M&A Research Associate

About Us

Retego is a holding company that acquires and operates data-driven businesses. We focus on marketing services, performance marketing agencies, and adjacent companies with strong recurring revenue, long-tenure teams, and owners in the later stages of their business lifecycle.

We're building a portfolio through programmatic M&A, a disciplined, repeatable system for finding, evaluating, and acquiring businesses that aren't listed for sale. The majority of our pipeline comes from proprietary outreach: identifying the right business owners, building genuine relationships, and being the buyer they trust when the time is right.

Compensation

The Role

You'll work directly with the founder to run the front end of our acquisition pipeline.

You'll research industries and companies, identify business owners who match our acquisition criteria, run LinkedIn outreach on behalf of the founder, and manage a CRM pipeline that moves from first connection through scheduled meetings. You'll become fluent in how we evaluate businesses (company lifecycle, revenue quality, transferability, owner motivation) and will prepare briefing notes before every conversation. Over time, you'll participate in calls with prospective sellers and brokers.

What You'll Do

• Research and qualify potential acquisition targets (company size, revenue estimates, owner tenure, service lines, ownership structure) using LinkedIn, public filings, partner directories, and other sources
• Build and maintain target lists across multiple industry verticals
• Run LinkedIn outreach as the founder: personalized connection requests, follow-up sequences, and relationship management with prospective sellers
• Manage the CRM pipeline to track every outreach, response, and status change across defined stages
• Schedule Connect Calls and Business Deep Dives on the founder's calendar
• Prepare pre-meeting briefing notes so the founder walks into every conversation prepared
• Execute the weekly pipeline review: what moved, what's stale, what's on this week's calendar
• Follow up with stale leads, maintain monthly touch cadences, and keep the pipeline from leaking
• Participate in calls with prospective sellers and brokers as you ramp up

Who This Is For

This role is built for an experienced professional who wants meaningful, intellectually engaging work on a genuinely part-time schedule, not a full-time job dressed up as part-time.

You've likely spent years in business, finance, consulting, operations, sales, or a related field, and you're now looking for work that fits around other commitments: a standing rhythm of two mornings in person, real flexibility the rest of the week, and no expectation that this creeps into a 40-hour job. What you bring is judgment built over a career, not time you need to fill.

You'll do well here if you are:

• A strong written communicator. Most of the outreach and follow-up is written: personalized LinkedIn messages, meeting prep notes, and CRM notes. You need to write clearly, concisely, and like a human.
• Organized to a fault. The pipeline only works if nothing falls through the cracks. You'll manage dozens of relationships at various stages simultaneously.
• Genuinely curious about businesses. You'll spend your time reading about companies, understanding how they make money, and forming opinions about whether they're interesting. If that sounds tedious, this isn't the right fit.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and judgment calls. We have documented criteria and clear processes, but you'll regularly need to make prioritization decisions on incomplete information, using the same kind of judgment you've exercised in your career to date.
• Comfortable talking with people. You'll eventually participate in calls with business owners and brokers.
• Resourceful with technology. CRM tools, LinkedIn, spreadsheets, AI tools for research. You don't need to be technical, but you need to learn software quickly and not be afraid to figure things out.

What You'll Get

• Unusually interesting work for a part-time role. You'll learn how acquisitions actually work, from proprietary deal sourcing through due diligence. Most people don't see this process until they're deep in their careers.
• Direct exposure to the founder. You won't be buried in a team. You'll work one-on-one with the decision-maker and see how a portfolio company operator thinks.
• A documented system with real training. The outreach process, qualification criteria, scripts, CRM workflows, and pipeline stages are all documented. You'll receive clear onboarding and structured processes for the recurring work.
• Flexible, predictable schedule. ~15–20 hours/week. Two mornings together in person in Portland, remaining hours remote. We'll find a rhythm that works.
• A role that can grow. As the portfolio grows and deals get done, the work scales with it. What starts as deal sourcing can evolve into due diligence support, deal structuring, or integration work.

Location & Schedule

• Portland, Maine. Two mornings per week in person (typically in a shared workspace or coffee meeting); remaining hours are remote.
• ~15–20 hours per week. Predictable and flexible. We'll align on a standing schedule with some room for adjustment.