How North Atlantic Capital uses PitchBook for deal sourcing and due diligence

Jacob Gordon
Principal
North Atlantic Capital

Headquartered in Maine, North Atlantic Capital is a venture firm that specializes in structured capital— which is the combination of subordinated debt, nominally priced warrants and select equity investments. Founded in 1986, North Atlantic Capital’s approach provides businesses with a flexible, long-term patient form of growth capital with limited ownership dilution.

To do business across the United States, North Atlantic Capital is harnessing the power of business intel through the PitchBook Platform to source deals efficiently and confidently, diversify their investment portfolios effectively and make connections nationwide. North Atlantic Capital’s Principal Jacob Gordon, who has a market research background and values high-quality stats, says PitchBook is the only resource he uses for private market data.

“PitchBook’s coverage of VC-backed companies is second to none,” Jacob says. “I use it multiple times a day, and I can’t imagine my life without it.”

Targeted and discovery-based deal sourcing

At North Atlantic Capital, investors utilize PitchBook to seek out specific companies they’ve heard of and are interested in working with, as well as to discover startups by exploring the platform’s industries, verticals and geographic filters. Jacob, who spends an estimated 70 percent of his time at the firm sourcing deals, and his colleagues use PitchBook daily to identify companies and then dig deeper into their profiles to find the right match.

North Atlantic Capital harnesses PitchBook’s data to source deals with fast-growing tech companies—like Wasabi and Chartbeat. PitchBook empowers North Atlantic Capital, which raised $123M in 2015 for its fifth fund, to fill that role in the private markets.

The platform’s comprehensive, actionable sourcing information is a core differentiator between PitchBook its competitors, Jacob says.

“I didn’t have PitchBook when I started at North Atlantic in 2015, and—I know it sounds crazy—but I’m five- to ten-times more productive since I brought PitchBook into my tool stack.”

– Jacob Gordon

Reliable market intelligence and due diligence

At the core of North Atlantic Capital’s business operations is the ability to access the data they need— exactly when they need it. Armed with information, the firm can identify companies in a timely fashion and be confident in their due diligence-informed targeted outreach.

Jacob and his coworkers count on PitchBook to gather market intelligence, including financing history, pre- and post-money valuations, public comparables and other financial research. PitchBook’s data is so robust that Jacob no longer uses Google Finance or Yahoo! Finance—choosing to rely exclusively on PitchBook’s comprehensive datasets instead.

“PitchBook has more and better data, and the information is laid out intuitively. With that, I can quickly pull together due diligence and verify my targets,” he says.

Service provider data to build industry connections

The North Atlantic Capital team takes full advantage of PitchBook’s ability to create connections between service providers and companies. Jacob says it’s great for starting conversations that ultimately augment and expand his network.

More specifically, Jacob utilizes PitchBook to see who is associated with which companies, funds and deals, and to connect with high-performing industry professionals. Reaching out is a breeze, he says, with PitchBook’s robust, up-to-date collection of email addresses and phone numbers.

“Being able to identify contacts and reach out to them through PitchBook has become a core part of my workflow,” Jacob says.

He adds, “I didn’t have PitchBook when I started at North Atlantic in 2015, and—I know it sounds crazy— but I’m five- to ten-times more productive since I brought PitchBook into my tool stack.”

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