M&A Deal Origination & Business Development Associate

Location

Remote

About the Role

Reality Marble is a holding company that acquires media assets, agencies, and, opportunistically, other small and medium-sized businesses.

We are looking for an M&A Deal Origination & Business Development Associate to help identify, source, and develop acquisition opportunities. This role combines outbound business development with M&A deal origination, focusing on building relationships with business owners, brokers, intermediaries, search fund operators, acquisition advisors, and other strategic partners while generating a consistent pipeline of qualified acquisition opportunities.

This is primarily a Business Development and Deal Origination role. Your day-to-day work will focus on identifying acquisition opportunities, building targeted prospect lists, conducting outbound outreach, nurturing relationships, qualifying opportunities, and moving conversations toward potential acquisitions. While you'll work closely with our acquisitions team, this is not a finance-heavy role.

We're looking for someone who is naturally curious about businesses, enjoys connecting with people, and can confidently communicate with founders, executives, brokers, and other acquisition professionals. You should have a solid understanding of how businesses operate, be comfortable discussing basic financial concepts, and understand the fundamentals of mergers and acquisitions, private equity, or search funds. However, advanced financial modeling, valuation, or investment banking experience is not required.

The ideal candidate is proactive, organized, resourceful, and thrives in an outbound environment. You enjoy researching businesses, uncovering opportunities, improving outreach strategies, and building long-term professional relationships that generate quality acquisition opportunities over time.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify and source acquisition opportunities through proactive outbound business development.
• Build targeted lead lists of business owners, founders, CEOs, brokers, intermediaries, search fund operators, acquisition advisors, and other relevant acquisition contacts.
• Research companies, industries, markets, and decision-makers using online tools and databases.
• Scrape, clean, organize, enrich, and maintain lead data for outreach campaigns.
• Manage outbound email campaigns and outreach initiatives to generate acquisition opportunities.
• Upload and manage contact lists across CRMs, outreach platforms, and spreadsheets.
• Write, test, and optimize outreach messaging, subject lines, and follow-up sequences.
• Monitor campaign performance, including reply rates, open rates, bounce rates, deliverability, and overall outreach effectiveness.
• Conduct introductory conversations with business owners, brokers, and acquisition partners to understand potential opportunities and determine strategic fit.
• Qualify inbound and outbound opportunities before passing them to the acquisitions team for further evaluation.
• Build and maintain long-term relationships with business owners, brokers, intermediaries, search fund operators, acquisition advisors, and referral partners.
• Consistently follow up with prospects while maintaining a professional and relationship-focused approach.
• Maintain accurate CRM records and organized documentation of outreach activity, conversations, and deal flow.
• Collaborate closely with the acquisitions team to ensure qualified opportunities progress smoothly through the pipeline.
• Continuously improve sourcing strategies, outreach systems, workflows, messaging, and campaign performance.

Qualifications

Required

• Strong written and verbal English communication skills.
• Experience in Business Development, Deal Origination, Deal Sourcing, Partnerships, Sales Development, Lead Generation, or outbound prospecting.
• Experience managing outbound email campaigns or structured outbound sales initiatives.
• Strong internet research skills for identifying companies, business owners, executives, brokers, and relevant decision-makers.
• Comfortable using spreadsheets, CRMs, and outreach platforms to organize and manage prospect data.
• Excellent attention to detail when managing lead lists, campaign performance, and CRM records.
• Ability to work independently while consistently managing outreach activities and follow-ups.
• Comfortable communicating professionally with founders, executives, business owners, brokers, and senior decision-makers.
• Basic understanding of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity, search funds, or business acquisitions.
• Comfortable discussing businesses and understanding basic financial concepts without requiring advanced financial modeling expertise.

Preferred

• Experience sourcing acquisition opportunities or supporting M&A deal origination.
• Experience building relationships with business owners, brokers, intermediaries, acquisition advisors, or referral partners.
• Experience working with private equity firms, search funds, corporate development teams, investment firms, or acquisition-focused businesses.
• Experience scraping, cleaning, enriching, or verifying lead lists.
• Familiarity with cold email platforms, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, CRMs, and email verification tools.
• Understanding of outbound campaign metrics, including reply rates, open rates, bounce rates, and deliverability.
• Experience conducting outreach to founders, executives, investors, brokers, or professional service providers.

Ideal Candidate

You may be a strong fit if you:

• Enjoy business development and building genuine professional relationships.
• Have experience sourcing opportunities through outbound outreach and prospecting.
• Can confidently communicate with founders, business owners, executives, brokers, and acquisition professionals.
• Understand the fundamentals of M&A, private equity, or search funds and are interested in the acquisition process.
• Have enough financial understanding to discuss businesses and recognize promising acquisition opportunities without needing to perform complex financial analysis.
• Are highly organized and ensure opportunities never fall through the cracks.
• Enjoy researching industries, companies, and decision-makers.
• Continuously look for ways to improve outreach messaging, sourcing strategies, and business development processes.
• Are resourceful, proactive, and comfortable working with incomplete or messy information.
• Take ownership of your pipeline and consistently follow through on commitments.

What You'll Be Doing Day-to-Day

• Researching companies and identifying acquisition opportunities.
• Building and maintaining targeted lead lists.
• Finding and connecting with business owners, founders, brokers, intermediaries, and acquisition partners.
• Launching and optimizing outbound email campaigns.
• Managing CRM records and outreach pipelines.
• Following up with prospects and maintaining ongoing conversations.
• Conducting introductory qualification conversations.
• Tracking outreach performance and identifying opportunities for improvement.
• Collaborating with the acquisitions team to move qualified opportunities forward.
• Building long-term relationships that create a sustainable acquisition pipeline.

Nice to Have

• Experience working in private equity, search funds, corporate development, M&A advisory, acquisition entrepreneurship, or investment firms.
• Experience negotiating or supporting B2B partnerships and commercial relationships.
• Familiarity with CRM automation and outbound workflow optimization.
• Financial modeling or valuation experience (helpful but not required).
• Prior M&A transaction or deal sourcing experience.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys building relationships, generating opportunities, and helping source acquisitions. Success in this role comes from disciplined business development, thoughtful outreach, strong relationship management, and a practical understanding of how businesses and acquisitions work. While advanced finance experience is not expected, you should be comfortable discussing businesses, recognizing quality opportunities, and contributing to the early stages of the acquisition process.

Compensation

Competitive compensation based on experience, qualifications, and location.

How to Apply

Please submit:

• Your resume.
• A brief summary of your experience with business development, deal origination, deal sourcing, outbound email campaigns, lead generation, prospecting, or researching lead lists.
• Examples of outreach campaigns, acquisition sourcing work, lead generation initiatives, business development efforts, relationship-building experience, or prospecting projects you have managed.
• We are especially interested in candidates who can demonstrate their ability to identify high-quality acquisition opportunities, build relationships with business owners and acquisition professionals, manage organized outbound campaigns, and consistently generate qualified conversations that can develop into potential acquisitions.