Bridgehead Prepared for Frederik at DiligenceSquared
For Frederik

Private Equity Due Diligence Software Sales Playbook

Frederik, we’ll build your new Head of GTM’s first 100 accounts in 10 days. The first 25 are below, and they’re yours either way.

If your Head of GTM seat stays open another quarter, ignore this. If it doesn’t, the next two minutes are worth it.

What we noticed

Your site puts 6 of the 10 largest private equity funds among your clients, and your Forbes piece lays out why: commercial due diligence is repetitive work that has been priced like custom work.

Your Head of GTM, Senior Account Executive and GTM Associate roles have been open since September 29, and the Head of GTM posting describes your first commercial leader.

  1. March 7 $5M seed announced, led by Relentless
  2. September 29 Head of GTM, Senior Account Executive and GTM Associate roles first posted
  3. November 9 All three roles still open; the first 25 accounts are on this page

What changes for your new AE

Your new Head of GTM starts day one with 100 funds you approved and drafts written to the first five, instead of spending their first weeks finding which funds have fresh capital or a live deal. Your posting already tells them how deal teams buy; this tells them which funds to call first, and why now. Every week saved on finding the next fund is a week sooner to their first mandate.

Your first 25 accounts

Picked from how you describe your buyers in your Forbes piece, your blog and your postings. Each one has the reason it’s here and the source.

Yours either wayKeep these 25 whether or not we ever talk.
Cut any you wouldn’t callTell us why, and we replace it. We keep going until you’d keep at least 80 of the 100.
  1. Levine Leichtman Capital Partners Los Angeles, California · About $15B in assets
    1

    A new deal and a freshly closed $2B fund in the same quarter. It buys business services and engineered products firms, and a consulting target like this one is judged on what its utility clients say.

    Signal: Nov 9, 2026 Source
    Buyer: Partner or principal on the deal team
    Why it’s ranked here

    A strong fit.

    • A firm that buys control of operating companies and diligences each one. Fund-of-funds, credit and real estate are out.
    • New capital to deploy: a fund closed in the last nine months.
    • A live deal: a platform or acquisition announced in the last 30 days.
    • Buys in a sector where customer, channel or competitor interviews decide the deal: services, industrial distribution, healthcare services, software.
    • Shows it uses AI in its own process: an in-house AI platform, a head of AI or an AI thesis.
    • Not already a client. Polaris, Axcel and NTI are named on your site and are out.
  2. L Squared Capital Partners Newport Beach, California · Fund V, $2B
    2

    The first deal from a fresh $2B fund is done, so the next ones are being screened now. An infrastructure services buyer decides on what utilities and pipeline operators say about the vendor, which is the interview work you run.

    Signal: Nov 9, 2026 Source
    Buyer: Partner or principal on the deal team
    Why it’s ranked here

    A strong fit.

    • A firm that buys control of operating companies and diligences each one. Fund-of-funds, credit and real estate are out.
    • New capital to deploy: a fund closed in the last nine months.
    • A live deal: a platform or acquisition announced in the last 30 days.
    • Buys in a sector where customer, channel or competitor interviews decide the deal: services, industrial distribution, healthcare services, software.
    • Shows it uses AI in its own process: an in-house AI platform, a head of AI or an AI thesis.
    • Not already a client. Polaris, Axcel and NTI are named on your site and are out.
  3. Uplift Investors Darien, Connecticut · Debut fund, $670M
    3

    A new firm with $670M and no deal history to lean on. It buys services businesses by business model, and a model like route-based services is checked by asking the customers, which you can do in days.

    Signal: Jul 21, 2026 Source
    Buyer: Partner or principal on the deal team
    Why it’s ranked here

    A strong fit.

