2 competing offers, looking for insight

Hey guys, Current equity research analyst at a MM bank looking to make the jump into IB. I’ve had a couple interviews so far and I’m looking at a few offers, was hoping to get some insight. I’ve done plenty of searching around here, but it seems there isn’t much info out their about either of these firms.

Both are pretty much no-name boutiques. One is based on the east coast, major city but not NYC. Very small team (5-6 guys on the banking side) built out of an existing research firm. A couple nice deals under their belt but I was told they primarily focus on lower middle market, mostly capital markets and the majority of their deals are equity private placements. Heavily focused in the energy sector. I was told they do very little sourcing/pitching work, they get enough deal flow they are mainly focused on the execution side which I thought would be a plus for resume building. They recently pulled in a $1B solo deal but mainly seem to operate in the sub-$100M range. I was told the average would be about 12 hour days when it’s not crunch time, which is about in line with what I’m doing now. Don’t have much insight on exit opps since their banking group has only been around a couple years, but they seem to be growing quickly so there may be internal advancement opportunities.

Other offer is a Texas-based firm, another lower MM ($20-200M) shop but they are pure-play M&A. Slightly bigger at about 30-40 people, more diversified in terms of industry but it seems like they don’t have much presence outside of the region. I heard decent things about their success rate on pitches, but I also heard the hours are pretty brutal. They said they placed a couple people into MM PE recently.

For someone still on the fence about future plans (torn between a potential lateral to BB or making the jump to PE) which position do you think would give me the best opportunities?