MF Tech PE 2026
Simple, see title - looking for any updated views on culture, associate experience, and compensation at the usual suspects (Silver Lake, H&F, TB, Vista, Hg, FP, and any others I missed)
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Bump (ignore title) - actively recruiting with the major software players’ large cap funds. Appreciate any insights on those.
My quick $0.02 on the firms listed:
Broadly agree with the tiering, though I'd caveat that MF PE probably isn't generating much alpha in the medium term (there is some near-term potential for Alpha as the generalist MF PE names are too scared of software right now, so less competition than steady-state) regardless of which shop you pick. Too many firms chasing too small an investable universe. H&F is wildly overrated by associates and below. Strict 2-and-out with no realistic promote path, and lateraling to senior associate seats at comparable funds is significantly harder than associate recruiting. If you have the option, much better to be at a shop where you at least have a shot at promotion.
Would also push Vista out of the top tech MF seats. It's a one-man show with no checks after they kicked out their other co-founder. Smith is clearly a very sharp guy who is charismatic, but their post-2020 fund returns are likely among the worst in the peer group, and they refuse to exit anything. If they'd exited some of their better assets like Cloud Software Group, they could've returned capital at a profit, but they keep sitting on them. Weird shift, Vista historically had fairly short hold periods. TB has a similar hold-too-long problem recently, but not historically, on their mediocre investments, but at least they've generated DPI on the good ones.
OP here and you seem to have worked / work in the space - from a recruiting standpoint, assuming I am able to land any interviews, it sounds like the best ones to prioritize would be TB, Hg, and FP? I’m looking for a good associate experience, promotion visibility to Senior Associate, VP (and beyond, to the extent I’m performing well and the fund is).
Seems like Silver Lake and H&F don’t offer much promotion visibility, and not hearing great things about Vista (I created this new thread to have a clean sheet away from the multitude of Vista slander on other threads, but seems it’s made its way here as well, LOL.)
Versus Thoma, Hg, and FP seem to do the job on what I’m solving for here (potential long-term PE seat with good reps, promotion vis, and exit opps - I guess a “catch-all” now that I spell it out)
Agreed with replies here - don’t go to Vista (versus Hg, Thoma, Francisco, Silver Lake, and a few other funds)
Roommate worked there and [voluntary] attrition is insane - something definitely is “broken”
Bump. What about other mf tech groups? Permira, Advent Tech, KKR, TPG?
KKR TMT well documented sweatshop that buys garbage software assets under the guise of “value investing”. Strategy has gone nowhere but down and the guy who spearheaded the whole thing was recently axed.
Permira Tech also kind of a shitshow. Think they’ve closed up the growth fund and not really sure what their plans are there.
Advent Tech is in a weird place. Fund 1 was deployed into peak 2021 market and is quite bad (only standout is Wiz exit). Fund 2 I’ve heard is doing better but time will tell. Good culture fwiw but office is in Palo Alto
Apax and EQT?
Seriously appreciate the insight here. This is very helpful.
Curious if you have any views on Advent beyond the tech platform (Boston/NYC)? Culture, promotion visibility, comp etc.
I have heard Advent Tech Fund is being discontinued given how badly they are doing
following
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Thoughts on GA?
Going into software PE right now = masochist-maxxing
Edit: MS from someone that is dumb enough to believe the marks. Comment if you disagree… this will be an easy one.
What industries are more defensible, with tailwinds and somewhat interesting?
had to quote to reply — must be a bug
1) more defensible: any industry big enough to be a “vertical” at a $500m PE fund. Tech is below consumer now IMO… would rather take brand risk than buy a SaaS biz with 10k+ ACV that no longer has a moat. Too much disruption risk.
2) tailwinds: two types of tailwinds… 1) industry growth and 2) investor return tailwinds. #1 is a nice to have. #2 decides the tone of you life for 90+ hours a week and your carry.
Tech investor return tailwinds are extremely barbelled right now. Traditional MF/UMM tech hasn’t and isn’t going to capture a frontier labs (right hand side).
So tech is still proliferating (#1) but returns for tech PE (#2) are in the gutter with no light at end of tunnel right now.
Lipstick on a pig used to be a joke for making CIMs in banking… it’s now what you do when you have a tech portco… and holy shit your partners never stop thinking of new shades of lipstick to try out. Oh and the people you are trying to sell to are professional lipstick removers… or retail but that can only last so long.
3) on being somewhat interesting: good Q but depends on the person. For me, the most interesting thing is when a biz actually makes money. Sounds simple but it’s complicated and requires a lot more than smoothing retention calcs in a projected P&L.
On a trip right now with a guy rocking a Richard Mille he got from selling a ‘boring’ residential leisure supply biz. Redacted supplies haven’t come up a single time.
Odds of finding a biz under my definition (and his definition) of interesting are much higher outside the UMM/MF buy-out tech strikezone
PE is cyclical. There's always been and will always be money to be made in software, just like healthcare, industrials, services, or any other sector. Public markets aren't perfect either, or do you believe the software recovery since the March lows is perfectly rational? Can't have it both ways: if the March lows were justified because of AI disruption, then the current software rebound makes no sense, because AI has only progressed since. Software has outperformed other sectors dramatically and is now going through a correction. The early-2020s and vintages will mostly be duds, but that has zero bearing on future funds, especially because good funds in software (Hg, Veritas, TB, etc.) have all raised new funds well past the release of ChatGPT and COVID boom.
