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Can chime in here with what I know (one of my college mentee's interned at the firm). 

From what I've heard, the firm has a great culture and opportunities for learning and advancement; one of the firm's co-founders was like employee #10 or something at Carlyle, so definitely knows how to run and grow a firm. Annual offsites (was Madrid or something last year) and lunch / dinner comped at the office are the main perks I remember as well as pretty good hours (analyst I knew was doing ~80, so assume VP level is 40-60) and a lenient WFH culture. 

The only drawbacks I remember were about comp and the strategy. I heard that comp is below market, at least at the analyst level, and there have been some early associate departures recently, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were below as well. Also heard their strategy / returns haven't been particularly crazy (outside of Titan and Go2, which have been incredible); multiple assets written down to near zero, unhealthy obsession with chasing assets too big for their fund size to recreate the success of Titan (Carlyle / Stellex), and a historically risk-averse IC that frequently looks for co-investors instead of writing marginally larger checks and putting money to work.

FWIW, their most recent fundraise was also officially marketed at $2.5b, and the firm was really confident about getting $3b but they fell just short of that. 

 

Don't have much more on culture aside from it seems like more of a lifestyle firm, not a sweatshop. 

As for comp, the ballpark I have is ~150 for a first year analyst (85 / 65) and from what I know base hasn't increased to match market. Don't have concrete numbers for associates, but was told the ballpark that first year associates are in the 250 range, and senior associates are less than 400. Take these numbers with a large grain of salt since they're coming from a second hand source and are a rough approximation at best, but in your situation for VP+ I'd think its safe to expect a slight discount to funds of a similar size (at least based on how the numbers I have compare to the Hendrick comp report) .   

 

According to press it looks like they are raising $3B for fund iii, hard to believe they would be doing that if investments were not performing?

 

Can you elaborate on fund performance? Feels difficult to believe given their track record of raising larger funds continually

 

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