Nick Sternberg

Hey Nick — similar PE background, been deep in consumer & beauty origination thinking lately. Would be good to connect.

Hey Nick, similar background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did growth equity in London, not building a consumer PE firm like West Lane. most consumer-focused funds I talk to are running on PitchBook or Grata, maybe Affinity, and then basically Excel and email for everything else on the origination side. but proprietary deal flow stays inconsistent. nothing connects systematically — the firm's thesis and network intelligence don't feed into each other, so origination never builds on itself. does origination look different at West Lane? — Russ

Hey Nick, similar background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did growth equity in London, not building a consumer PE firm like West Lane. most consumer-focused funds I talk to are running on PitchBook or Grata, maybe Affinity, and then basically Excel and email for everything else on the origination side. but proprietary deal flow stays inconsistent. nothing connects systematically — the firm's thesis and network intelligence don't feed into each other, so origination never builds on itself. does origination look different at West Lane? — Russ

hey Nick — 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 West Lane has cracked that or if it's the same pattern. — Russ

hey Nick — 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 West Lane. either way, I'm around if origination ever becomes a conversation worth having. — Russ

Hi Nick, looks like we share a similar PE path — though I'm from Zimbabwe and ended up doing growth equity in London, not building a lower-mid consumer platform like West Lane. most consumer funds I talk to are running on PitchBook or Grata, maybe Affinity, and then basically Excel and email for everything else on the origination side. 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 West Lane? Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi Nick — been thinking more about 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. 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 Nick — 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 West Lane has a way more dialled setup — but figured I'd ask. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi Nick — 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 West Lane. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi Nick — 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