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For PE Funds, Search Funds & Strategics
Earn £/$5K–£250K by referring business owners to a specialist sell-side advisor
VC-backed sell-side M&A advisory for building services, facilities management and healthcare.
When a high-quality owner doesn't fit your buy-side mandate, refer them and we'll pay you a meaningful share of our success fee.
The compounding loop
1
Phase 1
You refer
Owners you've passed on. Warm intro.
2
·
We run the process
Specialist sell-side. 16–20 weeks.
3
Phase 2
You earn
15–20% of our success fee, paid on close.
22
Completed exits
£1m–£100m
Revenue range we specialise in
16–20 wks
Typical close
Compensation
You earn 15–20% of our success fee. Five- to six-figures per deal, typically paid in ~4 months.
Paid upon completion, no fee until we collect
18-month attribution window. Most M&A advisors pay 0%, 5% or 10% on referral introductions. Our 15–20% share is written into the Referral Partner Agreement, per deal, in advance.
Quiet intro, 15%
15%
You forward a name and step back. A link, a casual mention, a post they saw because of you. Still attributed, still paid.
Internally we call this an ambient referral. e.g. forwarding our page to an owner in your portfolio review.
Hands-on intro, 20%
20%
A personal introduction, WhatsApp, email, or group call. You stay involved until Joe is on the line.
Internally a direct referral. e.g. “Joe, meet Sarah, she's exploring options.”
| Deal size | Your 15% (Ambient) | Your 20% (Direct) |
|---|---|---|
| £1m | £7,500 | £10,000 |
| £5m | £30,000 | £40,000 |
| £10m | £52,500 | £70,000 |
| £20m | £90,000 | £120,000 |
| £50m | £165,000 | £220,000 |
| £100m | £240,000 | £320,000 |
Why we can afford to pay this
Our process is lean, our close rate is high, and our buyer network is already mapped. Less time per deal means more upside to share with the people who send us warm intros.
US & UK
US deals work identically, calculated in USD. Full fee schedule sits inside the Referral Partner Agreement.
How it works
Video walkthrough from Joe, founder of DealFlowAgent
How the referral programme works, who it pays, and why warm intros from people like you account for most of our closed deals.
Joe Lewin, founder of DealFlowAgent, recorded walkthrough of the partner programme.
As Featured In
Industry publications and events where DealFlowAgent has been recognised.
The opportunity
You likely acquire 1–20 businesses a year.But you probably evaluate over 500.
Most companies you see, you reject outright. They are not high-quality assets for any buyer. A meaningful share of the rest are still high-quality businesses worth referring to a specialist sell-side M&A advisor who can help the owner sell properly. That middle band is who this programme is for.
0500 companies evaluated
5
300
100
95
5
5 acquired
Deals you close in a typical year, anywhere from 1 to 20.
300
300 on the watchlist
Businesses you may consider acquiring later, in 6 to 36 months, and that you want to maintain close relationships with.
Your opportunity
100
100 high-quality, worth referring
Still excellent businesses. Wrong mandate, wrong timing, wrong sector, or wrong size for you. Refer them to us.
Do not refer
95
95 low-quality
Do not clear the sellability bar. Do not refer.
What separates the 100 from the 95
We apply the same quality bar you do. If the business clears this, it is worth referring.
High quality, worth referring
Clears the bar
- ✓Revenue £1m – £100m
- ✓Profitable at 10%+ EBITDA margin
- ✓Stable or plateaued growth
- ✓Recurring or predictable repeat revenue
- ✓Management competent enough to run it today
- ✓Building Services, Facility Management, Healthcare, Other B2B services, Mission-critical SaaS
Low quality, do not refer
Skip it
- ×Loss-making
- ×Revenue under £1m
- ×Less than 5% recurring revenue
- ×Unpredictable month-to-month revenue
- ×Unmotivated or unreliable management
- ×Does not clear the basic sellability bar
Your point of contact
Kaya Kesici
Referral Partnerships
Our team has previously worked at Ranger Fire & Security and Complete Group — so we know these sectors, the owners, and the buyers from the inside.
Who we are & why trust us
We're specialists.
The reason a referral to us converts, and pays, is that we have built density: relationships, brand, buyers, and research, all inside the niches we cover.
