12 Comments
 

Two questions for you:

  • How different are these two domains? For example, there's a big difference between "industrials" and "software" and not as much of a difference between "industrial software" and "enterprise software more broadly" in terms of the way you can position your experience
  • What are the economics like at this new fund? Is there a clear path to VP / principal / partner? How does that compare to your other offer?

I think the "risk reward" tradeoff between greater consistency in domain experience / recognition of firm and role that you love might shift depending on how you respond to these two questions. My gut reaction, though, is that you should go follow the domain that you love, especially if being at a newer fund gives you a clear runway to senior investment roles. You're very young and you have time to readjust if pivoting doesn't work out, especially given that you're staying in private equity. On the other hand, opportunities to pursue a domain that you're passionate about, especially if it's a niche domain, don't really come that often.

 

Pick what you want to be doing long term, deprioritize “prestige” and optimize for impact.

Exit options are for people who spend their energy planning their retreat before they’ve even figured out how to win

If you work at a place where you can really impact the outcome, and if that is also in a space that you are excited by and have conviction in, you’ll go far and what you deserve will come readily.

 
Most Helpful

Agree with the poster above. You probably know this, but sector expertise will be valuable going forward. Given the number of PE firms now, generalist firms are losing edge. You're still early in your career, so you have optionality between sectors. If the newer firm didn't work out, it shouldn't be hard to say "I did tech for a few years, then decided to try industrials. Realized my heart was really in tech so I am not looking to transition back into that sector focus".   

People discount smaller / newer funds because of prestige, ego and lack of brand name, but they can be some of the best opportunities. Not all are created equal. I would specifically look at where the partners came from. If they spun out of Apollo after being there for 20 years, it's probably fair to assume there will be similar culture given that's how they grew up. 

Without knowing the promotion path, comp, structures of firms, industries, etc., you'd need to ask yourself (i) what industries do you truly enjoy, (ii) do you have the risk tolerance to try the smaller firm and see what happens (even if it blows up, you'd presumably be ~VP level and should have transferrable skills to another PE firm, Corp Dev, banking, etc.), (iii) do you value stability over potential upside and (iv) any cultural differences (people, hierarchy, etc.)  

 

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