Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by thousands of investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT can now connect directly to databases… and for anyone working in private markets, that's a major unlock.
But only if you're actually using it.
The professionals pulling ahead right now aren't waiting for AI to become part of their firm's official process. They're building it into their daily workflow today whether for meeting prep, prospect research, outreach, or competitive intelligence.
The difference between a generic AI tool and the Claude App connected to Dakota Marketplace is the difference between a guess and a grounded answer.
Generic AI has no access to 30 years of verified LP, GP, fund, and transaction data. It hallucinates. It generalizes.
Dakota Marketplace’s Claude App doesn't return rows. It returns intelligence, built on the only dataset built exclusively for the private markets community.
Here's what that looks like in practice, five things we learned today.
1. The New CFO Deal Readiness Sourcing Screen
For: VPs of Deal Origination at industrials-focused lower middle market PE firms using management change signals to time proprietary outreach. The Job: Screening non-sponsored industrial distribution, specialty manufacturing, and supply chain services businesses for new CFO appointments in the past 12 months, with prior PE ownership history flagged as the highest-priority signal of transaction readiness.
The prompt
Screen non-sponsored industrial distribution, specialty manufacturing, and supply chain services businesses with $50M to $250M revenue where Dakota career history data shows a new CFO appointment within the past 12 months. Flag businesses with prior PE ownership that exited more than 3 years ago as highest priority.
2. The Active Deployment PE Firm Coverage List
For: Managing Directors in Financial Sponsors Coverage at bulge bracket banks tracking newly funded PE firms entering peak M&A advisory opportunity windows. The Job: Identifying private equity firms that closed a fund above $1B in the past 18 months and are in active deployment mode, flagged by portfolio company count and career history signals of platform-build activity.
The prompt
Identify private equity firms that closed a new buyout or growth equity fund in the past 18 months with fund size above $1B. Show total AUM, portfolio company count, deal contact, career history signals of active platform-build activity, and flag firms in the first 12-month deployment window as highest priority.
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 Independent Trustee Candidate Slate
For: Senior Associates in Board and Governance practices at executive search firms running independent trustee searches for large public pension systems. The Job: Building a ranked candidate slate of individuals with investment committee, board, or CIO-level experience at comparable institutions, screened for conflicts of interest against the fund's active manager roster.
The prompt
We're running a search for two independent trustee seats on the board of a $12B state public retirement system. Using Dakota Marketplace, identify individuals with current or prior investment committee, board, or CIO-level experience at public pensions, endowments, or foundations with at least $5B in AUM, who are not already serving as a trustee at this fund. For each candidate, show their current role and employer, a summary of relevant governance experience, and flag any potential conflict of interest if their employer is an active manager in this fund's portfolio. Return a ranked candidate slate I can bring to the search committee.
4. The Private Credit Peer Allocation Benchmark
For: Heads of Manager Selection at large state pension funds benchmarking private credit allocation sizing against comparable public pension plans. The Job: Comparing private credit allocation as a percentage of total assets across public pensions with $5B to $25B AUM, mapped against active manager relationships and recent commitment activity to assess peer positioning relative to an existing 6% target.
The prompt
Benchmark private credit allocation sizing across public pension plans with $5B to $25B AUM. Include allocation as a percentage of total assets, active private credit managers tracked by Dakota, most recent commitment activity, and investment contact. Compare against our current 6% target to assess peer positioning.
5. The Legacy CRM IR Platform Upgrade Prospect List
For: VPs of Sales at investor relations technology platforms targeting mid-market PE and real assets managers outgrowing generic CRM infrastructure ahead of a new fundraise. The Job: Screening PE and real assets managers actively fundraising or recently closed that are running on Salesforce or DealCloud with 40 or more LPs, the clearest signal of IR platform upgrade evaluation.
The prompt
Screen PE and real assets fund managers with AUM between $500M and $5B that are using a generic CRM — Salesforce or DealCloud — and are actively fundraising or completed a close within 24 months. Show CRM system, LP count, IR and ops contact, and flag firms with 40 or more LPs on non-native platforms as highest priority.
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.
