For Laurent Dela Marlière, modern deal origination is less about finding a transaction and more about shaping inevitability around the right one.
As founder of DealFox and author of The Dealmaker, Laurent Dela Marlière has spent his career studying the gap between how deals are supposed to happen and how they actually do. During this time, he has watched the M&A market grow more sophisticated in almost every dimension, except one… "There is no shortage of capital", he says. "There is no shortage of companies. What is scarce is structured, mandate-backed access to the right counterparties."
This is evident in where the best transactions consistently happen: off-market, inside trusted micro-networks, between parties who found each other before the asset was ever formally positioned. Laurent calls this the "visibility paradox", adding that, the better the asset, the less publicly available it is. “High-quality sellers do not need to advertise. They need the right person to know they exist.”
He explains that a strong network reduces information asymmetry and increases credibility, which directly affects valuation discussions, conditionality, and timelines. “Stronger networks shorten trust-building cycles, reduce break-up risk, and often produce more balanced earn-out structures.”
In other words, the market does not have an opportunity problem; it has an intermediation problem. "Most deals fail before valuation discussions even begin", Laurent shares. "They fail at the narrative stage, when strategies, risks, and long-term value creation ideas don’t align.”
Bridging this requires early strategic calibration. "The role of the originator is not simply to connect parties. It is to pre-align vision”, he emphasises. This mean modelling, explicit governance discussions, and transparent articulation of post-transaction roles long before deal due diligence.
“AI-supported frameworks can assist by analysing positioning gaps, mapping potential integration friction, and stress-testing compatibility”, Laurent says.
Introduction vs Alignment
While personal networks accelerate trust, validate cultural fit, and provide informal intelligence, purely relationship-driven sourcing struggles at scale. “It reinforces closed loops, perpetuates confirmation bias, and often recycles the same counterparties. It works, but only within the boundaries of the network”, Laurent points out.
Digital platforms extend reach beyond those boundaries. “They create systematic outreach, pattern recognition, and scalable thesis alignment – measuring engagement intensity, response velocity, thematic alignment, even capital deployment cycles”, he says.
But what they can’t fully capture yet are ego dynamics, succession fatigue, emotional exhaustion, or unspoken fears of loss of control. “So the real edge lies in hybridisation; structured, technological filtering combined with human conviction”, Laurent suggests.
Interest vs Intent
Hybridisation might also be the answer to changing buyer behaviour, which is raising the stakes for everyone involved in deal origination. “A strong EBITDA story no longer moves a serious buyer on its own”, Laurent observes. “Buyers are more selective, more disciplined, and more demanding about thesis alignment. The narrative must articulate strategic integration, risk mitigation, and long-term value creation.”
This means originators must do considerably more work – such as stress-testing positioning, anticipating objections, and de-risking the story – before outreach even begins. It also means distinguishing between buyers who are interested and buyers who are serious. Laurent draws a sharp line between the two: "Interest is conversational. Intent is behavioural. The signals that matter are not expressions of curiosity. It is the speed of NDA execution, the depth of due diligence questions, and the mobilisation of internal decision-makers.”
This is where platforms like DealFox carry real weight. While the originator focuses on the harder work of vision alignment, digital tools can track the behavioural signals that indicate genuine intent.
Platforms vs People
In an increasingly efficient market, the differentiator is no longer access to information. It is the ability to engineer alignment. “We are clearly moving toward more structured data flows, higher compliance standards, and AI-supported screening”, Laurent says, yet he does not believe informal dynamics will disappear. "The future is not 'digital replaces relationships’. It is 'digital disciplines relationships.'"
The origination process will become more rigorous, more structured, and more accountable. “The professionals who understand capital cycles, power structures, and human ambition – who can read a seller's hesitation, sense a buyer's true conviction, and know when a deal is ready to move – will consistently originate deals that others miss.”
For Laurent Dela Marlière, modern deal origination is less about finding a transaction and more about shaping inevitability around the right one. “As capital becomes more disciplined and buyers more strategic, the role of the originator evolves from connector to architect. And in that evolution, structure and psychology matter as much as valuation”, he concludes.