01
Pure specialists, not generalists
Most M&A advisory firms cover everything. We only do home services, healthcare, and adjacent essential B2B niches. That focus is the entire point.
02
VC-backed, reinvesting in the niche
Institutional capital lets us go deeper than a boutique can, better research, better tooling, better buyer mapping inside the sectors we cover.
03
We build the brand owners trust
We sponsor and exhibit at industry events, run magazine features, and speak at conferences in our verticals. Owners often know our name before the intro happens.
04
A buyer network built for this
13,000+ acquirers who have manually signed up to DealFlowAgent and shared their own search criteria, mapped by sub-sector. Not a scraped list — self-declared, working demand for the niches we sell in.
Deep specialism
The sectors we actually sell in.
Three pillars: Building Services (including Fire & Life Safety), Facilities Management, and Healthcare. Inside each, a focused set of sub-niches where we have buyer relationships, comparable transaction data, and sector-trained advisors.
Building Services
23 nichesEssential, recurring-revenue trades plus fire and life safety. Strong buyer demand from search funds, trade strategics, and PE-backed consolidators.
Fire & Life SafetyHVACAir ConditioningHeat PumpsVentilationRefrigerationPlumbingDrainageElectriciansRoofingScaffoldingElectronic SecurityCCTVIntruder AlarmsAlarm MonitoringAccess ControlSecurity GuardingBuilding AutomationLift MaintenanceAsbestos RemovalCommercial DoorsGarage DoorsCommercial Kitchen
Facilities Management
7 nichesRecurring-service businesses keeping buildings, sites and estates running. Reliable cashflow, sticky contracts, very buyable.
Healthcare
15 nichesSpecialist clinics and care models with predictable demand. Active buy-side mandates from healthcare platforms, family offices, and PE.
Adjacent B2B services occasionally, ask Joe before referring outside these three pillars.
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Endorsement“We are thrilled to partner with DealFlowAgent to bring TradeExit.co.uk to our listeners. Our audience consists of hardworking professionals who have spent decades building their businesses. Providing them with a trusted, specialist pathway to a successful exit aligns perfectly with our commitment to supporting the trades community.”
Louis Timpany · Founder and CEO of Fix Radio
Partner voices
From the buyers already in the network.
“I've known Joe for four years and I'm one of the shareholders backing what he's building. He's honourable, a true gentleman, and what's coming in Building Services and Healthcare M&A is genuinely exciting. I've spent thirty years building my network, and when an owner I'm speaking with starts exploring a sale, I make a warm intro to Joe and the team so we can work the process together.”
James Duboullay
Shareholder & Senior M&A Advisor
More partner voices
We're recording additional partner quotes through summer 2026. If you've referred and would like to be featured here, email joe@dealflowagent.com.
Relationship network
Highlighted buyers already in the DealFlowAgent network.
PE funds, rollup aggregators, strategic corp dev teams and fire & security consolidators who have registered, taken the call, and shared their acquisition criteria with our team.
On 16 July we reached out to a selection of these acquirers for their independent view on how this referral programme works in practice. Their quotes will surface here through late July, unedited, with each buyer's permission.
Buyer perspectives — unveiling late July 2026
Benefits for each party
What are the benefits for each party: you, the business owner, and DealFlowAgent?
For the business owner
A proper sale process, run by people who know their sector
- ✓A discreet, well-run sale process built around their sector
- ✓First-look access to acquirers already mapped to their sub-sector
- ✓A clear pricing conversation up-front, no surprises
- ✓Pre-mapped buyers mean shorter time to offers and a cleaner close
For you (the business buyer making the referral)
Near-term revenue, stronger network, better future deal flow
- ✓You help the owner you are speaking to access a highly specialised M&A advisor for their sector, so they can sell their company for the best deal possible.
- ✓You earn anywhere from £5k to £250k on a single introduction, near-term revenue while you keep searching for businesses to buy.
- ✓You build a closer working relationship with DealFlowAgent as a sell-side advisor. We help you, you help us, and over time that means earlier, warmer access to companies that match your search criteria and valuation thresholds.
