Audax PE or Advent International PE

I hear horrible things about Audax. Along with H.I.G., a lot of people try to avoid working with them (I know multiple bankers that have said this). Don't know anything about Advent, but they are much larger. Good luck.

Also agree with Advent - plus Advent is a lot more well know and bigger as mentioned above - you have to give some credit to brand, especially if it's for pre-mba associate...

Audax can be tough. Their deal-team, especially at the analyst and associate level, is very hands-on operationally, whereas I understand that Advent hired a former Bainee a few years ago - Sean Padgett - to form a portfolio improvement group. IE, the Advent deal team essentially doesn't do anything post-100 day plan. If you value "partnering with management teams" whatever the f___ that means, Audax might be a good option. Some people don't want to stay in PE forever, so the skillset in this case is more transferable and broad.

In the end, though, Advent is a bigger fund, more international, with a better lifestyle. Not knowing more, that's my answer.

Advent

I've heard that Advent Europe has been extremely successful over the last few years in terms of IRR. Don't know if that says anything about US.

My boutique does a lot of deals with Audax and we joke who has it worse... and I'm not sure. Go Advent.

Anybody have any further info on Advent? What sort of career progression/exit ops does it offer. I'm particularly interested in how it compares to the Megafunds like BX, Bain Cap. I would hope that given it is very large/international and invests in fairly large deals (often close to $1BN) that it wouldn't be to big a step down...does this sound right?

Much more successful and active than BX in Europe. They do a lot of tech deals and most of them have been performing really well. They invest here in companies worth €500m+ here.

Advent.

Truthfully, I don't have much info on them besides them being a big name and do quite well for themselves, but I've heard the same about Audax as everyone else (both firsthand and secondhand info). They do A LOT of due diligence. So that means analysts/associates get worked to the ground.