Anyone have any information on Peakstone Group Chicago office? Looking for info on deal flow, reputation, culture, etc…How does it compare to other smaller Chicago shops? Thanks in advance.
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Interviewed there for a summer internship a few years ago. From what I saw, lots of MDs who worked at BBs (Lehman, BoA) and came back to originate deals in the lower mid market. They rank high in lower mid market stats and analysts said each had like 5 deals when I interviewed so they have good deal flow and cover all industries. Seems like decent exit ops too from LinkedIn.
Great deal flow in the LMM space. WLB is among the best you’ll find in banking. You’ll get solid banking experience.
Unique structure since there’s so many MDs and not that many analysts, but you do get direct exposure to senior people since there’s nobody in the middle ranks.
Pretty unstructured and entrepreneurial environment, which is fantastic to some because it allows for freedom and growth potential, but probably not the best for people that need more structure and specific instructions for everything.
Sorry, but I'm going against the grain on this. Reputation is not good, it's a bunch of guys that struggle to hack it at BBs, MMs, etc. and end up hanging a shingle and "renting" resources (e.g., analysts, databases, etc.).
I've interacted with a few "MDs" there over my years and there is a reason they aren't at more reputable shops. There are easily a dozen non-traditional names (e.g., non-BB, non-MM) that are better in Chicago (e.g., Stout, Mesirow, BGL, Dresner, XMS, etc.). I'd take any of those over Peakstone.
Also, as it relates to culture, one of the biggest issues banks like this face is they have a poor and loose-knit one. There is more turnover than normal, there are MDs living all over the place and not in the office regularly, etc., so as a junior, it is probably quite difficult. An example of this was Headwaters, prior to its merger with Capstone.
Also, look at who the buyers are for its deals. These are microcrap deals. If you go there, try and leverage a couple of tombstones to move up market.
Don’t disagree with anything you said. But the fact that OP is considering Peakstone is because he probably didn’t get offers at any other more reputable shops in chicago. For what it is, Peakstone will without a doubt give you solid transactional experience as an analyst and give you the skill set you need to eventually move to a larger shop if that’s what you want.
While true, every bank is hiring these days and 2022 looking to be just as robust on the M&A side of things. If I were OP, I would probably wait it out and try and get into one of those places directly.
To your point though, if those ships have already sailed, Peakstone may be an acceptable stepping stone to a larger IB.
I just look at the volume of deals per senior banker and shake my head. It's not too much to expect 1-2 deals per senior per year and that's not what the data shows.
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