Top Biotech Fund vs EB out of undergrad
I’m a rising senior at an Ivy and was able to receive a return offer from the EB that I spent my summer at.
I’ve also been networking over the last 1.5 years-ish with a T1 biotech fund (Deerfield/RA/Perceptive/OrbiMed to give you guys an idea) and was offered a full time spot on their publics team.
My questions regarding the biotech role are: stability, overcoming the learning curve, quality of training, disadvantage on not having an MD/PhD for career progression, and exits (in case I dislike the role).
Obviously it’s rare for the funds I mentioned to hire out of undergrad so I have very limited data points to answer my questions. I understand I’m very fortunate to receive an offer but I don’t want to be hasty and accept without considering all of the pros/cons. I also don’t know if I can make it back to a fund of similar quality after IB without an MD/PhD.
I’ve spoken to mentors and peers but their opinions seem pretty split between the two options. Any advice, especially from those in the industry, would be appreciated.
Fund. If your bad just do an mba where you’ll easily get into m7 and become eb associate.
Don’t know if it’s that easy to get into HSW with only a stint as a failed HF jr analyst.
deffo a shoe in to Kellogg/Tuck etc if coming from a target assuming grades aren’t horrendous
Am at a life sciences buy side shop myself. Life sciences investing experience is both very difficult to get and highly transferable to other life sciences investing roles (can certainly go from HF to VC/GE/PE, and I’d go a step further and say it’s even easier than coming from banking which is what I did).
That said, take the HF role assuming you’re a legitimate junior analyst.
Thank you for your response, it is a legit jr analyst role.
Just a few followups:
1. How would you say the quality of training is at an established biotech publics fund (if you’re aware at all)?
2. How challenging is the learning curve? I consider myself to be pretty smart / coachable, am a bio major, have read all of the investing books and model companies that I’m tracking, but when on networking calls with HF analysts (that are in broader life sciences, not specifically biotech), they always emphasize how brutal the curve is.
Could you please elaborate more on the part about switching in between HF, VC, and PE?
I’m working towards a PhD in bio related field and plan to start with VC, but I’m also considering HF and PE.
Thanks!
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You should delete this even if its true, why d*xx the kid
If this guess is correct. No you should take this risk now as you can always go back to cvp sf and have great buy side experience vs never jumping and trying
No
I don’t go to Penn. Not sure why you’re doing this and ruining the thread.
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OP said they are a bio major, cant be that person. Has to be Harvard especially with the Boston HF. You should delete your posts btw.
Thanks for the clarification
I would personally go the EB route becaue of the MD / PhD limitation. I heard it's very real in biotech investing, one of my college friends works in the biotech space and always complains about this.
Have another contact that works with one of those firms you listed on the growth equity side (CEO of one of their portfolio companies) and said their insight on long term strategy is very helpful (the partner on the deal has a MD degree).
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Why don't you go to the funds' websites and see the juniors' CVs? If they came from worse schools/banks than you, then you probably can join the fund later with your EB experience. If the juniors' all went to Harvard/Wharton and come from RSSG/GS/MS/EVR, then it's probably a great chance to join early on when you have a chance. If the job is good as it seems, a lot of qualified students will be competing for the spots even if they are lesser known.
Biotech funds don’t hire from RSSG or HBS lmao. The circlejerk on this site over perceived prestige is out of control
Do you think starting your career where the investment analysts are either Baruch biology grad or ex-Wells Fargo healthcare analyst is better than being at PJT or Evercore? Its not about prestige sucking lmao. All these comments are recommending OP to join the fund because it's not their very own life.
Nah man take a shot at the fund. You don’t necessarily NEED an MD or a PhD to do well.
Take a swing at it while you’re young. Banking will always be there if you don’t like it or get canned. Look at Vivek Ramaswamy. He joined a biotech sleeve out of school and crushed it at the fund and then Roivant which is really just a publically traded PE firm.
Ignore title. I'm on the biotech buyside now on the public side and would personally vote fund. I think your quesitons are valid, but if you feel like you have the skills and ability to do the work, you'll have infinitley more opportunities to switch to different areas of biotech investing than banking.
One thing you haven't mentioned is if you personally like biotech. It's a niche sector, and frankly, I think it may be hard to switch out of it once getting in.
Go straight to the fund. At least you have an Ivey degree and I’ve met quite a few investors who share the same background as you do. DM me if you want to chat further.
Biotech HF here. These “T1” funds haven’t been doing well on the publics…I don’t think it’s as demanding or unstable of a seat as others think in this thread. Orbi basically runs a heavy net long levered XBI (I’m not joking). All of the funds you named make their money on the private or crossover side; RA in particular is as bad of a public investor as you can get. They don’t know what to do with commercialized companies and routinely make horrible trades that HF guys like me hear about and laugh at lol. Imo it’s not a dream competitive job that you’ll easily get fired from with underperformance. It’s a great seat for your age though. Clear choice by a galactic mile. Enjoy and have fun
What bio funds do you think are the best on the public side?
Best? I do not know, as I only have access to the aforementioned funds’ performances through some family offices who are LPs with them. As far as those I know are sharp since I either speak to them regularly or know others who do,
Deep Track
Baker Bros
Logos
Commodore
Braidwell
Marshall Wace
Paradigm
Point72 (best PMs among pods)
There’s quite a lot of other ones everyone knows to be strong, but given the heavy mix of private vs public holdings, it’s unclear to me where they’re really making their money. Examples would be RTW, Avoro, Great Point. There’s a lot of ways to make money in biotech and as mentioned, these seats are very hard to come by
Ended up going with the fund, all of the responses were extremely helpful
How’s it going since you started?
Sounds interesting, any info on comp?
Also wondering.
What are interviews like for these firms?
Is this logos?
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