Grateful to have offers from these places - all 3 for their Tech groups. Would appreciate some insight to each of these groups, especially in terms of deal flow, culture, trajectory, and exits into both buy-side as well as CorpDev.
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curious as well
Would not include Barclays Menlo within the conversation if I were you. They just lost their 2 primary dealmakers.
Lazard's a good office but they're a bit less of a traditional IB office. They do a lot of consulting-like work on retainer for corporates and are effectively outsourced corp dev for those clients. They get on some pretty large deals but a large portion of your time there will be spent on one-off projects or case studies for those clients. The group also cross-staffs with the Boston office. Culture there is relatively good. The group definitely has strong exits, a bit more oriented towards growth (TCV, CVC), but some top buyout as well (Thoma, Silver Lake, Clearlake).
PWP SF is the smallest group out of the 3, but seems to be on growth mode (added Dunn this month as well as a partner last year that's based in LA but works with the SF team). Like Lazard, they're not as active on pitching and largely focus on covering repeat clients, with quite a lot of non-M&A strategic advisory work for large corporates. Deal flow is pretty good and is largely concentrated on software (very little exposure to semis and hardware), and the juniors there are also cross-staffed with the NY Tech and FinTech teams. Culture there is pretty chill, probably the best out of the 3. Exits historically have been good among buy-side (Sixth Street, EQT, Francisco), and the office seems to have strong corp dev placement as well (lots of FAANG and unicorns).
Overall, I'd probably go with Lazard.
Do you think Barclays Menlo is going to see junior layoffs?
Echoing what's been said above, Lazard and PWP have pretty similar SF Tech offices in that at both of them, your experience will include a lot more non-M&A strategic advisory work than at a traditional BB or another pitch-focused EB like Moelis or Evercore. Lazard's SF office is much larger and more established, and has traditionally had very strong buyside exits. PWP's office, while not on the level of Lazard SF, is still no slouch in terms of buyside recruiting and places pretty well, and the office also has strong corp-dev and startup DNA.
Barclays Menlo has traditionally had pretty strong exits as well, although given the recent turnover at the senior levels I'd be cautious about joining that group.
Lazard if you want slightly better exits
PwP if you want to see the sun
Had good talks with Barclays menlo a couple years ago, like the guys there, seem pretty chill. Seems semi/saas focused. Wouldn’t take them above Laz/PWP though.
OP here, any thoughts on Menlo vs SF?
.
How's Barclays Menlo doing now that the dust's settled. Morale in the office still low?
Dust hasnt settled. Another MD just left last week. Will take the franchise 3-5 years to rebuild
Where are they off to?
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