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May 31, 2024
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ah kickboxing, my second favorite sport after Jiujitsu. But we've never discussed that right? How did you know?
thats a karate kick homie
Can you explain why you find it boring?
I work in secondaries and the lack of information available for me to do my analysis makes the entire exercise boring to me and absolutely fluffy. I always thought being provided with more detail in direct PE would be more interesting.
Also, if it is boring but makes good money isn't that great? For me, it is the lack of mental stimulation, crap money and exit opps that makes it unbearable. At least you have options eh?
OK so I'll share w/ you the dynamics of this particular role, and then I'll speak to PE and finance more broadly.
My current role is running the in-house PE fund for a family office. Family is super conservative, so won't pull the trigger on anything. So no deals get done. All research / eval is irrelevant, but they pay well. But I'm bored to death. I went in to PE (in China no less, and helped build the nation's top firm) because I wanted excitement and adventure - not to collect a paycheck. I feel sitting here at a conservative family office is making me age rapidly.
Now, what next? I had good luck being a C-level at a tech company, turning it around. I loved the pace of tech, the variety of challenges, etc. I could try to do so again. Even if it means making far less $.
Look, this isn't a pity party. I just got to figure this thing out. It's just a bit difficult to try to figure out what to do next exactly. I consider strat consulting, because it seems like you get constant interesting problems thrown at you. But maybe it's best to go back to tech, where there was the chance to make a fortune, while also dealing with cool technologies and products, and constant change.
Thanks for the reply. What about becoming a startup mentor? Know you are in hk so maybe something like this? https://www.1823ventures.com/
Side question: I come from PE secondaries. Which areas of tech would employ me and offer me the chance to make a fortune?
Money is a huge motivator for me and I drag my feet to work everyday knowing that this job won't make me rich.
That's a couple of tough questions.
Re mentorship - I've invested in a couple startups, so I do provide a bit of advice, but as a finance guy, what wisdom do I really have to impart on a hardcore engineer that is actually running teams and building a company? I try to help w/ fundraising/presentation/capital connections. But I'm in little position to teach an entrepreneur how to build a company.
It's actually kind of hard for me to advise as to how/why you should motivate to go to work, since I'm quite lacking the will to do so myself now. I'm also not sure how to make a fortune. I guess if you're looking for a decent score you can try to transition to PE directs, or otherwise grind it out where you are. Then parlay the $ you make into investments.
if you do well at the day job, you can also try to launch your own fund in a few years, once you have both street cred with investors and a decent rolodex. I tend to lack the willpower to stay with something I dislike doing for that long though, so not sure how you can drag yourself into it daily, since I've not really been able to do so.
I believe I would find working in secondaries boring and frustrating as well. At least in PE you can hunt for deals and meet companies directly, and gamble on their future. In secondaries (which admittendly I know very little about) my impression is you're combing thru GPs' portfolios and LPs' unwanted fund positions looking for value.
I doubt very much I'd enjoy that either. But I guess the honor's in the dollar.
Your impression is spot on ... just to highlight that most of the time we aren't even in a position to look for value even though that's what we are supposed to do. How the **** are you supposed to do that if the GP provides minimal information or doesn't want to take the call. And even when these guys do take the call, they are mostly unprepared (why put in so much effort if there isn't new money going into the fund?). Research myself? This isn't possible given the number of companies in a portfolio.
One of the "best" analysis I heard of at an IC call was when one team member said "we are pegging the valuation for this company at $X because management said they could sell it at that value". I looked at the members of the IC to see if they had any reaction to that...... nope. Meeting finishes off with "conservative assumptions, easily defensible, less submit a bid at y%".
Final rant: The intermediaries we deal with all function like used-car salesmen. They basically package whatever portfolios the seller is selling into a one page document and throw it to us for valuation. There is not explanation for why the heck we should even bother looking at the portfolio. What's worst is that my associates / VP do not bother screening them too and simply say "sure let us crunch the numbers and revert". Work then lands on me. It's the same bullshit day in day out.
Apologies for the long rant. Have a great week ahead.
someone should spank you with that magazine Earthwalker
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