I’m a VP in a public markets firm and thinking of doing a lateral career change into HarbourVest, the role would be VP in their Primaries team.
I don’t see much info about HarbourVest - so wanted to ask what thoughts are on the firm, how reputable are they, what has their returns / fundraising been like, what comps are like, what are promotion possibilities like etc. any info you can give!
Thank you!
No, they are terrible
Why exactly?
as background, I have no desire to work on direct deals / coinv etc. so I’m aware they’re not known for that and that my preference is different to majority of the people on this forum
Agreed
I wouldn't call them terrible like the above poster, but they're certainly not well renowned in terms of their primaries team. I did not even know they had one to be honest. They're much more known for their FoF and secondaries teams.
Why the jump from public to private? Why Harbourvest? If you wanted to do primary deals, why not look at dedicated primary GPs?
Edit: I am a 🤡 for mixing up GP primary commits and direct investing
Sorry if I misunderstood, but their primaries team is a FoF? As in the team invests in funds that are currently raising capital. Is that what you meant?
And I work in a small private markets team in a big public markets firm who are trying to grow into privates - so would prefer to be in a firm who already has long track record and established teams. The people at HarbourVest seem pretty decent and I’ve heard they also have really good work life balance
Oh I completely misunderstood, my bad! For some reason I thought by primaries you meant direct investing as though they're the GP (I know some FoFs run direct investing programs in addition to GP primaries/secondaries/co-investing). For whatever reason it didn't click for me that you meant primary GP commitments, hence why I said I wasn't aware of them doing any direct investing, just FoF/secondaries. Disregard my above comment, I am a numbskull who apparently doesn't even commit to memory the proper terminology of my own profession.
W/L balance at a FoF/secondary firm is almost universally better than if you were to go into GP direct. I've heard good things about the seats at HVP in particular from alumni who work/have worked there, a ton of emphasis on the superior W/L balance in particular. Impressive growth and very solid reviews on glassdoor. Super stable given their AUM base and the # of commits they have to blue chip GPs. Overall fantastic seat if FoF investing is where you want to be.
Interviewed at the analyst/associate level a few months back and got to meet a few folks at the VP level. Some info:
1.) When covid first hit there was a hiring freeze but they said from day one no layoffs because as a large established fund-of-funds they had strong longterm revenue visibility, i.e., it’s a stable business.
2.) As a result of that and a couple other factors people tend to stay a while or return post b school to VP level. Relatively low turnover.
3.) Some sort of partnership with Vanguard came about a few months or a year back that was exciting to everyone. Don’t remember the specifics but you should look into that.
4.) A mentor who started a >10b fund and has done this for thirty years said that HVP is very good. Not the best, but very solid, and worthwhile if you want to do FoF.
Good luck!
Thank you! Why did you not take the role out of curiosity?
and was this in London team or are you in US / elsewhere?
Looking at LinkedIn, it does seem like people stick around for many years. I’m not sure why exactly that is - only guess is that the pay / carry gets attractive at MD level?
Also, did you get a sense of how quickly people got promoted?
Completely disagree. Most turnover I’ve ever seen in a company. I worked there.
They’re one of the best names in the business. I have no idea if they’re actually good at picking funds but it’s a blue chip name and from a line item on your resume perspective you can’t go wrong with it. I have no idea what it’s like to actually work there though.
Agree. From a GP point of view, having them as an LP is desirable.
Why is that exactly?
And do you have a sense of how consistently they’ve been committing to GP funds - especially primaries? I’m trying to get an understanding of how well their fundraising / activities have been.
Thank you!
Thank you! do you have a sense of how well their fundraising has been / if their primaries team is one of their top performing ones?
As background, the firm I’m at currently is a great name for public markets but hasn’t yet made it’s mark on private’s, so I’d really like to have a good name in my CV from privates / PE side and hopefully the 2 firms put together gives me the best future opportunities.
From a performance perspective, they have a listed PE FoF vehicle called Harbourvest Global Private Equity (HVPE). Might be worth looking into that if you're in search of more detail. That vehicle has comfortably outperformed the S&P 500 since inception for what it's worth.
I concur with the above that they are a well-known LP, are typically one of the larger LPs in their funds and well-respected in the space. I would imagine it's good for a long-term career since comp would be decent, carry is probably stable due to the highly diversified portfolio, and WLB relatively sustainable compared to other private markets verticals. This is probably why you see a lot of people stick around there for a while.
Hard to do much better for a large primary FoF role, if that’s what you’re looking for.
How would they compare to an Adams Street Partners from a reputation and compensation standpoint at the junior level (Associate / sr associate)?
HarbourVest is better. Have heard negative things about culture at Adams Street as well.
Thoughts on Stepstone, HL, Alpinvest and other similar firms?
Interviewed with them before. The culture and folks in Primaries is better than the Secondaries according to my experience, though it depends on the specific office I guess.
Thanks! That’s good to hear I guess. What level and location did you interview at?
Any reason for wanting to switch from public equities? It’s easier to go from public equities to FoF than the reverse. But both would be pretty comparable for WLB I think.
I’m currently already in a privates team, just within a primarily public markets firm, so we’re not so well known here. I’d rather be in a firm with long standing track record, people and reputation
Not recommended. I worked there for a year. Extremely high attrition, poor management (up to MD level and within operations. Young company trying to make a mark and suffering rapid growing pains.
high risk.
Young company? They've been around 40 years... Growing pains would make some sense though.
I just messaged you privately to ask few more questions. Thanks for your thoughts here!
high risk? they've been around since almost the inception of private equity, what are you talking about
.
Does anyone know how they compare to NB?
to give a real response, it's a great firm for FoF.
however, you'll be in FoF. there is almost no exit opp here so make sure you really love the industry and want to be here for the next 20 years. if so then you got a great brand name here if you don't mind living and raising a family in boston.
just know that FoF is getting squeezed and it's a pretty commoditized fee on top of fee business. at least secondaries is a bit more complicated and can provide liquidity as the main value driver. here you are just hoping some LPs don't have access to GPs which isn't really a strong value prop.
HarbourVest has a large secondaries team - is that a good place to be?
Secondaries ebbs and flows given the multifaceted factors of the attractiveness of the private equity industry against the liquidity status.
It comes in and out of favor, but that's better than FoF where that part of the business is in secular decline.
so hard to answer what "Good place to be" means since everything is relative. it's a very niche sector but if u love it, sure go for it. but overall less attractive than just direct PE jobs or a public markets job.
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