For us
Warm deal flow from people who already know the owner
- ✓Higher conversion than cold outbound, owners arrive pre-trusted
- ✓Lets us reinvest in research, buyer mapping, and sector density
- ✓Strengthens the network of buyers, advisors, and operators we run with
- ✓Every referral is non-exclusive, no risk to your own deal flow
Two paths
What if the owner already has an advisor?
Either way, there's a path — and a commission — for both scenarios.
Path A
No advisor in place
We become their end-to-end sell-side. Specialist process, our full buyer network, 16–20 weeks to close.
You earn 15–20% of our success fee.
Path B
Has an advisor, but unhappy
Common case: slow process, no real buyer relationships, no traction. Refer them anyway. Through our Advisor Partner Programme we plug our buyer network in alongside their existing advisor and take a small share of that advisor's commission.
You still earn a referral commission.
How we pitch the owner you refer
The exact pitch the owner hears, so you know what you're putting your name to.
DealFlowAgent is a VC-backed M&A advisory firm. We pair industry specialists and senior M&A advisors with custom AI agents so business owners get the highest probability of a successful exit: more offers, higher valuations, and a cleaner end-to-end process.
We only take on businesses we are confident we can sell, and in most cases acquirers are already lined up before the mandate is signed. That is why an intro from you does not backfire: the owner lands in a process built around buyers who are already interested.
Our three-phase approach for owners
Diagnose. Systemise. Sell.
1
Phase 1
Diagnose & systemise
We help the owner diagnose bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the business, automate processes, and apply systemisation to operating procedures.
2
Phase 2
Build the second brain
We build the company's second brain so their data becomes queryable and decision-ready, the foundation for institutional-grade diligence.
3
Phase 3
Run the M&A process
Full advisor-led, end-to-end sell-side process. The owner gets a customised portal with full visibility, and a dedicated AI deal concierge trained on their data supports the advisors throughout.
Still very much an advisor-led M&A process, supercharged by custom AI agents trained and optimised for each client.
1
01
Get Your Free Buyer List
Enter your company website URL into the floating text box to see who could acquire your business. In 90 seconds you'll receive a personalised list of your most qualified buyers. No obligation, ever.
2
02
Personalised Onboarding
Your dedicated sector expert becomes your single point of contact from first conversation to close. Together you build your valuation strategy, buyer profile, and data room.
3
03
Your Custom Deal Concierge
We analyse 2.1 million active acquirers across our live network, 400,000+ historical acquisitions, and four investment bank-grade databases: scoring every buyer on intent and capability. Nothing else like it exists.
4
04
Intelligent Buyer Outreach
Your advisor personally contacts the highest-scoring buyers with hyper-personalised messaging across email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and phone, built around the synergies that matter most to each acquirer.
5
05
Competitive Process & Close
Multiple offers. Maximum leverage. Expert negotiation on price, terms, and structure, supported by specialist M&A legal firms across the UK and US, until funds hit your account.
Average duration: around four months from engagement to completion.
Your name stays out of it unless you want it in. We never reference your firm in buyer-facing materials without written permission. We work to your standards on owner experience, and if a deal starts going off track, you hear it from us before anyone else.
How we deliver these results for business owners
The six factors that decide the outcome.
Tap any row to see how we compare to going it alone or using a traditional broker, and how that translates into a better outcome for the owner you refer.
The Sale Process
Here's how we deliver these results
Six factors that outperform a generalist broker. Each one delivers a measurable result — see the right-hand column.
