Reference
The origination reference catalog
Working references for private equity deal teams originating in the lower middle market: how to research a sector, which channel to use, where the evidence lives and what the terms mean.
136 reference pages in 6 sections · updated 14 October 2026
Every page here is generated from the same typed records Docket uses to brief its agents. A playbook is the set of questions and evidence sources we would start a mandate with in that niche; a data-source entry says what that source can and cannot establish. None of it is investment advice, and where the public record does not support a figure, no figure is given.
Sector origination playbooks
Research templates for lower-middle-market niches: NAICS scope, the screening questions the agents ask, the public evidence that can answer them, and what disqualifies a company.
- HVAC services
- Plumbing services
- Electrical contracting
- Fire and life safety
- Pest control
- Commercial landscaping
- Roofing
- Commercial cleaning
- Security and alarm monitoring
- Managed IT services
- Cybersecurity services
- Vertical software
- Specialty distribution
- Industrial MRO distribution
- Third-party logistics
- Precision machining
- Testing, inspection and certification
- Environmental services
- Engineering consulting
- Accounting and tax practices
- Insurance brokerage
- Veterinary practices
- Dental practices
- Physical therapy
Deal-sourcing methods
How each origination channel works, what it costs in time and attention, what kind of evidence it produces, and where it is the right tool.
Comparisons
Head-to-head choices a deal team actually faces, compared on fixed dimensions, with the conditions under which each side wins.
- Intermediated vs proprietary deal sourcing
- Databases vs primary research
- In-house vs outsourced origination
- Email vs LinkedIn vs phone
- Brokers vs direct outreach
- Conferences vs desk research
- Self-serve vs managed research
- Buying lists vs building lists
- Keyword search vs criteria screening
- Analysts vs AI research agents
Data-source directory
Registries, filings, licensing records, statistics and company-published material: what each source can establish about a private company and what it cannot.
- SEC EDGAR
- SEC Form D
- Census County Business Patterns
- Census Statistics of U.S. Businesses
- Census Annual Business Survey
- BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
- SAM.gov
- USAspending.gov
- USPTO trademark records
- USPTO patent assignments
- FCC Universal Licensing System
- OpenCorporates
- GLEIF Legal Entity Identifier records
- UK Companies House
- State business registries
- State contractor licensing boards
- OSHA establishment search
- EPA ECHO
- FMCSA Company Snapshot
- NPPES NPI Registry
- UCC filings
- DOL Form 5500 filings
- PACER federal court records
- Company websites
- Job postings
- Trade association directories
- Local press and news
- Wayback Machine
- Commercial company databases
- Professional profiles
Buy-and-build thesis notes
Recurring acquisition-thesis patterns written as hypotheses to test: the evidence that would support each one, the evidence that would end it, and how it changes the list.
- Route-density roll-up
- Licensed-trade consolidation
- Recurring maintenance contracts
- Founder succession transitions
- Compliance-mandated demand
- Distribution consolidation
- Multi-site practice platforms
- Back-office professionalization
- Adjacent-service cross-sell
- Geographic infill
- Technology-enabled services
- Non-core carve-outs
Glossary terms
Definitions of origination, M&A process, research and outreach terms, each with how it shows up in practice.
- Add-on acquisition
- Adjusted EBITDA
- Business broker
- Buy-and-build
- Carve-out
- Confidential information memorandum (CIM)
- Data room
- Deal flow
- Deduplication
- Disqualifier
- Earn-out
- EBITDA
- Entity resolution
- Evidence trail
- Exclusivity period
- Grounding
- Hallucination
- Identity resolution
- Inbox placement
- Independent sponsor
- Indication of interest
- Inter-rater reliability
- Intermediated deal
- Investment thesis
- Letter of intent
- Lower middle market
- Market map
- NAICS
- Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
- Origination
- Owner-operator
- Platform company
- Proprietary deal
- Provenance
- Quality of earnings
- Recapitalization
- Retained source
- Roll-up
- Rollover equity
- Screening rubric
- Search fund
- Sell-side adviser
- Seller note
- Sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
- SIC
- Succession planning
- Suppression list
- Target list
- Teaser
- Total addressable market (TAM)
Send us ten targets. We research them for free.
A target list and your acquisition criteria are enough. You get back company records with scores, the evidence behind every field, and the questions the public record could not answer.