It seems like a lot of the Dallas-based funds are kicking off their process for 2019 start associates. Anyone have any opinions/insight on the best funds in terms of dealflow, culture, returns, b-school etc.? Funds that I've seen include Insight, Trive, Kainos, CenterOak, Redbird, CIC, Gauge, Lonestar, and several energy focused firms (NGP, EnCap, EMG, Tailwater, Pearl)
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Missed this thread. Kainos has done alright, but the culture is meh IMO (stories from execs that had issues with one of the partners at HM and at Kainos). Spun out of HM to focus solely on consumer, particularly food.
Trive is aggressive and works on some challenging deals. They are definitely value guys that love to buy hairy companies on the cheap and improve operations and growth trajectory.
Prophet is mostly special situations focused and has been struggling to put money to work given the current seller-friendly environment. I like some of the guys over there.
Lone Star probably depends on the group, but turnover is high. I've heard expectations are unreasonable and it can be a high-pressure environment. We advised a debtor in a restructuring and those guys were pains in the ass to deal with (not that unusual for HFs in the space).
Insight - don't know them well, but seem to be doing well. Have looked at several of our opportunities. Seems like a good group. Will get a lot of looks given the broader criteria
CenterOak - Raised a $420mm fund with 3/4 still left; really trying to make more investments. Very active in the market. Ex-Brazos child, so research on that culture will give you a decent read here.
Gauge - Does a good job seeing plenty of deal flow, has been more active than most MM PE funds the past few years