Recently reached out about a posting at Whitehorse in Toronto. Does anyone have any information? Seem to have incredible growth but have heard some contradicting things on culture and pay cuts for senior associates and below and see that a few analysts in the last year left after short stints.
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Username sorta checks out.
Am editing this out as it sounds like things have changed there since I last had a view.
Check their returns on Preqin, they're extremely mediocre.
Thanks for this, I stand corrected. I wonder what happened, I remember hearing phenomenal numbers coming out of funds 1 and 2.
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Tryna keep your job?
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Lowered the pay? Smh...
Do you know how much the associates are getting paid there?
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You could say that I have a friend that works there and that I made this anon account to post for him (this might go over some people's heads, hopefully you get it). The pay is street (100-112 base plus 30% bonus, which is dog shit especially considering it's in Canadian dollars). Seniors are toxic and pretend to care about the juniors through a yearly trip – they pat each other on the back after "giving back" to random causes which they don't care about (it's really a stunt to put in their yearly memo's to LP's). They're hiring bottom bucket analysts from ECM/DCM groups in Toronto and if god forbid you started there straight out of school, you're essentially stuck cause you can't go exit anywhere else. Worst of all is that you build no real skill set; all analysis is extremely high level and 80% of analyst work is data entry and plugging in random growth assumptions into templates.
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Interesting… is it a current associate or sr associate…..?
Who will hire them? No exit opportunities from this rocket ship
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Have a friend there and have heard nothing but positive things. Lots of success, interesting strategy, growing area, smart leadership
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And yet their LPs keep feeding them billions and billions in commitments... how F'ed up this world is lol
How can they keep raising so quickly? Genuine question which I don't understand.
Wow
Anyone know analyst comp?
100-112.5 base
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Damn that's pretty good for first year out of school. Any idea on bonus/all-in?
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https://www.psers.pa.gov/About/Board/Resolutions/Documents/2020/2020-21…;
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Let's not pretend PSERS are investing gurus... https://www.wsj.com/articles/pennsylvania-pension-cio-jim-grossman-to-resign-amid-federal-probe-11637243641
Not surprised given the credibility they have in the market
Heard from a friend that an intern quit….. Terrible culture
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Mass exodus expected. Titanic
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Why did you delete?
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I see posts being edited now. Typical WH. I worked in IR there. Bunch of people have left in quick succession. DM me for details. Godspeed
Sent you a dm
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Dinner budget is only $25.
that was JPM before maybe a month ago.
How are the hours? Weekends?
Strongly agree on all above. Dinner budget of $25 is pretty conservative.
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Does not have the best rep on the street.
Returns are trash. What people fail to realize is that just because you're generating decent returns at a pension fund (CPPIB/LP) doesn't mean you know how to generate returns / asset manage at the GP level.
8%? How are these guys getting paid?
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Someone earlier said 280-300 all in went down to 250 then deleted their post. Tbh, that's still pretty darn good.
A lot of comments have been deleted or edited. So sus
Anyone know if they still just focus on fund-level preferred equity or other deal stxs?
WH called emergency staff meeting on 17th to address this page... #1 refused to address any of the concerns or even touch upon them that they will be fixed... Just legal
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Strange
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Can you elaborate a bit on the math for the second option? They keep the senior piece and carve out the equity tranche, so their return is basically whatever interest rate they charge on the senior plus whatever they can sell the equity for - is that right?
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Dude seems like this whole thread is you trashing on WH. What do you have against them? Maybe they didn’t hire you one time.
I am in the industry, albeit very junior. Have heard nothing but good things from other firms, one of their large pension LPs and placement agents.
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A headhunter reached out to me as well. Curious to hear what the interview process looks like?
You actually read this whole thread and you're still asking about the interview process...?
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What about Onex/Birch Hill/Torquest?
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What was deleted?
I was headhunted for WH a few times and it always struck me as "too good to be true." They clearly pay well to incentivize talent who would otherwise not give secondaries the time of day, but they still work hard which leads to the question of: what's the exit from this?
Who is the headhunter? Vlaad?
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Which shops have decent carry & work life balance?
Insane how many people deleted their comment
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Post them?
You know you’re really tired when you read the name as Whor*house
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They all got fired lol
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Just now? Wtf why
Fired on what grounds though? WSO you should help them sue Whitehorse. I’ve never heard of anyone getting fired for expressing their opinions. No freedom of expression sadly
There's probably an anti-defamation clause in their contract. But clearly a seriously awful firm if this is their reaction to a bit of bad press...
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Stuff like this makes WSO great.
Right? Love me some censorship
rip WH HR got my boy theranos now
RIP
Damn, this firm seems like absolute trash.