The arrogance about what the future holds on this forum just reads as cope from people at bad PE funds. Every argument against software PE applies to all of PE right now, AI disruption cuts across basically every sector. Not saying you should or shouldn't go into software PE. Go into what you actually find interesting. But your take reeks of psuedo confident intellectual arrogance.
You can call it a recovery if you want but the reality is IGV is still in the red YTD and last time I checked… you get paid after 8% IRR net of fees.
Didn’t I end my post with there is a higher prob of making money outside of UMM/MF tech? Didn’t I also say tech returns are extremely barbelled? That =/= to nobody can make money in software…
Multiple things can be true… everything cycles and all cycles are not uniform. IMO this is a particularly bad cycle for tech PE because we haven’t seen innovation like this in a long time.
Generally don’t agree with reducing this to AI impacts all of PE. Yep, I think it impacts everyone.
Personally I don’t find too much comfort in the fact some of the software names have continued to raise large funds post ChatGPT.
AI as a threat to software wasn’t a ubiquitous fear until SaaSpocalypse which is more a late 2025 / early 2026 phenomenon before it was really internalized in people’s minds. A number of the software sponsors who did raise well already had substantial commit ahead of that fear coming to the forefront.
Further even if you did fully raise post SaaSpocalypse you are in many ways raising on the back of the pre-COVID vintages successes / DPI which will look much better than anything raised around COVID or after. So it not really inconceivable that some folks continued to raise well on the back of historic success and the next fund will be comparatively smaller given the performance / DPI of the covid and beyond vintages start to be the main focus in fundraising.
While the 2026 vintages maybe have opportunity to generate strong performance / carry again they’ll be too early to impact the next fundraise and regardless if they perform your life will be a nightmare if the next fund is a down raise.
Long-term I agree with you but nonetheless the above is my current perspective living in the thick of it!
Stupid to go into software PE if you're planning to use it to get a brand name on resume/build a tech-specific resume? Not looking to be in PE long-term?
Why the ms? That was supposed to be a question: Is it stupid to go into software PE if your ultimate goal is to work in a non-investing role within technology?
Any insight on Blackstone’s SF PE team (BCP)?
del
For software PE, the general perception would be TB, then Vista at half a tier below, then Hg / FP - though these days given Hg / FP’s massive fund raise (Hg raised $30B across three funds, large cap fund closed at $14B; FP raised $21B across two funds) it’s no longer just an UMM while Vista has been a down cliff.
Have friends working across some of the funds you’ve mentioned.
H&F - of the generalist MFPE, strongest tech portfolio, but its a strict 2 and out. No one gets the return offer post-MBA to become VP. Great if you plan to exit to a tiger cub SMHF, but long term PE career with promotion visibility isn’t here. If you go to H&F, you can go to GSB HBS easily, but 2+2+2 post mba vp recruiting isn’t what is used to be and means moving down market
SL - heard bad things about WLB. Good promotion visibility for 20b+ fund with direct promotes if you survive. Operative word if.
TB - if your goal is software PE (not just tech) probably the best in class gold standard name there is. Compared to typical BX KKR CD&R, has great track record of promotions and is the most respected name (more so than SL which frankly isn’t software) for software. Don’t have any friends at TB but friends who worked in RX IB keep coming across TB assets and think they are screwed, and i know someone in RX IB who reneged on TB to stay in RX IB. Take with that what you will. But historical reputation wise is the best for software.
Vista - fallen off a cliff / used to be on par with TB. I’ve heard mixed things but the biggest thing I’ve heard isn’t even WLB specific. It’s that you have to live in ATX / CHI. if you do a year or two, they’ll let you transfer (but it’ll most likely be ATX to CHI; think it’s possible but not as common to transfer to NYC; deal teams are staffed across different cities) but seems to be case by case. Also they don’t place you into funds until after you start, so you could very well move to ATX only to end up at their middle market fund.
Hg - heard mixed things but seems to be in a fundraising blitz - $30B raised across three funds; about to close $14B for large cap and $10B for mid cap. Would argue that they’re on par with Vista now given that Hg is now a very well established name in software while vista has fallen off. Heard WLB is highly dependent on the fund - mid cap looks at far more deals and tends to be the sweatiest; large cap has good WLB (though minimal deal reps compared to mid cap). Though overall WLB seems better than most of the US counterparts mentioned given that the firm is still predominantly European with EU benefits (30 days PTO, remote August, great 401k match). Won’t be full on European WLB given that the partners at the US office are from American firms but culturally better with WLB than other firms.
Work at one of the funds listed above, agree with most but not all (mix of your takes + "Associate 1 in PE - LBOs" near the top of the thread) - a few from me for the benefit of whichever most likely college seniors are reading this:
Vista is so screwed, do not go there over any of these names on this list, and some more
what is vp comp & carry for Hg, TB and the others?
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