John Arney

Hi John — I'm from Zimbabwe, did M&A banking then growth equity at a European fund. Now running proprietary outreach to UK business owners. Put together a register of 322 UK companies open to sale — thought it might be relevant for Smithfield.

Hey 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 global holdco like Smithfield. 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 Smithfield? — Russ

Hey 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 global holdco like Smithfield. 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 Smithfield? — 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 — Mentmore Capital, Axiom Equity, Noble Rock, a few others. at my old fund we had a solid stack and smart people, and origination still restarted from scratch every cycle. the funds who systematise it early end up compounding deal flow — the ones who don't keep resetting. curious if Smithfield 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 Smithfield. either way, I'm around if origination ever becomes a conversation worth having. — Russ

Hi John — similar-ish background. I'm from Zim and was a banker doing M&A at Greenhill, then moved into growth equity in London. Now I build proprietary origination systems for funds like yours across fragmented UK businesses. Over the past 6 months, one of my systems surfaced 300+ off-market conversations with owners across 10 sectors. I've put them together: 322 UK companies open to sale. One that looked relevant for The Smithfield: A £50m+ manufacturer and distributor of specialist chemical fluids and performance lubricants serving global industrial, transport, and maritime markets. Here's the link: https://sample.searchloop.ai/ Worth a quick call? I can walk through how I got this and share some of the actual names. — Russ linkedin.com/in/russellt23 PS: if this isn't relevant, reply no and I'll leave you in peace. might even go for a walk.

Hi John — similar-ish background. I'm from Zim and was a banker doing M&A at Greenhill, then moved into growth equity in London. Now I build proprietary origination systems for funds like yours across fragmented UK businesses. Over the past 6 months, one of my systems surfaced 300+ off-market conversations with owners across 10 sectors. I've put them together: 322 UK companies open to sale. One that looked relevant for The Smithfield: A £50m+ manufacturer and distributor of specialist chemical fluids and performance lubricants serving global industrial, transport, and maritime markets. Here's the link: https://sample.searchloop.ai/ Worth a quick call? I can walk through how I got this and share some of the actual names. — Russ linkedin.com/in/russellt23 PS: if this isn't relevant, reply no and I'll leave you in peace. might even go for a walk.

Hi John — quick second note in case this got buried. The list is here: https://sample.searchloop.ai/ It is anonymised, but it should show the shape of the work: sector, scale, owner motivation, and enough to judge whether the source is useful for The Smithfield. Worth 15 mins to map what an origination loop could look like for The Smithfield? Useful whether you're moving on something now or just want a plan in your back pocket for the next 6-12 months. — Russ linkedin.com/in/russellt23 PS: if this isn't relevant, reply no and I'll leave you in peace. might even go for a walk.

Hi John — last nudge. The useful bit is not really the list. It is the system behind it: direct owner conversations, matched to buyer theses, across fragmented UK sectors. One more example that mapped to The Smithfield: A £50m+ technology firm providing AI-driven digital marketing and automated search platform management for global retail and shopping channels. Worth 15 mins to map what an origination loop could look like? Useful whether you're moving now or just want a plan in your back pocket for the next 6-12 months. — Russ linkedin.com/in/russellt23 PS: if this isn't relevant, reply no and I'll leave you in peace. might even go for a walk.

John — I'll leave it there. Link's here if useful later: https://sample.searchloop.ai/ — Russ linkedin.com/in/russellt23 PS: if this isn't relevant, reply no and I'll leave you in peace. might even go for a walk.