TCV post-ZIRP - GE seats worth pursuing?
Hoping to stimulate some discussion here since most of the posts with insightful comments seem older/lack detail. Currently a BB TMT analyst (not GS/MS) and I want to move to GE - them being one of the better historical firms in NYC has me searching for some consensus on whether they should still be a top exit choice.
- What's the firm like today?
- Still a T1 growth equity seat?
- Modern day updates regarding comp/benefits? Hours? Culture?
Obviously they took at big L by holding Peloton for way too long which probably contributed in a big way to their fundraising woes with their last fund. We haven't seen them go down in fundsize at least.
- Have/are they pulling past it?
- Reasonable to expect they look to raise another fund in the next couple of years?
- Would it impact the 3 up & out frame if they did?
You can see on LinkedIn TCV alums at a ton of top shops in various roles. Lots of Head of Growth/senior seats at various MF tech/growth groups and guys who started their own fund/became an operator.
- What's the ASO experience like?
- Heavy sourcing like most GE but do they seem to be returning to their roots or are they still awkwardly straddling the identity of venture GE vs buyout growth?
- They're pitched as a crossover but will the junior experience in a particular silo include taking views across all 3 slates or just the venture side?
There have been some high profile departures and a couple of partners were reportedly demoted to VP.
- Is this a strong signal that there's almost no chance for advancement beyond the 3yr ASO program?
- If 3 up & out do seniors support ASOs recruiting in their 2nd/3rd year? i.e. help with intros, strong recs, etc.
- What about BSchool? Placement seems decent
Come on GE guys it's a summer Saturday. We know you're not working, help the kid out!
Bump
Historically solid shop but been experiencing a ton of turnover recently. Have heard mixed reviews on current leadership and the Asso experience downstream to this
Any insight into what's driving the churn?
Performance of the 21 vintage is so cooked that it doesn’t bode well at all (negative net irr on Calpers). The fund they raised last year is likely the last one they will be able to raise in a while.
So is the scorecard for most funds at their scale that deployed in 2021. Was it a death knell though?
Not really no one is at neg IRR. They already raised a down fund too, this is really indicative of poor dynamics
TCV was the wizard of oz for the longest time. As was Tiger Global. Now the secret is out that these guys were just taking inordinate amounts of risk and were outsized beneficiaries of a boom boom momentum market. That’s all you’re seeing now, a come back to reality and a MTM of backward looking perception vs. real time execution/track record.
How is Insight relatively? Doesn’t seem like they fared well either.
Are these still good seats to aim for vs an IVP, BOND etc.
I don’t know what any of those acronyms are. A lot of them are blown up. Tiger privates, Clearlake, possibly Insight, etc. They’re still scaled platforms that are nearly impossible to completely break, so if it’s between Insight/TCV or some bucket shop, obviously take the former.
You can paint most of those places with the same brush. They were momentum shops. When things were going well, they smashed the gas pedal down, and ended up driving at the fastest and most out of control speed at the worst possible time.
Ie they were growing their AUM massively and took tons of vintage risk in ‘20-‘22.
The decade between 2010-2020 was brutal for value oriented investors. There wasn’t much value to be had so they largely sat on the sidelines or invested in DSARP (dog shit at a reasonable price).
The investors that did well (until they didn’t) were the ones that dove headlong into the surf and then doubled down when the storm surge came … until the rip tide invariably carried them out to sea. The ones that fared the best were the ones less prudent than the Value Investing Clergy but more sober than the Max Levered Long Libertines.
You need to be investing in every market environment, but need to be disciplined to not to stupid deals and need to be balanced so you’re investing as the market rises, as it tops out, as it drops, and as it bottoms out. Otherwise you have no shot.
Most invest exorbitantly in a rising market. The corrections are now too fast and furious for most to transact in such a small window. And everyone is too shit scared at the actual bottom when there’s morgue trucks lining up in Manhattan for surge pricing on Covid corpses or there’s emergency meetings at the Treasury to figure out how to rescue capitalism.
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