Chicago Private Equity - Help for 1st Year analyst

Sterling isn't raising another fund last I heard.

That’s really interesting. Thoma Bravo definitely has been doing well in raising capital but it seems that a majority of the investment professionals actually sit out in SF rather than the Chicago’s HQ. Makes sense given their core competencies are software and technology enabled businesses.

Valor seems like an extremely interesting opportunity and from first glance, a lot of their team has good pedigree from various other private equity firms.

I guess there are plenty of good opportunities in Chicago that might rival what might exists in terms of upper MM / megafunds. Also interesting that BDT was able to raise such a large fund for their first two straight out of the gate..

From the looks of it, it seems like recruiting processes for these firms are just as selective as any other upper MM / MFs. Any ideas on ranges for comp that I should be thinking about compared to New York or SF given that’s COL is lower?

APAE:

I can't believe no one mentioned Thoma Bravo. They are flirting with the megafund range at this point ... targeting $10b for XIII after raising $7.6b not even two years ago (September 2016).

There's also Valor, Antonio Gracias' fund. They are primarily growth, not buyout, but they're flexible and do fun stuff. He is the only (?) investor Elon let into both SpaceX and Tesla in a real way, took board seats on both.

I ran into someone from Edgewater at an event last year, I think they're about $3b and do primarily growth. (Edit: just found a press release for you.)

That's as much as I know about Chicago besides the big guys already mentioned by others.

Thoma doesnt have a big front office presence in Chicago. Vista however seems to be adding some headcount in that office. There is also Pritzker, which is a family office but does do actual PE

This is general spot on, but MDP process run by CPI and not gobuyside.

Have heard great things about BDT from associates who had spent time there; lot of exposure to management teams and generally strong experience. Echo what you had said about MDP being a buttoned up culture, old school, blue blooded. GTCR is very sector specific - IT, Business Services etc, so would make sure that is interesting to you.

JoeyJ:

In terms of getting looks from the three you mentioned, it’s pretty standard. They are run by the same recruiting firms as your typical NY PE funds. This could have changed since I recruited, but GTCR was run by Dynamics, BDT by Henkel, and I recall MDP going through gobuyside. So definitely make your interest in Chicago (+ good reasons why) to those headhunters. If Chicago is a stand-alone first option for you, I’d also tailor my answer to ideal type of firm to fit these places as you talk to each respective recruiter. Should try to verify that these HH names haven’t changed.

BDT as explained is the merchant bank model. Byron Trott has an incredible reputation - there’s a few articles out there on this. The spin on what you are interested in here should be pretty straight forward.

GTCR has had very strong returns on a number of their recent funds. They fly out out a good portion of the team to NY as soon as recruiting kicks off for a cocktail event. Most people agreed there was a bit of a macho type of culture / personality to the team. Would not expect a step up in lifestyle - sounded like junior folks were getting crushed.

MDP also has a great reputation. No first hand knowledge here but from people in my office who worked with these guys, sounded like the culture was very buttoned up / old school, and associates were just asked to churn and churn / not speak for the most part. Again, this is just one-off comments from collueges, so it’s not bulletproof.

Would imagine b-school placematas are top notch across the board.

On the other names, Vista went through Henkel as well. I’ve got no clue on edgewater / Thomas bravo.

There’s a host of strong funds a step down in size, with latest funds in the ~750m - ~1.5bn ballpark, but if that’s below what you are looking for, the names mentioned in this thread cover the larger upper MM / megafund names I was aware of.

Thoma uses CPI.

Would just add that both MDP and GTCR fill out their classes with NY analysts, despite being in Chicago. There was a year they cancelled nearly all of their Chicago interviews and just did NY. MDP did initial screens in Chicago and just filled out in NY that year as well.

Yes but it's Chicago, so you'll be getting a big COL bump no matter what if you're coming from NYC.