Good afternoon All,
Looking for some advice on which banks have strong deal flow, good culture, a big presence out in Denver. Also interested in hearing how exit ops work (Ive been told you have a far better chance to transition to spots out west, and will have a much harder time moving to say NYC or Chicago). Candidly, I am worried about being stuck working in any city. Really welcoming all feedback and anyone's two cents on the banking scene out there. Do most BB's and EB's have offices out there? Are they more for just bringing in new clients? Do they operate in nearby states or do these firms typically focus on companies in the Colorado area?
As per usual, thank you in advance for any insight!
Lurker that wanted to chime in since I grew up native to to the area and had a similar dilemma when evaluating what I wanted to do out of school (though with regards to a different city). Still have a lot of buddies working in Denver and so I am happy to share what insight I have. Agree with previous posters and general sentiment regarding Denver being a place that is much more oriented towards PE/AM vs. traditional IBD.
I think most of the posts in this thread do a good job of covering which firms have a presence in Denver. Headwaters/DA Davidson/KPMG/various MM IB offices will probably be a decent experience, especially if you are looking to stay around in Denver for FT. Same goes for any ER teams that might still have a presence in the area (Wells, one or two others that are slipping my mind). The work/life balance at most of these firms seems relatively reasonable and conducive to a long-term career without driving yourself nuts in 2 years. That being said, they probably won't get you very far if your goal is to eventually land a "big-time" PE job, especially in cities such as NYC, LA, SF, etc. You may even find it difficult to get looks at any of the more well-known funds in the Denver (KRG, KSL, Exellere, PR) unless you have a standout UG resume/background + very impressive work experience. The firms I just mentioned mainly focus their recruiting efforts on candidates based out of NYC/LA/HOU/Chicago. That being said, with some effort put in to networking and assuming you are prepared for your interviews, I don't think it's unreasonable at all to feel comfortable that you could land a decent PE, post-banking track Asset Management, or MM Associate IBD job in a different city. I'm familiar with two guys who used to work at St. Charles (before they were acquired by KPMG) who left Denver for a very respectable buy-side gigs.
Other than that, if you want full optionality to be able to move to a different locale down the road and energy is your thing, I would consider the following:
TPH does have an office in the city and are traditionally recognized as one of the top firms within the Energy space. Working in TPH's Houston office would likely be conducive to top exit opportunities within oil & gas at the very least. I don't know much about their operations in Denver besides the fact that its still a relatively small office and I am unsure of there being a substantive number of traditional analyst (or SA) positions available there, if at all. That being said, if they or any other firm with a multi-city presence does happen to be hiring, there would likely always be a possibility that you could move from within the firm to a different city following a few years of good service.
Petrie Partners is a small firm in terms of headcount but is among the top groups in oil & gas IB and tends to compete with the Houston BBs and EBs (such as TPH) for business. It might make more sense for you, relative to TPH, considering they are headquartered in Denver. The firm is headed by ex. Petrie Parkman and Merrill Lynch/BAML alumns. Exit opportunities are strong, especially to Houston or NYC (energy-related), if you can handle the hours (seems absolutely brutal and on par with NYC sweatshops from what I've heard).
As an aside - Green Manning & Bunch was a well respected firm but they are no-longer around. Not sure what happened to the guys that were running the firm.