and classified
- 2,000
- letters mailed per mandate
- 1
- side of the table yours
§ 01
The problem
Brokered deal flow is the worst place to buy a company.
By the time a company reaches your inbox through a banker, it has reached nine other funds with the same thesis. The process is competitive by construction and the price reflects it. Everything you are shown has already been shown.
The companies worth owning are the ones whose founder has never spoken to a banker, is not in a database, and has no intention of running an auction. Reaching them is not a relationship problem. It is a coverage problem.
§ 02
What we do
01
We define the buy box precisely
Sector, sub-sector, geography, revenue and EBITDA bands, ownership profile, platform or add-on, and the exclusions that matter. Written down, agreed, and used as the screen.
Mandate criteria → 02We build the target universe
Not a database export. A mapped universe assembled from 162 million company domains, 34 million read websites, and analyst work on the companies no database holds. You approve every name before anything goes out.
The origination platform → 03We reach the owner, and we stay in the room
Letter, email, telephone and professional network, in your name and with your approved message. We qualify the responses, and we attend every meeting and every negotiation through to closing.
The process, week by week →§ 03
One side
We only ever work for the buyer.
We do not list companies. We do not represent sellers. We are never paid by the other side of your table, and our engagement letter forbids it. Every conflict question a first meeting normally opens is closed before it is asked.
The consequence is structural, not rhetorical: when we tell you a company is worth $9 million and not $14 million, we have nothing to gain from the higher number.
§ 04
The asset
We do not wait for deal flow.
The database is not a marketing line. It is 162 million company domains, 34 million company websites read and classified by sector, language and country, and semantic search across the descriptions those companies write about themselves. It turns an acquisition thesis into a named, contactable list of owners in days.
§ 05
Who we work for
Professional, repeat acquirers.
Private equity funds and their platform companies, family offices, holding companies, independent sponsors, search funds, and corporate development teams running a buy-and-build.
We do not work for first-time buyers without committed capital or a credible, identified path to financing.
§ 06
Straight answers
What we do not promise.
01
We do not guarantee a deal.
No advisor can. What we commit to is coverage: the full mapped universe, the outreach, the qualification and the meetings that come out of it.
02
We do not sell you a list.
A list is the input, not the product. The product is a qualified conversation with an owner who fits your thesis and is willing to talk.
03
We do not disappear after the introduction.
We attend every meeting, every call and every negotiation session, through indication of interest, letter of intent, diligence and closing.
§ 07
Insights
04 Sept 2026
Transaction value, and where buyers overpay the fee
The percentage is the small print. The definition of transaction value is where a buy-side fee is actually decided — assumed debt, rollover, escrow, seller notes and earn-outs.
Read → 04 Sept 2026What buy-side M&A advisors charge in 2026
Retainers, success fees and minimums on the buy side: what the survey data actually says, why buy-side pricing sits below sell-side, and how to read a fee schedule.
Read → 04 Sept 2026Why most good companies are not for sale
Intermediated processes are competitive by construction. The companies worth owning are the ones nobody is selling — and reaching them is a coverage problem, not a relationship problem.
Read →
§ 08
The founder
You deal with the person who runs the search.
Drummond Leonardes Partners was founded by J. Leonardes dos Santos — over ten years in mergers and acquisitions, and twenty in B2B origination: the discipline of finding companies nobody has a list of, and getting the person who owns them to take the call.
- 10+ years in M&A
- 20 years in B2B origination
- Azores, Portugal · US hours
§ Next step
Define your mandate in ten minutes.
Tell us what you buy. We come back with a read on the size of the universe, the coverage we can build and whether we take the mandate. If we take it, the activation fee is $4,950 and it is credited in full against the success fee.