Ilia Lotov

Hey Ilia — congrats on launching Kaizen X. Similar IB → PE background here — been deep in mission-critical B2B services origination lately. Would be good to connect.

Hey Ilia, similar background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did growth equity in London, not launching a search fund like Kaizen X. 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 Kaizen X? — Russ

Hey Ilia, similar background, weirdly — I'm from Zimbabwe, did growth equity in London, not launching a search fund like Kaizen X. 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 Kaizen X? — Russ

hey Ilia — 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 Kaizen X has cracked that or if it's the same pattern. — Russ

hey Ilia — no stress on any of this. we documented the origination infrastructure we've built across funds — tech stack, workflows, prompts. free to share if it'd be useful at Kaizen X. either way, I'm around if origination ever becomes a conversation worth having. — Russ

Hi Ilia, looks like we share a similar PE path — though I'm from Zimbabwe and ended up doing growth equity in London, not launching a search fund like Kaizen X. most mission-critical B2B services 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 Kaizen X? Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi Ilia — 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 Ilia — something about this keeps rattling around. I hit this exact wall doing growth equity — tonnes of data subscriptions, decent CRM, but nothing connecting it all systematically. spent more time stitching than actually originating. imagine Kaizen X has a way more dialled setup — but figured I'd ask. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi Ilia — completely separate from all that. we've got a PE origination playbook — covers the tech stack, workflow design, prompts, all of it. happy to send it across if it's relevant at Kaizen X. Russell searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23

hi Ilia — 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