Info on LionTree’s Pornography IB group?

Does anyone know much about the Adult Media & Entertainment group (I think that’s what it’s called) at liontree. I know it’s a new group, and the only thing I’ve heard of is that they’ve recruited people from JPM who’ve had experience doing financings for MindGeek (parent company of pornhub, brazzers, RedTube, etc) and other companies in the space. 

71 Comments
 

there is definitely a CIM/simp joke in here with compelling upside potential

 
Most Helpful

Actually a very interesting space right now.

Porn was basically monopolized by Mindgeek and the regulators didn't stop them because well...it's porn (seriously they own pornhub, redtube, digital playground, Mofos, twistys, men.com, reality kings).  They are the standard oil of Porn.

However they completely failed to see the trends of the average porn consumer and are losing market share and revenue at an increasingly precipitous rate.  Consumers either want personalized/intimate experiences (Onlyfans) or extremely high quality 4k glam porn in exquisite locations (Vixen, Blacked.com - Both owned by the same competitor by the way).

Simply put, Onlyfans is to Mindgeek as Tik Tok is to Facebook.

People would rather pay money to simp on onlyfans than watch free porn on pornhub.  That's how out of touch in the market Mindgeek was.  They are trying to catch up with their own version of personalized pay to play content but they are too late in my opinion.

A merger between Onlyfans and Mindgeek would be extremely synergystic and crush nearly all the remaining competition, and again, the regulators will not touch this.  Add in a high profile bolt on acquisition of a VR headset provider and you get vertical market synergies that would be very valuable and cover the whole porn supply chain from content creator to end user.

If I was in the LionTree Porn group I'd be pitching this idea 24/7 to them on the merits of a strategic merger of equals between the two companies.  Onlyfans could probably get a decent deal for them as the Mindgeek CEO is currently dealing with personal issues to include religious groups lighting his 16mm dollar mansion in Toronto on fire (SRS)  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10417683/Pornhub-CEO-breaks-si…; Always negotiate in a position of strength!

 

Not only is this idea genius but I know for damn sure no one can read this full thread without spitting their drink out🤣😭. 

Nah
 

People would rather pay money to simp on onlyfans than watch free porn on pornhub.  That's how out of touch in the market Mindgeek was.  They are trying to catch up with their own version of personalized pay to play content but they are too late in my opinion.

Basically out of the Steve Jobs playbook when he developed Apple Music when everyone was downloading illegally. 

 

I don't think this is the real trend here. Similar to our analyst friend, I've also been performing a lot of due dilligence on this market. Here is an statistic I got out of my most recent discounted cum-flow model: Girls on onlyfans are on average 50% hotter than girls doing real porn.

Jokes aside, this is true. The women doing porn are usually hot but if you've ever gone outside you would realize that there are some girls in the real world who are way hotter. But those girls, for some reason, just don't get into the mainstream porn industry. The reasons are clear. There are many very specific steps you need to make, and very specific people you need to know, to get into a porn role. Even as a hot girl. But with websites like onlyfans then if you are hot and you know you are hot all you need to do is upload a few pics (not even showing face) to see what the interest is on someone with your body. Then when you get some traction it is also easy to double down showing more and maybe even doing actual porn shoots for your audience. 

So this is the trend. 

Girls that don't do porn at all > Girls that do modelling/other non-porn but sexual in nature acts > Girls that do soft-core porn > Girls that do hardcore porn

Previously the consumer only had access to the right-end of this inequality. Onlyfans unlocked the next category. The third category would be if normal celebrities just started also doing porn (which has happened with some low-tier celebrities). The 4th category would be if every single woman became a pornstar. I think that in the next 10 years we will see someone unlock the third category. The 4th category... it's a bit tricky. 

 

I just checked out vixen.com and blacked and i cannot believe people actually watch those over produced over glossy porn. Its just so fucking boring to look at wtf, no one looks like they are having fun and its so robotic and the fact that people actually pay to use them is even more crazy to me. I always preferred free and amateur type stuff. 

While I can kinda understand guys that pay for only fans since its more intimate, those 4k glam porn type of videos are literally so unappealing to me I think people that watch them must be real life NPCs no way they are actually real people. 

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

but is there an equal representation of females (think women) in the group? Would be disconcerting to see LT single out one of its industry-leading coverage groups ... not quite encouraging to the fairer sex looking to apply.

 

Deep fake technology has actually shown a bunch of positives for the adult entertainment industries. Aside from websites failing to prevent its use and uploads from users, when used appropriately and ethically it can benefit the actors and UX almost equally. Actors don’t have to work as much, worry about target populations, be hassled with public health/safety on a regular basis, or risk doing things they’re not comfortable with for more views/interaction, etc. Furthermore, users could have the opportunity to literally customize whatever video or actor they’d like for whatever weirdo task they’re tryna do. The quality of edits from amateurs in the space is already impressive, so the quality of cinematography that a large corporation’s AI could create is effectively endless.

