Deal Sourcery
Deal Sourcery
Dan Herr and Matt Rooney
What Do The Best In BD Have In Common? A People First Approach with MidOcean's Dan Ryan
52 minutes Posted Jun 25, 2026 at 10:30 am.
Intro - Dan Ryan & Building MidOcean's Sourcing Engine
Career Background: From Investment Banking to PE
Making the Switch to Business Development (Reluctantly)
Joining Mid-Ocean: A Greenfield Opportunity
The 3 Pillars for Standing Up a BD Function
Breaking Down Information Silos
Building a Proprietary Data Warehouse
Winning Over Internal Skeptics
Day One Playbook: Overcommunicate Everything
Building Internal Credibility by Killing Your Own Deals
Why Deal Attribution-Based Comp Is Toxic
The Secret Society of Senior BD Pros
What Separates Elite BD Teams from Average Ones
Using Data to Drive Accountability and LP Confidence
Underappreciated Traits of the Best BD Professionals
Empathy as a Competitive Advantage
The Blind Personality Assessment: What Top BD Pros Have in Common
Competitiveness, Athletes, and What Gets You Going
The Future of Sourcing: AI, Speed, and the Human Edge
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Show notes

Have you ever wondered what traits the top performers in BD seem to share? Dan Ryan, Managing Director at MidOcean Partners joins the show to break down the types of personalities that seem to find the most success in the business, from an emphasis on self-starters, to a high correlation of socially comfortable extroverts, to a need for flexibility and adaptation. Dan also shares the importance of not just collecting data - but also how the synthesis of that data with real human relationships is what helps the best BD professionals make and secure deals.

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