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Yo wtf is going on? Why is everyone's comments being censored or deleted?
@Patrick plz advise
Tells you everything you need to know about them, just checked their page and apparently they've re-named the firm to "Dawson Partners", what a fucking joke.
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Please advise why all messages on this feed were censored.
Thank you for your bravery.
Silenced
Imagine working 70+ hours a week for a fund that generates a sub 10% IRR in a sector that is routinely mid teens (low) and around 20% as the norm. Lol
Still don’t understand how they can consistently raise so much $ and with each subsequent fund much bigger than the previous with sub par performance. The senior folks must be making $$$$$!!!
Hi
I'm not too familiar with the firm, but it sounds like it's in hyper growth mode. Lots of recent hiring
I have nothing personally against this firm. I know a variety of people that currently work there and a few who have left.
As to the negativity, I think there are a variety of "tales" being told, which seem to be largely true as they keep being repeated by different people that I meet.
-Their earlier funds have so far not performed as expected - I think they were still figuring out their strategy at that point. I was told that they did some rather risky deals in emerging markets where the equity tranche got wipes out and the pref holders also lost a lot of money. From a carry perspective, this had consequences and probably contributed to a negative atmosphere.
-An intern did apparently quit and another was being criticized by senior management. This is nothing new in the industry, unfortunately.
-Several analysts have reported working through the night for no real purpose and have stated that their immediate superiors have been extremely challenging to deal with.
A lot of these issues stem from hiring a lot of people extremely quickly and trying to raise a lot of money really quickly. You sometimes put the wrong people in charge, some who frankly have no business having people report to them, and a toxic culture begins to develop.
Don't be a jerk. Do better.
Surprised this comment survived
Wow this thread got absolutely bombed. Kind of feel like I missed out on some great gossip.
You did.
😭
Bump
Wow, wtf happened here? Looks like I missed some juicy stuff…
I saw that Whitehorse is currently recruiting for analysts - any updated views on this shop?
Lol you actually want to work there? Sure, the pay is good, but you're going to be treated like utter garbage.
You really read through this thread, saw that half of the comments had been deleted and came to the conclusion, yeah this is a great place to work?
Analysts for investments role or IR?
I'm pretty confused. If the culture is so horrible, how come they have talent from Greenhill, MBB, and Canadian big 5 M&A as well ex-Torquest and Birch Hill? I'm sure the junior/senior people there have better options, but instead, they choose to stay? It doesn't add up. -
(Edit) I see, thanks for the replies.
They were growing quickly and were paying above market comp so they were able to attract talent
As the other poster mentioned, it's because Whitehorse was growing rapidly and was hiring across all levels
if you're not looking to stay in banking or consulting, buyside exit opps in Canada are very limited (especially if you're seeking comp that is par with or superior to banking) and most Canadian analysts don't have the bank recognition and pedigree to jump directly to US buyside.
Even if you exit to an associate seat at a Canadian MM PE fund (Torquest, Birch Hill, Imperial etc), upward mobility is limited because the senior ranks are crowded. Once again, very limited compelling options in Canada for a PE Associate/VP looking to leave (or that was pushed out of) a Cdn MM fund.
This thread is hilarious. What a dumpster fire
What’s even more hilarious is them about to close $6bn for their next fund… Some LPs are clearly so foolish
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Jesus this thread looks like Xi Jinping was here.
If you want to light your money on fire they're a good place to invest.
Heard they are doing okay, not great. Any idea on figures?
Bottom quartile
How do LP’s keep investing in them…..???????
Their head was an ex cpp guy. They look good on paper.
They also had Alaska permanent as their first investor (who got a percent of the mgmt company) so it signalled to other LPs to invest
How did they manage to get all the comments redacted?
Legal blackmail likely, unfortunately Patrick folded
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One of their junior partners just quit and he was only a partner for a year - not a good sign.
Why?
Bump for free speech
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Can confirm… partner was canned
One partner is gone - no idea why. Could have been fired, could have quit - no one knows.
He quit.
Bump
Bump -- interesting to see if potential COVID-22 might move them to the median relative to their peers.
Their first two funds IRRs are below 8%...
Poo
Eat
this thread is illuminating...
One time a senior staffer looked at my pee pee while I was at the urinal and he said I wasn't management material.
Bump for cancel culture
Any news/intel as of H2’22 / ‘23? How is the shop doing in the current environment?
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bump - any culture updates?
Heard senior female partner got chopped recently…oh wait…***deleted***
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Am halfway through the process for their capital management team. Any updates re: culture? I can’t even figure out from this thread what happened
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