John D Connolly

Hey John — congrats on launching Fettes Row. Similar PE background here — been deep in financial services origination lately. Would be good to connect.

Hey John, similar background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did growth equity in London, not building a holdco like Fettes Row. most funds I talk to have a database — PitchBook or Grata — maybe a CRM, and then the origination setup is mostly Excel and email from there. but proprietary deal flow still feels thin. thesis, network, and intelligence never sync into one system — so origination resets every cycle instead of compounding. does origination look different at Fettes Row? — Russ

Hey John, similar background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did growth equity in London, not building a holdco like Fettes Row. most funds I talk to have a database — PitchBook or Grata — maybe a CRM, and then the origination setup is mostly Excel and email from there. but proprietary deal flow still feels thin. thesis, network, and intelligence never sync into one system — so origination resets every cycle instead of compounding. does origination look different at Fettes Row? — Russ

hey John — one more thought on origination. after hitting this wall myself doing growth equity, I ended up building origination infrastructure for funds full-time — Axiom, Noble Rock, Mentmore, a few others. I hit this exact problem at my old fund — tonnes of subscriptions, decent CRM, nothing connecting it all. the funds who systematise it early compound deal flow in a way that's really hard to replicate later. curious if Fettes Row has cracked that or if it's the same pattern. — Russ

hey John — appreciate the connect either way. we documented the origination infrastructure we've built across funds — tech stack, workflows, prompts. free to share if it'd be useful at Fettes Row. either way, I'm around if origination ever becomes a conversation worth having. — Russ

Hi John, looks like we share a similar PE path — though I'm from Zimbabwe and ended up doing growth equity in London, not building a financial marketing platform. most funds I talk to have a database — PitchBook or Grata — maybe a CRM, and then the origination setup is mostly Excel and email from there. but proprietary deal flow still feels thin. thesis, network, and intelligence never sync into one system — so origination resets every cycle instead of compounding. does origination look different at Fettes Row? Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi John — more on the origination side. after hitting this wall myself doing growth equity, I ended up building origination infrastructure for funds full-time — Axiom Equity, Noble Rock, Mentmore Capital, a few others. the pattern I keep seeing is that the funds who systematise it early end up compounding deal flow in a way that's really hard to replicate later. happy to compare notes on what's actually moving the needle if you're interested. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi John — something about this keeps rattling around. at my old fund we had a solid stack and smart people, and origination still felt like it restarted from scratch every cycle. took me a while to realise it wasn't a people problem — the tools just didn't talk to each other. imagine Fettes Row has a way more dialled setup — but figured I'd ask. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi John — completely separate from all that. we put together a playbook on PE origination — the tech stack, the workflows, some of the prompts and automations that actually move the needle. happy to send it over if it'd be useful at Fettes Row. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi John — I'll leave it here. the origination playbook is yours whenever — no expiry on that. I'm deep in this space all day, so if it ever becomes a conversation worth having, I'm around. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23