Here’s a recent case study of a successful deal. About three years ago, a private equity investor connected with a CFO at a larger private company. The conversation touched on a portfolio company owned by the private equity firm. The CFO mistakenly assumed certain aspects of the business model. The investor began (emphasis on began) to correct some of the assumptions. Conversation ended — nothing groundbreaking, no fireworks. A simple exchange — let’s stay in touch — and nothing more. They stayed in touch over the next three years.
Fast forward three years, the private equity firm launches a formal auction process to sell the portfolio company. The prevailing party — that private strategic with the same CFO still at the helm. Following the deal, the CFO touched base with the private equity investor. This was the message:
If we had not had that initial conversation, we never would have been in position to do this deal. Having the conversation piqued our interest. We then had meetings internally — due to calendars, over multiple months with multiple functions of the organization. We then started learning about the industry. We gathered reports, we engaged consultants. We learned how your assets fit into our overall strategy and where specific synergies could arise. By the time the deal came around, we were in position to execute.
This is how deals get done effectively. Too often, however, private companies wait for the process to begin — I’ve been running my business, we’ve grown, we want to sell, let’s hire an advisor, and we’ll get this done. It’s akin to walking down the street, seeing a gym, going in and saying, “hey, get me a trainer, I want to be in shape to run a marathon in the next couple months.”
The Buy-Side Reality
What compounds this is that deals are far more complex and coordination-intensive than most sellers anticipate — and that complexity extends to the buy side in ways that get consistently underestimated. Companies entering a process, along with their advisors, often operate under a flawed assumption: that a long buyer list means broad, genuine engagement. The implicit belief is that every buyer on that list will see the deal, evaluate it thoughtfully, and make a deliberate decision to proceed or pass. That’s rarely how it works. Inboxes are full, deal teams are stretched, and a teaser landing at the wrong moment gets filed away or missed entirely. Many buyers who would have been genuinely interested never meaningfully engage with the opportunity.
The results show up in the data on why buyers decline. The most common reasons aren’t strategic misfit or valuation disconnect — they’re bandwidth and timing. The deal team is mid-process on something else. They’re completing an add-on. The calendar didn’t allow for a proper look. These are execution failures, not strategic ones. And they’re largely preventable — but only if sellers set the groundwork before the process ever launches.
It’s this premise that sparked Odin Mimir. The platform enables you — as a private company owner or advisor — to gather interest and intelligence on potential demand well ahead of a formal process. You can do this passively, at no cost, alongside your existing workflows. Gather the intelligence to have early conversations, unearth diligence issues, drive deal certainty, and be in position to execute.