Opinion on Roark
Does any one on here have any prior experience working at Roark at the Associate or similar level? Wondering what typical comp looks like, work/life balance, and group culture if anyone would be willing to share.
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I can't speak much on the associate experience there, but a couple of thoughts and notes below based on what I know and have heard about them:
Focus on franchise platforms (e.g., restaurant chains, CPG's, etc.). They are really good at buying franchises with well-known brand names (e.g., Arby's, Hardee's, Auntie Anne's, etc.) that have been mismanaged and/or underperforming and turbo-boosting them, e.g., by putting in capital to fund international expansion, modernizing their stores and enhancing brand image, putting a bunch of complementary brands together in a roll-up fashion to achieve synergistic savings, etc.
Used to focus on smaller and more growthier deals in the past but have shifted towards $1B+ mega-buyout deals post ~2015
Returns were well into top-quartile at least across their first three or four funds when they focused on the smaller deals (not sure / don't know about their more recent performance)
They are based in Atlanta and hire quite a lot of analysts directly out of undergrad who they seem to regularly promote upwards
Just a loose observation, but I got the sense that there is a lot of internal politics at the MD level here--a sort of fiefdom-like culture of in-fighting, especially as they began to go after huge career-making/breaking-type deals
so is there an emphasis on operational work?
Yes, I would think so
Absolutely - there needs to be in order to streamline / scale underperforming retail / rest. businesses
anyone have info on comp/exits for analysts out of undergrad?
Bump, particularly interested in exit ops
The restaurant, growth-ier version of Sycamore. Would be interesting to see how they will perform through this crisis.
Their site says they have a NY office but nearly the whole team seems to be based in ATL. Can anyone comment on their NY presence?
Have worked with them on a couple of deals and interviewed with them a while back. The whole team is in Atlanta. They recently built out some more office space and plan to keep growing in Atlanta. There are maybe 1 or 2 senior people in New York.
Look on their team webpage.....it literally says who sits where
why would they have an office manager in NYC if only 2 senior people are in the nyc office? Do they plan on moving associates/analysts up there at some point?
bump, any info on analyst program or comp
Anyone have thoughts on starting a career in Atlanta? Is this a place you'd consider staying at for only 2-4 years (MBA possibly being the transition in between) and then moving somewhere else?
I grew up in Atlanta. The “key” social (and implicitly professional) networks are difficult to become embedded in except with long-standing membership and participation in key institutions (kids go to Westminster/Lovett, you go to Peachtree Presbyterian, you’re a member of Piedmont Driving Club/Capital City Club).
If you’re in, life is very good. It’s one of the best bubbles you could imagine so long as you don’t think too hard about it. For a 20-something, I wouldn’t recommend Atlanta. It’s not as fun as other cities and is much more suited to starting and raising a family. I may go back, but elected to spend my 20s elsewhere.
Also grew up in Atlanta and can second this.
Too true as a young professional. It would be very dull and limiting. But the arb is to come in after learning your trade in NYC etc. and settle in your 30s. PDC/ CCC are very insular, but Cherokee is riddled with many transplants. Who cares about church? And Buckhead, above all else, worships $$$ so if you are a major earner, all will genuflect. You can have a gorgeous house in Tuxedo Park or the Paces, weekend home in Cashiers or Lake Rabun, send your kids to Westminster and on to a great college, and have an amazing life.
I'm in Atlanta and the other 2 members of my team are basically what you've described, as are many of the high ups at the company. It's pretty wild how everyone in that group is connected one way or another. I'm a little out of place as a minority guy who ended up in Atlanta for college and stayed around, haha. Get along great with folks I work with, but starting to get the feeling I'll need to up my golf game, etc.
Thanks for your responses, everyone.
Isn't Atlanta very diverse?
bump
Bump
Interviewed with them.
They’re a very strong shop that sticks to the niche they know best. Strong preference for kids from the south who want to stay there given Atlanta presence.
Any insight on the culture, hours, comp, etc.?
Process was a hirevue followed by phone screen and super. I thought that I was a fairly qualified candidate but I didn’t make it past the hirevue. Hirevue asked a mix of behavioral and strategy-focused franchise questions (e.g. what’s a franchise that we should go after, what’s your favorite of our businesses, etc.)
Don’t know that much about culture, comp, and hours firsthand but heard from analysts that it was better than banking.
Did anyone hear back about 2021 FT after submitting resume?
Anyone hear anything back for FT?
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