Difference Between Buyout PE and Growth Recruiting

How does the process of recruiting for growth differ from buyout PE? Both in terms of head hunters and getting interviews, and in terms of technicals. Do growth shops still run LBO tests? How does the technical portion of the interview differ?

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for one they're pretty different investment approaches. for growth you should know the industry they invest in very well and a potential target for them.

some growth firms still use debt, some dont, you should be able to build a simple lbo regardless

technicals focus more on whats relevant to the growth shop, i.e. the industry and unit econs, less so on leverage

 

Overall, the process is fairly similar. If you are well-prepared for PE interviews you will do fine in growth as long as you have a good answer for the "why growth equity" question.

Headhunters for PE and growth are largely the same. Getting interviews is going to be almost the same as well, in that analysts from top banks & groups will have a much easier time securing interviews (especially on-cycle and with the largest funds). Most growth equity funds will have you do an LBO modeling test and/or some sort of case study. Technical portion might be a ltitle more geared towards SaaS metrics (ARR, retention, LTV/CAC, etc.) in growth but overall it's pretty similar.

 

Agree have also seen in the past that growth firms will often times throw "unstructured" data at you (ie a csv file with tons of rows and columns which are ordered but not presented in usual P&L format) and expect you to convert it into a price/volume/rev build with that flowing into a model for which you then build your case on

 

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