Summer Associate Interview - Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT)
Anonymous interview candidate in
Interviewed:
April
2018
Date Submitted:
May 12, 2018
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Other
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Skills Test
Other
Interview
Started off the process by requesting an informational interview with an Analyst. I was then referred to the MD for a potential Summer role. Prospects were great with the MD, and the interview was followed by an excel 3FS test and a PPT “pitch book” test. I was given 24 hours to finish the case and was told that a hiring decision will be made within a day or two after submission of the test. I submitted the test within the 24hr limit and week passed. I followed up with them and instead of a hire decision, the analyst told me that the associate wants to speak with me. Asked behavioral/technical questions that were more VC-like instead of a bank and said that they will give me a hire decision after another day or two. Two weeks passed with no update. I followed up once every 3 days or so, until I had no choice but to tell them that I had to respond to another offer in 2 days. They sent me a short text saying that they will update me in a day. Two days passed, and I decided to accept my other offer since they didn’t have the courtesy to update me with any reasonable basis to extend my offer deadline. I didn’t get the role. Currently requesting feedback on my application.
Initially very enthusiastic about the role since they had the boutique feel of a typical industry focused bank, and thought I would be able to gain solid-deal experience. Slowly started to realize that the firm is still extremely young with less than 10 bankers focused only raising capital for the tech industry, and very disorganized.
Initially very enthusiastic about the role since they had the boutique feel of a typical industry focused bank, and thought I would be able to gain solid-deal experience. Slowly started to realize that the firm is still extremely young with less than 10 bankers focused only raising capital for the tech industry, and very disorganized.
Interview Questions
What top three question would you as a VC fund ask a start-up that is pitching for your money
Ways to value firm that have not generated revenue
What you know about our firm
Walk me through an equity capital raise for Series-A funding (Seems very VC-esque)
Excel and PPT Case (24 hour Limit)
Part 1 Financial Statements:
Company X is a private Proptech (property-technology) company based in HK that has 2 revenue streams – (1) a CRM solution for corporate clients; and (2) Advertisement Listings on Media Partnership websites. Using the information given below, build a 3-statement model for Year 0 – Year 3. We are looking for clean, presentable and well-formatted models, on top of the precision of your answers.
State any further assumptions used.
Assumptions
• CRM revenues and Ad Listing revenues are $1.2m and $1.5m in year 0.
• CRM revenues grows at 40%, 80% and 80% for next 3 years.
• Ad Listing revenues grows at 60% each of the next 3 years.
• COGS is 15% of total revenues
• Marketing Expense is 25% of revenues
• Server costs is 100k (Y0) and grows at 20%, 15% & 10% for the next 3 years
• Administrative costs is 50k (Y0) and grows at 10% yearly
• Salaries
o All sales staff draw $24,000 annually in Year 0
o All IT support draw $60,000 annually in Year 0
o Management draws $10,000 monthly in Year 0
o In Y0, there were 6 Sales staff (CRM), 4 Sales Staff (Ads), 5 IT support staff and 2 management hires.
▪ In year 1, 3 non-management staffs are added in each non-management department.
▪ In year 2 and 3, 5 non-management staffs are added in each non-management department.
▪ In year 2, 1 management hire is added.
▪ The average non-management staff salary is increased by 20% per year, while management salary increases 30% per year. (ie. if a sales staff start at $1k salary this year, and another person joins next year, both gets paid $1.2k.)
• We have Interest-Only Short Term Debt with a face value of $0.5 million and an coupon rate of 10%.
• Use a 30% tax rate
• Account Receivables – CRM and Account Receivables – Ads are 45% and 35% of their respective revenues
• Accounts Payables for both accounts are 15% of their respective revenues
• Prepaid revenue is 30% of Revenues
• Straight line Depreciation of PPE across 10 years. PPE is $500,000, bought at the end of Year 0. No addition of PPE in future years.
• Share Capital remains at $500,000.
• Year 0 Ending Cash & Cash Equivalents (Cash Balance) is $1,217,000
• Not necessary to complete Statement of Cash Flows for Year 0. But complete Year 1 – Year 3.