    • A firm that buys control of operating companies and diligences each one. Fund-of-funds, credit and real estate are out.
    • New capital to deploy: a fund closed in the last nine months.
    • A live deal: a platform or acquisition announced in the last 30 days.
    • Buys in a sector where customer, channel or competitor interviews decide the deal: services, industrial distribution, healthcare services, software.
    • Shows it uses AI in its own process: an in-house AI platform, a head of AI or an AI thesis.
    • Not already a client. Polaris, Axcel and NTI are named on your site and are out.
  4. Warren Equity Partners Jacksonville Beach, Florida · Fund V and V-A, $2.8B
    4

    A fund that already uses AI to find deals and has $2.8B to spend. It buys facility and infrastructure maintenance services, where the evidence that matters is what municipal and utility customers say about switching vendors.

    Signal: Jul 14, 2026 Source
    Buyer: Partner or principal on the deal team
    Why it’s ranked here

    A strong fit.

    • A firm that buys control of operating companies and diligences each one. Fund-of-funds, credit and real estate are out.
    • New capital to deploy: a fund closed in the last nine months.
    • A live deal: a platform or acquisition announced in the last 30 days.
    • Buys in a sector where customer, channel or competitor interviews decide the deal: services, industrial distribution, healthcare services, software.
    • Shows it uses AI in its own process: an in-house AI platform, a head of AI or an AI thesis.
    • Not already a client. Polaris, Axcel and NTI are named on your site and are out.
  5. Interlock Equity Los Angeles, California · Knowledge-based and people-driven businesses
    5

    It just got a $525M exit back and buys the kind of people-driven firms where the whole case rests on customer and talent evidence. Workforce analysis is one of the things you sell, and this is a firm that grew a company tenfold on headcount.

    Signal: Nov 5, 2026 Source
    Buyer: Partner or principal on the deal team
    Why it’s ranked here

    A strong fit.

    • A firm that buys control of operating companies and diligences each one. Fund-of-funds, credit and real estate are out.
    • New capital to deploy: a fund closed in the last nine months.
    • A live deal: a platform or acquisition announced in the last 30 days.
    • Buys in a sector where customer, channel or competitor interviews decide the deal: services, industrial distribution, healthcare services, software.
    • Shows it uses AI in its own process: an in-house AI platform, a head of AI or an AI thesis.
    • Not already a client. Polaris, Axcel and NTI are named on your site and are out.
  6. Broadwing Capital Dallas, Texas · Fund I, $440M
    6

    A debut fund with $440M and a roll-up of IT services businesses already assembled. Buying control at $5M to $25M of EBITDA is the size where a seven-figure diligence fee is hardest to justify, which is the gap you sell into.

    Signal: Aug 20, 2026 Source
    Buyer: Partner or principal on the deal team
    Why it’s ranked here

    A strong fit.

    • A firm that buys control of operating companies and diligences each one. Fund-of-funds, credit and real estate are out.
    • New capital to deploy: a fund closed in the last nine months.
    • A live deal: a platform or acquisition announced in the last 30 days.
    • Buys in a sector where customer, channel or competitor interviews decide the deal: services, industrial distribution, healthcare services, software.
    • Shows it uses AI in its own process: an in-house AI platform, a head of AI or an AI thesis.
    • Not already a client. Polaris, Axcel and NTI are named on your site and are out.
  7. FFL Partners United States (headquarters not stated in the source) · Fund VI, more than $1.35B
    7

    A fund that researches sub-sectors before it buys just got 50% more capital to put to work. A fund built on sub-sector research will want customer and channel evidence for every deal it screens, and the first deals from the new fund are still ahead of it.

    Signal: Oct 22, 2026 Source
    Buyer: Partner or principal on the deal team
    Why it’s ranked here

    A strong fit.

