A buyer profile is a single record — one per buyer — that states what you're looking for, and it does two jobs at once: it's the fuel for the outbound matching that surfaces fitting listings, and it's the discoverable presence the inbound vector depends on. The 2026 schema captures a dozen-plus structured fields covering acquisition criteria, funding posture, deal structure, market focus, history, and publication state, but the practical point for a buyer is narrower — only three of those dimensions actually feed the match scoring today, so getting those three right is what makes the profile work.
§ 01 · What feeds the matchThree dimensions that matter.
| Profile dimension | Role in sourcing |
|---|---|
| States | The geographies you'll acquire in — a primary match dimension |
| Carriers | The carrier appointments you want — a primary match dimension |
| Lines of business | The lines you write — a primary match dimension |
| Premium range | A pre-filter on deal size before scoring runs |
The match today runs on three dimensions — states, carriers, and lines of business — with a premium range acting as a pre-filter on deal size. The scoring rewards a clean fit across all three and steeply discounts a miss, so a profile that names the wrong states or omits the carriers you actually want will surface the wrong listings or none at all. The other profile fields — funding posture, deal structure, history — build credibility for the inbound vector (a seller browsing your profile reads them), but the three matching dimensions are what drive the outbound surfacing. Fill them accurately and the matching works; leave them vague and it can't.
§ 02 · Findable in five dimensionsThe programmatic directory.
The inbound vector depends on a seller finding your profile, and the profile is independently findable along five dimensions — your individual profile plus state, management system, network or alliance, and association chapter. Each of those generates its own discoverable page with its own title and description, so a seller searching for buyers in a particular state, or buyers who work a particular management system, lands on a page that lists the fitting ones. For the buyer, that means a complete profile isn't listed in one place — it's listed in several, each indexed to how a different seller would search. This is the structural reason a complete profile out-sources a thin one: it's discoverable along more of the paths a seller actually takes.
§ 03 · The profile at workPreview links, valuation, intake.
The profile works while you sleep — it's the always-on half of deal sourcing. Share it on social and it renders as a professional preview card automatically, turning a LinkedIn post into a pipeline entry. And the public profile carries a custom valuation module and a branded intake portal, so a seller who finds you can get an objective starting number and begin a structured conversation without you lifting a finger.
Three shipped capabilities turn the profile from a static listing into a working sourcing surface. The preview-card infrastructure means any time you share your profile link — on social, in an email — it renders as a professional card rather than a bare URL, which is what makes "share your profile" a real sourcing channel. The custom valuation module lets a seller who lands on your profile get an objective valuation, which bridges the valuation gap before any conversation starts. And the branded intake portal gives that seller a structured way to begin the conversation on your terms. Together they make the profile an active intake funnel, not a passive page.
§ 04 · Openly identified by designThe buyer-side trade.
One design choice shapes how the profile works: buyer profiles are openly identified, not pseudonymous. Your name, your agency, and your profile are all exposed by design — intentionally distinct from the seller side, where pseudonymity protects a confidential sale process. The trade is deliberate. A seller browsing for an acquirer needs to know who they'd be talking to, and credibility is the whole point of the inbound vector, so the buyer profile is built for identification rather than anonymity. For the buyer, the implication is that the profile is a public professional presence — worth completing as carefully as any other part of your firm's market-facing identity, because it's working the inbound vector every hour it's live.
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Terminology on this shelf
- Buyer profile
- The single record stating a buyer's acquisition criteria — fuel for matching and the discoverable inbound presence.
- Three matching dimensions
- States, carriers, and lines of business — the fields that actually feed match scoring today.
- Five searchable dimensions
- Individual profile plus state, management system, network, and association chapter — how sellers find a buyer.
- Preview card
- The professional card a shared profile link renders as automatically — what makes social a sourcing channel.
- Custom valuation module
- The valuation tool on the public profile that bridges the valuation gap before a conversation starts.
- Openly identified
- The buyer-side design choice — name and agency exposed, distinct from seller pseudonymity.