Tech Growth/Buyout Offices in southeastern US

Could folks share perspectives on top names and 2022 general landscape of the southeastern US (e.g., DC-Maryland-Virginia and Carolinas at the top end, down to Texas and anything in between)?

Seems like there are good UMM and LMM firms with offices in Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, etc but curious if you guys have other thoughts on those you work with/view favorably.

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A few (with thoughts noted) off the top of my head:

JMI - Baltimore and DC - definitely a Top 5-10 fund for their stage of the growth world, well-regarded and see good opportunities

Frontier - CLT - believe they've been struggling as of late, haven't raised a new fund since 2017 and the target for their latest was same size as the previous. Nice guys and seem more laid-back than most. 

Accel-KKR - ATL - don't know as well but supposedly excellent returns, well-regarded among LPs. Narrow focus but good at what they do. 

Greater Sum Ventures - Knoxville - newer fund founded by former operators, almost exclusively do roll-ups in software + integrated payments. In some good names through that strategy (which, in general, is a high-floor / likely-to-succeed one) but imagine the work involved in that is a GRIND

Vista - Austin - they're the Yankees / Lakers. Best in the business in tech buyout aside from Thoma. 

 
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Actually, a lot of these funds are pretty good.

Thoma and Vista are so big now they are insititutions. So who knows what returns will look like going forward, but cash comp will always be good and they will continue to be a good place to start your career. May hit a point where you hit a "politics wall" once the fund growth slows down / less room in the carry pie, but I'm just speaking in generalities about what happens to big well known funds, nothing specific about these two.

AKKR and Parthenon have been around for a good while and both absolutely crush it in terms of returns. JMI supposed to be pretty good too but I'm less familiar. More "pure growth" than some of these other numbers which are growth/buyout hybrids. TA is a great brand but as I mentioned the Austin presence is just financial services and I don't think that group is as tech-y. Serent killed it in their last fund but it's early days / not as tenured as some of these other names. But I hear good things. Tritium is a little smaller and I'm not sure about performance. More tenured than appears given the group is a full spinout from legacy Austin Ventures. Pamlico is a tenured NC and certainly good but my sense is a little sleepier in terms of ambitions. Which means slower fund size growth. Primus has some good returns but is smaller and I hear the place is run like a dictatorship under the head guy.

 

All I can add is that CLT is an insular market of old boys who've all been around forever whos kids go to the same private schools and who golf at the same country club. That's all to say if you move down, make sure that you really love that firm for the long term. Because it is really hard to move between funds as a result of these dynamics.

 

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