Lower Middle Market Mezzanine Private Equity

I'll bite, but I'll preface that my firm does not do just mezz & equity, we invest across the whole cap structure (senior, mezzanine, and equity) + we do credit opps / special sits investments across the cap stack as well. On pay. I'd expect a slight 15-20% discount from that of PE, but your hours will likely be better to the same proportion. ~70-75 hours / week in PE vs 55-60 / week in credit. My firm is NY based, so depends on location as well. Deal flow is great because you get to do substantially more deals than your equity counterparts as the DD process is lighter and you may have the same opps in from various trees (different PE firms) if a banker led process. Culture is very firm specific, but generally culture at mezz firms tends to be more relaxed than PE firms. Look at the founder's / MD's backgrounds and that should give you a good idea. Hours I already mentioned. Upward mobility is dependent on the size of the firm, but generally easier to move up as there is usually less competition as fewer people want to go to a mezz shop. Exit ops include other credit funds, special sits / distressed shops (if you go through BK's and have a few portco's where shit hits the fan and you have to RX), credit hedge funds, LMM private equity, portco's, etc. Not as certain about this, but I don't see why you couldn't also go the corp dev route or sreatgy as even though you won't be actively managing portco's you'll likely get board observation or board seat rights if you are investing equity.