    • A firm that buys control of operating companies and diligences each one. Fund-of-funds, credit and real estate are out.
    • New capital to deploy: a fund closed in the last nine months.
    • A live deal: a platform or acquisition announced in the last 30 days.
    • Buys in a sector where customer, channel or competitor interviews decide the deal: services, industrial distribution, healthcare services, software.
    • Shows it uses AI in its own process: an in-house AI platform, a head of AI or an AI thesis.
    • Not already a client. Polaris, Axcel and NTI are named on your site and are out.
  8. GenNx360 Capital Partners New York City · Fund IV, $865M
    8

    Five deals in and still raising its pace with its biggest fund. Founder-led industrial and business services companies are decided on customer and channel evidence, and the funds that buy them need it deal after deal.

    Signal: Sep 3, 2026 Source
    Buyer: Partner or principal on the deal team
    Why it’s ranked here

    A strong fit.

    • A firm that buys control of operating companies and diligences each one. Fund-of-funds, credit and real estate are out.
    • New capital to deploy: a fund closed in the last nine months.
    • A live deal: a platform or acquisition announced in the last 30 days.
    • Buys in a sector where customer, channel or competitor interviews decide the deal: services, industrial distribution, healthcare services, software.
    • Shows it uses AI in its own process: an in-house AI platform, a head of AI or an AI thesis.
    • Not already a client. Polaris, Axcel and NTI are named on your site and are out.

Your new Head of GTM’s first 100 accounts, in 10 days

The first 25 are above, and they’re yours either way.

Email Kash

We build a handful of these a month, for founders hiring now.

10 days

from kickoff to your team running it

  • 100 accounts you approve, each with the reason
  • Drafts to the first five, in your voice
  • Your team runs it without us
  • Any account you cut, we replace

How does DiligenceSquared sell?

An outside read from your Forbes piece, your blog, your site and your postings, built to be corrected: tell us anything that’s wrong. Tap a clip to play it from that moment.

In your posts and interviews7 quotes
  1. Who buys
    “Deal teams are time-starved, highly process-driven and deeply risk-averse in crunch time.”
    How Commercial Due Diligence Is Changing, and What It Means For Private Equity (Forbes Business Council), January 27
  2. The problem
    “At the end of the project, the client receives a 200-page slide deck.”
    How Commercial Due Diligence Is Changing, and What It Means For Private Equity (Forbes Business Council), January 27
  3. The problem
    “We would receive a 200-page deck, but understanding where a particular finding came from could require several emails and days of waiting.”
    Traceability of findings, September 22
  4. The problem
    “I’ve seen rates going at $250,000 per week for a small team, resulting in close to a million dollars for a research report.”
    How Commercial Due Diligence Is Changing, and What It Means For Private Equity (Forbes Business Council), January 27
  5. Why you win
    “If a project can be completed in a week because new tools can assist with work traditionally handled by junior consultants, why should clients keep paying for three?”
    How Commercial Due Diligence Is Changing, and What It Means For Private Equity (Forbes Business Council), January 27
  6. Why you win
    “The source is never more than one click away.”
    Traceability of findings, September 22
  7. When a store moves
    “But as deals intensify, resource constraints force them to hire external consultants.”
    How Commercial Due Diligence Is Changing, and What It Means For Private Equity (Forbes Business Council), January 27
What your customers sayFrom Head of GTM posting, Senior Account Executive posting, DiligenceSquared: $5 Million Raised To Automate Private Equity Due Diligence (Pulse 2.0), diligencesquared.com home page, Clients page and case studies
  1. DPDiligenceSquared posting
    “expanding that trust across deal teams, strategies and offices to build a durable fund-wide relationship.”
    DiligenceSquared posting · Head of GTM posting
  2. DPDiligenceSquared posting
    “how deal teams operate, how live transactions create demand and how senior investment professionals make buying decisions.”
    DiligenceSquared posting · Senior Account Executive posting
  3. P2Pulse 2.0
    “completed projects with several private equity firms and mid-market funds across the United States and Europe”
    Pulse 2.0 · DiligenceSquared: $5 Million Raised To Automate Private Equity Due Diligence (Pulse 2.0)
  4. FHFrederik Hansen
    “Commercial due diligence hasn’t changed in decades. It’s highly standardized work, executed manually, and sold at a massive markup.”
    Frederik Hansen · DiligenceSquared: $5 Million Raised To Automate Private Equity Due Diligence (Pulse 2.0)
  5. DDiligenceSquared
    “Institutional-grade research for the many decisions that never justified a seven-figure consulting fee — without lowering the bar.”
    DiligenceSquared · diligencesquared.com home page
  6. DBFounding Partner at Relentless
    “have integrated their product in our own processes”
    Damir Becirovic, Founding Partner at Relentless · DiligenceSquared: $5 Million Raised To Automate Private Equity Due Diligence (Pulse 2.0)
  7. DDiligenceSquared
    “Used across the deal cycle.”
    DiligenceSquared · Clients page and case studies
  8. DDiligenceSquared
    “Engaged pre-CDD to rapidly gather insights from 30 B2B customers, competitors and channel partners — focusing the scope and reducing the cost of the broader MBB engagement.”
    DiligenceSquared · Clients page and case studies

