Jason Illian

Hey Jason — congrats on launching Highmount. Similar PE background here — been deep in growth-stage origination thinking lately. Would be good to connect.

Hey Jason, similar background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did growth equity in London, not building a growth fund like Highmount. most growth-stage 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 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 Highmount? — Russ

Hey Jason, similar background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did growth equity in London, not building a growth fund like Highmount. most growth-stage 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 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 Highmount? — Russ

hey Jason — 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 Highmount has cracked that or if it's the same pattern. — Russ

hey Jason — 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 Highmount. either way, I'm around if origination ever becomes a conversation worth having. — Russ

Hi Jason, looks like we share a similar PE path — though I'm from Zimbabwe and ended up doing growth equity in London, not building a growth-stage firm like Highmount. 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 Highmount? Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

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

hi Jason — 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 Highmount. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi Jason — 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