Hey all, I’m a second year IB analyst starting in MM PE in a year. I’ve been an intense reader for several years and read 20-30+ of the classic finance recs including many of the PE relevant ones (Barbarians at the Gate, King of Capital, etc.).
I’ve got a great grasp on the finance side of things (modeling, valuation, how public markets and different securities work) but am looking to improve on my general business acumen to become a better PE investor when I start. Anyone have recs on books that might be a good fit? Im almost wondering if more consulting oriented books might be productive? Would welcome any thoughts.
Not in PE, but Gods at War by Steven Davidoff is a great book about the history of M&A and what happens when PE deals go wrong.
not a book but def recommend reading Pitchbook’s MM PE reports if you have access
Those Pitchbook reports are focused on statistics like deal volume which is useless as fuck
I guess I understood OPs question as wanting to understand the current landscape of MM PE 🤷♂️ if he’s already starting as an analyst soon then he’ll learn more in a year or two than any book could teach him anyways, so I don’t really see the value
This one might be under the radar as it's UK PE-focused, but "The Dealmaker" by Guy Hands was great. You don't have it on your list so just in case, another modrn classic is "The Caesars Palace Coup" is another one to read.
I have a couple of recommendations more about buildings businesses than PE if of interest.
Not a book, but I'd point out "Private Equity Deals with Capital Allocators" as a podcast.
Hey Count, would love the recommendations you have on building businesses if happy to share! Thanks
Sure - I really liked "What are the odds? From crack addict to CEO" by Mike Lindell. To be honest it's light on the business aspects, but an incredibly good read.
"The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz is really good. The first 1/3 is a little more biographical, but the following 2/3 is just advice after advice after advice for building and running a company. In PE maybe there's some lessons on the portco work side.
"What It Takes" by Steve Schwarzman is good, and PE-related (obviously), but felt a bit self-indulgent to be honest. Not top of my list. I actually read it right after the Lindell book and the contrast was stifling.
Invention by James Dyson is a really good book, and well worth it.
Not strictly about building businesses (I guess?) but Michael Lewis book on SBF, "Going Infinite" was a wild read.
Obviously I can't write this without Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, which is still one of the best books I've ever read. The Elon Musk one is also really good.
For those interested in the Irish side of life, two really good books are the stories of Flutter (I.e. Paddy Power, the gambling company), and Ryanair (one of Europe's two major budget airlines). These are "Punters" by Aaron Rogan, and "Michael O'Leary" by Matt Cooper respectively.
Gerald Ratner's autobiography "Gerald Ratner: The Rise and Fall...And Rise Again" is a very good read (if you can't tell by this point, I'm from the British Isles).
I guess two 'what not to do' books would be "Bad Blood" (the Theranos story) by John Carreyrou and "Damaged Goods" by Olvier Shah.
Hope you enjoy some of these!
Barbarians at the gate
A bunch of my non-academic recommendations have already been listed.
But, if you do want a more academic read, I suggest reading up on the science of complexity and complexity economics. A good "primer" on the topic is Complexity by Waldrop. This broadly follows the creation of the Santa Fe Institute, which is the leading institution for the science of complexity. From there, I recommend Complex Adaptive Systems by John Miller and Doyne Farmer's soon to be released book Making Sense of Chaos (I got an advanced copy).
The economics and finance that you know is reductive. It takes the complexities of the world and reduces it. The economics and finance that you know doesn't capture everything that actual finance professionals care about. It is why such theory is not able to actually explain the world. The science of complexity can give you tools for better understanding the world. Complexity economics can give you a framework for making better decisions when you are in PE. There is a reason why it is called the science of complexity. There is a reason why this is the study of complex adaptive systems. There is a reason why it is called complexity economics. Complexity economics accepts complexity as a way of the world, compared to the economics and finance that you know which reduces that complexity away.
To be clear, this is a very academic topic. This is not like Barbarian's at the Gate or the Caesar Palace Coup. But this would provide useful insights.
I’m
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