Advice for Breaking Into Secondaries

Hello, current sophomore interested in the secondary space. I have seen the large growth in this space over a prior internship in a private capital role (PE & HF clients mostly with 2 credit funds), and am focusing on breaking into at the analyst level. 

 What are the major firms which recruit at the undergrad level? I know that PJT already closed their process, Evercore, Jefferies, Houlihan Lokey, Blackstone, Lazard, and Credit Suisse are take people (and have processes which are open). Carlyle's Alpinvest and Ares' Landmark do not analysts. Am I missing any major players?

If you are in the secondaries space and would be open to a call. Please reply to this and I will DM you. I am very excited about the future of this space and determined to break in.  

29 Comments
 

Hi bro, for some reason I can't PM you, can you PM me. Hollyport sounds interesting, do you work for them or work with them on deals? How would you say is the best way to prepare for an associate interview? How would you model GP-led deals, I'm guessing hollYport focuses primarily on GP deals and some LP-led's.

Any info or models to send to me please dm me.

Best

 

You mainly listed firms which sell secondary stakes, not sure if that's what you're looking for or if you want a buy-side role in secondaries.

You'd have to do some digging to see if they recruit from UG but if you're interested in the buy-side also check out HarbourVest, Ardian, StepStone, Sweetwater, Coller Capital, Hamilton Lane, Pantheon, Adam's Street, Strategic Partners, Lexington Partners, and Five Arrows. Beyond that don't sleep on large pension funds and endowments. 

 
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HarbourVest, Strategic Partners and  Lexington are great places that pay extremely well. Just because you work at Whitehorse and think that running pref equity deals on your own LP base makes you think you are smart doesn’t mean you are. I’ve seen countless portfolios sold to Whitehorse 5-10% higher priced than the next closest bid.

Realistically, as a young professional you should go to a large advisor or buyer before going somewhere smaller. The secondaries space has a human capital supply shortage. As time moves on people who focus on secondaries will just become higher in demand from advisors and investors.

 

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