 

Deepfake is insane. Admittedly I've waxed my paddle to a deep fake of a dummy hot celeb, I genuinely could not tell it was deep-fake even though I knew it was one

I'd actually view this a major Threat of Substitute for the supply base (thots). If it can look exactly the same as a girl that I'm attracted towards, at some point I'm not going to care if it's actually her or a deep-fake that is just as good as her...or even better depending on what you can do with the tech. 

 

Heard the group has by far the most diversity on the street, it puts SEO to shame. Also much higher female representation that most other firms. 

We're not lawyers. We're investment bankers. We didn't go to Harvard. We Went to Wharton!
 

Mindgeek is a really a pretty legit tech company.  The amount of traffic they handle(hd streaming video to billions of users) i believe even surpasses Netflix in terms of bandwidth and packets sent.

A lot of the technological features you enjoy on Netflix and YouTube were actually developed by the porn industry(srs).  Hover previewing thumbnails, heat maps(where it shows where people watch in a video) etc.  Read some interesting thing in the past talking about how much of the modern youtube/Netflix/ hbomax experience is due to porn.

If I was backend engineer, working at Mindgeek would be pretty prestigious.

 

Porn also drove the early development of the internet. Something like 70 of internet traffic is/was porn related.

 

***Coffee meeting with 24 year old blonde hr recruiter***

Her: So I think you have a really interesting background, do you have any specific industry you are looking to cover or have experience in?

You: Porn.....(make sure you are staring into her cleavage)

Either she laughs in your face, you get me too'd, or she says she wants to see how much you know by taking her back to your place

This excellent SNL/Netflix Documentary/Porn Scene just wrote itself

 

ofc they do. I think MindGeek (previously mentioned) alone brings in half a billion $ in revenue. However, it's true that profitability % are not that high for these firms, but they could still reach an easy 10% IMO (I assume this company could bring just under $50M in profits). Would be interesting to see their CF statements tbh.

Furthermore, I doubt most people working with these firms care about profitability, as they probably spend a lot unnecessarily and then cover it as business expenses (paying for great holidays as part of a video or something like that)

 

Cover letter template for SAs trying to recruit for the group. 

My name is Liontree Applicant X, and I am a rising sophomore at California Upstate Montclair.  I'm writing to express my interest in Liontree's porn roup.  I'm not a complicated man.  I like porn.  In particular, I like to watch people fuck on the internet.  But I don't want to work at a BB and I don't want to exit to Apollo.  I like simple pleasures, like butter in my ass and lollipops in my mouth.  That's just me.  That's just something that I enjoy.  Call me crazy, call me a pervert.  But there's one little thing that I want to do in this life and that is to make a dollar and a cent in this business. 

I look forward to being in touch to discuss next steps. 

 

Nostrum hic voluptatem dicta aliquid rerum libero doloremque. Dicta vero et reiciendis non unde. Quibusdam eaque reprehenderit et aperiam et. Delectus reprehenderit dolores et et. Qui vitae necessitatibus eaque unde et ipsum omnis pariatur. Alias sed ipsa qui aliquid sequi incidunt illo.

 

Nostrum corporis iste suscipit maiores tempora minus omnis. Doloremque rerum nemo consequatur fuga. Eveniet officia nemo in fugit deleniti. Inventore autem consequuntur unde corporis quasi fuga.

Commodi numquam voluptatem voluptatem dolor aliquid. Vero quas ea suscipit. Est sed dolorem eaque velit libero fugiat veniam. Debitis corrupti natus consequuntur est et ut earum dolor. Amet quaerat quod voluptate hic officiis et aperiam.

Ea atque magni molestiae velit quia fugiat mollitia. Quasi dolorum aut placeat porro vel expedita. Magnam molestiae rerum sunt quibusdam non illo. Dolore ea nam cum et ut. Maxime voluptas aut iure ipsum quo laudantium. Qui et voluptas animi et numquam at vel.

 

Quis aut et velit cumque. Et ut velit ea quia aliquid ducimus. Soluta atque fugit nostrum incidunt maxime porro error. Incidunt saepe est ab officiis adipisci. Commodi aliquam ipsa doloribus delectus. Consequuntur veniam aliquid a.

At illo totam sint occaecati tempora aperiam voluptas. Autem doloribus eveniet voluptatem eos repellendus necessitatibus aut dolorem. Hic sequi porro dolores voluptates. Est expedita ex quaerat voluptate et vel consequatur. Ex aperiam quae vel non quibusdam.

Repellendus tempore itaque aut sint. Optio ullam et exercitationem. Ab tempora itaque eos.

Dolorum consequatur ab voluptas quasi. Inventore dolor laborum ut blanditiis perferendis. Quo quasi eius quia sunt est error.

Career Advancement Opportunities

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.9%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (57) $264
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (28) $184
  • Intern/Summer Associate (16) $161
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”