Battle Royale: LLMs vs. Verified Deal Intelligence

Hi there,

How are we already almost halfway through May? Everything is lush and in bloom here in NYC — I'm very into it!

Another thing I'm very into: hot new content. Let us proceed.

Rachel & The Grata Team

Rising to the Occasion

"Generalist LLMs are jacks of all trades. They have many valid use cases, but they'll never master the private market."

The firms that understand exactly where AI ends and verified intelligence begins will have a major competitive advantage. In our latest article, we dive deep into what verified deal intelligence actually looks like — and why LLMs simply can't measure up. Read it here.

I Came in Like a Wrecking Ball

The construction industry is booming amid significant infrastructure investment, data center buildout, power-related projects supporting AI, and energy transition projects. Private industrial construction companies are the industry's standout growth story, posting an average revenue growth rate of 19.5% per year. We break down everything private market dealmakers need to know about the sector here.

Let's Get Trucking

An analysis surfaced a sourcing pattern in the general freight trucking sector. In a US cohort of 2,169 companies with estimated revenue of $10M-$100M and 20-500 employees, visible acquisition incidence since 2023 was just 11 targets per 1,000 companies, versus a 29 median across comparable large, growing subsectors.

Read the full writeup for the methodology, caveats, and implications here.

Inspector Gadget

An established testing and inspection services provider is for sale in the Grata Deal Network. Offers comprehensive inspection solutions for the petroleum, natural gas, and industrial sectors, including magnetic particle, liquid penetrant, ultrasonic, visual testing, and electromagnetic inspection.

For its services, the company pulls in around $12M in revenue. It's working with a $4.1M EBITDA and a 34% margin.

Move Those Tassels

The spring semester of the Grata Scholars program has come to an end. HUGE congratulations to all of our new graduates!

Famous Last Words

Inspired by our latest piece about the difference between general LLMs and purpose-built AI, may I present, "Depth/Problem."