Left Golden Path to become a Operator (Shooting for CEO)
Am I crazy? I feel like the path to real wealth in PE is pretty tough these days. Everything is priced to perfection, going up the ladder is impossible at MF and sure you can find okay seats with okay WLB for the long haul but then you're at a mediocre fund and to have a decent outcome but not what we were shooting for on the "golden path". Am I crazy to leave PE and start on the operating path to eventually shoot at the big dog seat and have several points on a MIP pool?
Nope most of my peers feel the same way. Industry matured, alpha is harder to come by, compensation expected value went down but lifestyle demand hasn’t changed. Career is no longer in the efficient frontier for comp/WLB.
Depends partly on what you consider to be a great outcome. Hitting ~$1-2M in cash comp per year plus another $1-2M in annualized carry at a MM fund as a senior-ish partner with pretty good WLB seems like a pretty great outcome financially… what do you think you’ll make as an operator? And how much of that is within your control?
Do you think LPs will keep funding the gravy train with mediocre returns by the time you become senior partner? Too much capital seeking too few great companies. I may be completely wrong, but I think being a top performer operating a company is higher EV. But who knows… the MM PE path feels a bit soulless and the input to output ratio of time for capital just isn’t what it used to be
If you’re a weapon at a top fund and you love it, I think there is a very strong argument
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