September 09, 2025
Finding the right deal is hard enough. But these days, identifying an opportunity is just step one. The real challenge? Winning the deal, and that’s where things get competitive fast.
Once you’ve found a company you want to pursue, you're not the only one. Dozens of other firms are circling the same opportunity, all trying to make their case. And for most deal sourcing teams, that’s when a familiar problem shows up:
You're pitching without knowing what you're up against.
You know your firm’s strengths… but do you know how your competitors are positioning theirs? Do you know what growth stories they’re leading with? Or which sectors they’re claiming as their domain?
Without that visibility, it’s easy to lose a deal to a team with a sharper, more relevant story.
For deal teams, it’s not only about sourcing opportunities, it’s about winning them. But that’s hard to do when:
The result? You’re walking into meetings with less information than your competition and hoping your story lands.
Manager presentations are often thought of as allocator-facing documents. But for deal sourcing teams, they’re a goldmine of competitive intelligence.
Inside a manager presentation, you can find:
For deal teams, this isn’t just interesting. It’s essential. Because when you understand how others are positioning themselves, you can:
But there’s a catch...
Manager presentations are notoriously hard to find.
They live in inboxes, on outdated websites, or in conversations that never get shared. Tracking them down is time-consuming, and even when you do find one, it’s usually a one-off. You’re left piecing together a fragmented view of the market.
That lack of visibility can cost you. While your team is digging, your competitors are pitching. And they might be telling a story that resonates better… simply because they’ve done their homework.
Manager presentations aren’t just for fundraising teams. For deal professionals, they’re a powerful, and often overlooked, source of competitive insight.
The challenge has always been visibility.
dakota marketplace solves that.
It brings together thousands of manager presentations, consultant reviews, and related data in one centralized, searchable platform in order to give deal teams the intelligence they need to pitch smarter and win more often.
With dakota marketplace you can:
And with dakota’s comprehensive general partner (GP) data layered into the platform, you’re not just seeing presentations. You're unlocking the full picture.
This includes:
When our GP data is married to private company insights, it sheds light on one of the most opaque parts of the private equity world, and gives your team a real edge.
Instead of walking in cold, you walk in confident with the right story, the right positioning, and a clear view of the competitive landscape.
You don’t just find deals. You win them.
Start using manager presentations to your competitive advantage. Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace.
Morgan Holycross is a Marketing Manager at Dakota.
