Lateral hire from a second-tier secondary shop

Currently working as an associate at a second-tier secondary shop (think Adam Street, Stepstone), doing both GP and LP led deals. With 2-3 years of associate experience, is it possible to move to a brand-name shop such as Coller, Lexington, Glendower, etc? Does anyone have similar experiences? Do I need an MBA?

6 Comments
 

Ya it's possible. Comes down to knowing the recruiter and getting an "in" from someone that works there. Start networking / messaging ppl on LI. TBH, I'd call Adams Street Tier 3 but no biggie lol

 

That made me raise an eye brow too. I don’t consider them tier 3 by reputation but if you were to group investors by check sizes: leading with $100m+, leading with under $100 and syndicates… they are more often than not a syndicate which would in theory make them tier 3. But they can stretch to lead/co-lead smaller deals which I think makes the tier 2/3 categorization accurate.

Obviously “ranking” by check size isn’t perfect and I think the firm overall has a good reputation.

 

Nothing to do with fund size or cheque size. More about quality of deals they do, quality of staff, returns. IMHO they're just a beta player buying mid market funds for a small discount - nothing special and zero edge apart from using their primary business to gain intel.

 

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