Darsana

Hear them mentioned a decent number of times on the forum as a top SM, but don’t know much about them. Culture/investment process, how does it compare relative to Tiger cubs or a soroban type place?

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I am not sure what the infatuation with Darsana is on this forum. Yes it is a good fund, but people here almost regard them as the best fund on the street. I also dont think their returns have been as amazing as people on here make it seem to be. 

 

I also dont think the profiles of people they hire is any different or better than what other good funds look for… i really dont get why people on here are so obsessed with them. 

 

I used to think this as well. How much of this is prestige vs. lack of alternatives in the SM space? For example, how many SMs are actually out there that you can name and would be willing to work for? In addition, there's just not a lot of transparency in our industry. So people are going to talk about and go to funds that are large and that they have "heard" of. 

 

Curious on your thoughts as you’re a PM — what do you think the best SMs (L/S) to work for are that also put up good returns. Would appreciate some names, thanks!

 

I agree there arent many noteworthy SM seats. But I guess to answer OPs question, given the opportunity, i would still take an offer from Viking, Lone Pine, and Tiger over a fund like Darsana. Yes, Tiger’s performance this year is inexcusable but it is still one of the best firms to work at.

 
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As someone in the industry I can name at least 20 1-7bn funds with IP teams 15 I’d want to work for above most mentioned on WSO. No I will not name them, a lot of funds prefer privacy which is better for returns, uninformed pitch-fork mobs, WSB crusades, general life quality and many other reasons. Not my place to ‘out’ them. If you hear of one thru a recruiter or more often referrals - you would find people at ‘known’ funds think very highly. Thing is, if your goal is delivering a great product, in a concentrated/traditional format size and publicity is the enemy of results. If you’re an activist or trying to maximize mgmt fee or ego driven it can be good

 

A question for folks, as I’m not at a L/S fund - how can their AUM significantly exceed the latest reported value of 13F holdings? If they run net long isn’t this the ceiling of equity AUM? Might be other quirks like non-U.S. holdings, but still…isn’t a good guess that they manage somewhere in the $2bn range?

 

yup I know. their lack of deployments since COVID (pitchbook, crunchbase) would suggest they dont have a lot of private aum today (maybe recycled into public or returned the capital)

 

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