How to evaluate boutique investment banks?

I'm a sophomore starting to recruit for summer internships at boutique investment banks and I'm having trouble determining which investment banks are the real deal and which aren't.

Some things I currently look at:
Experience of their team members
Caliber of students who are accepted into their internship program (LinkedIn stalk)
How their website looks (this probably isn't the best way to do it)

What are some other factors that I should take into consideration? Some people have told me to look at "deal flow" and the amount of transactions. I'm completely new to the game and have no idea how to do this. What is considered a decent amount of transactions? $4 billion since inception? $8 billion since inception?

Thanks for the help, guys

2 Comments
 

Firstly you should look at if the boutique has any particular sector experience. There are plenty of boutiques out there, and most will rant about dealflow, but dealflow is not what pays, it's closing and execution (commitment letter) that pays the fees in IB. I would try and focus on boutiques with industry strength (healthcare, media, retail, real estate, etc), since those bankers will have the knowledge and experience of how to execute a deal and, more importantly, the relationships with lenders/investors in order to execute and the debtors looking for capital or an exit. Generalist IB on the boutique side won't get very far, and as an intern most of what you will spend your time doing is mindless pitch books for shitty deals that will never close and will be a complete waste of your time.

 
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