Top firms to join for promotion / growth
What are the top firms you would pick for overall momentum, fund raising, promotion, etc
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I’d generally think about momentum in structural terms.
Firms that are still relatively young (say sub-10 years old) and growing fund size quickly haven’t had enough time to build heavy layers of senior associates, VPs, and principals. I would try to stick to funds with fund sizes of 1bn+ just to ensure that there is still some opportunity to move down-market if you can't get the promote. If fundraising momentums continues, they naturally need more people as the fund scales in size, which can create better paths to responsibility and promotion. Obviously not universal and firm-specific dynamics matter a lot, but directionally that’s the setup I’d look for.
Just to start the conversation, here’s a rough list GPT spit out as a starting point for further diligence:
Pretty sure GPT’s training data for PE this is just WSO. We make a list → GPT learns the list → someone asks the question again → GPT returns the list. Incredible closed-loop knowledge economy.
At this point we all know the usual suspects that show up in these threads without fail: Arcline, 26N, Patient Square, BayPine. Expanding it from 4–5 names to 10 at least promotes a few new entrants like Recognize, Avance, Percheron, etc. Congrats, you’re now recurring characters. See you in the next thread asking the same question.
Edit to add actual insight outside of snark:
I have friends at 26N and Baypine:
26N - Sweaty af and incredibly toxic from up-top. As an example, rarity people get more than 4-5 hours of sleep. Read the thread titled "LOL at this new WSJ article on Apollo's Culture" or better yet the WSJ journal article behind it for further reference. Now imagine some of the Apollo dynamics discussed, but in a new platform being built the way Josh Harris (the most toxic Apollo founder) wants it run. Upside: extremely sharp team and real reps. If you can hack it, you’ll be very well trained and highly marketable. I am sure the firm will do great as well from a performance and fundraising perspective, so great seat if you can somehow survive the culture. Not 2-and-out, think they are looking to promote their associates. Hard to ignore the momentum too: ~$4B+ on Fund I with a soft close is big for a first-time platform. Very interesting mandate that is flexible and across industries; seems like a great place to learn, but maybe not the best place to stay long-term.
Baypine: Junior culture/WLB is normal for PE. Main issue is slow deployment and a conservative IC. Been investing since 2020 and still less than 10 platforms and a lot of capital still not deployed. Actual portfolio is doing fine, and you can call it discipline, but you may get fewer deal reps than other similar shops. Also not 2-and-out. Less obvious rocket ship vs 26N, though ~$2B for Fund I is still impressive. Mandate is around this idea of basically digital transformation for non-tech sectors. Key question is whether they can pick up pace without lowering the bar. Maybe not the greatest pure learning experience, but might still be a fine long-term investing seat given not 2-and-out.
If I see one more post about you kids jerking to BayPine I’m driving to Indiana University pulling each of you out of your FIN101 lecture and spanking you in alphabetical order
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