Factor
On your own
Generalist broker
DealFlowAgent
Results
-
11Buyer relationship intelligenceOn your ownPersonal contactsLimited to people you already know.Generalist brokerStatic spreadsheetOld contact lists, little real intent data.DealFlowAgentLiving relationship graphLive intelligence on every active acquirer.ResultsMultiple credible offers — so you can choose the buyer who protects your legacy and teamPersonal contactsLimited to people you already know.Static spreadsheetOld contact lists, little real intent data.Living relationship graphLive intelligence on every active acquirer.Multiple credible offers — so you can choose the buyer who protects your legacy and team
-
22Sector specialismOn your ownNoneFirst sale process you've ever run.Generalist brokerGeneralistSame playbook across every industry.DealFlowAgentBuilding services & healthcare onlySpecialist advisors. Sector-specific buyer pool.ResultsBuyers who already understand your business — and pay fairly for what you've builtNoneFirst sale process you've ever run.GeneralistSame playbook across every industry.Building services & healthcare onlySpecialist advisors. Sector-specific buyer pool.Buyers who already understand your business — and pay fairly for what you've built
-
33Brand credibility with buyersOn your ownNoneBuyers receive a cold, unknown approach.Generalist brokerVariableLocal broker name, limited buyer recognition.DealFlowAgentInstitutionally backed, magazine presenceBuyers already know us before we call.ResultsSerious, well-funded buyers take the meeting — no tyre-kickers or time-wastersNoneBuyers receive a cold, unknown approach.VariableLocal broker name, limited buyer recognition.Institutionally backed, magazine presenceBuyers already know us before we call.Serious, well-funded buyers take the meeting — no tyre-kickers or time-wasters
-
44Outreach and engagementOn your ownEmail onlyOne channel, low response, easy to ignore.Generalist brokerEmailTemplated blasts, little personalisation.DealFlowAgentEmail, LinkedIn, phone, WhatsAppMulti-channel, personalised, scored for intent.ResultsA real competitive process in weeks, not a single take-it-or-leave-it offerEmail onlyOne channel, low response, easy to ignore.EmailTemplated blasts, little personalisation.Email, LinkedIn, phone, WhatsAppMulti-channel, personalised, scored for intent.A real competitive process in weeks, not a single take-it-or-leave-it offer
-
55Pre-sale value upliftOn your ownNoneNo structured prep before going to market.Generalist brokerNoneBrokers list as-is. No EBITDA work.DealFlowAgent0.5x to 2x EBITDA via AI systemsOptional. Lifts EBITDA before any buyer looks.ResultsA stronger, less owner-dependent business that commands a premium multipleNoneNo structured prep before going to market.NoneBrokers list as-is. No EBITDA work.0.5x to 2x EBITDA via AI systemsOptional. Lifts EBITDA before any buyer looks.A stronger, less owner-dependent business that commands a premium multiple
-
66Negotiation and closeOn your ownDIY, single offerNo leverage. First offer often the only one.Generalist brokerSometimes contestedLimited bidders, weaker competitive tension.DealFlowAgentMultiple offers, expert negotiatorsParallel bidders, twenty-plus closes of experience.ResultsFinal 5–10% on price, cleaner terms, and protections for your staff and earn-outDIY, single offerNo leverage. First offer often the only one.Sometimes contestedLimited bidders, weaker competitive tension.Multiple offers, expert negotiatorsParallel bidders, twenty-plus closes of experience.Final 5–10% on price, cleaner terms, and protections for your staff and earn-out
Compounded, these six factors translate into the outcomes below.
Reframe
You have already spent time, effort and money on diligence. A referral recovers some of that.
- ✓You've sunk weeks of calls, financials and judgement into every owner you pass on. A warm intro turns that work into a paid outcome.
- ✓Buy-side mandates take 6–24 months to produce revenue. Referrals pay while you keep searching.
- ✓If you'd rather, we can apply a small discount to our success fee, passing some of the benefit through to the owner you introduced.
How it works
How to become a referral partner.
The full path from first call to your first commission cheque. No surprises.
- 1
Book a 30-minute call with Joe, founder of DealFlowAgent
30 minutes. We confirm the kinds of owners you see, the niches that fit, and how the partnership would work in practice. If you've already booked the call, move straight on to Step 2.
Book the 30-minute call - 2
Review, sign and return the Referral Partner Agreement
Please review the document, create a copy, sign it, and send it back to hello@dealflowagent.com. Short, human, commercially clean: 14-day payment, 18-month attribution, non-exclusive, non-circumvention.
Read the Referral Partner Agreement - 3
Receive your partner pack
Automated email plus a private partner page with email and WhatsApp templates you can save, one to suggest a specialist to the owner, one to make the warm introduction to Joe.
- 4
We meet the owner
One or two intro calls to understand the business, qualify fit, and walk them through our three-phase process: (1) onboarding and diagnostic review, (2) building their company's second brain, (3) the M&A process for when they're ready to sell. You stay in the loop or stay out, your call.
