John Arney

Hey John — similar PE background, been deep in cross-border acquisition origination thinking lately. Would be good to connect.

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 background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did 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. yet the off-market pipeline stays weirdly thin. the intelligence is all there but it's scattered across tools and inboxes — so nothing compounds into a real origination edge. does origination look different at Smithfield? Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi John — been thinking more about 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. 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. when I was doing growth equity we had every subscription going — PitchBook, CRM, enrichment tools, the lot — and I still spent half my time manually pulling origination together across all of it. always wondered if that was just us being disorganised or if it's genuinely universal. imagine Smithfield 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 Smithfield. 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