Coatue

Hi guys,

Anybody here knows anything about Coatue?

I know it is one of the Tiger Cubs. TMT focus. Equity L/S. Some websites say $3B AUM and some says $5B+, so I am not sure.

It is also quoted couple times by one of the top 10 funds in the last year or two in returns.

One thing I heard is that they pay really well to entry level analysts (out of 2 yr banking or 2 yr banking and 2 yr in other HF / PE), but their culture isn't that great. Is this true?

If you know anything about Coatue, can you please share here?

Thank you in advance.

 

Really smart guys. Heavy tech focus. Guy who runs the joint is a sharp dude. They've got a pretty big AUM now, definitely > $5B last I heard. Not sure if performance has been "top 10" in the past few years but it's been solid. Not too sure about comp but know they are a little bit of a sweat shop in terms of working their guys pretty hard. That's expected in the tech sector though, lots more to do there.

I hate victims who respect their executioners
 

Tech team, trying to broaden their focus beyond just take (GMCR as an example...). I have had many friends that have worked there and everyone said it is a terrible place to work. The turnover in the past 2 years has been incredibly high on the junior level. Great returns though, but they do copy a lot of what Viking and Maverick do. If you want more color PM me. At the end of the day not a bad place as Laffont is super smart, but just be weary of the workplace atmosphere.

 
Best Response
madgames:
Tech team, trying to broaden their focus beyond just take (GMCR as an example...). I have had many friends that have worked there and everyone said it is a terrible place to work. The turnover in the past 2 years has been incredibly high on the junior level. Great returns though, but they do copy a lot of what Viking and Maverick do. If you want more color PM me. At the end of the day not a bad place as Laffont is super smart, but just be weary of the workplace atmosphere.

I hope they took a short position on GMCR.

I had an initial interview with HR there, was told my background wasn't what they're looking for. To be more specific, I worked in tech and had some tech research experience through an internship but Coatue pretty much requires 2 yr IBD, 2 yr PE. The reason they gave me is that do really deep dives for long-term investment positions and run the due diligence pretty much like the top PE firms. For that reason you'll see guys from Blackstone, Carlyle, those types of top end PE firms end up at Coatue.

 

I interviewed there last year for a research position. 2 Years and out was what they said. Like the above poster, they are really really interested in research capabilities. They now have their own in house research group, devoted solely to uncovering subtle nuances in industries/companies not yet discovered. They told me the research team sometimes will be kept in dark about l/s positions so they won't formulate any thoughts on the sector. They did not care about my transaction experience at all, and only wanted to know about my research skills. After 2 interviews, my interpretation was that except for a select few who actually are involved in the buying/selling, everyone else is only half involved in the investment process.

 

Just to clarify LevFinGS's comments - they do have a research group as he described that is separate from the investment team, but not all junior roles are like that and they do of course hire regular way investment analysts at the junior level, generally out of the usual suspects (top pe, other top funds)

I can't really comment on culture though

 

Pay's good, but hear that it's a complete sweatshop with a brutal culture. On the bright side, the senior guys are smart and perform well. You probably won't be involved in investment decisions, but it's a good place to ease into the buy-side. By "ease into," I mean that it's far lower stress to work long hours on research than to have to be responsible for ideas that are on the book.

 
SpacemanSpiff:
Can anyone elaborate on the sweatshop comments? What type of hours are we talking about here?

Thanks

70-80 hours a week. That's not 70-80 banking hours where you're hand-held through everything and can slack off the first part of the day... 70-80 HF hours are far more draining because (1) you're working the majority of the time and (2) you actually have to think.

 
DontMakeMeShortYou:
SpacemanSpiff:
Can anyone elaborate on the sweatshop comments? What type of hours are we talking about here?

Thanks

70-80 hours a week. That's not 70-80 banking hours where you're hand-held through everything and can slack off the first part of the day... 70-80 HF hours are far more draining because (1) you're working the majority of the time and (2) you actually have to think.

That sounds about standard to me, am I wrong? Are there multi-billion dollar hedge funds (or PE firms for that matter) where you are working less than 70 hours a week at a junior-ish level?

 

id put mf at around ~70-75 as well (assuming with mf you mean hedgefund "mf") from my shop and other juniors i know. small funds can vary a ton knew a guy that interned at a small hedge fund and regularly had to do all nighters...

 

Would reiterate that hours are very lax even at junior levels except a handful scattered but not particularly of one AUM size, and those guys probably do about 70-75 hours maybe? Most shops that I'd consider our peers (meaning they're equity guys that take big positions and are bottom quartile-ish in portfolio turnover) don't do too much more than 50 in a given week, no weekends. The job lends itself very well to working from home if you can 1) be trusted, and 2) land at a research-heavy shop like that. I'm sure Bridgewater has shit hours or something since the hierarchy is funky and junior guys need to be on their toes to cater to whatever their boss wants no matter what.

Also, earnings season is obviously a total bitch sometimes, especially when it's a big name of yours or something you've been heavily scrutinizing lately.

I hate victims who respect their executioners
 

Does anyone know what sort of exit opportunities you would be looking at if one took a junior position on their research team? I am wondering if it would be hard to move into a straightforward investment role at another fund after doing say two years in a research role at Coatue.

 

if you're talking about their research associate position, it's not an investing role. you're basically the internal channel checker/dd guy. there isn't a direct/established path to transitioning into an investment role, although some research associates have been able to transition into an investment role.

 

does "transition into an investing role" mean work in an analyst role alongside guys who did 2yIB 2yrPE prior? or is it some other middle ground type investing role?

 

I don't know much about this specific position, but Coatue is a great HF though a very very tough place to work. Philippe has 3 lieutenants that basically run the show and quite a few analysts under them. Not sure about your specific role or who you'll support, but I've run into a few of the former ppl that support these 3 big dudes and hear while the fund pays very well, it has a 'churn and burn' culture and ppl don't last long. Apart from the 3 big dudes, turnover is very high. Caliber of the people? All are very smart and high caliber, but that's fairly obvious.

 

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