Corp Dev / Strategy out of undergrad -> PE?
Anyone ever see this / is it even possible?
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Very difficult move, I'd say next to impossible without any IB background. Maybe at the low end of LMM with a few years' experience in the industry, but that'll be a one-off from knowing the guys at a ~$300m fund, not from being headhunted or applying directly.
It's definitely possible. That's the move I made: 2-3 years Corp Dev -> MM PE. Depending on the type of Corp Dev you are working in it can be very straightforward (my route wasn't terribly difficult) or an uphill battle.
How would coming from a well-known and well-connected program at at F100 company fare?
Depends on the company and the type of fund. Was your program very acquisitive? Was the department a stand-alone one or was it more or less grouped in with the corporate finance team? Did you have a sector specialization that you can try and target specific funds who have overlap with? How involved were you in modeling/driving the sourcing process vs just putting together decks and checking the models an outsourced advisor was putting together? All of these will have an effect on the way a fund will look at the experience.
Just ask people that work at said F100 group
Would guess more possible for growth shops and/or those that place a premium on industry interest and expertise. i.e. if you were Twitter corp dev for 3 years then wanted to go invest in consumer social. Bonus points if you did a range of deals (minority to buyout) during your corporate years too.
MF PE probably far less likely, MM PE will be a grind but possible.
It's possible but rare. Disney runs a Corporate Strategy and Business Development analyst program that hires directly out of undergrad, though it does seem to prefer a few schools based on Linkedin. This is basically their internal M&A group and would be considered a coveted exit for many banker/consultants. Anecdotally, the reviews of the analyst program were pretty high, though they seem more mixed on this forum, perhaps bc of the forum's bias towards IB. There is something to be said about the benefits of starting your career in NYC vs. Burbank (LA).
So would a team as good as that have access to more exits oops like PE? Or would someone that can break into that team not even want to leave?
I didn't go through the program myself so I can't speak directly to the exits or the culture. That said, my peers who did go through it were approached by a range of firms that included PE (some mega-fund level), lots of VC/Growth Equity, some HF, and of course, other Corp Dev/Strategy departments at big TMT firms. Location is something you would want to consider for this or other Corp Dev/strategy roles because of the potential limitations on networking. e.g. if you live in NYC, it's much easier to network with other folks in PE (if that matters to you) than it would be LA (where there are far less PE firms).
Believe they also have some presence with this group in NYC, for what it's worth - have an acquaintance who works there but is definitely based in NYC.
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