Tuesday I broke down how PE-backed platforms beat the bankers by building sourcing pipelines before a process ever starts. Thursday I covered the real cost of building that capability through a full-time hire: $250K-$410K fully loaded in Year 1, $3M-$4M in enterprise value impact at exit multiples.
The question that follows both pieces is the practical one: what do you actually build, and in what order?
Most platforms get this wrong. They hire first and build second. The BD professional shows up on Day 1, opens their laptop, and starts from scratch. Three to six months later they've built a target list, started making calls, and maybe generated a few conversations. Meanwhile the platform paid full freight for a half-year ramp and the pipeline didn't move.
The platforms that move fastest flip the sequence. They build the infrastructure first and put a person behind it second. When the hire starts, they inherit a functioning system, not a blank CRM.
Here's what the first 90 days of that build looks like.