Feel like I work in PE, but it is not a "PE" firm. Can I consider this PE?

Very weird question I know and you guys probably think I am dumb. They do not advertise themselves as a PE fund at all, but the way my job works, how much I am paid, and my functions make me think I am literally working in PE. My role is just "associate". 

I did IB at a BB first, then recruited for this new firm I am at now. We work in a niche industry and what we do is acquire firms and roll them up together, and scale them. We don't acquire firms using leverage. My day to day are usually a lot of financial modeling, managing and providing support and strategy to our portfolio companies (constantly getting on calls with their CFO, CEO) and managing their M&A pipeline. If matters, my all in is around $220k. (Feel like that is PE numbers for comp, thats why I mention it. First year here.) 

I don't ask for ego purposes (I could care less), but more for my resume. I eventually want to pivot out of the industry and think having PE on my resume would make my profile stronger. 

Thanks all 

8 Comments
 

I'm not making fun of you, you literally are describing privately investing in equity. Venture capital, growth equity, traditional buyouts are all private equity. It might be a different flavor but that's definitely private equity. VCs don't use leverage either. It might not be traditional high leverage buyout transactions. Also how did you even get this job without knowing what it is? 

 

Thanks for the response. I fully understood what the job is and the function, and passed all the modeling tests, I was just really confused on why it was not a "private equity" associate title (As mentioned, my title is just "Associate"). I also did not understand why they do not market themselves as PE (Or VC or GE) for that matter aswell. I wanted to inquire and ask but thought it would be weird to ask my interviewers.

 

It sounds more Corp Dev than PE but like Corp Dev in the style of a Constellation Software-type company where you're thinking from more of an investor mindset than a strategic/corporate strategy one. There's a lot of these private roll-up companies that focus on a specific niche. Not exactly PE, but I'd imagine the skills are more or less transferrable and you probably compete with PEs in your given sector for acquisitions.

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