Words you use

  • “AI-native consulting firm”
  • “investment-grade”
  • “human-in-the-loop”
  • “white-glove”
  • “fund-wide relationship”
  • “first mandate”
  • “vended market”
  • “investment committee”
  • “deal teams”
  • “Voice of Customer”
  • “pre-CDD”
  • “seven-figure”

How the list learns your calls

In the first session you react to accounts like these: keep or cut, and why, the way you’d tell a cofounder. Each reason becomes a rule you can read, the pool re-scores, and ten more show whether it learned. Keep eight of ten and the hundred is built on your rules.

  1. You cut one on the call, and say why
  2. It becomes a rule
  3. The pool re-scores
  4. Ten more test it

Which questions can only you answer?

Your blog and your postings don’t say which funds you’d never spend a meeting on, or what a deal team has to see before it hands a live deal to a new provider. About 30 minutes of you reacting to real funds answers these.

  1. 1

    Which calls you first: a fund that just closed, or a fund with a live deal?

    Rows 1 and 2 have both a new fund and a new deal; rows 3, 4 and 7 have a new fund and no deal named yet.

  2. 2

    Does a firm that already has an AI team of its own ever buy from you?

    Row 22 (Aldaron has AI engineers on staff), row 21 (Astira just hired a head of AI) and row 4 (Warren runs its own AI platform) depend on it.

  3. 3

    Is there a fund size where you stop?

    Row 23 (THL, a $6.35B flagship) and row 24 (Advent) are here to find that line.

  4. 4

    When a fund backs an independent sponsor, who buys the research?

    Row 25 (GEM) and row 9 (Align, which closed an independent sponsor fund) stay or go on this.

  5. 5

    Do add-on deals get their own study, or do they ride on the platform’s?

    Rows 14 and 15 (Sterling and ATL, both brand-new platforms) and row 11 (Bertram, two deals in October).

What does your Head of GTM’s first morning look like?

Without

The CRM you have now. The early weeks go to learning which accounts you’d call, and why.

With · Head of GTM, first morning

  • LLLevine Leichtman Capital PartnersDraft written
  • LSL Squared Capital PartnersDraft written
  • UIUplift InvestorsDraft written
  • WEWarren Equity PartnersDraft written
  • IEInterlock EquityDraft written

A hundred accounts you approved, the rules behind them and drafts to the first five, so their time goes to buyers.

From week two, your mornings too: one brief, drafts to approve, every message sent by you.

How the 10 days run

What happens in the ten working days?

November 16, 2026 to December 1, 2026. About a day of your time in total.

  1. Before by November 16

    You send the customers you’d clone and three deals that went wrong, plus 10 to 20 emails or posts you wrote. “How you sell” is drafted from your talks and posts.

    You: 20 minutes
  2. Day 1 November 16

    The playbook session: we fill the gaps and correct the draft together. Your CRM is connected.

