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Sourcing Accountability Cadence

Definition

A five-tier meeting structure designed to translate sourcing goals into sustained performance through escalating levels of accountability, course correction, and collaborative problem-solving. Dan Herr argues that most PE firms hold these meetings but use them as passive readouts — "you just put together a slide deck and you walk everybody through the slide deck slide by slide and say, okay, see you next time" — rather than driving the four outcomes meetings should produce: goal setting, accountability, course correction, and support.

Origin

Introduced by Dan Herr in Ep. 6: How to Generate Predictable, Repeatable, and Scalable Deal Flow. Dan draws an analogy to Y Combinator's demo days — a study found that the single most valuable element of YC for startups was having a weekly deadline, not the mentorship or capital. "Even if it was the night before and you only made a small little update on what you're building to show up for demo day, it was having that deadline that actually drove the most progress." (Ep. 6)

The Five Meeting Types

1. Annual / Biannual: Goal Setting and Strategic Decisions

Set firm-wide and team-level sourcing targets. Evaluate prior-year performance. Make strategic decisions about coverage model, team composition, and market focus. (Ep. 6)

2. Quarterly: Course Correction

Check progress against annual targets across the team and firm. Ask: "Are we on target to hit our number for the end of the year? If not, how do we need to course correct?" Generate action items for strategic adjustments. (Ep. 6)

3. Monthly (Firm-Wide): Progress Updates at IC

Carve out 15 minutes at investment committee to display team-wide performance. Dan advocates two practices: - Naming and shaming: Call out underperformers publicly — "it looks like the team that's focused on the Southeast is just not doing well. What the heck is going on?" - Praising and best practice sharing: Highlight top performers and ask them to share what's working — "Hey, it looks like the education team is crushing it right now. What are you doing?" (Ep. 6)

4. Monthly (BD Team): Group Coaching and SLA Review

Review service-level agreements (SLAs) — e.g., "all top prospects receive outreach at least once a month" or "you'll have a meeting with your top prospects once a quarter." Share what's working and what's not at the team level. (Ep. 6)

5. Weekly: One-on-One Problem-Solving

The most important meeting to get right. Dan's core argument: "You have two of the best, smartest minds in sourcing at the table together right now. What's the best and highest use of your time? To me, the best use is for that to be a problem solving session." Rather than a status readout, the manager and team member identify five top prospects to move the needle on, brainstorm creative angles, and build minor account plans. At five accounts per week over 52 weeks, that yields ~250 prospects with dedicated strategic plans per year. (Ep. 6)

Application

Matt Rooney reinforces the value of the weekly problem-solving session by noting that a BD team lead can help junior team members navigate internal resources — for example, getting a portfolio ops person to spend 30 minutes helping think through a prospect approach. (Ep. 6)