Growth Equity vs Investment Banking out of undergrad
I've been thinking about the pros and cons of doing 2 years in IB and trying to break into GE/tech PE vs. skipping the IB years and recruiting for GE directly out of undergrad. Would be helpful to get some thoughts from the community. This is where I'm at:
Investment Banking - pros: greater # of deals, chance to develop strong modeling skills, more exit opps/optionality; cons: long hours, less interesting work, have to recruit again for GE/PE
Growth Equity - pros: investing role, more interesting work; cons: less modeling/deal DD since focus is on sourcing, narrow exit opps
For those of you in Growth/Tech investing right now, how much do you value IB experience? I would appreciate any additions to the pros/cons that I have so far.
following
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Also would appreciate insight on exit opps from different types of growth firms
The answer is pretty simple - if you wanna be in GE/VC/Tech investing for the longer term, go straight to growth equity if given the chance. Otherwise, pursue TMT IB and then recruit for GE. Regarding exit opps, GE is the exit opp so either try to stay for the partner track or move around funds.
People in GE seem to have biases on this topic. A few GE associates that went through IB analyst programs first have recommended that path for me and greatly value the IB experience. On the other hand, associates that went straight to GE also recommend doing the same.
Would I be missing out on anything from a BB if I take an opportunity to go straight to GE?
One of the tough things about getting advice in these situations is that everyone thinks they went down the right path, so people will always advise you to do exactly what they did.
My thought is that the answer to this question is highly situational. If you know you want to do GE/VC long-term and are given the chance to join a top fund as an analyst (Insight, GA, KKR NGR), I would take that opportunity. However, if you have a chance to join a smaller/newer fund (Level Equity, Lead Edge, Silversmith) vs a top group at a bank, then I'd probably do banking and try to join one of these larger funds as an associate (TA, GA, Insight, Etc).
is it possible to lateral from a smaller newer fund to a bigger top fund?
Lead Edge seems like a very compelling to take over top BB offer. ~15 investment professionals managing 3B...could be making MF comp and getting great exposure on partner track. That is, if you're certain about GE.
Wouldn’t branch LE with level equity and silversmith given the new fund.
Thoughts on silversmith?
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thoughts on norwest growth?
Are you interviewing with them? They are a relatively new branch of Norwest with a small team. Norwest name goes really far in the VC world
I know their VC arm is phenomenal. Growth, not sure.
Whatever anyone says, don't let them tell you sourcing is a useless skill. Out of every single skill you can gain as a GE analyst, or IB analyst or PE analyst,..... sourcing is by and far away the absolute most pivotal skill that'll determine if you're just a mediocre mid level high finance professional in 5 years, or an absolute fucking stud in any other industry you choose.
People who tell you otherwise about the technicals etc either:
A. have never successfully sold an idea / product / service that generated money,. they simply "worked" on deals that their MD's sourced and think that they provided some kind of value. knock knock, you didn't you dummy. You're a dime a dozen
B. simply aren't looking over the tree's and think like an excel monkey. CIBC in China has first year IB analysts that'll fucking run circles around your gruop's top "technical" analyst. Come the fuck on man, don't compete on technicals ... /// END rant. kids on this forum smdh
Yep, it does almost seem as if modelling skills are just a commodity.
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