Hi folks, long time lurker but grateful to all you jungle animals for the career wisdom and hilarity you’ve shared over the years.
I’ll keep my background brief with the hope of maintaining some anonymity, but I’m currently working in leveraged finance sales at a bank on the east coast. I’m doing well in my job but it’s not interesting, and I’m craving a move for professional learning and personal growth. I’ve settled on San Francisco and private credit, preferably with a special situations/opportunistic angle.
I know that probably sounds like a long shot based on my background, but please humor me. I would love some help compiling a list of private credit funds in the Bay Area with some differentiation or grouping to distinguish the “pure play” sponsor finance platforms vs. those that will invest across the cap structure and find ways to structure attractive opportunities. I am less interested in pure distressed although I will certainly look into those opportunities if some come up. Not interested in bonds or public market investing generically.
Thanks in advance for your thoughtful responses (and hopefully I’m posting in the right place).
Should be pretty doable. Feel like SF shops struggle with recruiting talent since lots of traditional finance kids don’t want to end up in SF.
Firms I can think of off top of my head include Sixth Street, WhiteOak, Angel Island, Blackstone credit (growth and LBO), Fortress, ton of venture debt firms.
Very helpful, thank you for the post. I wasn't aware of WhiteOak (they seem to be more niche/specialty finance oriented from a quick look at their website) and didn't realize Fortress had people in San Francisco. From my understanding, I would put Sixth Street and Fortress into the same category (larger platforms, opportunistic and mostly illiquid), while Blackstone obviously has tons of pockets. Angel Island looks like they are opportunistic but smaller and focused on liquid markets. Does all of that track with your understanding?
I looked didn’t realize the Fortress credit HC partially moved to DFW with the rest in Menlo from SF during pandemic. Generally yes though. I think Atalaya also has a presence in Bay Area as well. There should be a decent amount of Farallon / Watershed former employees which may be able to track down the smaller places.
I would avoid White Oak if I were you. We have an associate who lateraled over and he said theyre doing horribly and most associates/vps joke that the carry is worthless.
Would not call Blackstone special sits / opportunistic
They are pretty Vanilla, even for what they call “opportunistic”
Do you happen to have a final list you can share? SF tends to also have a better WLB / remote culture - any insights into whether any firms stand out in this regard?
bump
any updates / further insight into this list?
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