Mainsail Partners - Culture, Comp, Work / Life Balance

Can any previous / current investment professionals (or friends of such individuals) comment a bit on this firm? Looking for information about their associate program in particular. I haven't read too much about them, but from my view they seem like a solid, growing firm with an interesting strategy of investing exclusively in bootstrapped companies. Curious as to what their comp looks like relative to other growth equity shops and what the hours / workload looks like at the junior levels.

Thanks all.

 

Nearyl, way too quiet in here. What about these resources:

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Who will rescue this thread? sconnelly6 AmoryBlaine JMD202

Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.

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This is all for investment team: Comp is 250 all in, returns are really, really, really good, it’s a true sourcing program (look at where their senior folks come from wrt sourcing shops), lots of talent but not purely internal promote (one guy went FP GSB Mainsal), open to consultants but don’t think they have many, its more of a sourcing program than investing program (someone who interviewed there was told it’s not so intellectual as consulting, much more procedural of a job), overall pretty nice team but some of the mid level are high on the “wide eyed super energetic talking sales-y/sourcing types” quotient, the interview process is pretty easy, some basic finance questions like D&A by 10, but mostly discussing why sourcing is a fit and your interest / understanding in tech. Interview also includes a case with pretty basic calcs like gross/net (etc) churn from a mock customer data sheet. I know fit is extremely important for them so do keep that in mind, I would speculate that it would be pretty hard to fake an interest in their program and get a job there if your interest is not genuine... they’ve got a good niche with the bootstrapped thing going, time will tell if that strategy will persist. Overall good place for a career, I get the sense that wlb isn’t bad there, I know the ops guys (big big Ops team there) are out by dinner, not sure about investment guys.

 
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They're a solid LMM/MM fund. The above comment about sourcing is spot on, as an Associate you'll mainly source with a little bit of execution work here and there.

They have good returns and have raised funds pretty well over the past few fundraising cycles. They do a mix of Growth and Buyouts predominantly in software/tech.

From what I hear they're not a strict 2 and out firm either, but I think as they get bigger, that's changing a little bit.

Overall, not a bad place to start a PE career. I think there's some upside to the firm, but the thesis will have to expand if they want to get a lot bigger. I've seen the the "value oriented, growth focused, bootstrapped only" type of thesis at a few funds and it works really well up until the point where companies get big enough they they've either taken funding or they get a banker and enter into a competitive process. At that point, it's just because a price competition, which makes it harder to get good returns.

I hear comp is fairly market, if not a little below, but that's expected given they're a smaller fund. Hours aren't too bad either. You'll work hard, especially if you're sourcing and trying to bring a deal in, but not a crazy sweatshop.

 

Have been looking at both of these shops; what makes the culture so bad? Also, which shops are you comparing them against (which GE shops have strong culture)?

 

The culture seems trash, pay is below average for GE, and work is mostly sourcing and cold calling. The quality overall is subpar. One person I met from Mainsail, was a complete douche. Would avoid this place at all cost.

 

Any new information on Mainsail? Specifically interested in culture as I've heard mixed things

 

Agree with the comments here. They work with Carterpierce. Made it till the case study. Recruiter quoted ~300k for first year; they’re on massive expansion mode right now 

 

Did a super with them recently; didn't get an offer but seemed like a great group of folks. Lots of ex-investment bankers but accept non-traditional backgrounds like consultants etc. Fit and personality are an especially huge factor. 

Total comp can be anywhere from 280k to 330k in your first year depending on how many investments you source. Sourcing heavy shop so bonuses are based on deals you bring in. Partners I spoke to came from sourcing heavy GE shops. Other than sourcing, seems like a good deal of diligence and IR models. They are covered by CP. 

Can't comment much about culture and no clue on hours but an associate I spoke to said it can be somewhere between ~50 hours when you aren't on a live deal and it picks up when you're closing. Folks I met were chill but they definitely have a preference for the energetic extroverted type. 

 

Solid, well respected fund especially in B2B software investing. They’re in that MM PE/Growth Equity space. Growth Equity is becoming a more pronounced segment of PE

Had a friend that works there and have heard solid things about comp (probably more more in line with ~300k as an associate). Culture I heard is solid - not cut throat (associates all get a pay out if another associate sources). Not uncommon to source in your first year from what I hear. 

In line with Summit, FTV Capital, Kayne, Battery

 

Agree it's a good shop but idk about your comparison to Battery, etc. They're much smaller and niche; it's a fine strategy but not as strong as the others.

 

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