Chicago PE firms (comprehensive list and tiers)
Didnt see a thread for a full list of Chicago PE firms
How would people rank the firms into tiers based on MBA placement, comp, deal flow (obviously firms are different based on industry focus but wanted to get a better sense of all these firms)
Some stand-out ones BDT, GTCR, BDT but also wanted to hear how people would rank the rest:
Wynnchurch Capital, RoundTable, Vistria, Cressey, Water Street, Pritzker, Shore, Valor, Sterling, Avathon
Wind Point, Flexpoint Ford, Victory Park, Arbor, May River, CORE Industrial, ParkerGale, Periscope Equity
Linden, Longshore, Frontenac, LaSalle, Birchwood, Chicago Pacific, RiverGlade, High Point, Waud
Baird Capital, Concentric Equity, Kinzie, NextGen, Silver Oak
Any insight would be appreciated and how these firms compare to each other
Cressey: I like them a lot from the times I worked with them. The senior people were mostly out of the picture, but seemed fine. The VP was really agreeable and reasonable. And the associate was cool and nice (never dumped work on me, helped out where he could) — he saw me drunk as a skunk at brunch and asked me about it the next week and said “don’t worry I was f*ck*ng hammered.” They seem nice and sharp (made like 30x on one deal). I think they work quite hard and it may be 2-and-out.
Vistria: People seem to like it. I don’t know for sure what WLB is like, but I think it varies by group (good in some, ehh in others, but fine overall). They seem to be doing well (pulling in capital, lots of well connected big names).
Water Street: excellent in HC but a sweatshop. They brag in their job postings about how hard they work (bad sign). The one person I know who went there, quit after ~1 year.
Pritzker: PPC, TPO, PSP or DNS?
Wind Point: sharp investors. They’re nice people and you’ll get good experience there. They work very hard though and some of the people were a tad over the top intense when I interviewed there.
Edit for MBAs I know of:
cressey: wharton
vistria: HBS
WPP: lots of Kellogg and (i think) Booth. more direct promotes or people going directly to other things
I guess MDP doesn't exist