Desert Horizon Capital sourced 100+ off-market owner conversations through Inven — including three signed LOIs

Building a proprietary deal channel

Desert Horizon built its acquisition strategy on three sourcing channels: personal networks, brokered deals, and proprietary off-market outreach. The third is where the upside lives — owners who haven’t yet engaged a broker bring realistic price expectations, no third party pushing for a higher multiple, and longer runway for trust to build.

It’s also the hardest channel to run systematically. Every search fund operates against a clock, and off-market sourcing offers no market signal pointing to which owners are quietly considering a sale.

Finding off-market companies before they surface

Inven gave Desert Horizon the signals they were missing. Craig and Kamran tested Inven against Grata, the deal-sourcing software they were already using, with a head-to-head trial.

The result: Inven returned a much wider universe of relevant companies — including the financial services firm that became Desert Horizon's first strategic partnership, and the off-market business that became their first LOI sourced through Inven.

"There are a lot of companies that Inven has which other platforms don't. The same search on Inven surfaced a vast number of companies that software like Grata missed," says Craig McNally, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Desert Horizon Capital.

Beyond breadth, the team uses Inven's descriptive search to find companies by describing what they do in plain English, the intent-to-sell signal to surface owners who are quietly considering a sale, and the LinkedIn integration to find warm introductions through the team's network. Together these turn cold outreach into informed, personalized outreach with higher response rates.

"I think what really sets Inven apart is the intent-to-sell feature. That's something many searchers need, as we look for owners wanting to retire or entrepreneurs looking to move onto their next venture," says Kamran Cheema, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Desert Horizon Capital

Three LOIs from off-market deals

Two years into Desert Horizon's search, Inven has produced 3 of the firm's 10 signed LOIs — all on companies that weren't on the market and weren't engaged with brokers. One came from an owner who had thought about selling but had never spoken to a buyer.

Beyond the LOIs, Inven has surfaced over 100 owner responses to the team's personalized outreach. The team builds targeted lists in Inven, uses the company data to write non-generic email campaigns, and runs the LinkedIn integration to find warm intros — lifting response rates from the typical 5% to closer to 10%.

"Brokered deals come with a broker pushing for the highest possible price. When we're working with an owner directly, we can build the relationship without that pressure — and that often leads to a more realistic conversation," says Craig.