Los Angeles or San Francisco for Healthcare IB

I have looked through the posts on this forum and have seen mixed answers and was hoping to clarify: other than NY, which city has a greater healthcare IB presence among the BB/EB firms? The general consensus I have seen is that it is either LA or SF. 

Some posts state that LA has larger healthcare teams (within their West Coast Coverage Team) while others say San Francisco does (with TMT/HC being the two main focuses). Do they both have strong HC presences, and if so, which has the greater HC presence?

Thank you for any clarification or guidance.

13 Comments
 

I've never heard of LA having a bigger healthcare presence than SF - which firms did those posts you read refer to? Teams in SF in general are bigger, and biotechs and digital health companies are concentrated in the bay area. Yes there are biotechs in SD, but likely covered from SF. In short if you want to do west coast healthcare you're better off in SF in my view

 

Thank you for your insights. The quote I was referencing with regard to LA potentially being more HC focused is below (From a thread titled "IB In Los Angeles - Banks, Groups, Culture?" from 2019:

"GS focuses on primarily Healthcare with a smaller presence in Consumer Retail. You recruit for one or the other (at least at the Associate level). LA and SF are a joint offices and work together on the Healthcare and Consumer side. TMT is only based in SF."

Do you know if SF is significantly harder (if at all) harder to break into than LA from a non-target?

 

Only thing I think of in terms of LA HC honestly is GoodRx (seriously jealous of anyone who was able to be an early employee here). They do a lot of amazing things in healthcare and digital health that really do make patient's healthcare a lot more affordable.

Know of a few boutique/one-man HC shops out there but nothing like SF EB/BB offices.

 

GoodRX killed it in 2020 (something like 50% increase in revenue in one year), very cool start-up-turned-mainstay. Are there specific firms you know have a large HC presence in SF? I know Goldman does, and MS has a smaller team.

 

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