PE IR vs Placement Agent
I have two SA offers and seeking advice. Placement Agent (think Rede, Evercore PFG) or IR at a PE firm (think Ardian, Eurazeo). I'm less concerned about comp and more about starting my career at a place with decent recognition, upward mobility and exit opps. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Bump - in a similar position but am unsure of what provides me with more optionality / flexibility moving forward.
Pinging Ravena - has given some good insights into PE IR/fundraising in past posts. Interested to get your response.
Assuming you want to stay in IR/BD it’s kind of a wash. If you wanted to potentially do something else I would take the placement agent role, especially if it was a group that does primary fundraising and secondaries. Ping me the actual firm names if you want. Evercore PFG is a great place to start your career in this space. Eurazeo could be interesting, I know someone in US sales there, but not sure I would jump at Ardian.
I think it’s very important to get a better sense of how each firm’s teams function. Internal IR means different things at almost every firm and you want to be a product heavy set (working close to investment team) or working towards a sales role, you do not want to get pigeonholed in a reporting function.
I looked at exactly this question some ~5 years ago (didn't do it / look into it since so info may be dated) but here were my conclusions on this question:
- In-house has better job security since placement agent volume is more market-dependent
- It will be pretty fast-paced at a placement agent or at a large firm with constant fundraising (e.g. you're Carlyle and always in-market with some strategy or another). In-house at a middle-market firm will have more ebbs and flows
- Particularly at the junior level, you will have more exposure to LPs as a placement agent, and it's easier to build relationships that carry over. In-house work at the junior level is more behind-the-scenes (creating materials, PMing roadshow plans, tracking LPs through the funnel)
Name recognition, for better or for worse, matters. Having a name like Evercore on your resume goes a long way, even in the fundraising world. The other boutique agents would give you great experience and exposure but may not open as many doors. As for in-house, it's totally case-by-case and I wouldn't consider any of the firms other than the MFs--not because Blackstone/KKR/Apollo teach you how to be a fundraiser (they actually don't come close to the placement agent world but...other GPs will always acknowledge and respect the name) but because every firm is different.
Every firm views their IR/capital formation function differently and if you end up going to a name that views fundraising as a middle/back office role, then you'll be in for a bad time. You need to really dig into the actual team setup at the PE firm, figure out if their senior IR folks have a seat at the table, if they field multiple products, if they treat IR as a valuable function that's helping them to materially grow AUM or if they see IR as just a barrage of annoying DDQ questions and ad hoc requests, etc.
Food for thought, I’m at a megafund in fundraising and absolutely despise it. I will likely transition back to a mid-size firm which in my opinion is a much better space to play in as someone in IR/BD.
It's not food for thought when I completely agree with you. You won't be as silo'd and you'll have much broader responsiblity and exposure. KKR's better than the others in terms of comp/exposure/upward mobility but totally hear you. At a smaller firm, when you're not necessarily the ONLY IR person but part of a small team, you can get a lot more recognition and fulfillment from your day job!
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Thanks for the post,
Im in a similar situation. Previously interned in a IR role at a top PE firm (80Bn+ AUM), and I’m considering moving to an elite boutique because of the better learning opportunity and pay.
Would you happened to know what sort of technical questions an elite boutique may ask of Placement agent role? As well as any insight on the case studies?
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