• Solve for Beginning Year 0 Retained Earnings.
Part 2 PowerPoint:
At IEG Singapore, we work on financing deals for small to mid-cap tech companies, tech M&A deals and also corporate advisory services.
Currently, one of our interests is to look at the logistics tech space. To have a better understanding of your interest in technology and your PowerPoint and research skills, please create a presentation deck with these parameters:
* - 3 slides
* - Target audience: IEG Singapore Team
To include but not limited to:
* - Industry overview
* - Latest trends
* - How Logtech disrupts the market
* - Peer Comparison between a log-tech company called A-Commerce (and their global competitors, eg. Delhivery or others)
Finding relevant information for private companies is an issue we face every day. We are looking for ability to showcase quality and value-adding research in a presentable format, and an ability to be concise with space limitations.
Email your completed work within 24 hours to [email protected] and [email protected]
Ways to value firm that have not generated revenue
What you know about our firm
Walk me through an equity capital raise for Series-A funding (Seems very VC-esque)
Excel and PPT Case (24 hour Limit)
Part 1 Financial Statements:
Company X is a private Proptech (property-technology) company based in HK that has 2 revenue streams – (1) a CRM solution for corporate clients; and (2) Advertisement Listings on Media Partnership websites. Using the information given below, build a 3-statement model for Year 0 – Year 3. We are looking for clean, presentable and well-formatted models, on top of the precision of your answers.
State any further assumptions used.
Assumptions
• CRM revenues and Ad Listing revenues are $1.2m and $1.5m in year 0.
• CRM revenues grows at 40%, 80% and 80% for next 3 years.
• Ad Listing revenues grows at 60% each of the next 3 years.
• COGS is 15% of total revenues
• Marketing Expense is 25% of revenues
• Server costs is 100k (Y0) and grows at 20%, 15% & 10% for the next 3 years
• Administrative costs is 50k (Y0) and grows at 10% yearly
• Salaries
o All sales staff draw $24,000 annually in Year 0
o All IT support draw $60,000 annually in Year 0
o Management draws $10,000 monthly in Year 0
o In Y0, there were 6 Sales staff (CRM), 4 Sales Staff (Ads), 5 IT support staff and 2 management hires.
▪ In year 1, 3 non-management staffs are added in each non-management department.
▪ In year 2 and 3, 5 non-management staffs are added in each non-management department.
▪ In year 2, 1 management hire is added.
▪ The average non-management staff salary is increased by 20% per year, while management salary increases 30% per year. (ie. if a sales staff start at $1k salary this year, and another person joins next year, both gets paid $1.2k.)
• We have Interest-Only Short Term Debt with a face value of $0.5 million and an coupon rate of 10%.
• Use a 30% tax rate
• Account Receivables – CRM and Account Receivables – Ads are 45% and 35% of their respective revenues
• Accounts Payables for both accounts are 15% of their respective revenues
• Prepaid revenue is 30% of Revenues
• Straight line Depreciation of PPE across 10 years. PPE is $500,000, bought at the end of Year 0. No addition of PPE in future years.
• Share Capital remains at $500,000.
• Year 0 Ending Cash & Cash Equivalents (Cash Balance) is $1,217,000
• Not necessary to complete Statement of Cash Flows for Year 0. But complete Year 1 – Year 3.
• Solve for Beginning Year 0 Retained Earnings.
Part 2 PowerPoint:
At IEG Singapore, we work on financing deals for small to mid-cap tech companies, tech M&A deals and also corporate advisory services.
Currently, one of our interests is to look at the logistics tech space. To have a better understanding of your interest in technology and your PowerPoint and research skills, please create a presentation deck with these parameters:
* - 3 slides
* - Target audience: IEG Singapore Team
To include but not limited to:
* - Industry overview
* - Latest trends
* - How Logtech disrupts the market
* - Peer Comparison between a log-tech company called A-Commerce (and their global competitors, eg. Delhivery or others)
Finding relevant information for private companies is an issue we face every day. We are looking for ability to showcase quality and value-adding research in a presentable format, and an ability to be concise with space limitations.
Email your completed work within 24 hours to [email protected] and [email protected]
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