PE-backed client: introduce through the sponsor or go directly to the CEO?

The short answer: use the relationship you already have, once

If the CEO or CFO is your client and you have no working relationship with the private equity firm, introduce SourceX to that executive and let them brief their board. If you already work with the firm's operating partner, or the CEO asks you to go through the firm, take it to the operating team instead. Do not run both routes in parallel: two people introducing the same company on two tracks is a double introduction, and it confuses the company and invites a dispute over credit.

Whichever route you choose, plan on the PE firm seeing the proposal before anything is signed. A SourceX data license is typically exclusive for AI training for an agreed term, which is the kind of commercial commitment a sponsor-backed board generally expects to review. So the useful question is not whether the sponsor finds out. It is who tells them, and when.

Two meanings of sponsor to keep apart

SourceX uses authorized sponsor for the person at the company who backs the application: the owner, CEO, CFO or another authorized representative. In a PE-backed business that is a different thing from the PE sponsor, the fund that owns the company. Keep the two apart in your notes, because the person who can say yes for the company is whoever its governance documents authorize, not automatically someone at the fund.

Sponsor route vs CEO route, side by side

The two routes reach the same process. They differ in who hears first, how fast the first call happens and where the risks sit.

When going through the sponsor wins

Take the sponsor route when the firm, not only the company, is already your counterpart:

• You were hired by the firm. An MSP on the firm's preferred-vendor list, a fractional CFO placed by the firm or a consultant running a portfolio-wide program already has the operating partner's ear.
• The firm runs portfolio-wide programs. McKinsey's Global Private Markets Report 2026 says firms have more than doubled their operating groups since 2021 and that sponsors are applying AI to operating levers. A team built that way is set up to screen several companies at once.
• A sale, recapitalization or refinancing is being prepared. The deal team needs to decide whether a license fits before or after the process, and the CEO may not know the timetable.
• The company carries debt with licensing covenants. Some credit agreements restrict licensing intellectual property, and the sponsor and CFO will know whether lender consent to license company data is needed.
• The CEO asks you to. Some executives want anything touching strategy to start with the operating partner.

When going directly to the CEO wins

Go straight to the executive when the company is your relationship:

• The CEO or CFO is your client and you have never met anyone at the firm. A cold approach to an operating partner you do not know is weaker than a warm conversation with someone who already relies on you.
• The investor holds a minority stake. A minority or growth investor may be less involved in operations, and the CEO decides when to raise it.
• The CEO wants to understand it first. Executives often prefer to arrive at a board meeting with a view rather than a forwarded email.
• What you know came from your engagement. If you learned about the company's systems through client work, the executive is the person who can approve what you share. See whether you can refer a company you learned about under an NDA.

If your day-to-day contact is a controller or IT director rather than the CEO, the guide to asking a client to introduce you to an owner covers that extra step.

Permission still runs one company at a time

A sponsor's enthusiasm does not stand in for the company's consent. Each portfolio company is screened, approved and signed on its own, by its own authorized signatory. If the operating partner wants a portfolio-wide screen, that is a sensible way to find candidates, but only companies whose executives have agreed should be put forward.

Check fit for the specific company, not the platform as a whole: 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), several years of documented operations, rights to license the records and an authorized signatory. In a buy-and-build group the records may sit in an add-on's entity rather than the holding company, so confirm the legal entity before you introduce it.

The one-company, one-yes check:

• I can name the legal entity whose records would be licensed.
• That company has plausibly reached 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded).
• The executive I know has agreed in writing to be introduced.
• I have asked whether anyone at the PE firm, or another adviser, has already raised SourceX.
• I know who would likely act as the company's authorized signatory.
• Nothing I plan to share came to me under an NDA or engagement letter that forbids it.
• My own firm's policies allow me to take part, or I will introduce without taking a reward.

How to avoid a double introduction

A double introduction typically starts with two well-meaning advisers each assuming the other has not acted. Five steps prevent it:

1. Ask first. Before sending anything, ask the CEO whether anyone from the firm or another adviser has mentioned SourceX.
2. Agree one route. Either you introduce the CEO and the CEO briefs the operating partner, or you take it to the operating partner with the CEO's knowledge.
3. Submit once. Use your referral link or the referral form, not both, and do not send a second introduction through the other route as insurance.
4. Close the loop. Send a two-line note to the person on the other route so nobody starts a parallel conversation.
5. Step back if you were second. Credit goes to the first valid referrer whose introduction leads to a verified company application within the attribution window. If someone else got there first, support their introduction rather than competing with it.

What to say on each route

To the CEO or CFO you advise:

To an operating partner you already work with:

The introduction email builder drafts a version for either reader.

What happens after either introduction

The route changes who hears first, not the process. SourceX confirms headcount, operating history, breadth of records and rights with the authorized signatory. The company then lists its systems and records in a data inventory and agrees one all-in price and the license terms before AI labs and data buyers review the opportunity. Once an agreement is signed and the company authorizes delivery, records go out under the redaction rules it approved, and the company is paid. You never export, upload or describe confidential records at any stage. The full sequence is set out in how it works.

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company, and the reward becomes payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee. No reward is guaranteed. Because the reward is a share of SourceX's fee, it is never deducted from what the portfolio company receives, which is often the first thing an operating partner wants to know. Tell your client you may earn a reward, and check your own professional rules on referral fees and disclosure before you register.

When neither route is worth it

Hold off, whoever you know, if:

• The company has never reached 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded).
• Most of its records belong to its own clients, as at many outsourcers and agencies, and those clients have not agreed.
• A sale is in its final weeks and the deal team has frozen new initiatives.
• The data has already been licensed for AI training.
• You know neither the CEO nor anyone at the firm well enough for a warm introduction. Cold outreach is not what the program is for.

Next step

Pick the route that matches the relationship you have, confirm nobody else has raised it, and make one introduction. Register as a partner to get your referral link, then either send it to the CEO so they can apply at sourcex.si/apply with your code attached, or use it in your note to the operating partner.