If your job is to raise capital or source deals, you already know it hasn't gotten easier.
There are more firms chasing the same allocators and the same targets, longer cycles, and constant pressure to know more about every prospect before you ever get in the room. The people who win aren't working more hours, they're building a better process around the hours they have.
That's always been the heart of The Dakota Way: focus on what matters most. From there it's about setting expectations, knowing who to call on, knowing what to say, and having a killer follow-up system.
None of that changes with AI.
What changes is how fast you can do the parts of the job that used to eat your morning… researching an LP or an acquisition target, prepping for a meeting, building a list, sizing a new market, etc.
We use AI tools every day at Dakota across fundraising, deal sourcing, due diligence, competitive research, and sales planning. Not to replace the judgment that makes a great fundraiser or dealmaker, but to clear the busywork that sits in front of it.
A well-built prompt can turn an hour of research into ten minutes, draft the first version of a market map, or surface the questions you should be asking before a first meeting. You still do the thinking. The AI just gets you to it faster.
In this article, we're kicking off a weekly series: five prompts a week, built for the people doing the work (fundraisers, capital formation teams, deal and sourcing teams, and sales leaders). Each one comes with the persona it's for, the real scenario behind it, the prompt itself, and how to get the most out of it. Copy them, tweak them, make them yours.
Top 5 Prompts for Private Markets
1. The LP Research & Roadshow Builder
For: Institutional fundraisers The Job: Prospecting and meeting prep for a roadshow
The scenario
You're planning a Southeast swing and you need to fill the days. Before you book flights, you want to know which endowments and foundations down there actually allocate to private credit, who runs the money, and who you should be emailing to get in the room. Normally that's a morning of digging across websites, 990s, and old notes. Here's how to compress
The prompt
Using Dakota Marketplace data, find all endowments and foundations in the Southeast U.S. that invest in private credit with AUM over $2B. For each one, return the CIO and the best contact for private credit. Then draft a tailored, customized email campaign I can use for a roadshow - personalized to each institution rather than a single generic template.
2. The Competitor Deal-Activity Tracker
For: Private equity deal teams The job: Tracking competitor M&A and investment activity
The scenario
You're on a deal team and you need to know what your competitors have been doing — who's buying, what they're paying up for, where they're leaning in. Knowing a rival just made three add-ons in a sector you're eyeing changes how you think about your own pipeline. Pulling that together by hand means scanning news, deal databases, and press releases one firm at a time. Here's how to get a structured read fast.
The prompt
I work on the deal team at [Your Firm]. Using Dakota Marketplace data, identify my key competitors who have closed a transaction recently. Then give me a report on how I should be thinking about their activity on the investment side - what sectors and deal sizes they're targeting, what the pattern suggests about their strategy, and where it overlaps with or diverges from my own focus.
These prompts are only as good as the data behind them. Every prompt above runs on Dakota Marketplace data: the verified contacts, AUM, investment preferences, and transaction activity that turn a generic AI answer into a real prospect list. Whichever AI app you use, the facts come from the same place. Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace to get connected.
3. The Strategy-Matched Target List Builder
For: Placement agents and capital markets / distribution teams The job: Building a strategy-matched prospect list for a fund raise
The scenario
You've taken on a private credit mandate and now you need a target list — fast. Not every allocator is a fit, so a generic list of "big institutions" wastes everyone's time. You want pensions, endowments, and insurers that already have private credit or direct lending in their mandate, sized big enough to write a meaningful check, with the right person to call on each. Here's how to build that universe in one pass.
The prompt
Search Dakota Marketplace for institutional allocators (pension funds, endowments, and insurance companies) with AUM over $1B that have private credit or direct lending in their investment focus. For each, pull the name, AUM, and head of alternatives. I'm building a prospect list for a private credit fund raise.
4. The Candidate Sourcing Map
For: Executive search consultants and partners The job: Sourcing candidates for an investment leadership search
The scenario
You're running a search for a senior investment role and you need a map of the talent… who's sitting in the CIO and deputy CIO seats at the institutions that matter, where they are, and how to reach them. Building that by hand means cross-referencing staff pages, LinkedIn, and old placements one institution at a time. Here's how to pull the whole field at once.
The prompt
Using Dakota Marketplace, show me all CIOs and Deputy CIOs at public pension funds and endowments in the Northeast. Return the account name, person's name, title, institution, and contact info. Then format it as a shareable PDF.
5. The Ideal-Customer Prospector
For: Software and service providers selling into investment firms The job: Finding the accounts that fit your product
The scenario
You sell into RIAs, and not every firm is a fit. Too small and they won't pay for the product; too large and they're already locked into an enterprise stack. Your sweet spot is a specific band — mid-sized firms with the kind of business that needs what you've built. Instead of guessing from a generic RIA list, here's how to pull exactly the segment you can actually close.
The prompt
Using Dakota Marketplace, show me all RIAs in the Southeast with AUM between $250M and $1B that have alternatives as an investment preference.
Start Prompting With Real Data
Here's the thing that makes these prompts work… on its own, AI is brilliant at structure and terrible at facts it doesn't have. Ask any chatbot for a pension fund's current allocation, a CIO's contact, or who actually owns a target company, and it will confidently make something up.
That's the whole reason these prompts run on Dakota Marketplace data, no matter which AI app you prefer: you get the speed and structure of AI with contacts, AUM, allocations, and transactions that are actually verified.
AI is the engine. Dakota Marketplace is the fuel.
Connect the two, in Claude, ChatGPT, or whatever you already use, and the work that used to eat your morning takes minutes, with data you can actually act on.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace to get started.
