How is the culture at 26North? How much focus is there on the insurance platform there?
How is the culture at 26North? How much focus is there on the insurance platform? Seeing some people left within a year after joining and can't tell why. Josh Harris apparently not as involved day to day anymore.
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Josh Harris doesn't run 26North day-to-day, and I'm not sure why anyone assumes he does given he's worth 10bn and owns sports teams. Mark Weinberg, formerly managing partner of Brookfield's PE business, runs the firm day-to-day. That said, 26North is still a phenomenal seat. The risk-return is asymmetric compared to grinding out a longer-term career at a MF: the team has a very strong background / track record, and they have a huge access to capital advantage for a fund of their size just given Harris' track record and connections. Generally, raising over $1bn as a first-time fund is very impressive on its own. Anything in the multi-billions is a genuinely unique story, especially in a fundraising environment this rough.
On people leaving, just search Josh Harris on WSO and you'll get your answer. He may not be day-to-day, but he founded the firm and personally picked the people who do run it. Harris is infamous for being one of the worst people to work for on the street, and culture flows down from whoever founded a firm. On Insurance, that was really a Marc Rowan thing at Apollo; Harris was more of the PE guy.
Weinberg not exactly known to be a teddy bear himself (similarly can read about Brookfield PE culture on here).
That's my point. He was hired by Harris for a reason. Culture is going to align to the personality of the founder.
I SB’ed the guy above who talked about Harris spending his time on Commanders and life outside of 26N. Also can echo the grinder/intense culture there.
Can add my data as well. As an industry player, my sense is it’s MFPE culture / old-school Apollo PE culture prior to Rowan taking charge and focus on insurance. Probably means 100 hour weeks. Intense deal sprints. Bidding on everything and finding diamonds in the rough.
A more personal connection is a college buddy of mine. He came from a very pedigreed HS and still was an intense grinder. I think he went on to EB and UMM PE, made VP, that fund had a bit of trouble in the latest interest rate rising environment so I saw he posted on LinkedIn that he moved to 26N. Smart nice guy but I would be surprised if anyone is coasting there for their level.
I recall a post around EOY last year that Harris made saying he was amazed at how much the place grew and exceeded his expectations. On the back end that means people worked hard and created a lot of output to deploy large amounts of capital at likely 3x MOIC underwriting / 20% IRR. The logic internally is probably funds 1 and 2 need to be top quartile / decile for the firm to have a go-forward trajectory and not just turn into Harris’ post-Apollo family office retirement vehicle or like Rubenstein’s declaration partners of Leon Black’s Elysium. Not a bad outcome but seems like they are playing for the major leagues and future GP value from the seat I am in currently.
That said, founder seems to be hitching his future in sports and winning a Super Bowl and obviously he has 5 kids he needs to also make sure are set up in life and such; after he personally has been a very dedicated worker to his prior employer.
I could see 26N becoming a chiller place for people in the future if (1) it does hit “exit” velocity and then the current people are relatively senior in a new class of next-gen asset managers/ high performing PE funds that fill the gap the now publicly traded PE firms left by being more management fee and AUM focused. This scenario could attract interest in other people being “owners” of the firm besides Josh and that could lead to a new inflection of work but tbd or (2) if fund 1 and 2 are good but nothing to make industry leading headlines about in which case 26N’s story is more about just being a nice exit ramp for Josh from Apollo and showing he was an important part of the firm and such and a strong investor in his own right. Eventually since it seems in that case most of the capital is his, the firm could just turn into a more formal family office vehicle since he has heirs and is compounding his wealth in sports.
I hope this helps. Good luck
How is the BD side of the house in terms of hours, culture, pay, etc?
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