Automation & Ops ✓ Anthropic · Official private-equitydeal-sourcingcompany-discoverycrm-researchfounder-outreachweb-researchemail-drafting

PE Deal Sourcing Assistant

Find qualified targets, check relationship history, and prepare personalized founder outreach.

FollowSkills review · FSRS-2.0
Not recommended
48/ 100 5-point scale 2.4 / 5
Trust13 / 25 · 2.6/5

The skill explicitly requires user review before drafting and explicit approval before sending; however, it instructs searches across Gmail and Slack without specifying least-privilege access, sensitive-data handling, scope, retention, data flows, or rollback, so points are deducted.

Reliability7 / 20 · 1.8/5

The three-step workflow, inputs, and outputs are reasonably coherent, and it provides a text fallback when Gmail is unavailable. It lacks diagnosable handling for search failures, unavailable connectors, missing information, unreliable estimates, or incorrect duplicate-relationship detection. Static review caps this below 10.

Adaptability9 / 15 · 3.0/5

The intended audience, private-equity sourcing scenarios, trigger phrases, and core inputs are fairly clear. Non-fit boundaries, source-quality limits, Chinese-language support, and mainland-China network reachability are not documented, and the triggers remain broad, so points are deducted.

Convention8 / 15 · 2.7/5

The documentation is readable and layered, with a workflow, example, email guidance, and human-approval requirements. Repository-level Apache-2.0 licensing, official provenance, and plugin-validation CI are present. The skill lacks its own versioning, changelog, maintenance owner, update path, installation/dependency notes, and troubleshooting guidance, so points are deducted.

Effectiveness7 / 15 · 2.3/5

The skill covers company discovery, CRM checking, and personalized outreach drafting, with usable output fields and a human-review gate. However, company size and founder information may be estimates, web search and CRM connectors may be unavailable, and correctness or marginal benefit over manual work is not verified in the files. Static review caps this at 7.

Verifiability4 / 10 · 2.0/5

The pinned revision, repository license, plugin-validation workflow, and secret-scan workflow provide limited traceability. There is no committed test suite for the deal-sourcing key paths, execution evidence, validated representative outputs, or independent corroboration, so the score remains limited.

Evidence confidence:Low Reviewed Jul 20, 2026 Reviewed revision 4aa51ed3d379
Before you use it
  • Before use, verify the actual Gmail, Slack, and web-search connectors, permission scope, and sensitive-data controls; do not assume broad mailbox or workspace access.
  • Manually verify revenue estimates, founder identities, relationship history, and company-fit conclusions; the skill requires pre-send approval but defines no post-send withdrawal or audit mechanism.
  • There is no evidence of Chinese-language output guidance or mainland-China network reachability; overseas search or SaaS dependencies may limit reliable access.
Review evidence [1][2][3][4][5][6]
See the full review method →

What it does & when to use it

This skill supports a private-equity deal-sourcing workflow across company discovery, relationship checks, and founder outreach. It uses user-defined sector, size, growth, geography, and ownership criteria to research potential targets. Before outreach, it checks Gmail and Slack for prior correspondence, internal discussion, or previous passes when those sources are available. It drafts concise, personalized emails for review and does not send them without explicit approval.

Collects sector, revenue, EBITDA, growth, geography, and ownership criteria; uses web search across industry reports, conference attendee lists, trade publications, and competitor landscapes; produces a shortlist with company name, description, estimated size, location, founder or CEO, website, and thesis fit; searches Gmail for prior correspondence and Slack for internal mentions; classifies each target as New, Existing, or Previously Passed; drafts a four-to-six-sentence founder email referencing the company's product, recent news, or market position; drafts in Gmail when available or returns copyable text otherwise.

  1. A private-equity investor needs founder-owned companies matching a defined sector, geography, and revenue range.
  2. A deal team wants to identify prior emails, internal discussions, or previous passes before contacting a target.
  3. An investment professional needs individualized cold-email drafts for newly identified companies.
  4. A sourcing team wants a reviewable shortlist of five to eight well-researched targets before outreach.

Pros & cons

Pros
  • Connects discovery, relationship checking, and outreach drafting in one workflow.
  • Checks for existing relationships, prior passes, and internal context before outreach.
  • Requires company-specific personalization instead of generic email templates.
  • Stages the shortlist and drafts for human review and prohibits sending without approval.
Limitations
  • Needs clear investment criteria and a firm introduction to produce complete outreach drafts.
  • Gmail, Slack, and web-search availability depends on the runtime; the source does not specify connector setup or permissions.
  • The SKILL.md provides no test suite, evaluation results, or accuracy guarantees for research outputs.
  • It produces sourcing work product, not investment recommendations or transaction decisions.

How to install

In Cowork, open Settings → Plugins → Add plugin, paste https://github.com/anthropics/financial-services, and select the relevant vertical from the marketplace list. The repository bundles 117 skills; the source does not document a separate installation command for this individual skill.

How to use

After installation, try “Find founder-owned industrial services companies in Texas doing $10-50M revenue” or “Find healthcare B2B SaaS targets and check Gmail and Slack for prior contact before outreach.” Review the shortlist first, then request drafts for companies marked New. Explicit approval is required before sending.

FAQ

Does it send founder emails automatically?
No. It drafts emails for review; sending requires explicit user approval.
Are Gmail and Slack required?
Not necessarily. They are listed as relationship-check sources when available. Without them, the user must provide prior-contact context or accept an incomplete check.
Does it make investment recommendations?
No. It creates a sourcing shortlist and outreach drafts. The repository states that its materials are not investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice.
How many targets should it produce?
The source prioritizes quality over quantity and says five well-researched targets are preferable to twenty generic ones.

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