PE Direct Secondaries? Feedback appreciated

Hey everyone -

I've recently been in contact with a PE/VC firm specializing in direct secondary investments. It is a smaller firm ($500mm> AUM) and from what I can tell their business model primarily involves building a fund around each individual deal as opposed to raising a pool of capital and deploying it over X years. An example of a deal that they'd look at would be the opportunity to buy the venture portfolio of a large F500 and then manage it as an standalone fund. They are actively involved with the management of each individual portfolio company as well. I'll avoid getting more specific to avoid identifying myself or the firm, but it seems like a pretty cool gig and the guys have been very enjoyable to talk to thus far. The sector they invest in is also very well-aligned with my interests.

I'd love to know what people on this site think about direct secondaries and this type of opportunity. Any details that people would be willing to provide (i.e. lifestyle, comp, career path, etc.) would be extremely helpful. It would also be good to know if it would be a significant hindrance to join a small unknown fund like this if I ever wanted to make the jump into traditional PE/VC.

Thank you!