    You: 2 hours
  3. Day 2 November 17

    Your first rules are written; a few hundred companies are scored against them.

    You: none
  4. Day 3 November 18

    You review the first 25 (talking it through is fine).

    You: 30 minutes
  5. Day 4 November 19

    Your reasons become rules; you see the re-score and judge 10 more. First touches are written in your voice to the accounts you kept, and you read ten. Touches start logging to the CRM.

    You: 30 minutes
  6. Day 5 November 20

    The hundred is built. The research tool is set up; you test it on three accounts you know.

    You: 15 minutes
  7. Day 6 November 23

    The morning run is set up; your first morning, with us.

    You: 30 minutes
  8. Day 7 November 24

    You review all hundred, and any cut is replaced. Team training, session one.

    You: 1 hour 20 minutes
  9. Day 8 November 25

    Your first morning on your own. Training session two, hands-on for each person.

    You: 1 hour plus your morning
  10. Day 9 November 30

    Your second morning on your own. Each person on your team runs the morning alone.

    You: your morning
  11. Day 10 December 1

    Your third morning on your own. A week of touches is in the CRM. Handover sign-off.

    You: 30 minutes plus your morning
Kash Badami

Who builds it?

The person in the video does the work with you, from the first session to the handover.

$100M+in deals sold in a single year
$0 to $10MARR in 12 months, for a company I built
  1. “Kash and I built ERT Credit together in 2021. He took my MVP and turned it into a SaaS that hit $10M ARR in twelve months.”

    Jordan Anderson, CEO, PayStreetgobridgehead.ai/about

  2. “Analytical in approach, technologically-knowledgeable, and earnest in conviction, Kash was able to drive pipeline in a notoriously challenging tech region.”

    JBJason Brandt, Managing Director, Sales, ePlus inc.LinkedIn recommendation, April 2020

Where does this go from here?

Three options. Each one is fine.

Not a fit

Say so in a line, and that’s the end of it.

Not now

Keep the 25 and the read on how you sell, and share them. When the role fills, the offer stands.

Talk with Kash

Ask Kash to call you, or email him. He calls to set up a 30-minute strategy session. Bring your cofounder or your sales leader.

Your new Head of GTM’s first 100 accounts, in 10 days

The first 25 are above, and they’re yours either way.

Email Kash

We build a handful of these a month, for founders hiring now.

10 days

from kickoff to your team running it

  • 100 accounts you approve, each with the reason
  • Drafts to the first five, in your voice
  • Your team runs it without us
  • Any account you cut, we replace

DiligenceSquared sales playbook, in brief

DiligenceSquared sells commercial due diligence and market research to private equity funds: AI agents run the expert interviews and senior consultants review the findings. Its site puts 6 of the 10 largest private equity funds among its clients.diligencesquared.com home page, Clients page and case studies

Frederik Kofoed Hansen describes the problem as a process that “hasn’t meaningfully changed in decades” and ends in “a 200-page slide deck,” and says deal teams are “time-starved, highly process-driven and deeply risk-averse in crunch time.”How Commercial Due Diligence Is Changing, and What It Means For Private Equity (Forbes Business Council)

The company wins on cost and traceability: research for decisions that “never justified a seven-figure consulting fee,” with every finding linked to the interview behind it. Its lead seed investor, Relentless, says it has integrated the product into its own processes.diligencesquared.com home page, Traceability of findings, DiligenceSquared: $5 Million Raised To Automate Private Equity Due Diligence (Pulse 2.0)

The Head of GTM posting asks for a first commercial leader who will win the first mandate with a fund and then spread across deal teams and offices. The first 25 funds for that hire are private equity firms with a new fund or a new deal in the last nine months: fifteen strong fits, six in the middle and four edge cases that test the six rules.Head of GTM posting

Prepared by at Bridgehead · November 9, 2026 · Every source

Questions founders ask

Can’t my AE build this when they start?

