PE vs VC vs GE

Question

Forgive the ignorance, but what is the difference between working in PE vs VC vs Growth Equity with regard to prestige/exits/comp. Is there a clear front-runner among these three in this measure?

rubicon367 · Accepted Answer

The answer to these types of questions will always be some variation of "it depends".

Are you interested in optionality? PE is probably the best, as it opens doors to all kinds of GE and VC opportunities, along with HF, AM, etc.

Are you interested in earlier-stage investing? GE or VC is the move, then. It's much harder to move from GE/VC to PE than the other way around, but hours tend to be better and the culture is often more collegial.

Again, it all really depends, and it can be really harmful to generalize these industries.

rubicon367 · Answer

PE will generally be higher (mainly because of carry), though I'm sure partners at top VCs aren't complaining much about their salaries.

It's hard to say for b-school, mainly because PE -> MBA is such a common path since lots of PE shops (less now) require MBAs for VP promotions, and that's generally not the case for GE/VC. I'm sure if you're at a top GE/VC shop you'll be fine for MBA admissions, but it's tough to generalize because the sample size is quite skewed.

For FAANG/corp dev., tech PE is probably your best bet.

Junior Analyst Seth · Answer

I’d argue that prestige goes to VC. If you think about people outside of finance, they will know and heard of VC, most likely from Shark Tank (lol) and just the popularity of the Silicon Valley world.

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PE vs VC vs GE

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