BX Growth?
Does anyone have intel on Blackstone Growth? BX’s growth equity platform that they just launched a year or two ago.
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Took a lot of guys from KKR NGT platform and also internally from BX tactical opps / private equity.
I think growth used to be part of TacOpp’s mandate, which is why the group is mainly made up of people from there
Do they hire Analysts out of undergrad?
Yes they hire out of undergrad
It's led by Jon Korngold who was well-respected at General Atlantic.
He spent a year building a team that drew from logos like Carlyle, NEA, A16Z, TCV, and Vista.
Their first couple deals were not done out of a dedicated fund (because they hadn't yet raised one), but instead drew on different funds internally (Tac Opps, flagship).
They like to be the largest owner besides management. They're flexible in approach though, it can range from a near buyout (Vungle) to small minority positions at 20% ownership.
It's an interesting value proposition, because apart from SoftBank, there hasn't really been a growth equity player with the ability to write half billion or billion dollar checks. At that ticket size it's almost exclusively been buyout, and for deals that weren't a majority stake, they usually came with a pref or some other control mechanism. And the broader Blackstone ecosystem (portfolio operations, the data team they've been building for a few years, the whole real estate platform) is pretty compelling when you get to the value-add element.
I think it would be an excellent place to start your career. It would be very analogous to the private equity analyst program. You could promote internally, move to another firm as an associate, or (better than you could out of the buyout strategy) move to an exciting business as an operator.
Would you happen to know if it’s a sourcing shop like other key growth players? Or is there ultimately some level of modeling involved?
Are you sure they’re one of the only players that can write billion plus checks?
I think the crossover guys can put up some serious cash and if you’re raising equity capital at $1bn plus ranges then I am pretty sure you’re later stage and would attract those pools of capital
Thanks for the reply. This is my first time on this site in awhile.
Yes, I stand by that comment. Two reasons.
One, I wrote it over a year ago. The level of awareness (perception might be a better word) among the institutional investor (LP) community around the outsized returns available through exposure to venture as a subset of an overall allocation to private equity has really skyrocketed.
Big institutions that carry a lot of weight in that community or are seen as trendsetters in a way (like Princeton or Stanford or the Ford Foundation) publicizing their 2020 and 2021 endowment return numbers led a lot of other players to try to emulate.
There was more money available for GPs in 2021 than in 2020, and there is in 2022 than in 2021. e.g. My ability to do a $500m Series D at a $4b post is different today than it was in February 2021.
Two, while the small handful of $500m+ [non-control, growth] rounds has inched higher in count and frequency since then, two factors about round dynamics still persist.
Even though Tiger (and you can include Coatue, D1, Altimeter, and the other more active crossover names) has continued at a cranked-up volume, read the announcements closely. They are (a) doing a lot of rounds between $100-$500m where (b) they are just the lead, not the entire round.
For giant rounds (defining "giant" as a billion or close to it on either side and "round" as a series funding, not an ownership transition), you really do have to get multiple investors. Exceptions used to be maybe just General Atlantic and SoftBank. My point was that Blackstone was an addition there, and I think astute on their part.
What's the recruiting process and work like for associates?
Anyone know the HH? Is it SG?
Last I heard SG covers all Bx groups including CPE, tac opps, and BXG
This is correct
Does anyone know if it’s a fully sourcing role or if it’s split with execution/modeling?
Heard from a buddy at a different BX team that it's more execution focused than the traditional growth experience.
Following
Bump
This is a top opportunity if interested in Private Equity.
Having said that, if interested more in Growth/late-stage VC, I think (assuming you’re fortunate to have the choice) GA/Insight/TA/a16z etc (basically the firms they poached their team from) is a wiser choice on average given the relationships these firms have and their current dominance in the space (AUM, # of deals, fees).
Someone alluded to this above, but BX Growth is really just looking at deals half a step or so before their flagship fund would look at something (still large minority or majority stake, very large checks, close to IPO). Many growth deals happen fast, and BX has traditionally been known to take months or even years to do a single deal.
Can you confirm that it’s much more execution focused than most growth equity roles? How similar is it to the PE analyst program?
Also interested.
I can’t confirm that, have no idea - but given the size and low frequency of deals I think that’s likely
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