What’s everyone’s opinion on smaller boutiques that only focus on one industry vertical and execute well in that specific space? You don’t see a lot talked about in terms of pay, work life balance, and exit opps. It’s not likely that anyone outside of that specific focus will have heard of them, so I’m guessing exit opps will be weaker?
From what I’ve learned, they tend to be staffed by people that have prior background in that specific industry but not so much banking experience, plus a handful of senior partners that may have BB experience as an MD. Juniors often start there as an analyst and get promoted internally, but sometimes people lateral over from a BB / MM if they worked in the same vertical.
What about training opportunities? From prior posts on these boards, it seems like smaller shops are pretty hit or miss. On the one hand, you get more responsibility early on so you can develop faster. On the other hand, you’re kind of on your own and you won’t get much on the job training.
Bump
Can speak from experience here...
I love smaller boutiques. Pay is no doubt less than the high flying BBs, but work life balance is great and exit opportunities are unique.
In terms of opportunities, we see deals that we can't represent (because they are too small), but could either invest in or buy. It's great because we have flexibility to think about "what can we do with this opportunity".
Training is not structured. Trial by fire, my friend. That's actually one part I really like because it has taught me to think ahead, think strategically and just FIGURE THINGS OUT AND GET IT DONE.
Have seen a lot of colleagues transfer from boutique (specialized / generalist) to the BBs with ease.
This does not apply to Qatalyst right? They pay the highest on the street and are one of the most well known industry-specific boutiques.
Thank you for the response. Just one follow up - how do you learn to just “do something” if there’s no one to show you? There’s only so far you can get reading training the street guides. Real deal experience is better than anything else.
No problem.
Agree real deal experience is the best you will get.
Ask a lot of questions. Ask friends in IB. Read as much literature as you can find....
Humans are gifted with the ability to be creative and solve problems. You can figure it out.
The reason why is because there is a ton of variability between boutiques. Just because you are industry focused doesn't mean that you are quality. There are really good groups and terrible ones and everything in between.
Without trying to give some specific names, it would be very difficult for anyone to definitively comment on work life balance (there was just a thread about how ridiculous FT Partners is), comp, etc.
Ok so let me try to address. Obviously Leerink and Qatalyst are great examples of places with excellent pay, deals, and exits.
But what about places that do $150MM deals? You can look up the deals the company closed and the former analysts LinkedIns, but nobody is really gonna give you an honest answer. Let’s pretend you get great deal flow but “unorthodox” training. Would a place like this be better than a big bank at a shitty group with minimal deal experience? I guess my question is at what point does better deal flow trump brand? Or do the only people that seriously consider these places are doing so because that’s all they could get?
I understand your point, but I don't think it makes sense to lump Q and Leerink into the same boat. Q does multibillion dollar transactions, with over $100 billion in deals executed last year (if you include the NXP deal) while Leerink deals strictly in MM healthcare
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