Golden Gate Capital Updates?
Had HH reach out here, still a place worth starting a PE career? I am interested in trying to stay in investing long term but think b school would be fun / don't mind lateraling after associate years. I know there's been a shit storm around them but the view I got from some interviews / saw briefly mentioned somewhere on wso is that it may have been a covid thing and they are trying to make it better. Not sure if this is fluff / cope but just what I heard. Still viewed as top UMM with great associate training, regardless of all of the issues at the top? Worth going here over an MM that would want to promote? Thoughts?
not a "top UMM" anymore
How so?
Its still a strong firm imo. They had a lot of leavers at the Senior Level which came with their Transition to a conventional Fund structure but the current Team is solid and they have 3 quite strong sector heads.
Oh did they recently transition from evergreen to traditional? Didn't even know that
Respectfully, just because they have a "solid" current team that has stuck around from the time that they could recruit at an elite level is not a reason to think that they'll be back to their previous track moving forward. They've been outshined by Francisco in their geographic / sectoral niche in the market and I'd probably rather be at one of their several spinoffs instead. Their recruiters are asking new employees to bet on their entirely new fund structure when we have no idea what their target is, whether that's a relative "downsize" compared to their evergreen funds, whether they'll meet their target, and all up against established scale tech players in a portion of the market that LP's are still feeling iffy about taking risk in because of being burned in 2022.
Golden Gate kinda still has a solid reputation in the UMM space, especially for their associate training. The COVID issues might have been a blip, but if they’ve been improving, it could still be a good move for a PE career. If you’re more focused on clear promotion paths and stability, an MM firm might be a better fit tho. It really depends on what you’re looking for long-term.
Any view on viability exit options to MF?
It’s possible but not common. Golden Gate Capital is more middle-market and operationally focused, while mega funds prioritize large-scale, high-leverage deals. If you’ve worked on sizable transactions or co-invested with bigger firms, that helps. Networking with headhunters and maybe stepping into an upper-middle-market firm first can make the transition easier.
Just curious did you indicate interest in the firm to Ratio or was it cold outreach?
If the latter, is your profile target UG? Ask as I had an initial meeting with Ratio and want to know if ghosting me or selectively including me in processes.
OP here. Ratio hit me up in December. First round started beginning of January and basically had an interview per week until now. Total 5 interviews before super day. 2 behavioural / deal walk through, paper LBO, case study, and excel data test (customer data). Super day is tomorrow.
Thanks - care to DM if target UG or not?
Trying to gauge HH landscape in the U.S. Additionally, I’m interested - excel test w/ customer data?
Just sorting / gleaning insights from a mess of data?
OP, can you DM me? Also in process with Golden Gate
OP, can you DM me? About to entire process with Golden Gate and would like to learn more about excel test w/ customer data. thank you
OP, can you DM me? Would be very helpful to me
Don’t go if you want to do tech. Go if you want to do consumer - one of the few funds left that has a decent consumer team. also for what it’s worth they pay the same as MFs
Why not for tech? Not even the associate program? Consumer is the only team I'm not interested in lol
Sorry for delayed response. Ignore title was insider before.
Merged their tech and financial services group. They are super chill and personalities are great but from how good they r probably middle of the pack.
Strong consumer history and known as a good consumer fund, more on the grindy side
Industrials is decent group too personalities are decent and interesting work.
Overall think pay is good, team personality is better than 75% of firms out there despite what WSO says (still a few bad apples), deals are interesting and very visible VP promo if you’re a top 50% performer
Let me know if more details would be helpful
bump - any updated 2026 views?
seems like they have a big class of 6-7 for their fund size (~$2B). how can they afford to pay MF comp @350K? are associates verticalized into consumer or industrials or does placement happen after
From firsthand adjacent knowledge,
Pay ~370K ASO1, can do because of incredibly favorable terms on very large evergreen fund (and new new traditional fund added on top)
They have a "major/minor" program where an associate spends 80% of their time on one team and 20% on another then become fully verticalized (not sure if at senior associate or VP level)
Also, I believe the incoming class this year is about half that size so not that wild
Have they gone for off-cycle 2027 yet?
370K is pretty insane for a $2B fund. Not even sure if Genstar of FP pay that much.
Do you think that helps them attract better talent? see that associates are all from top banks and schools like Moelis and Harvard
How is deal experience for associates? Have heard that culture is sweaty
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