Why ambwealth Switched from SourceScrub to Grata
SourceScrub only had 60% of the contact info ambwealth needed. Grata had 95%.
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SourceScrub only had 60% of the contact info ambwealth needed. Grata had 95%.
Client Overview:
Per the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in 2021 the US economy saw healthcare spend represent an 18.3% share of its GDP. Knowing this, ambwealth’s investment banking unit focuses exclusively on B2C and B2B healthcare services companies.
“Our team focuses on healthcare niches where consumerism and fragmentation meet to disrupt traditional healthcare channels. Our core competency is advising businesses that operate where providers and patients meet as well as the B2B businesses supporting them,” said Johnny Cross, VP at AMB.*
Cross has been at AMB for 7 years; he joined the firm right out of college, starting as an analyst, and now has multiple direct reports supporting, among other things, outbound deal sourcing. From the start, Cross has consistently been on the lookout for technology that will improve AMB’s processes and protect their most valuable asset – the team’s bandwidth.
“My goal is to make everyone in my organization’s lives easier so that we can focus on our core competency – advising our clients. Personally, after seven years of Googling and conducting super-manual Excel exercises to sync-up contact and company data, I’ve learned what I love and what I hate about the BD process.
"Grata has streamlined one of the hardest components of our BD efforts –identifying quality companies and contacts. We're a small firm hyper-focused on proprietary deal sourcing, and we’re looking to maintain a tech-forward mindset as we continue to grow – Grata helps us maintain this mindset.”
*Securities Offered ThroughAllen, Mooney & Barnes Brokerage Services, LLC (Member FINRA / SIPC). Investment Advisory ServicesOffered Through Allen, Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors, LLC, aSEC-registered investment adviser. Personalized Client ServicesOffered Through AMB Professional Group, LLC.
The Objective:
Currently, AMB’s investment banking team conducts 4-5 deals annually. On average, half of those deals are sourced from referrals or relationships within the firm and the other half are sourced proprietarily.
“Despite being a boutique firm, there's value to this strategy because every time you add a layer, say a PE firm looking to sell a portfolio company, there is the potential for a change in mindset as the client shifts from an entrepreneur to a professional investor. We want to maintain our core focus of pursuing value-based advisory mandates and to prioritize proprietarily sourced deals.”
With outbound sourcing, Cross’ biggest challenge was filtering lists down to the right companies and making sure the contact information was correct.
Using predominantly Google and then years using SourceScrub, AMB was spending too much time validating private company information, slowing down the deal pipeline. All of AMB’s hiring decisions revolve around how many deals are projected over the next 6-12 months. According to Cross, “If we have a strong pipeline, we can do more as a firm.”
The Solution:
AMB demoed Grata alternatives like ZoomInfo and used SourceScrub for years, but the choice to switch came down to Grata’s stronger keyword search and higher data quality.
“I would build a Ferrari of a keyword search in SourceScrub: multiple keywords, Boolean logic, industry criteria, the works. And every time it would show a long list of companies that appeared to make sense.”
But when Cross exported the list and filtered it again in Excel by employee count, industry, URL, and keyword, there would be broken website links, inaccurate company descriptions, and international companies when he only selected domestic companies.
“Trusting the quality of the data has always been our biggest problem with BD efforts. Grata has solved this problem with their trustworthy data and willingness to accept and implement feedback to improve their platform. “
The Results:
When AMB utilized a dataset pulled from PitchBook to compare Grata head-to-head with SourceScrub, SourceScrub had 60% of the company’s executive contact information. Grata had 95%.
“Our target markets are defined by keywords.” Without strong keyword search, AMB is missing companies that could be strong investments. With Grata, AMB uncovers more targets without the noise that comes with Google or LinkedIn searches.
In 2 months, Cross contacted 500 executives found in Grata. Those conversations are leading to next steps. “I expect 1-2 closed deals sourced from Grata in 2023. And when AMB can land a single transaction advisory success fee sourced through a $20k Grata subscription, it's a no-brainer. This service pays for itself.”
Top features that increased efficiency in their sourcing workflow.
Cross uses Grata’s keyword search to find bootstrapped healthcare companies in the US. With Grata’s saved search feature, he can refresh those lists without having to rebuild complex searches each time.
AMB saw less than 5% bounce rate on 500+ emails sent from Grata information. “Grata is the Porsche of business identification solutions. We have identified multiple monetizable relationships through the contact and company data that we were unable to gather with other platforms.”
40
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New Employees
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New Contractors
10
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New Countries
3
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Lifetime Value
