Deal origination
We find companies that fit. We reach the owners.
You give us what you want to buy. We work through the whole market and email the people who own them.
Ohio Valley HVAC · screen 04
| Company | Revenue | Screen |
|---|---|---|
| Valley Mechanical | $5.2–6.8M | KEPT |
| Allegheny Climate | $8.4–11.2M | KEPT |
| Keystone Air | $4.4–5.9M | KEPT |
| Shenango Mech. | $6.1–7.9M | KEPT |
Mapped
Excluded
Kept
Owner calls
What we do
Find the market. Work it.
- 01
Find the market
We build the full list of companies that fit. If there are 20,000, we work with all 20,000.
- 02
Prioritize the targets
Not every company is equally worth pursuing. We sort by your criteria and the intent signals we can see, so you know who to approach first.
- 03
Reach the owners
We find the right people and email the full pool. Each note is written for that owner.
- 04
Keep going
We don't stop at a list. We work the market until conversations show up. Those conversations are yours.
The difference
Not just a list.
| A list | Zermelo |
|---|---|
| Gives you companies to call. | Find the right people Decide who to approach first Actually reach out to them |
You handle the conversations. We create them.
Pricing
One search. One price.
$1,500
a month
| Scope |
|---|
| One acquisition thesis |
| The full pool: research, qualification, and ranking |
| Personal email to every company that fits |
| Sorted by the intent signals we can see |
| No success fee |
Who we are
People who have done this work.
Zermelo was started by people who have worked across M&A, acquisition sourcing, and research.
We've spent time on the unglamorous part of deal origination — finding companies, figuring out who owns them, qualifying them, and reaching out.
We built Zermelo to do that work for buyers, so you don't have to build an in-house sourcing team.
We haven't bought a company ourselves. We won't pretend we have.
1931 · Why Zermelo
A way through a changing maze.
Ernst Zermelo was a German mathematician, best known for set theory. One of his problems was finding a path that isn't obvious from the start — a route through a maze that keeps changing.
That's a fair picture of deal origination. The companies worth buying aren't sitting in one neat database. You have to build the universe, work through it, and find the ones worth pursuing. That's what we do.
| Principle | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Transparency | The work, and what failed. |
| Judgment | A score isn't the truth. |
| Tools | Never a substitute for people. |
| Outcome | Volume isn't the work. |
| Persistence | Change course. Keep going. |
01
EngineeringBuild the market from records, not a purchased list.02
Seven LOIsSourced for buyers who signed. We don't acquire.03
ZermeloThe same work, shown, until you close.FAQ
Short answers.
How is this different from a list?
A list gives you companies to call. We find the right people, decide who to approach first, and email the full pool. You take the conversations.
Do you email everyone that fits?
Yes. The whole pool gets a personal email. We sort by your criteria and the intent signals we can see, so the best-fit owners are first — but we still work through the list.
Who talks to the owner?
You do. When someone replies, we hand it over the same day.
Are you a broker?
No. We source for the buyer. We don't represent sellers or take a success fee.
What have you closed?
We've sourced for seven buyers who signed LOIs. We don't close as the buyer — that's your conversation.
Have a search underway?
Send the criteria. We'll tell you what we'd do.