Caprae Capital is Paradise

It's 9am at a B+ target school: think UIUC (BA), Clairmont McKenna, UGA, Western Ivey (WIC Researcher). While your peers are getting laid and wondering if they can pass "Intro to Marketing," you’ve discovered a higher calling. You open your excel sheet and begin adding potential outreach targets for highly coveted EBBB (Elite Bulge Bracket Boutiques), think RBC / SocGen / Left Lane Associates / Vermilion Rock Advisors. As you mindlessly scroll LinkedIn, you stumble across an LMM search fund: Caprae Capital Partners. 

Eager to gain your first experience in the capital markets, you reach out to a past Caprae intern, Jake, asking about his experience, exit opps, and how to stand out during the internship so that the MD can provide you with references for a lateral opportunity. You reach out to the team, describing how impactful Jake found the internship to be and how you're eager to get involved. 3 hours later, you get a response. A 15-minute networking call / coffee chat / screening interview / round 1 interview / final round interview/ superday. 

The Call 

You research the individuals who will be interviewing you. "Booth MBA, huh?" You think. That's prestigious. Unfortunately, however, no prior MF PE experience. 

That's okay. You've spent countless minutes studying the BIWS 500 guides. As you load up the google meet call, you recite to yourself again how $10 of depreciation flows through the three statements. The interview starts. Why do you want to work in Private Equity? You regurgitate Jake's answer of "skin in the game" and "operational exposure". You nod eagerly as you learn briefly about the search's funds mission and the awesome exposure you get. The interview is over. You think to yourself, "I nailed it."

The Offer: 

The email hits your inbox the next day at 11:30 PM. Subject: Fall Internship Opportunity - Caprae Capital Partners

There is no signing bonus. There is no salary. The compensation section is a three-paragraph manifesto on the "unparalleled opportunity for professional development" and "unrestricted access to the firm’s proprietary sourcing methodology."

Excited, you immediately run to update your LinkedIn. You think to yourself what the most prestigious header would be. Should I put "Private Equity Fall Intern,’" or ‘"Private Equity Fall Analyst’"?  You smirk, deciding that “Analyst” sounds far more prestigious. You tell yourself that adding “LMM Private Equity” as a description will really sell the role to summer recruiters.

The Job: 

The onboarding consists of a 15 minute Zoom call where the Managing Partner explains the mission of the firm. You are told you are a "critical engine of the firm's proprietary acquisition strategy", and your first task is to source the emails of 50 founders in the commercial roofing space. To do this, you are provided a link for LinkedIn Premium for the rest of your internship. You feel a surge of superiority over your peers as you add the golden badge to your profile, and are now able to see the underlings who have viewed your profile. 

The next meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday at 9:00 pm with the 30 other fall interns. You spend the hour subtly trying to figure out who has the best shot at becoming an Investment Banking MD, while trying to be collaborative and "get to know" your fellow interns. "That's so cool that you love Alpine skiing!", I respond, "my great great grandfather whose dead was one of the founding members of Vail resorts."

The next months fly by. By November, you've sourced 600 leads. Nothing has materialized. You sigh. Maybe you should've started producing relatable Instagram reels content and gotten a "Growth" role at a YC Startup. 

The Aftermath: 

The internship ends. No deals were signed. The "fund" is currently $400 in the hole because of the ZoomInfo and Linkedin Premium subscription. But none of that matters.

You walk back onto campus like a titan of industry. You post your LinkedIn "Grateful" update, and get 300 likes. Mostly from other Caprae interns you met in the Slack group chat.

Eager to gain experience in larger transactions, you update your resume ahead of Summer 2027 recruiting. Looking at resumes from upper-year GS/MS/FT Partners (150k base) placements, you add the mandatory "Select Transaction Experience:" on your resume. You start kicking yourself. Shoot. I should've asked to see a CIM during my internship. Does Caprae even do CIM's? You start searching on your school's introductory to investment banking PDF on the difference between buy-side and sell-side. 

Now that you have completed your internship and finally understood what the firm does, you add the subheader,"Potential Acquisition of $30m+ HVAC Services Company" to your resume. You smile to yourself: RBC is going to love this. You save the Word document to a PDF on your desktop, as you take a sigh of relief ahead of Summer 2027 recruiting. You're going to make it. This is the promised land. 

Caprae Capital Partners is Paradise.