Think the title says it all. I had an initial screening for Vista last week and was told that I was moving to the next round (resume screen by investment team) but haven’t heard back yet. Decisions are supposed to be coming back this week, so was curious if anyone has gotten a response yet.
| +44 | Those unemployed in PE 3+ months, how do you make progress every day? | 23 | 5h |
| +18 | Friend considering moving from the US to Hong Kong for an IR Role – How difficult would it be to return? | 1 | 20h |
| +17 | Is it possible to get no comments as an analyst? | 6 | 8h |
| +13 | London PE Secondaries / Co-Investment Comp | 4 | 16h |
| +12 | Indian PE Landscape | 2 | 5d |
| +9 | Arcline thoughts? | 7 | 2d |
| +9 | JPM PB to Institutional Capital Raising | 1 | 5d |
| +8 | Searchfund | 5 | 4d |
| +7 | PE to L/S Equities | 8 | 11h |
| +6 | PE Recruiting: M&A vs Rx | 3 | 1d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
What’s the outlook on vista rn?
Poor.
For an incoming associate, unless you’re in a banking group where Vista would be the best name you’d have a chance of getting [not your GS TMT, EVR Menlo, CVP, PJT, you get it], it doesn’t make sense relative to the other funds you would have a chance at. All three buyout funds are just about fully deployed, most importantly their Flagship strategy, and the last fund took 2-3 years to raise and hit below target. You’d be one of 30 associates and likely only doing portfolio company work, and only getting a deal closed if you’re one of the good ones who gets hand-picked.
I’ve had many friends depart the firm over the last few years, several to direct competitors, so Vista’s attrition isn’t quite “SaaSpocalypse”-driven when the firm now has several alumni at Hg and Thoma Bravo.
The fund clearly has some institutional issues that make it a subpar choice [definitely versus what the firm used to be]. I haven’t even commented on returns but I’m sure they’re not great, otherwise more VPs and above would be sticking around.
bump
Nothing to bump, Associate 1 obviously has friends at / formerly at the firm (as do I) and is 100% spot-on:
If you’re an analyst at a mid-tier bank looking to get a great brand name - do it. It’s still a great brand and I’ve anecdotally heard that junior culture is great (very similar to banking, in a “We’re all in this shit together” sense, but with PE benefits). It sounds like that’s the bucket you’re in, but like Associate 1 said above, if I’m actually talking to a PJT / EVR / GS TMT kid right now … go do better
Why is Vista suddenly becoming another active topic on the PE forum? Feels like this happens every 6 months or so, and never in the most positive light.
To answer your question - over the past few years there has been an unreasonable amount of attrition from Vista. More than any MF PE firm I’ve ever heard of, including the usual suspects like Apollo, H&F, etc.
Reposting my previous answer to this before I remembered to change my title on this site as it remains true. AI was used to clean up my writing, but generally would not recommended to join. Since my post, multiple other people above VP have left on their own volition, which is a really bad sign as it means people willingly sacrificed huge sums of carry $:
The whole “2020–21 blew them up” narrative is way too convenient. Hg and Thoma were more active in that window. Vista was comparatively less active because they were dealing with legal issues with Robert Smith being implicated in the tax fraud allegations and kicking out their other co-founder.
The bigger issue is exits. Software multiples reset, the IPO window shut, and now monetizing at 2021 marks is a lot harder. They’ve also clearly slowed down on realizing outcomes post-2020 as they’ve scaled. Some older positions that are underwater just sit there. If you don’t crystallize losses, you can maintain the optics of “very few misses.” That works when DPI doesn’t matter to LP's, not now when it's a key focal point. It matters now.
Then layer on governance questions. Kicked out Brian Sheth, former president and co-founder, in late 2020. Robert Smith’s tax situation was a massive overhang. No obvious, institutionalized succession bench the way Thoma has with Spaht / Boro / Crabill. Vista is effectively a $20bn+ fund around one undeniably great but highly centralized decision-maker, with a history of pushing out others (both other co-founders in Stephen Davis and Brian Sheth were kicked out and now run their own firms). When performance is top-quartile, LPs ignore that. When it’s not, governance issues might matter more.
I’d bet the increased activity on this post is from the anxious incomers (mostly interns and analysts, if I had to guess the average anonymous profile on here) who want to know if they’re headed to a sinking ship.
All the detail above is true. On the departures, you can go level by level.
MDs come and go (some pushed out, some choose to, just how it works in this line of work).
SVPs & VPs - all voluntary, couple of which were known to be Vista’s best investors and very clear “path to MD” if you will. This is one of the biggest red flags, as you would think these guys “made it”, getting a seat at the carry table and more to come. But clearly not the case if you drop it all without a second thought.
Then comes the junior team - countless exits for a variety of reasons and roles. It’s everything from a 1st year analyst to senior associates, with exits spanning startups, business school, corpdev, hedge funds, and more. And regarding the comment above on “some of Vista’s best juniors who were poached”, the most notable exits are the directly competitive private equity firms (namely, Thoma Bravo and Hg). Have some close colleagues who know the guys who made the jump to TB. Harvard kid got promoted to VP at TB faster than anyone else in his Vista cohort by at least a year, if not more. Rice kid was apparently the de facto golden boy of Vista on all of the best deals, and still decided to jump ship. Just not an ideal signal from the outside in or inside out, especially for a firm that preaches promotion from within.
Haven’t heard anything yet either...
bump
Nostrum iste soluta qui dolorum earum et. Sed rerum autem perferendis a voluptatem aut ipsum.
Perferendis sint facilis natus necessitatibus nostrum alias. Et rerum omnis ea sit quo quae.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...