Modeling Intensity of Different Firms?

Despite PE being a growing industry, it feels like I work in a silo at times and so I'm curious how other firms operate from an analysis / modeling perspective. How "modeling-intensive" would you say your firm is? I'm currently at a growth-focused technology firm on the west coast (<$5Bn latest fund) and I'd say that although we can get granular on the revenue build, most models won't have more than 5 total tabs (LBO, Rev. Build, Summary, Equity Waterfall & Returns / Sens., Acq. Build (maybe)) and it's pretty straightforward. When talking with a friend that was previously an associate at MF in tech (i.e., Vista, Thoma, SL), this was nothing compared to the work he explained they did on the modeling side (10-15+ tabs, very granular builds, and a bevy of case assumptions). Anyone else feel like the modeling aspect of their role is easier or harder than expected? 

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Usually dependent on fund strategy. MF's are very focused on financial engineering for their returns, so that requires a high degree of modeling intensity.

I'm at a LMM that's on the opposite side of the spectrum. We're more focused on the market opportunity. If the company has a pathway to continued organic growth and we think there's a consolidation opportunity to go acquire 4-5+ add-ons, and believe that we can unlock some multiple arbitrage at exit, that's a pretty good case for a successful outcome. Sensitizing our initial underwriting model to compare an 8% growth rate vs 6% isn't going to help much with underwriting the investment - but that's the type of case at a MF that could be really important.

Garbage in garbage out. Making 10000 inputs for a model is only helpful if you have diligence, insights, etc to support views on all those inputs. Sounds like your shop may be taking the right approach

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