- 5
They sign with us
Typical engagement carries a small retainer of £5,000–£6,000. Your 20% share of that, £1,000–£1,200, is paid within 14 days of kick-off. The bulk of your fee is paid on completion.
- 6
We run the sale
Typically around four months on average from engagement to completion. You get clean updates at the milestones that matter; nothing in between to manage.
- 7
Deal completes, funds land
Within 14 days of our success fee landing, we ask you to raise a simple invoice, paid to you personally or to your company, your choice.
- 8
You get paid, transparently, in writing, on time
Funds land in your account within 14 days of our success fee clearing. You see the deal value, the success fee, and your share, no opaque deductions, no surprise discounts. The same audited process every partner is on, and the agreement makes the obligation contractually binding.
Cycle repeats. Win-win for the owner, you, and us. Questions before you book? referrals@dealflowagent.com
The ask
Three ways to make a referral. Quick, discreet, professional.
Choose the route that suits you. We respond within 24 hours, handle the owner properly, and keep you informed without creating noise.
Confidential by default, we never name you to the owner or buyer without your written permission.
WhatsApp Joe
Lowest friction, drop the owner's name and a line of context. Joe replies inside 2 hours during UK and US business hours.
Open WhatsAppPrefer to do it as a group chat? Open the WhatsApp link above, send the message, then tap the contact name at the top of the chat and create a new group with the owner. Rename it something neutral like “Intro: [Owner first name] ↔ Joe (DealFlowAgent)”. Keeps it discreet and shows the intro came from you personally.
Email intro
Use your own inbox. Copy the template, paste it in, add the owner on the To line, send.
Subject: Quick intro, [Owner first name], this is Joe @ DealFlowAgent Hi [Owner first name], Thanks again for the time the other week, really appreciated learning about the business. As you know our mandate didn't line up this time, but you've built something that genuinely deserves a proper sale process when you're ready. Joe (copied) runs DealFlowAgent, specialist sell-side M&A advisors for businesses in your space. Tight, institutional-quality process, typically 16–20 weeks end to end. Their team has completed 22 exits, most in essential services and healthcare. No obligation, just a conversation. I'll let you two take it from here. Joe, [Owner first name] runs [company], doing roughly [£X] revenue in [sector]. They're open to a conversation about what a sale process would look like. Over to you both.Or email Joe directly
Resources & agreement
Templates, agreement, and the paper. All in one place.
Short, human, commercially clean: 14-day payment, 18-month attribution, non-exclusive, non-circumvention, no fee until we collect.
FAQ
Honest answers to the questions partners actually ask.
Isn't it awkward to take money for an intro?+
It would be, if it were a finder's fee on a stranger. It isn't. By the time you pass on a business, you've spent weeks or months on calls, financials, and judgement work. A referral fee is fair compensation for that diligence. The owner gets a better outcome with us than they would self-navigating; you get paid for the relationship you've already built. That's a clean trade, not a kickback.
What if I'd rather pass the saving to the owner?+
You can. On request, we apply a small discount to our success fee so the owner sees a direct benefit from your introduction. Double win: you get the rest of your commission, the owner gets a better net outcome, and the referral story stays clean.
How long until I actually see revenue?+
Honest answer: 6–24 months to build density. First fee usually lands in months 4–9 once an early referral closes. Buy-side mandates take that long anyway, referrals fund the search while you wait for your own deal.
Will the owner know I'm being paid?+
Your choice. The default is full discretion, we never mention your firm in owner-facing or buyer-facing materials. If you prefer full disclosure (many partners do, it's the cleanest path), we provide template language and you tell the owner directly. Either way works.
Can I still acquire one of the businesses I refer?+
Yes, that's Phase 2 of the partnership. We flag sub-sector fit and give referring partners first look once the seller is process-ready. You earn the referral fee on the intro and, if the fit is there, acquire the business yourself once we've polished it.
What if the owner already has an advisor?+
Refer them anyway. Through our Advisor Partner Programme we plug our buyer network in alongside the existing advisor and share commission. You still get paid.
Bookmark this page. You'll use it more than you think.
Next time you pass on a quality business, come back here. We take it from there.
Tip: ⌘+D on Mac, Ctrl+D on Windows.
Or email referrals@dealflowagent.com, we reply inside business hours, always.