Deal sourcing software describes two products that get compared to each other and should not be. One finds companies: a database you search by sector, size and signal. The other remembers them: a record of what you found, who introduced it, what you did and when to go back. Funds buy the first expecting the second and are disappointed, because a database has no memory of your own decisions. This page separates them.
Finding is a data subscription
Company databases, signal feeds and screening tools. They earn their price at scale, where target lists are produced continuously, and they are an expensive way to buy a list you needed once. The test is how many lists a year you genuinely acted on: count it rather than estimate it before renewal.
Remembering is a record, and it is the durable half
Everything you have seen, who brought it, what you decided and why. A database can tell you the same thing next year as it told a hundred other funds; your own history of decisions is the only asset nobody else has. It is also the cheaper half by an order of magnitude.
The join is where the value actually is
A target list from a database, screened against everything you have already seen and passed on, is a much shorter list and a much better one. That join is only possible if the passes were kept with dates and reasons, which is the discipline the remembering half exists to enforce.
What to buy first
The record, almost always. It is cheap, it works the afternoon you start, and it makes the database more valuable when you buy one. Buying the database first produces lists that nobody can tell you have already been reviewed twice.
Questions people ask about deal sourcing software
What is the difference between the two?
One finds companies, the other remembers what you decided about them. A database has no memory of your own screening.
Which should we buy first?
The record. It is cheaper, works immediately, and makes a database more valuable later by letting you screen its lists against your own history.
Is a data subscription worth it for a small fund?
Count the lists you acted on last year. If it is one, buying that list would have been cheaper than the subscription.