The ACTUAL Minnesota Finance Scene in 2024

Bruhhh my bad 💀 also forget to include 

• Hennepin Partners
• Quazar Capital Corporation

HL rx should be placed at #1 for exits and comp

Not an MN guy here, but make it there a few times a year and chat with all of the bankers there, and your post lines up with my observations much more than OP’s lol.

Which major RE firms have presence?

Agreed that OP's post is... not good. Screams like a local college kid who did some networking and Googling and is trying to come across as an expert. 

I know absolutely nothing about Minnesota and have not worked a day in my life in the Midwest but as someone who distantly came across a few of these firms in IB/PE, even I can tell OP’s version is a lot less accurate than this one.

Teller in Legal:

I work in MN and this is hugely misleading. Much of what is written here is wrong. Minneapolis is not a city you can understand through Google (what I think has been attempted here), as it is not as well-covered like Chicago. It is an awesome city though with a solid finance scene.  

Corrections and notes provided below. I'm only engaging with this because I want people to succeed and not be led down the wrong path, and I know that college students will read this and run with it. 

I'm not going to talk badly about anyone in this post, or some of the questionable takes, so you can interpret me not addressing a job/school however you want. Many good firms are not covered here, many “meh” firms are covered on the original post  

General

• I completely disagree with many of the notes provided in parenthesis. I'll leave it at that.


• If we are going to name random finance leadership development programs, then we should at least also mention top consulting firms like McKinsey and BCG. These are among the top jobs in Minnesota.


• You can't just exclude one of the the world's largest commodity traders - Cargill is a trading behemoth across commodities and financial products. This is a different path, but a very good one.

Schools

• Carlson is good locally, and has some great programs (Atland), but doesn't compare to other large state schools like Michigan/Kelly. This is obvious though. Solid program.


• Carleton/Macalester/Olaf are the more academically-inclined liberal arts schools that quietly place very well relative to what you'd expect, but few kids are gunning for finance roles. This can be good (alumni are very, very helpful and you get a more interesting group of peers) or bad (less of an on-campus finance community). Carleton is the obvious frontrunner academically. Most kids placing in top IB/ER/PE/VC roles could've attended a target but chose not to due to local ties, so keep that in mind.  Plenty of alumni going to solid firms and MBA programs.


• None of the schools above are major targets compared to true target schools, but they place far better than any other MN schools. They all have smart kids (as does any college) that will find their way to top jobs. 


• To be clear, you can get a job from any school if you’re talented. It is just a matter of how much extra work it will take. 

Investment Banks

• I personally know dozens of people who have worked at Piper and I've never heard of a CM&D group. Healthcare is what Piper MN is known for, with groups like Industrials also doing well.

• HL RX is the top IB opportunity in MN. No debate. HL also has other groups that are run out of MN. Historically a strong office, and until recently the top people at the firm were based out of MN.


• You're missing HW, TripleTree, Northborne (new but growing), Hennepin, and others. 


• Most of the listed boutiques in the original post are not places I'd pursue unless you are local and want something small. Nothing wrong with that!


• I've never heard of RBC having any investment banking presence in MN. MN is the headquarters for US WM and houses some other business lines, but not IB. 


• BMO acquired GHF many years ago, and many bankers have left for other boutiques. Still a good place to be if in MN. 


• Many firms listed should not be compared to the larger shops (reverse also true). Totally different. 


• How is Baird major when they only have a few bankers? Baird itself is big, but until now i didn’t even know they had an office here. 

Buy Side

• This is very misleading. 


• The large asset managers listed are all very different. They can’t be grouped together other than as “big” firms. You need to research what teams actually sit in MN to get a sense for these opportunities. They’re also less desired than the group in the bullet below and firms you mentioned like Varde.


• You're missing most of the serious and sought-after PE/HF/Credit firms. This list should include Castlelake, the Cargill/Black River spinouts (AB CarVal, Garda, Proterra, etc.), Walleye, Whitebox, Yukon Partners, Winslow, Excelsior Energy Capital, Estuary, Shoreview, and others. There are several more I'm leaving out, but you’ll find on LinkedIn. 


• Norwest (equity + mezz) is in a different league as the boutique firms mentioned next to it.


• You can't exclude Arthur Ventures for VC when they're the largest VC player in MN. What about Deepwater (recently involved in xAI’s B round)? 301INC (General Mills VC) or other corp venture arms?


• Referring to Varde and Pine River as "boutique" is an interesting choice.


• You're missing several relatively large real estate firms


• I won't go into detail, but there are at least a half-dozen strong boutique PE/credit/HF/VC firms that I'd personally chose over most of the firms mentioned in this post. That doesn’t mean the original post didn’t list some good firms. There are just many unique spots to land that are worth searching for. 

Corp

• UHG Corp Dev > Cargill Corp Dev/Strat >>>> Others mentioned. UHG is one of the largest companies in the world and is very active in M&A. Cargill is the largest private company in the US and is a global powerhouse. This is reflected in pay, team backgrounds (ex-IB/PE/MBB, top MBA), and opportunities (executive fast-track, bschool placement). 


• The companies listed vary dramatically when it comes to quality of experience and outcomes. Some names provided are honestly easy to land. Others are as selective as Piper. They really shouldn’t be compared. 

Career Comments

• I am not sure what "target stepping stone firms first" means, but I think that is poor advice. Interview for the best firms you can.


• Comp is generally in-line with the rest of the market if you're at a larger firm.


• This entire post focuses too much on the local angle. If you seriously want to do IB/PE/HF in Minneapolis my opinion is that you should go study at a target school unless you are confident enough to recruit out of one of the schools mentioned above. Take it from somebody who went to school in MN and would never change a thing. I love my school, but realism is important when planning your future. All of these firms recruit nationally, and unless you’re a heavily networked and top-performing student you’re going to struggle against the kids from Williams/Duke who grew up going to Blake/Breck and want to move back home. I’ll always remain convinced that some of these schools are on-par with east coast counterparts when it comes to experience for the middle 95% of students, and the kids will be nicer, but at the end of the day people default to national reputation and acceptance rate. For those metrics, MN is going to lag simply due to students not wanting to study here compared to the coasts. If you are already studying locally - don’t fret. Just get in touch with alumni and outwork the competition. People WILL help and will easily do more than is typically expected due to this being such a tight knit community. 

Edited heavily throughout to make this helpful to somebody who is where I was years ago. For sure missing stuff (all the banks like USB/Wells, misc AM, PWM/family offices, specialty finance) but a good start. Good luck to all MN people. 

Minny banker here - this is very accurate. Comp numbers from OP are insanely off. Agree with others that the OP missed many buy side opportunities, especially in distressed debt + subordinated lenders. Mn is quite good from that angle

Luigi Mangione got rejected from that group. 

I believe that they led the RX of Lehman Bros, City of Detroit, and GM to name a few