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Buy-Side Deal Sourcing · Retained Origination

A buy-side deal sourcing retainer that runs your pipeline. Never a seller's list.

Sentinel runs the off-market acquisition pipeline behind acquisitive platforms: off-market dental practice sourcing for DSOs, proprietary deal flow for PE-backed platforms, and add-on pipelines for MSOs, home services and staffing consolidators. Owners and operators approached by name, qualified against your buy box, before any broker sees the deal.

or call (888) 560-5852

25 → 100+
Locations — one DSO platform, add-on by add-on
100+
Closings since 2020 · $800K–$96M
20+ calls
In 90 days on high-velocity mandates

Auctions vs. Proprietary Flow

Everything on a broker's list comes with an auction attached.

By the time a target reaches a broker, the seller's fee is priced in and every acquirer in the market sees the same deal. The platforms that grow fastest own the top of their own acquisition pipeline — proprietary conversations with owners and operators who weren't for sale yesterday. That pipeline is what we build and run for you.

The brokered route
Seller's brokerage fee (6–10%), priced in$360K–$600K
Auction — every buyer sees the dealMarket top
Your position in the processOne of many
The retained route
Success fee (4%)$240K
Full year of retainer~$60K
Your positionOnly buyer at the table

A year of retainer is one point on one deal — and one deal returns it several times over.

What The Retainer Runs

A dedicated buy-side deal sourcing engine on your buy box.

Sentinel sources for retained buy-side partners only — we never present ourselves as the buyer, and we never take the sell side. On a retained mandate the cadence runs 3–5 qualified calls a week, 1–3 LOIs a month, and 4–10 closings a year — per platform, feeding a continuous add-on acquisition pipeline rather than a one-off search.

01 · COVERAGE

Your buy box, mapped to the owner

Off-market dental practice sourcing for DSOs, medical group sourcing for MSOs, operator sourcing for home services and staffing platforms — one owner universe built and approached by name per buy box. No broker listings.

02 · QUALIFIED

Owner-verified before you see it

Every submission is an owner or operator who confirmed the criteria and said yes to a meeting — size, revenue, transition posture verified on the call before it reaches you.

03 · PROPRIETARY FLOW

Deal flow a broker never touches

Proprietary deal flow for PE-backed platforms, built against your fund's specific buy box and reported weekly — approved by you, by name, before any introduction.

04 · GUARANTEED

In writing, not implied

20+ qualified calls in the first 90 days — written into the agreement and reported weekly. Our floor is higher than most firms' ceiling.

Case File · Confidential

The platform that quadrupled.

Names redacted by policy — the numbers are not.

Case File — Confidential
Confidential
Exhibit A — Platform Growth

We ran retained origination behind a PE-backed DSO platform, sourcing add-on after add-on until the platform stood at more than four times its starting footprint.

25Locations, start
100+Locations, today
Exhibit B — Fund-Level Mandate

On the strength of that record, the fund itself engaged Sentinel directly — to launch an entirely new DSO in a new geography. We sourced the target that became its founding acquisition. The platform is live and acquiring today.

Fund and platforms confidential by policy. Named references available under protocol during your diligence.

Where The Retainer Runs

One sourcing method, built by buy box.

The off-market method is the same in every vertical — the owner universe, the buy box and the cadence are built around your platform.

01

DSOs — dental practices

Off-market dental practice sourcing for DSOs — GP and specialty owners approached by name, qualified against your buy box.

GP & specialty · owner-verified · off-market
See how it runs for DSOs
02

PE-backed platforms

Proprietary deal flow for PE-backed platforms — add-on origination behind a portfolio company, or the founding acquisition for a new roll-up.

Add-on engine · roll-up launch · $25M+ mandates
See how it runs for PE funds
03

MSOs — medical groups

The same off-market method applied to medical groups for platforms building an MSO.

Owner-verified · approval-gated
See how it runs for MSOs
04

Home services platforms

An add-on acquisition pipeline of home services operators sourced off-market for consolidating platforms.

Off-market operators · buy-box qualified
See how it runs for home services
05

Staffing & services platforms

Off-market origination for staffing and services roll-ups building density through add-on acquisitions.

Owner-verified · one target, one partner
See how it runs for staffing
06

Your buy box here

The engine is sector-agnostic; the depth points wherever your buy box does. On the board within the week — criteria locked, owners approached by name.

Criteria locked · owners approached by name · no broker listings
Claim the slot

Pricing · Published Openly

The whole number, on one page.

$5,000 a month, plus 4% on closings.
Month to month · no lock-in

Most firms in our category make you sit through a pitch before they will tell you that. We would rather you knew now and decided whether the math works. The full economics — against brokered deals and in-house hiring — are on the pricing page.

Straight Answers

What acquirers ask first.

What is a buy-side deal sourcing retainer?
A monthly retained engagement where Sentinel builds and runs your off-market acquisition pipeline: the owner universe mapped to your buy box, approached by name, and qualified before you ever see an introduction — never a brokered listing.
Does this work for platforms outside dental?
Yes. The same engine runs behind PE-backed platforms in MSOs, home services and staffing and services roll-ups. The buy box and cadence differ by vertical; the off-market sourcing method does not.
How is this different from a broker?
A broker sells you what is already listed and shopped to every buyer in the market. A buy-side deal sourcing retainer builds proprietary, off-market deal flow against your specific buy box — approval-gated, one target, one partner.

Next Step

Tell us the buy box. We'll tell you if we can fill it.

A principal replies within one business day.

✓ A principal replies✓ Confidential✓ One partner at a time✓ Month to month

Or write to [email protected] · call (888) 560-5852

20+Calls · 90 Days
The Sentinel Guarantee
20+ qualified calls in your first 90 days — written into the agreement.

A qualified call: every criterion met, and the owner said yes to the meeting — written into your agreement, calibrated to the mandate. We can promise it because our floor is higher than most firms' ceiling.

Claim the guarantee
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