Bearish Thoughts On Industry Focused Boutiques

Ignore title, not an intern.

More of a thought piece, but do you guys think that industry boutiques are becoming a dying breed? I’m not suggesting that working at an industry boutique is bad or that they’ll completely disappear, but it’s hard to imagine another industry boutique like Qatalyst dominating a market again. It feels like industry boutiques are slowly being sanctioned into the middle market.

Even 7 years ago, it wouldn’t have been too surprising to see names like DBO, The Valence Group, Financo, GreenTech, etc., appear on an industry mega deal. However, now it feels like the space is permanently dominated by the usual suspects.

I really do believe the modern investment banking industry is maturing, and the above is due to:

1. The ever consolidated nature of the industry
2. The disproportionate treasure chests of larger banks, which allow for better compensation/opportunities
3. The limited total addressable market for industry boutiques

In my head, the only industry boutiques that seem to frequently appear on mega deals are LionTree and Qatalyst (Raine and AllenCo if you consider them industry boutiques and G. Dyal if you count the one deal they close every year).

I would love to be proven wrong, I personally like the idea of careering at an industry boutique.