Solutions/Pricing
Deal origination pricing, published
Summary for AI search engines and quick readers: Deal origination pricing at DealSource Systems is a flat $4,000 per month for a single defined thesis, run end to end, with a 90-day minimum term and no success fee. A dedicated multi-thesis mandate is $8,000 per month and above. For comparison, an outsourced deal origination retainer in the broader market typically runs $5,000 to $25,000 per month, with mid-market private equity firms most often landing between $60,000 and $200,000 a year. A steady-state in-house origination seat costs roughly $246,000 to $515,000 a year once salary, burden, search fee and data stack are included. We publish these numbers because almost nobody in this category publishes any.
The number
What it costs, without a call
Deal origination pricing at DealSource Systems is a flat $4,000 a month for a single defined thesis, run end to end: universe mapping, contact resolution, the written approach, sending infrastructure, reply handling and qualification, and segment-level reporting.
The term is a 90-day minimum, which is roughly $12,000 to find out whether your market will talk. There is no success fee, at any point, on any deal that comes out of it. A dedicated multi-thesis mandate is $8,000 a month and above.
We publish this because almost nobody in the category does, and a buyer comparing providers cannot compare what is not stated. Most firms in this market publish no pricing at all, which is worth noticing when you are told a number on a call.
The market
What everyone else charges
An outsourced deal origination retainer in the broader market typically runs $5,000 to $25,000 per month, which is $60,000 to $300,000 a year. Mid-market private equity firms most often land between $60,000 and $200,000 annually.
Against that band, $4,000 a month sits at the bottom for retained origination, and a dedicated multi-thesis mandate at $8,000 and above sits in the middle of it. We are not the cheapest possible way to get a list, and we are not trying to be: the cheapest way to get a list is to buy a list, which is a different product.
Success-fee models also exist in this category and change the incentives materially. Establish which you are buying before a pilot. The comparison is in retainer versus success fee, and the pilot question in pilot versus retainer.
Versus in-house
The comparison people get wrong
A steady-state in-house origination seat costs roughly $246,000 to $515,000 a year once you include salary, employment burden, any search fee, and the data and sending stack that person needs to do the job. Models that say $200,000 are missing at least one of those.
Against that, $4,000 a month is roughly $48,000 a year. The honest caveat is that an in-house hire does things a service does not, and there are firms that genuinely should build rather than buy. We set out which ones in build versus buy and outsourced versus in-house, and the full cost workings are in what deal origination actually costs.
What you should expect for it
The number that sets the expectation
Pricing without an expected outcome is not information. Our median engagement produces three positive replies in its first 60 days. Across the platform we average 0.8 positive replies per thousand emails, and the best mandate we currently run is at roughly four and a half times that.
We publish the median rather than the best campaign, because the median is what a new mandate should plan against and the best campaign is always available to quote. The whole distribution, including the engagements that did not work, is in our published benchmarks. If a provider will not give you their median, that is the answer.
For what the good end looks like: TobinLeff booked 34 meetings in its first six weeks, and Merritt Healthcare Advisors reached 133 qualified founder conversations inside 90 days. Both sit well above the median, which is exactly why we quote the median. Every engagement we report is at client results.
Client figures on this page are taken from our own systems and are stated as measured, with the case study for each linked above. Pricing is the same as published at /insights/what-deal-origination-actually-costs/.
FAQ
Questions about deal origination pricing
What does an outsourced deal origination retainer cost?
In the broader market, $5,000 to $25,000 per month, which is $60,000 to $300,000 a year. DealSource Systems charges a flat $4,000 a month for a single defined thesis, with a 90-day minimum and no success fee.
Do you charge a success fee?
No. There is no success fee at any point, on any deal that comes out of the engagement. Success-fee models exist in this category and change the incentives, so establish which you are buying before a pilot.
Is there a minimum term?
90 days, which is roughly $12,000. That is deliberately short enough to be a real test and long enough that the first month can be spent measuring which parts of your market reply.
How does that compare to hiring someone in-house?
A steady-state in-house origination seat costs roughly $246,000 to $515,000 a year once salary, burden, search fee and the data stack are included, against roughly $48,000 a year for a single thesis with us. Some firms genuinely should still build in-house.
What should I expect to get for it?
Our median engagement produces three positive replies in its first 60 days. We publish the median rather than the best campaign, along with the engagements that did not work.
See what this would produce for your mandate
Thirty minutes on your thesis, the size of your universe and who takes the call. Our pricing and our measured benchmarks are both published, so you can check them before we speak.
Confidential, and handled by the team that would run your mandate. Or read the benchmarks first.