GIP vs TA Associates
If you had the option to join either of these as an Associate, which would you pick? GIP is for NY, TA is for Boston
I’m coming out of 2 years of MBB in NY and have no idea it I want to stay in PE or not, so partially solving for optionality. I have a feeling I would enjoy the more sourcing heavy work at TA more but want to get a sense of other factors (brand, internal progression, medium-term outlook for both firms). Don’t really care about comp in the short-term but it’s about the same anyways
I feel like the fact you’re coming from consulting and not PUI banking and that you’re asking a question like this about two extremely different firms/strategies/day-to-days tells me you don’t really know what you’d be getting yourself into with GIP. So suggest you go with TA if you think the sourcing work would be a good fit anyway.
From MBB you will have a much better experience at TA
These are very different firms, so ultimately, I think you have to decide what path you want to pursue. Some additional considerations:
1. GIP just sold to Blackrock. How will that change the culture / career trajectory? TA has been employee-owned since inception.
2. If you know what group you will be joining, how do you like the people? Experiences are often very group dependent, and personally I would heavily weight this all else being equal.
3. Regarding optionality, what are some other future options you are considering? For example, if you might want to do anything related to tech in the future, then obviously software investing at TA would be your best route. However, if you are interested in some of GIP’s sectors, gaining niche experience would be an advantage.
4. Boston vs. NYC. Both have their pros and cons, but do you have a personal preference?
If you were to name two completely opposite PE funds that (partially) cover the TMT stack, this would be a great choice!
Jokes aside, this is apples and oranges — infra funds are notoriously quantitative. You are working on close-to zero margin for error, very low growth (except some digital infra and some high-risk greenfield stuff, don’t know much about the latter though), so naturally the models are very complex and you’re focused on cost assumptions. Have seen Macq come in at half the price of another fund despite “really wanting the deal” given their models didn’t allow for any leap of faith… hurdle around 8% and targeting an IRR around 10-12% but mostly safe/secured return profile. Some take a bit higher risk away from Core/Core+ and expect 15% then. Cost of capital is very low, thus can outbid almost anyone else (other than infra funds with even lower cost or capital) if they believe in de-risked thesis…
Growth shops like TA/GA/TCV/Summit, on the other hand, play the complete opposite game — minimum 10-15% topline growth, much more flexible deal structures, DD focusing on market thesis / bolt-ons etc and much less on some specific cost assumptions… targeting around 25% IRR with similar 8% hurdle, so a lot more room for re-adjusting along the way but also far riskier OpCos and higher cost of capital since LPs want to see strong double-digit returns or won’t re-allocate…
All in all, it’s an entirely different investment thesis and day-to-day… choose wisely and fingers crossed.
Maybe silly comment, but to confirm, OP, GIP = Global Infrastructure Partners and not GI Partners, right?
GI Partners would make the discussion much, much more relevant…I don’t even know how one would even recruit and get offers at GIP and TA…there is zero overlap in candidates lmao
Exactly why I asked, coupled with MBB candidate who might be unfamiliar with the firm acronyms.
Certainly makes a lot more sense if this the case, although still a big difference between GI and TA! Regarding the MBB take, you could easily look this up, but I only know one TA partner with a consulting background. Unless things have changed, I believe the vast majority of investment professionals come from a traditional IB background.
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