fake boutique firm? need advice

Hey fellow monkeys,

I am just another desperate monkey aiming for a boutique internship and trying to gain relevant experience.

I received an internship offer from a boutique PE firm (via cold-emailing), but I am suspicious about their legitimacy. It sickens me that people would screw over desperate monkeys.

Things that made me worry: 1) they are located away from major cities. 2) they changed their company name recently 3) they copied/pasted investments from past work at previous firms. 4) their revenue is less than 1 MM / year.

Any thoughts? Please share your opinion. Thanks!

5 Comments
 

Accept, ask to see take a tour of the offices too, but keep on networking and trying to find another summer position.

Scenario 1 - you find that its legit, get good experience in a small shop where you can assume a ton of responsibility

Scenario 2- you find another position at a known firm, and accept that and decline this position after you already accepted the better one. They won't be happy, but they're a small firm and you likely won't be crossing paths with them again in your career. Not an ideal choice, but keeps your options open.

 

bump. I agree there arent much opportunities around, so I cant just abandon this outright. During the interview, they are trying to get me involved in one live deal, is this enough to stick around? What are some of the ways to maximize learning at this firm?

 
Best Response
1: Resort town? Maybe it is just a lifestyle shop? Fair to be suspicious here, but not every legit shop is located near a major city. 2: If all they changed was "Mgmt" to "LP", I wouldn't be concerned here. May be a legal structuring issue more than anything else. If they were trying to change their brand, they'd make a more drastic change than that. 3: It isn't unusual for a new investment firm to cite investments from their old companies. I don't think #3 is an issue. 4: Not sure what to say here. Sounds like any other start up boutique -- isn't this what you expected?

You are right to be concerned -- there are lots of shops out there that are not legit and are just looking for free labor. I don't necessarily think the concerns you mentioned are too big a deal though. If this is just for an internship and you don't have many better options, you should probably take the risk. If it ends up being crap it is just an internship -- you'll just need to spin it to the next employer.

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

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