Hi folks, I've always relied on WSO for interview tips dating back to my first days at Lehman Brothers, where I had interned while in college in NYC and then started IBD in 2008. While my career there was much more shortlived than I had imagined, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to pivot my career to the fundraising / BDIR side at the likes of the firms named in the title. There have been lots of mentorship and reality checks afforded to me so wanted to pass that forward. Hoping to be helpful, particularly to folks looking to pivot or grow their career into the investment management space with different skillsets (i.e. analytics, data system development, or even more traditional BDIR roles). Look forward to chatting with you!
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Did you have a mentor way back when you 1st started networking and getting internships? If yes, what was the best advice you received that was very helpful to your career?
I was fortunate to have a mentor who was a former partner at Lehman but I had to earn his trust and standing. The best advice I've taken to heart is you have to find someone that recognizes the good work you are doing - usually it's the person that's the toughest on you but keeps giving you more and rarely praises you. The best advice I received were two: (1) always pick up that ringing phone and (2) anticipate how to make your bosses look good - and make sure they know it was you that did it. Be respectful and earn the trust with hard work, not just talk. Unfortunately, no one actually gave me that advice - it was more of a personal mantra - though I did always force myself to find a better way because I kept getting more work piled onto me.
This is a good one.
Can you speak about your day to day a little more? What % of it is interacting with people (emails, phone calls, meetings) versus not?
Also, can you please touch on the typical path you have seen people take to get to your position? What are the major qualifications/ background?
I always thought a pivot to this position would be sweet but there isn’t much on it on this site and not sure how realistic/competitive it is
Hi there! Pivoting into a BDIR role nowadays has a lot of options. What kind of background do you come from? It could be IB, fund controller side (easier path to get to a product specialist role that does more portfolio management reporting), or jumping from another client service oriented role. If you are wondering about a more traditional BDIR role, it's about 30-50% of interacting with external people and 50-70% with internal people. This also depends on your level of comfort/seniority - i.e. if a senior salesperson trusts you or if it's a tiny shop, then that level of external interaction will be more. If at a marquee name that'll take time to build up. It's a competitive role in terms of comp and work-life, but at the end of the day it all depends on the people you are working for. I've also built a dedicated analytics and data management team within a BDIR group and that type of team dynamic is growing, particularly at larger investment or asset management firms. Happy to talk directly about your specific path if you'd like.
Appreciate the AMA, thanks for your time.
Can you describe the process for getting a new fund launched, assuming a greenfield idea and not Fund II, III, etc? Strategically speaking, where does the idea for a fund come from and what sort of analysis on the thesis is typically required for a green light to start the process? Are these ideas coming from the top down or can an individual PM/MD present their idea for a fund to management? Asking for color because I find myself in a situation at my current firm where we've got a pipeline of deal flow in a specific sector / geography in an amount in excess of what could reasonably be put in our diversified / generalist fund. Think there is a reasonably strong thesis for why the opportunity is there and a raising a more thematic opportunity fund would be warranted. I want to be respectful of our BD/IR team's time, so if someone approached you in your career with an idea, what sort of materials would you prefer? A one pager? Detailed deck?
That's a really interesting question and you are already at a great first step in thinking strategically about how to further the firm! I'd say you want to start with the PMs before you go to BDIR, or at least in parallel. There are economics considerations (revenue model, cost, etc.) involved that the PMs or principals need to consider in addition to what BDIR guys know about the marketplace generally so you want to go to both sides to pitch the idea. You want to think about it like a startup - so I'd say a few pages will be necessary to layout why you think this is a great fund product to launch including competitive landscape, investor demand, and some attempt at economics metrics that can be helpful to build a revenue model. It'll also be helpful if you know a senior PM or BDIR person to get started and test out the idea with them before you start doing all this work.
Any insight into comp at Associate/VP/Principal levels at Golub and Fortress?
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