They can. But wouldn’t you rather they were selling? Reps spend 28% of their time selling, and the average new AE takes 6.2 months to ramp. This replaces the weeks they would spend building the list and learning what you already know.

28%: Salesforce, State of Sales (7,700+ sellers, 2022) · 6.2 months: Bridge Group, 2026 AE report (158 companies)

How much sooner does my new AE get to work?

From day one, because the accounts you approved and the first drafts are waiting. The average new AE takes 6.2 months to ramp, and at a $200K median OTE that is about $103K paid before they are fully productive. Only 48% of AEs hit quota.

6.2 months: Bridge Group, 2026 AE report (158 companies) · $103K: arithmetic ($200K median OTE × 6.2 months ÷ 12); Bridge Group, 2026 AE report (158 companies) · 48%: Bridge Group, 2026 AE report (158 companies)

We tried an outreach tool and it sounded like a robot. How is this different?

Nothing goes out on its own. Every account on the list is one you approved, every draft is written to one person, and you send each message yourself. It learns your voice from what you’ve written and from every edit you make.

How much of my time does it take?

About a day, spread across the ten working days: the 2-hour session on how you sell, short list reviews you can talk through, two training sessions and your first mornings. The hours your AE gets back go to selling, where reps spend just 28% of their time today.

28%: Salesforce, State of Sales (7,700+ sellers, 2022)

What happens after you leave?

It keeps learning. Each week it proposes rule changes from what your cuts, replies and silences showed, and you approve or reject each in a line.

Where does my data live?

In your own accounts: your Claude, your CRM, your files. Nothing runs on anyone else’s side, and any rule can be changed in plain English.

How is it priced?

The first engagement is one fixed price for the ten days. It depends on how many people we train and which systems we connect, so Kash quotes it on a short call. After handover, you can keep us on a retainer to keep supporting your sales process and refining it, if you choose that route.

The research behind this page 12 sources · 3 postings · 5 customers · 45 stores looked at

Your talks and posts

  1. How Commercial Due Diligence Is Changing, and What It Means For Private Equity (Forbes Business Council), January 27, 2026
  2. Traceability of findings, September 22, 2026
  3. AI-moderated interviews, August 31, 2026
  4. Market modeling, September 17, 2026
  5. diligencesquared.com home page, November 9, 2026
  6. Clients page and case studies, November 9, 2026
  7. Team page, November 9, 2026
  8. DiligenceSquared: $5 Million Raised To Automate Private Equity Due Diligence (Pulse 2.0), March 7, 2026
  9. Market due diligence advisor to Polaris on TEFCOLD, August 11, 2026
  10. Market due diligence advisor to Axcel and NTI on DiRoots, June 18, 2026
  11. Research page (Harvey and ŌURA samples), November 9, 2026
  12. Introducing workforce analysis, August 27, 2026

Your open roles

  1. Head of GTM, first posted September 29, 2026
  2. Senior Account Executive, first posted September 29, 2026
  3. GTM Associate, first posted September 29, 2026

Your customers

Polaris · Axcel and NTI · Relentless · A mega-cap US fund · A mid-market European fund (santehq.com/customers and your posts). Customer photos are from santehq.com/customers.

How the 25 were picked

45 stores found and scored on 6 rules; the 25 chosen to teach: 15 strong, 6 middle, 4 at the edges. Logos are from each store’s own site.

  • Sources: the DiligenceSquared site, blog and postings, plus Private Equity Professional and Pulse 2.0 deal and fund news, each opened and saved on November 9, 2026.
  • About 45 firms were screened from the fund-close and new-platform news since May; the 25 are those with a new fund or a new deal and a sector where customer interviews decide the deal.
  • The site names three clients (Polaris, Axcel and NTI) and describes others without names. None of the 25 is one of the named three; the large funds on your client list are not public, so rows 23 and 24 may already be clients.
  • Where a source does not state a firm’s headquarters, the row says so.
  • Pulse 2.0 articles dated November 9 were published that day.