Evaluating Partner/MD performance

SaaSChimp

More questions than answers here, but at a glance, a lot depends on the role of your MDs/Partners, particularly in broader firm strategy. Questions that come to mind:

Thank you for your questions - answers below.

• Are MDs/Ps ultimately responsible for fundraising or is there a separate IR team? How much involvement is expected and what does success look like?

MDs/Ps are ultimately responsible. We have 1/2 IR people under the CFO but their job is more coordination/ responding to regular LP requests/ consolidating reporting/ conference and engagement management for partners. Typically the MDs/Ps + some senior investment professionals are responsible for the raise and the negotiations that ensue, with the CEO leading the brunt of that.

• Is sourcing top-down or bottoms-up (i.e., are MDs/Ps expected to bring in deals?)

Yes but propreitary deals have been far and few in between. Most deals are advisor led. Cold calling doesn't work much as it is a small market where PE is relatively a new industry (~20 years) so alot of business owners are skeptical/prefer to keep it in the family.  

• Is deal execution still relevant at this level or moreso falls upon Directors/juniors?

Still relevant, all deals must be manned by an MD/P. The reason being is that we're an operationally heavy shop so the MD/P steers the company through the holding period as a partner to the CEO for real with support from a Director or a Principal and an Associate. 

• How much exposure do these individuals have to other team members? Are they key mentors at the firm with significant influence on junior development/training or moreso spend their time on the road and less involved day-to-day with teams?

Very involved. We're a small team as I explained and we promote from within so significant time and effor is spent with the juniors ...really an apprenticeship. I will say this has come at the cost of really bad work/life balance for the senior members. As opposed to them taking it easy and throwing more work on juniors/mid levels, everyone is super involved in training people, building systems for the firm, owning their portco's, originating, etc.

• How should these individuals be spending their time? Are they more internal or external facing? Are buzz/press/awards (40 Under 40, podcasts, etc.) important to building personal/firm reputation? Should these activities be rewarded?

I think we run a pretty nerdy culture that is averse to PR. Our work speaks for itself is kinda our MO. 

• Ultimately, how loudly do returns 'speak'? Do any other performance measures or evaluation criteria rank anywhere near as important?

They speak loudly but in our part of the world LPs also care about proper reporting, timely and open communication, impact, etc. Which we are top notch at as well.

PrivateTechquity 🚀GME🚀

I'm flattered that you thought to mention me and will add the disclaimer that CompBanker & APAE are probably 2-3x further along in their careers than I am so their advice will trump anything I could think to include. For context I'm a SrASO at a relatively smaller LMM/MM firm (20 headcount) looking at VP-type roles for lateral or to leave the industry entirely. Have done a few of these but not sure how it would apply to a bigger place running pension/endowment moneys since they'll have a lot more processes in place.

Sure but your contributions to that forum over the years have been great to read as well. No one is too experienced or too old to learn from others.

I'll be honest, I'm pretty shameless at this point and mostly go for flattery during partner/MD evals because I want my bonus check phat and don't care who I need to suck up to to get it. I don't expect to be at my current firm to the MD/Partner-level and have no illusions (perhaps you might say I'm disillusioned) about what improvements my comments will actually bring (I actually tried my first 3yrs on the job but truly 10% of anything mentioned has even approximated "being heard"). I've come to expect next to nothing from anyone over the age of 40 in terms of better process work on their part and just build/figure out what I need whenever there are gaps in what they provide - old dogs in my experience really can't/don't care to learn new tricks. If there's ever an improvement ask I'm pointing to specific instances of them not clearly communicating/being unreasonable about something and just ask they provide better clarity in those types of instances so we can avoid the mutual frustration. And frankly, those random 1-offs keep happening and I don't really expect that to change either.

Just for yourself when evaluating an MD/Partner - are they bringing a lot of deals forward? how are they very involved in execution? how many deals are getting done/are they pushing over the top? what has the tenure of people who worked under them look like (are people sticking around or churning out)? All good things to think about / look over whenever possible. 

Most answered above and tenure has been relatively good given the usual churn rate of juniors but we've had a healthy internal promotion cycle over the years.