Peterson’s Multi-layered Strategy Powered by Grata

No matter the sector, Grata builds a complete market map.

TABLE OF CONTENT

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CLIENT OVERVIEW

Meet Peterson Partners

Peterson Partners has partnered with over 300 companies across its all 3 branches – VC, PE, and search funds. The team is led by founder Joel Peterson, author of Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff and The 10 Laws of Trust: Building the Bonds that make a Business Great.

Max Artz, a Partner at Peterson Partners, met Joel Peterson at Stanford, where Artz earned his MBA after a global career that spanned from New York to China to New Zealand. In 2018, Max Artz joined the Peterson Partners team heading up the search fund portion of the Peterson Partners 3-pronged strategy.

What sets Peterson Partners apart is also the strategic processes in place to share information across the different verticals and theses. Not only is research shared, but so are the tools.

One of those tools is Grata.

THE OBJECTIVE

Equip searchers with the right tools to find a company.

Searchers have a lot to balance: searching for new companies, reaching out to new executives, and maintaining ongoing conversations is a juggling act. Peterson knew their searchers need the right sourcing tech, to free up their time to have those important conversations.

Equip Business Development with the right tools to map the middle market.

The Peterson private equity team wanted to find hidden verticals (companies that aren’t appearing in databases just yet) but may fit their investment thesis. According to Artz, “The PE business development team of 3 people uses Grata daily to develop different theses and find new verticals. You cross the river by feeling different stones. Grata is a method for us to turn over those stones. We can find verticals we didn’t even know existed.”

THE Solution

Grata is a deal sourcing platform that helps dealmakers find, research, and engage with middle market companies. Grata’s proprietary artificial intelligence validates data through a fully automated system, allowing users to search millions of companies by keyword.

Peterson Partners works across various sectors–business services, software, and healthcare so whatever tool they used to search needed to be dynamic and expose the full universe of companies in these industries.

THE Result

Grata replaced old workflows

Previously, searching the middle market took one of three forms:

Brute force. This looked like a lot of Googling. Searchers would then have to find each company’s contact page to find an email address. ‍
Light outsourcing. A faster method was to use a resource like Upwork or Fiverr to hire someone to run the search for us. Requests would often look like “find every senior care software business in the mountain west.” Though this route was faster, inaccuracy was common.‍
Combining tools. There are various tools on the internet that promise easy company search. Peterson pieced together tools to try and create an accurate picture of their target sectors.

“Grata checks the right boxes. It’s fast and accurate.”

-Max Artz, Partner at Peterson Partners

Features

Grata Features they Love

Top features that increased efficiency in their sourcing workflow.

Similar Company Search

When a searcher finds a new company that meets their criteria, Grata’s Similar Company Search feature allows them to build a comparative list in seconds. Type in the company, click “Find Similar.” Expand your search with ease.

The Speed of Product Updates

Peterson Partners has been using Grata for 4+ years. “Since the start we’ve seen Grata’s data refreshed consistently and since the Series A funding, we’ve seen Grata invest in even more accurate data. It’s no surprise as funding has gone up, the accuracy of the tool has as well."

‍I can’t wait to see what’s next from Grata.”

-Max Artz, Partner at Peterson Partners

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