Rank EB’s in SF for Tech
Obviously Qatalyst is at the top but what about Lazard/PWP/Greenhill etc. Do any of these other boutiques stand out as being better culturally/deal flow wise??
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Qatalyst Evercore/CVP/Lazard Moelis/PWP rothschild/greenhill
all are amazing banks and places to work but seems to be the rep from people, would love to hear what other people have to say though!
I would agree with this list overall, but I would put Laz as the highest in the second tier and second overall. Every analyst in their last class that recruited exited to MF (10bn-100bn AUM) for East and west coast PE. They have slightly stronger deal flow than EVR/CVP winning regular buy side mandates for large cap tech - Google, Intel, Visa, IBM, etc.
I don’t like these types of posts because you’re comparing apples and oranges. There is absolutely no reason to isolate the EBs for tech. Most BB tech groups are quite distanced from the larger company (ie MS Menlo is basically its own firm).
Also, all these groups are growing rapidly so anything we say today will probably not be relevant in a few months. Evercore tech, for instance, was just a couple people a few years ago and now it’s one of the fastest growing groups in the space since they brought in some quality MDs.
To summarize, don’t worry so much about “rankings,” which amount to the arbitrary ramblings of some random sophomore on this website who’s still salty about most of these firms rejecting him. All EB tech groups do really interesting deals and have great exits to VC, PE, and tech Corp Dev, so don’t worry about this “ranking” bullshit.
I work at one of the EBs in SF but recruited at all of them. Here's what I gathered but generally it's Qatalyst > Evercore/Lazard/CVP > Moelis/PWP > Greenhill.
Q is a great shop. Don't really need to say more.
Evercore Menlo is probably the 2nd best. It's grown a ton over the past 5 years and just expanded offices. Bit of a bummer it's down in Menlo though. Not sure what the above poster is saying with respect to capital raising. It's mainly M&A. A lot of selling to sponsors it seems. Sold BlueJeans to Verizon last week for $500mm. Analyst exits are very good. Mix of MFs and VC.
Lazard is great as well but is a bit of a different experience. It's almost like a consulting service on retainer for companies like Google and IBM. You work with them almost exclusively on a bunch of things, be it M&A, raising, or pitching. Have been on huge deals like IBM Red Hat. Sick office views in the Embarcadero and great analyst exits as well. I think the lifestyle here is a bit better than other places I interviewed with. More exits to east coast than EVR but on par if not more consistent to MFs.
CVP seems like a great shop. They don't recruit associates in PA office so I didn't speak with them. Our analysts have friends there and it seems very solid.
PWP punches above its weight. Very tiny shop but like Laz work a lot with big companies like Blackberry and PayPal. There is some staffing overflow with healthcare but will likely change as the practice grows.
Moelis seems to be growing as well. Chill dudes but have heard can be a bit sweaty at times. Great office in downtown in SF.
Greenhill is very very tiny and seems to be on the decline. I think there's like one associate in the whole office.
Agree here on Evercore / Lazard. Evercore Menlo is very solid, pretty well rounded experience, will do a ton of upper mid market sized transactions ($250mm-$2.5b, rough numbers), will have halfway decent balance, and will exit solidly. I'd probably give it the slight edge due to the diversity of experiences - Lazard is basically outsourced corporate finance for like 5 clients (Google and IBM being two), but again, solid lifestyle and exits. The one I would maybe toss a different opinion here on is PWP - I'm pretty close with some guys in the New York office and most of the big client stuff happens out of New York... they routinely joke about SF Tech not having done a deal in years... I doubt it's actually that dry, but I get the sense deals aren't exactly flowing out of SF.
Would put Q > Laz/ Evercore / CVP > FT >> Moelis / PWP / Greenhill. FT has a terrible culture but at least they do deals. I’ve basically seen no M&A tech deals out of Moelis / PWP / Greenhill (only cap raises, special committee, etc.)
you gotta be off your rocking chair man. In what world does FTP have a better reputation than Moelis SF? cant speak to PWP or Greenhill but Moelis SF is as solid as LA.
Moelis SF does not come close to LA, sorry