MBA student/restaurant franchise owner new to WSO
I am an MBA student and a restaurant franchise owner. I intend to transition to a private equity firm that is interested in restaurant and franchise activity once I complete my MBA in 2019. Does anybody have similar experience or any advice to give? Thanks a lot.
Hi Raider, Have you heard of Capital Spring?
Walking Cookie, I had not heard of Capital Spring. The website seems to be under construction, but I found a couple articles about them. What is the best way to inquire about the firm? Thanks for the rec.
Honestly, I'm not sure. And yes I do know the website is under-construction but for definite it's been around for at least a few years. Like Margin_Call said your best bet is to intern/network, however I would argue your background is actually really good. It's similar to my own however I'm an intern and just about to leave school, and I believe you background is alot stronger than my own. In Capital Spring's case, I'm quietly confident that they'll look at you if you get in contact with the management.
I wouldn't worry as much about having no/little finance or tangible skills like that. I'm convinced the most important asset you have is that you've ran a franchise restaurant, sell that.
Like Margin said, the franchising restaurant sector is quite an exciting time to be in.
Good luck
I'm an analyst for an I-Bank that specializes in restaurant franchisees. I'd tell you that it's an exciting time to be looking into franchise private equity careers because these days PE firms are moving into more restaurant deals than ever before.
I'd consider/look up the major restaurant players first like: Sun Capital Partners, Roark Capital, Argonne Capital, Golden Gate Capital, JAB Holdings and Apollo Global Management (I'm sure I am forgetting a few other big names). Also, a lot of the smaller PE guys have a consumers/retail group that looks at restaurant deals like: The Halifax Group, ARES Capital and Eagle Merchant Partners (I know I'm forgetting quite a few). If you don't already, try to stay up to date with Nation's Restaurant News (which is like the WSJ of the restaurant space).
Thank you. I appreciate the insights. I read NRN and QSR a couple times a day, starting back when I was looking for new franchises to operate personally. This may be a stretch, but do you have any advice about how to contact these kinds of firms about information/internship/etc.?
Now, I'm not as much of an expert on private equity recruiting as some other people on here are, but from my understanding they are typically looking for someone with some kind of Consulting, Big 4 Audit Accounting, or I-Banking experience, not just an MBA. I think they want somebody who has lots of corporate finance knowledge, knows how deals are done, and most importantly, knows how to model. To be clear, that's not to say I think you're necessarily a long shot for PE in a few years, but in my opinion you need something to demonstrate you know how to model and have M&A experience. So I think you would be best suited to try and secure an I-Banking/boutique PE/consulting internship in your summers. Best place to start with that is the recruiting cycle at your school and reaching out to Alumni (also keep your GPA up so you dont f#ck yourself later in recruitment like I did).
In your specific case, I have another idea about how to POSSIBLY get your foot in the door with the top restaurant finance guys. One way I've seen it done besides the typical resume upload/linkedin message is job seeking candidates who show up to conventions. Specifically for you, I'd consider going to the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference in Vegas in November. The conference is an enormous networking opportunity for restaurant folks and you might be able to get a cheaper ticket because you are a restaurant owner. I have been to the conference before (representing my firm) and a few job seeking MBA's have handed me their resume. I thought this was a clever way to get face time and not get trapped in the helpless online job posting/LinkedIn approaches. There were probably 1,500 people there and at least 10% of them were PE/IB/Equity Research guys who would be willing to talk to you. Just note that this would be a fairly significant expense and I can in no way guarantee you'll get an interview out of it, its just something clever I've seen.
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