Mega REPE vs <$10B AUM
Why go to a mega REPE shop when you can get more carry with a smaller group? I get that some people like a little more stability or higher base and like saying they work at BX but I just don’t see the draw. Just want to hear people’s thoughts/stories
Some people only want to work on $100MM+ sized deals and have a high base salary and 50-100% bonus every year and be able to say they do important work at a Blackstone/KKR/Starwood/Brookfield. Others want to say they joined a small "start up" with only a few properties in their portfolio and grew it to a multi-billion dollar fund over their career. And like you said, these smaller funds will typically give carry earlier in someone's career than a MF REPE, so that also entices people. I went for a middle market national developer (national meaning a few developments in each region but focused in on 1-2 regions in particular) with only a few $B AUM and liked that we are in a high growth phase without all the risk of a brand new firm that could collapse with 1 or 2 meh deals.
Yeah I hear you. Thanks for sharing!
This perspective is really only held by undergrads on this forum, once people get into the real world they rarely want to work at the super corporate soul crushing shops.
Amen
Perception of “prestige”, and extremely high pay. You can make a shit ton of money at a BX RE IF you are able to make it to a senior level with pretty much no risk.
Sometimes the smaller companies hire above you more than promote you. With more institutional companies there is a standard progression.
There’s definitely a middle ground. If you join the right shop, you can definitely make more money than some “principal” at blackstone.
But there’s more risk to it. Maybe the firm blows up, maybe the founder doesn’t share his equity generously enough, etc. But there are people who joined Angelo Gordon at the right time and then retired when they were 40 (Source is a founder of a RE firm who was telling me to stop being a baby about accepting lower comp when leaving IB).
Firms with less than $10bn aren’t exactly startups though… weird that you selected that number. My firm has less than $10bn and pays more than “megafunds” like Carlyle lol
Didn't mean to suggest sub-$10b AUM is a start-up. Just trying to give a cutoff between large and relatively small. Your answer sums up what I expected to be true — just b/c a firm is at like $5-10b AUM doesn’t mean they’re unstable or can’t pay you really well/offer a great monetary/career growth opportunity
Helps that if you were joining Angelo Gordon early on you were picking up RE at pennies on the dollar during S&L and 10 years later would have been selling it at all highest commercial real estate values. Just incredible trough to peak timing.
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