Current Take on FT Partners
I've seen a ton of mixed reviews on FT Partners within this site. Would love to get a recent take from people who are close to the Firm.
They appear to be a clear leader in Fintech, and after a short look through on Linkedin, people seem to exit to very reputable places. However, the culture appears to be very rough historically, and unclear if that has really changed at all.
Is this place as sweaty as ever? Any insight on the differences across the SF/NY/London offices?
Had an offer - turned them down.
A large part of my reasoning was that the exit opps didn't seem to be as great as one would expect given how strong FT is in FinTech. Some investing roles, but definitely not as many as you would expect given how many analysts they've had. I imagine it has something to do with the culture.
Hey I have a 1st round coming up and would love to know more about the interview process - any insights?
Really just them checking a box. You're gonna get asked to go through most of the major technical points. You got this!
What's your take on exit opps across their different offices? I'm assuming SF would be the best?
Just curious, what are the other strong firms/groups for fintech?
FT Partners has developed a really nice niche selling Fintech business at crazy valuations. They charge the highest fee I have seen of any banks, yet keep getting and delivering on mandates. The almost 100% focus on sell-side mandate isn't great from a junior's perspective, all you do is draft CIM / management and coordinate datarooms and the likes so it's a bit harder to build the relevant skillset for a buy-side career.
how much do they charge?
They pitched 2 businesses of ours and the fee was 10% as long as transaction price was above a certain amount that was aggressive, but achievable.
They do a lot of cap raise so that’s why the client network is so expansive. Don’t they also work on SPAC deals? (Not sponsoring one but advising the sponsor)
they also have crafty contracts with clients that basically binds clients into a long term advisory relationship
Isn't sell side experience what you want compared to financings?
Sell side experience is IMO the least valuable. Buy side > financing > sell side.
Aren’t most buy-side engagements pretty much a way to get a fee without doing anything? It seems like most PE firms do their own diligence and tend to pick up a buyside advisor as a nice gesture. If this is the case wouldn’t sell-side be the most valuable given the amount of actual work that the bankers do?
I'm sorry, what firm, PE or otherwise hires a financial advisor as a nice gesture??? Why would anyone pay you a fee if you are not doing anything???
Bankers don't like doing buy sides because the probability of a fee is a lot lower. You're representing 1 party that could lose in a first round bid versus someone selling themselves to a potential 20 different people. And the big fees are also in financing.
I think we are conflating 2 different things here. I'm in complete agreement that from a sell-side advisor POV, buy-side mandates have lower expected returns. But my advice was from the perspective of an analyst interested in PE. I've been recruiting analysts for almost 10 years now and in almost all cases, you will learn a lot more on an unsuccessful buy-side mandate where you did extensive modeling and ton of work to support the investment thesis than on a successful sell-side mandate where you drafted some marketing materials and worked as a dataroom project manager. People often don't understand that deal experience goes much further than just the headline. At the end of the day, nailing whatever case study you will have to perform as part of your PE hiring process is by far the most crucial aspect of getting the job and buy-side mandates prepare you a lot better for those.
Great place to be if your looking to be a career banker for Fintech in my opinion.
Most ppl dont make it to pe because they probably burn out. Reiterating the toxic culture x2
Are bonuses above or below street?
Paging Richards 1 through 5
Avoid if you can.
Sweatshop, but good experience if you’re interested in their vertical.
Their WSO trolls are also top-of-the-street.
Any update on this? Memes aside (serious opinions only no 140k An1 bs), is it a decent place to work? WSO makes it seem like you'd rather be homeless than work at it. Seems like they do well in fintech. Mostly sell side M&A and cap raises with more focus on the latter, but they do seem to land some a 1bn+ M&A mandates every year or so. Is it really as bad as BGL or something like that? How does it compare to MMs? Obv it's hard to compare given FTP niche focus, but curious how it stacks up compared to other firms. How do you guys compare it to DB/UBS, WF, RBC, top MMs like WB, Baird, and okay MMs like RJ, Stifel, and BMO?
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