D1, Altimeter, Dragoneer, Addition (privates)

Current MF PE analyst looking to move to venture/growth and want to understand how people in the industry would rank the quality of these seats (all on the privates side). Considering mostly comp, career progression/investor turnover, level of responsibility, and culture. SF vs. NYC doesn't matter much to me. 

I understand that all of these are incredible places and ranking is probably not the best way to think about it, but I want to know anyways. Thanks so much in advance. 

30 Comments
 

by no means am I doubting the comp figures you provided, but are you sure of this? Analysts being paid $1 million before hitting 30 and Dragoneer guys making over $10 million PER year in their thirties seems outrageously high, no? Again, not doubting, but what sources do you have to confirm this? 

 

You hit the nail on the head, there's not much of a point in ranking these because in terms of PrEsTiGe and comp/dealflow quality they're all pretty similar. For personal preferences that are in no way objective (don't consider this a ranking of competency/one being better than the other) I'd say:

  1. Altimeter - I'm a Brad stan. Listen to BG2Pod and like the way he thinks; would argue of the 4, Altimeter the most knowledgeable with respect to the AI wave and have been capitalizing on that well (investors in Glean and OpenAI). Their Snowflake investment is one of the best true crossover deals I think ever (led their $79m Series C and stake was valued $4b+ when it went public so ~50x, still held a huge chunk and it got to $6b+ so ~75x)
  2. Dragoneer = D1 - both great shops, solid teams & historical performance, pedigree. D1 maybe a slight edge in branding because of the Tiger Cub legacy and they've invested in some amazing software companies I've followed for years. Dragoneer is more lowkey but their logo/vibe is so damn cool, would rank them #1 in that department
  3. Addition - only ranked last because I know the least about them/haven't met anyone from there, I'm sure they're awesome and just run a slightly lower profile than the others
"If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

A word of caution... might want to read up on how Tiger Privates have been performing. Their strategy was great during ZIRP but it blew back on them with a vengeance. The counterpoint is of course Lee had a number of big winners and had left before Tiger's truly insane speed of deployment strategy took hold in the early 2020s, but not even most pies Addition stuck their fingers into during that same period came out smelling very fresh either. 

 

Addition has had extremely bad returns (think SD IRRs) across most of their funds. They have tough precedent by raising and overdeploying across 2020-2021... I think there are firm fundraising and longetivity concerns.

 

Don't know those returns. Going to Addition carries much higher career risk than any of the other options listed. I wouldn't be suprised if LPs put them in penalty box until earlier funds show more sign of life.  

 

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