Thoughts on Coatue?
Everyone knows Coatue is one of the best funds out there, but I was wondering if anyone could share some specifics. How does Coatue stack up against other tiger cubs in terms of culture (which I heard is not the greatest), comp, progression, and performance? Does Coatue only do L/S out of their NYC office and VC in their SF office, or is this false/do they do L/S and VC in both offices? If anyone's wondering, I am an incoming analyst in MF PE.
Yeah I'm not sure how many of us were wondering but thanks for telling us anyways.
Coatue is very legit. As a TigerCub it’s a notch below Tiger Global and Lone Pine. But that’s sort of like saying as a pussy slayer, he’s a notch below Leo. Not exactly a damning indictment.
Analysts there hate their lives. It’s very high pressure. You’re expected to pitch a new idea ~2 weeks. Phillip is known to be a dick and a highly combustible one at that.
Unlike PE, there’s no one to hide behind. Each and every person is in the line of fire.
They pay extremely well. As a middle of the road analyst you’ll make $1mm pretty quickly. To a PE Associate that seems like an unthinkable sum, but it’s not. There’s limited utility to being a supporting actor in the HF business. If you want to make real money at ANY age/level, you need to be the guy with the idea and the one executing it and deciding what to do.
A great many Coatue analysts, after having lived it, decided it’s not worth it and end up leaving. Some get fired. There’s high turnover. They are nice to you on your way out the door. Ie give you some cover to find your next job.
They interview just about any top MF associate who is interested. But don’t think that makes it an easy job to get. When I was an associate in MF PE anyone that wanted a Coatue interview could get one, so people vastly underestimated the value of the opportunity. Just because they interview all of your peers, doesn’t mean it’s an easy job to get, or to excel at. It’s a great seat if you love public market investing.
You should understand that it’s a long established firm. Every sector that is worth covering is exceptionally well covered. The idea generation pressure is mostly on the short side, since that’s where you can find some off the beaten path idea.
So “training” assumes the guys at the top have a real process for generating alpha to begin with, and then that they are long term enough in approach to their own business to pass it along to younger people at the fund. Lot of funds, even ones with tons of aum etc., there’s no real process, just taking big swings at momentum or chasing friends ideas and popular pitches. So there’s nothing to train anyone in, and analysts are in reality just justifying PMs biases and trades, digging for research to help placate PM insecurities and fears when an idea isn’t working, and serving as a scapegoat if things really go off the rails. Some funds there in fact is something special going on at the top, but analyst turnover is too high or the culture is too transactional for the PM to justify the effort to pass it along. Some funds, there’s both a real investment process and a culture of mentorship and a career path for people who mature into moneymakers. But those funds are few and far between.
Every fund with enough Aum CAN be good career if you get there, figure out on your own some real way to repeatably generate alpha fast, and get enough capital into your ideas to prove it out. Even if the PM is a jackass if you are independently a true moneymaker you’ll have a durable seat and eventually leverage to get paid. But many places, lightening has to strike for you to figure it out fast enough to become both independent and indispensable, rather than being really trained and your development invested in to give you high odds of success.
How Coatue fits in to that picture, others can chime in or you can form your own opinion.