SkyKnight?
Any information on SkyKnight?
Would love to learn more about culture and anything on the deal experience compared to other places.
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Absolutely grind from senior guys down. Trying to be the next golden gate isn’t easy work. Do think they’re smart though.
How bad compared to banking? Do you have any other insight on the firm? Like pay or culture?
Appreciate the help!
Bump
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Bump - any updated views?
How have their returns been? Thanks.
bump, still sweaty?
Bump. Got the 2026 HH inbound as well
Bump - received HH email
For what level?
Don't know much about them but their IRRs are good - 20, 30, 40% type funds. That said looks like their deployment has been slow out of the gate for their 2023 vintage (maybe a good thing if they're trying to avoid buying the top). Also don't know how much of those IRRs are DPI vs paper value but seems legit.
Sounds like the firm is really looking to recruit now after suffering a string of departures. Have heard a few things culturally about the place and highly recommend you do your DD before joining, maybe attempt to speak with formers or anyone else close to firm who can give the real real.
Some things have heard: confirming still sweaty as mentioned by other commenters (incident of principal attempting to blow up associate’s pre-approved bachelor party for no good reason), pattern of behaving with questionable integrity (misrepresenting carry eligibility and promotion timelines which are then later pushed out / reneged, recruited associates to “SF” office without informing them office is actually being moved to Burlingame, etc. ), generally has a political environment with need to cater to egos/emotions of partners/principals, and weird obsession with employees needing to be “good leavers” (i.e. cannot leave for a competitor and expectation to provide several months prior notice of leaving. The firm has multiple headhunters who keep an eye on employees and firm actively attempts to block employees (current and former) from recruiting at other PE firms. Has a document that threatens “economic consequences” for being a “bad leaver” / going to other firms).
Do you have a sense of comp / co-invest opportunities and/or carry? Assume they’re basically a 270-300 type of thing ? Sounds like they also tend to push people out lol ?
Assume you're referring to first year associates - heard 270-300k is about right, no carry though. Don't know about co-invest.
Fwiw have heard that they are pretty stingy with carry there (weird given young firm).
Very impressed knowing of two folks who work there. They've crushed it performance wise, have VERY strong carry performance and impressive talent. They are attracting strong performers from top MM + MF funds. They work hard, but get rewarded. Doesn't seem worse WLB than any other PE fund. Founder is well respected among LPs and should raise up funds for a while. One of the few growth spots in this industry with a differentiated approach to MM PE. Known to be thematic investors who get picked by management teams to partner with at lower prices. Would 100% take an offer there versus some almost any other MM fund. Heard juniors who perform get rewarded here. Also, apparently they pay well for associates for MM (heard 350k+). Apparently only two investment partners so lot of room to grow the pie too.
Congrats on skyknight
Nice marketing. Would love to hear more color on the clear exodus of IPs over the last 1-2 years as well
Hilarious and obvious internal post. Hope the uniform market knowledge of how you treat your people scares you
Did some asking around about Skynight when last HH email came out about them. Heard the culture is very bad (sweatshop, toxic leadership). Pay seemed market/slightly above market. Exit opps look pretty bleak - checked formers and no one in PE/HF, no b school either. Also have lost more IPs since last I looked.
You know as an aside, curious about how valid it it so evaluate ~$1B funds or so on exits eg, from what I’ve seen , the exits tend to look pretty bleak broadly at funds of similar size (Avalt, Mainsail etc), and the pitch you tend to hear is that it’s easier to move up so the tradeoff of not getting good looks is that you’re more likely to become a senior associate/ VP at the same firm and that quality talent self selects to stay.
Curious how true this is at a market level really, and to your point, what a reasonable outcome one can expect to get from a fund of that size , especially if you don’t like it it.
lateral recruiting from funds of way better brands sound hard, so does HSW placement, and you don’t really get the toolkit for a hedgefund role, so if you’re at a $1B fund is it realistically either move up or go to a startup??
Thanks nycfinance123
For all the young folks on here, there is a nuance between a good fund for the founders and a good fund for someone early in their career. This fund probably does have good returns and on paper it looks like a no brainer as one of their employees commented earlier. However, ask yourself the following:
1) if the fund is on this amazing trajectory, why is senior headcount still so lean?
2) why did one of the initial founding partners leave and why has there been a decent amount of turnover thus far?
This fund is great for the top 3 people at the firm. They will dangle the carrot and hope of partnership to get people to join, but once you get there it is a different story. Of course, every young person thinks they are different and special, so I suspect this advice is falling on deaf ears and the reality is if you have no other options, you should probably take it. But if your decision tree is 1) established fund vs 2) this fund with the hope of greater upside optionality, take 1
Avoid. My understanding is that this firm has a few bizarre written policies for associates and VPs to work a minimum 70 hours per week when not on deals and to be at their desk from 9am - 9pm every day. Also associates and VPs need permission from partners / principals to leave computer for any reason besides going to the bathroom. Very cringe worthy.
can confirm, I’ve seen the deck.
It’s pretty specific of dos/don’ts. For example, don’t leave desk for more than 30 mins without communicating with deal team, weird dress code policies, etc.
Super prescriptive and makes you feel like a high school sophomore vs. a 28 year old investment professional.
What are the dress code policies?
Bump - any more insights? Seems pretty brutal if at all true
Bump
What more do you need to know?…
My favorite touch is their website team page has "personality photos" included, but you can tell based on what they've chosen to show, that they in fact have no personalities (at least at the senior level).
😂 this is so accurate
Bump, any one have other views or updates? Also, associate pedigrees seem to be really strong, do they not recruit non-target backgrounds or non top BB/EB groups?
I highly doubt there will be any material updates from the flurry of negative comments over the past 1-4 months. What more do you need to know
Worked on the other side of a deal with them recently, was still getting emails from principals at 1/2am so doesn’t seem to have improved
Bump on associate and senior associate comp, is it 275 or 350 (actually paid out not quoted) lol this thread is all over the place
Also any idea on Burlingame vs new york
bump
Bump
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