Thoughts on Whitehorse Liquidity Partners?

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.

 

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.

 

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 

 

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

 

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.

 

Wow this thread got absolutely bombed. Kind of feel like I missed out on some great gossip. 

"The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly" - Robert A. Wilson | "If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

😭

"The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly" - Robert A. Wilson | "If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

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.

 

Redacted. Redacted. Redacted.

Jesus this thread looks like Xi Jinping was here.

 

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

 

One time a senior staffer looked at my pee pee while I was at the urinal and he said I wasn't management material.

 

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