Background
HighlandX, launched by Corey Mulloy and Craig Driscoll, is the next chapter of Highland Capital Partners. The firm targets category-defining software companies at Series A through C, often where next-generation players are displacing antiquated incumbents.
Michael Lackey initially evaluated Raylu as a sourcing tool for the team. What started as a product trial quickly became something more: a platform that outperformed the firm’s sourcing stack and fit HighlandX’s thesis on next-generation software.
The Challenge
Before Raylu, HighlandX relied on Grata for sourcing, PitchBook for fundraising data, manual research for market maps, and experiments with LLMs. The tools helped, but they did not solve the core problem: identifying the right companies with enough precision to move first.
Market maps were too broad, grouping companies by surface-level keywords instead of true competitive positioning.
Personalized founder outreach required 15–30 minutes of manual research per company.
AI email tools produced generic, machine-written outreach that did not match HighlandX’s standard.
LLMs could surface obvious category participants, but struggled to identify companies matching HighlandX’s mandate.
The Solution
Raylu gave HighlandX a sourcing workflow that understood how markets are actually structured. Instead of returning generic lists, it helped the team build precise maps, identify direct competitors, and generate outreach grounded in company-specific differentiation.
Market maps held up against customer reference calls and industry expert diligence.
Raylu automated the research layer behind thesis-driven, human-sounding outreach.
The switch from Grata was immediate, with every member of the HighlandX sourcing team using Raylu daily.
Several active opportunities in the pipeline were sourced through Raylu maps.
It’s a game changer. As investors, it’s increasingly hard to cut through the noise — especially in the age of AI, where everything is moving so quickly. Raylu helps surface the details that matter and clearly highlights the key differentiators between companies.
— Michael Lackey, Investor, HighlandX
The Results
Sourcing team adoption
Manual research reduced per company
Series A led by HighlandX
A repeatable sourcing loop
HighlandX now establishes a thesis, builds a market map in Raylu, identifies key players, and reaches out with precision. The workflow is disciplined enough to surface companies the team wants to pre-empt before they formally go to market.
From product trial to investment conviction
The investment case was straightforward: Raylu sat squarely in HighlandX’s thesis of next-generation software displacing incumbents, with clear founder-market fit and a product that returned time immediately. HighlandX led Raylu’s $8M Series A.
A customer-product flywheel
HighlandX uses Raylu daily to source and evaluate deals, while providing hands-on product feedback that Raylu ships against rapidly. The customer makes the product better, and the product makes the customer sharper.