Chicago PE: GTCR vs MDP vs Thoma Bravo

Curious about these three PE firms. I found Glassdoor pages for each of them but they contained very few reviews and hardly any salaries. I’m curious about the comp, hours, lifestyle, and culture of these firms and any insight would be greatly appreciated.

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Use the search function. I just wrote about 2/3. As for TB, they’re tech focused, and it’s sweaty. They, and Vista, have something like 2/3 of buyout software equity in the US (or something astounding, don’t quote this as an exact figure). In an associate interview they asked someone what you would do if a close friend’s wedding conflicted with a deal. The answer was not “work hard, make it work”; they dinged people who didn’t say “prioritize the deal”.

 

TB isn't in Chicago - I think one senior partner lives in the city and likes to work out of his old office, that's why they say they have a presence there.

I met people at b-school who worked at both MDP and GTCR - the GTCR people sound like they got better deal experience while the MDP people sound like they got better ops experience (getting in the weeds with port cos). My guess is some of that is situational and unique to the deal flow and companies they worked with, but nevertheless it's a datapoint.

GTCR is verticalized and my understanding is your experience can vary widely depending on group placement. There are a couple groups you should avoid like the plague and one that is apparently very very cushy.

 

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