How the acquisition service runs

set2deal is an acquisition operating system sold as a managed service to PE platforms. For each live lane we maintain a company universe, score it against your published thesis, run proprietary outreach under your brand rules, chase intake when owners are willing, and deliver IC-oriented packs that have cleared analyst QC.

You remain the buyer on every file. Your investment committee remains the only body that approves capital. set2deal does not buy companies for you, does not commit your capital, and does not draft SPA in its own name. The product boundary is origination and pack manufacture — not investment discretion.

Commercial terms — retainer, success fee, data, audit, exit — live in the services agreement (S2D-OA-01). This blueprint is how the machine works once you are a client.

The service is unsafe without a machine-readable thesis. With one, hard rejects happen before anyone contacts an owner. Publishing a thesis is client configuration — the same class of input as giving an agency a brief.

A thesis version names at least: CNAE / sector prefixes in and out; provinces or NUTS regions; revenue and EBITDA bands (or explicit “unknown allowed until intake”); ownership and succession intent; concentration and conflict exclusions; and forbidden outreach phrases. Publish a new version → the universe re-scores. Prior packs stay auditable against the version that produced them.

• Must criteria — missing them is a hard reject before outreach.
• Kill criteria — presence of them is a hard reject before outreach.
• Soft preferences — ranking inside the pass set only; never invent a pass.
• Exception owner — Partner role that may waive a must/kill in writing, with an audit note.

Agents may draft scores and explanations. Agents may reject. Agents may not approve capital, send a pack to your desk without analyst QC, or waive a kill criterion.

The factory is continuous. It does not wait for a banker teaser. Stages and hard stops:

Runs are auditable: who ran what, on which thesis version, with which tool calls. Dry-run modes exist for waves. You can pause stages without deleting the universe.

Client inputs. Without them we can demo the product; we cannot responsibly put your brand on outreach.

• Thesis — must / kill / preferences per lane, with a named exception owner.
• Brand and outreach rules — what may be said, domains and signatures, when you may be named.
• Desk capacity — a named desk owner who actions packs (SLA in the agreement).
• Conflict list — exclusives, banker processes, and internal pipeline names to leave alone.
• Capital decisions — LOI / SPA / IC remain yours alone.

• Universe build and enrichment for live thesis corridors.
• Scoring against the published thesis version; hard rejects before outreach.
• Outreach sequences under brand rules; chase of missing intake.
• Pack assembly with citations; analyst QC before anything reaches your desk.
• Private desk UI — queues, pack views, thesis editor, funnel metrics.
• Audit trail of agent runs, tool calls, and QC decisions.
• Kill switch execution — pause factory and revoke access when you instruct.
• Same-day forward of any complaint about you, a target relationship, or data handling.

Decides means the action waits on that party’s yes. Does means daily work. Analyst QC sits between agents and your desk on purpose.

1. Owner intent — a pack does not reach your desk without confirmed willingness to explore a conversation (signed intake or documented call). Cold scraped names alone are never “IC ready.”
2. Analyst QC — every pack clears a human checklist: thesis version cited, numeric claims sourced or marked unknown, conflicts checked, outreach history attached, intake completeness for the stage claimed.
3. Partner IC — only you approve capital. Desk actions (pass / hold / deep-dive) are not capital approval. Agents have no path to LOI.

Gates are how the service protects your brand and your calendar. Volume without them is not the product we sell.

A pack is the unit your desk consumes — one company, one thesis version. Not a teaser brochure. Not a fairness opinion.

• Identity and fit — why this name clears the live thesis; kill checks passed.
• Company snapshot — sector, geo, ownership signals, public footprint, with sources.
• Financial signals — only from stored enrichments and owner intake; unknowns labelled.
• Owner path — how contact was made; consent notes; open questions.
• Intake status — collected vs chased; ref code.
• Risks and gaps — what diligence must still prove.
• Suggested next step — call, deep-dive, or hold — never “approve investment.”

Capture is proprietary outbound against the scored pass set under your brand rules. Replies route to structured intake; thesis scoring and analyst QC still apply; your IC still decides capital.

Full capture design: Distribution plan S2D-DIST-01.

• Thesis versioning — every score and pack cites the version used.
• Agent audit — runs and tool calls retained for the period in the agreement.
• QC log — who approved or rejected a pack, with notes.
• Brand breach — immediate pause of outreach; you notified same day.
• Kill switch — your instruction pauses factory stages and can revoke desk access the same day.
• Conflict list — refreshed by you; matches blocked or escalated before outreach.
• Data — purpose-limited to sourcing for your thesis; return/delete on exit per agreement.

Capacity plus success. Monthly retainer reserves factory and QC capacity. Success fee on closed transactions originated through the rail (definition in the agreement). Retainer in a fee year is typically credited against success fees in that year.

We are not paid for universe size, email volume, or packs rejected at QC. Binding numbers only in S2D-OA-01.

1. Week 0 — Services agreement; desk accounts; conflict list received.
2. Weeks 1–2 — Thesis lock in product; brand rules; first universe slice.
3. Weeks 3–6 — Scoring live; outreach waves; first intake refs; first QC packs as owner intent appears.
4. Weeks 7–10 — Steady pack rhythm; weekly KPI readout; thesis amendments if the box learns.
5. Ongoing — Expand lanes by thesis publish + capacity; or pause / exit under the agreement.

Weekly readout: thesis rejects pre-contact; replies; calls; QC-passed packs; desk actions; days from thesis publish to first pack; open chase items; brand incidents (target: zero).

Either party ends the engagement under the agreement’s notice terms. On exit: factory pauses; desk access revokes; personal data return or delete; packs and audit exports in an agreed format; success fees remain due on closes that meet the origination definition within the tail period.

Further platforms are additional lanes on the same service.

• We sell managed origination and QC’d packs — not a public marketplace of companies.
• We do not take IC authority or SPA authorship.
• We do not guarantee a signed SPA on a calendar; we guarantee a controlled rail and measurable throughput.
• Agents do not invent financials or waive kill criteria.
• Exclusivity, if any, is a commercial schedule item — not a default of the product.