Tech Buyout to Infrastructure Buyout

Hi all - after 2 years at a top TMT group, I'm now a tech investor at a well respected PE firm. I'm quickly realizing that I miss working with more tangible companies that are typically found within Telecom / Digital Infra. The intangible component of Tech companies makes everything feel so abstract and open to so much more risk than necessary as a PE investor. I'm considering trying to lateral to an infra fund that makes investments in Digital Infra. I understand I just started my role 2 months ago and it's not something I'd do lightly. My thinking is if I continue not enjoying my role after a year I'll explore other options. How open are PE firms to a move like this? I can leverage some of my experience from my banking years although I'm not sure how much weight that will be given. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

I work on the infra/RE arm of an MF and have seen a variety of people switch verticals, both in-house and out. It's certainly attainable - can lead to great results and better QoL to an extent, but it is what I'd consider a risk. First and foremost, I do agree with your sentiment regarding the digital/tech world - not just from a technical perspective, but also from an intrinsic one. It's much harder to 'read the room' (for lack of better words) when those intangible factors come out of every corner and you have people all across your team saying things like "well, what about (x) in this context?" and you realize that you may have to totally re-evaluate. 

Couple of things I'll say here, though - number one, you've got the right idea regarding the timing of it. You're two months into your career, and if I may be brutally honest I suspect you haven't even begun to see the worst of things yet. This isn't a reference to your personal work or your fund's projects, but two months is not enough time to present a holistic representation of your vertical and see what it encompasses - both the bad and the good. 

On the subject of good, my perception is colinear in the fact that I believe as you work with your team and deals start to creep towards finality you'll grow more comfortable in your space. If you're strictly working at a TMTF, you're in a specialist position that will undoubtedly highlight your expertise within that sector of the PE world alone. While this may make it harder to sell yourself to a generalist fund within an infrastructure, real estate, or capital markets approach, it by no means will disqualify you and you would be able to provide a unique selling point by bringing your expertise to the table. To be honest, I can't think of any examples off the top of my head but it's been a long day and I'm sure there are many. 

The fact of the matter is this - when you ask "How open are PE firms to a move like this?", you're gonna get the age-old boring-ass answer that everyone hates: it really just depends on the fund. It depends on the market location you're in, it depends on staffing and fiduciary budgeting decisions of said firm, and everything in between. If I had to ballpark it based on personal take? I think you'd find a fit in a sector arm of an MF/UMM personally, as specialist funds are a lot pickier about random shit (not to mention the hellhole that we megafunds are about to encounter due to every firm fucking up on-cycle, but that's a different story). 

But overall - stick it out for a while. Your idea of waiting a year or so is a good start, but personally, provided that you don't hate the work you do vertically-specific-wise, I'd encourage you to maybe even go beyond that, and wait until your team has a successful exit if the timing works. Best of luck to you.

 
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