LA PE Scene Update
Don't think i've seen an updated discussion on the LA PE scene here in like a year, so thought I'd start a thread to aggregate thoughts on some of the firms around LA.
Firms that come to mind are:
- Leonard Green & Partners
- Ares (Corporate & Special Opportunities Funds)
- Levine Leitchman
- Apollo
- The Gores Group
- Lightbay (Ares Spin-off)
- Kayne Anderson
- Arrowroot
- Cliffwater
- Canyon Partners
- Many more which are probably missing
Edited to include some of the firms from below, feel free to drop any insight on culture, comp, or anything you've heard about the funds as well
Bump. Interested to hear people’s takes on some of these culture wise
LGP: Good culture / work-life-balance; get paid out the ass, do cool deals and place well into anything. Top heavy firm though
Platinum: Lean teams, bad culture, underpaid, slow promotion timelines and impossible to get promoted to partner because it's just Tom Gores' buddies at the top and on IC
Marlin: Decent culture but firm is in a tough spot right now / just restructured, so juniors are pretty jammed; also promotion timelines
Ares: Not the worst work life balance based on what I've heard, get paid pretty good, flagship fund is in a tough spot performance wise
Odyssey: Have heard good things about the culture, but not sure
Levine: Not sure
Aurora: Have heard good things
Brentwood: Heard it used to be sweaty but that was a few years ago; do cool deals though
Freeman: Have heard generally good things
Apollo: It's Apollo so trash culture but pay a lot
Shamrock: Good culture and do really cool deals within the media space; were below market on comp a few years ago, but they may have increased that. Big feed to GSB, but they don't make people leave anymore and promote from within
Gores: Haven't heard the best things
Light Bay: Good culture but work hard
Butterfly: Do cool food deals but I've heard questionable things on culture and performance
Kayne: Not sure
Clearlake: Terrible culture from the top down; revolving door of associates; above market pay
Oaktree: Tons of groups but credit groups tend to be pretty chill from what I've heard; pay pretty well though
Beach Point: Have heard good things about work life balance; heard it's just a bunch of old people there so a bit of a sleepy culture
One Rock: Do a ton of deals and growing quickly which obviously leads to a sweaty culture but they pay a ton
Seidler: Have heard really positive things about culture and fund returns. Used to be a family office but transitioned to a traditional PE firm.
If you’re in LA IB, is there still opportunity to recruit for like NY PE or SF startups, etc.? Wonder if you’d get locked into the city.
Bump
Apollo
Only their credit shop tho right?
No they do buyouts. Worked with APO LA on a few LBOs. They hire mostly from Moelis LA.
Would add Shamrock Capital, The Gores Group, and Lightbay (Ares spin out).
Kayne Anderson, Arrowroot, Cliffwater, Canyon
BlackRock has a special sits team in LA, there is also Felicitas but I think they may all be remote now.
The LA scene is pretty fuego I mean dogpound erewhon bungalow the weho scene and then obviously after parties in the hills. Strongly suggest staying single and just running a rotation otherwise you won’t be taking full advantage
Definitely don’t forget Clearlake in Santa Monica - well performing team with >300k Assoc. 1 comp
Butterfly, Beach Point, Highview are a few more names
Oaktree has corporate and special situations PE in LA
One Rock, Angeles Equity, Riverside, Siedler, Gallant, BPEA
Whats average comp for LA PE? I imagine there has to be some regional discount since most funds are LMM/MM
Deleted
For LA that’s pretty damn good
Would say that that for LMM-MM firms, it’s typically $100-125K Base + 100% bonus for Associate 1. $150K Base is definitely for the larger funds out here and not standard.
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