Advisory Firm vs. Boutique

Hey guys, I am looking to gain the right experience to position me for a position post-MBA in a PE firm. If you are in PE already, then which one of the following choices of experience would you make?

  1. Advisory firm (boutique/mm) to Private Equity and Hedge Funds and Lenders. Sort of a hybrid of an I-Bank and a Management consulting firm. Some of the services include: Business Plan formation, Mergers and Acquisitions searches and evaluations, packaging businesses for sale and restructuring and crisis management

or

  1. A traditional boutique/mm I-Bank (albeit concentrating in one industry?)

Would appreciate your thoughts!

9 Comments
 

Do you have offers? these two choices are so fucking broad man. be more specific.

i-banking is always better than non-ibanking. #2 will set you well in a PE that focuses in it, so if that interests you go with that.

1 i don't even know..
 
Best Response

Yeah sorry for being so broad.. what details would help make it more clear? I get it that #2 makes more sense? The reason why I was contemplating #1 was because it seems to provide a lot of services that would be transferable to a PE shop. I am a noob to PE and thus am not sure.. seeing what MPBYO said, are the services provided by #1 and thus experience that I would get not better than the experience at the boutique/mm ?

The thing is I have spoken to the CEO of the firm #1 and he has said he would like to bring me in for a summer internship in about a month. However, I just wasn't sure if thats an okay route to take? I want to understand that seeing the type of services it provides, would it be an okay route to take?

MPBYO - when you say that it seems pointless middleman service, could you elaborate?

Thanks dudes!

 

which one is more well known? this is going to help a lot.

advisory firm can be good, but it will have to be a well known shop in the region you want to do PE. and like MPBYO said if they are not FINRA registered they are probably providing there M&A services illegally lol.

with that said, either shop can set you up well to interview with well known boutiques/MM/BB IBs down the road which can eventually lead to a decent PE shop.

 

I don't think you should have a problem getting interviews with a generalist spot at MM/BB with either of your options given you network well before hand.

you will also have a leg up getting into that specific group within a BB/MM if that interests you.

 

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