Vista Equity Partners vs. Silver Lake
Does anyone have any information as to how these two firms differ, and which one is considered a better firm to be at when considering tech investing?
Trending Content
| +66 | Ex Apollo Associate Q&A (But I Actually Answer) | 105 | 2s | |
| +48 | Q&A - Anything about PE / MBA / Life | 59 | 24m | |
| +42 | How to Model SaaS Projections for Interviews | 49 | 23h | |
| +35 | [Technical doubt]: Cash sweep and mandatory amortization | 9 | 9h | |
| +23 | European Megafunds (based on PEI 2023) | 17 | 2d | |
| +22 | Partners Group Long Term | 8 | 22h | |
| +22 | Is internal reporting at most funds really so Excel & PPT heavy still? | 8 | 4h | |
| +18 | Advent NYC Culture/WLB - 2024 update | 8 | 4s | |
| +18 | How is your life in PE? | 11 | 13m | |
| +17 | Moving from PE Fund accounting to top 3 rating agency | 5 | 3d |
Career Resources
Bump, also interested.
It's kind of silly to try and debate which is better, these are both two of the best technology PE firms on the planet with top quartile returns since inception. You'd be #blessed to get a job at either of these firms and would have amazing career opportunities afforded to you if you ever decided to leave them.
Vista is focused purely on enterprise software and between them and Thoma Bravo they dominate some crazy number (like 60+%) of the B2B software buyout PE deals on the market. They also run a private debt fund (can't elaborate much on this sorry) and have a public equities team which takes positions in companies they see as solid take private opportunities or in exited PE investments they see an opportunity for continued upside in.
Silver Lake has a much wider mandate and would probably be seen as more of a general TMT player. They've made investments in software, hardware deals like the legendary take private of Dell, energy & resource tech like Tesla, and media investments such AMC, the UFC and Madison Square Gardens. In addition to buyouts they also run a private debt/structured equity fund (also don't know much on this one sorry) and a late stage growth fund a la Insight Venture Partners or Softbank (much smarter than the latter though IMO).
It really comes down to what you're more interested in. If you want a wider range of general TMT exposure, Silver Lake is the better choice. If you're a die hard software lover like myself, it's not presumptuous to say Vista would be the one of the best firms in the world to target. Happy to elaborate a bit more, but I will say I know significantly more about Vista than Silver Lake.
I've heard some consistent bad things about VEP's culture and I'm someone with a high bar for saying that, having worked at two IBD sweatshops myself.
The broad issue seems to be that the firm's success owes to only a portion of the senior folks and the rest of them are allowed to stick around despite not pulling their weight, and make life hell for everyone below them. By "senior folks" I mean partners and SVPs. So basically, what happens is less impressive partner/SVP is insecure because Vista is impressive but he/she isn't as great individually, and predictably this insecurity leads to problem after problem. Like making demands from others that are either unrealistic or simply the wrong work to be demanding, abusing support staff, chasing bad deals and pushing agendas to improve their own image at the expense of what's best for the firm, whining about petty shit like "[impressive partner] gets to to expense fancy shit while traveling, so why can't I" and generally just being a miserable asshole that creates stress.
In other words, classic office politics but on steroids. Like I said, I've seen some bad shit in IBD but the stories I heard about VEP surprised even me. They're clearly doing something right given the performance, and I'm sure someone who navigates it well can be very happy there. But if you're given an amazing choice like Silver Lake vs VEP this is the sort of thing to look into.
I especially felt the need to point it out because all of Robert Smith's public feel good philanthropy stories are so much the opposite of what I heard about the office culture, that I have to wonder if he's disconnected from the day-to-day at this point? Everything we know about him runs totally counter to what I've heard about the office culture, but my info is from well placed sources so something is off.
Could you elaborate more on this? I've seen in some of the job reviews the echoing of a rough w/l balance and I know a guy from VCG that straight up quit after a year but didn't know if that culture was really weighing on the PE side as well.
I don’t know much about Vista’s culture, but Silver Lake isn’t exactly a relaxed culture either.
VCG is a better culture. I’ve known people there and not saying it was uniquely special but didn’t hear of any of the problems I’m mentioning at VEP and VCG folks would always say VEP is basically a different company altogether.
Happy to elaborate if you can tell me where you need more info. Since I described a few things I’m not sure where you want more detail but will do what I can if you’re curious abt something specific.
My overall impression is that it’s not bad enough to turn down VEP for a meaningfully “lesser” firm by traditional measures. Just a far, far cry from the rosy image that they try to project.
Eh
IB Associate, you couldn't even make it into a boutique PE shop LMAO
Personally I think Vista is the next Softbank. Those in the tech investing world know that they overpay for crappy companies, have few exits, and so it's unclear what they could argue 'high returns' based upon. Just hollowed out software companies in their portfolio post- cost cut and they do have a huge operating team but unclear if it actually adds value. I would say that this bubble pops soon and so I wouldn't interview at Vista at this point in the cycle. Maybe would suggest joining them 10 years ago to ride their rise to largest tech fund but definitely not wise to join today. I do work for a competing firm to be clear!
That’s a bit of a stretch. Enterprise software is a different play vs Softbank’s loss leaders. These are 85%+ retention businesses with pretty high gross margins that Vista runs their playbook on. They might lose some returns on multiple compression but its pretty difficult to actually have a collapse like WeWork.
You're either not working in PE or you're at some tiny shop with no institutional manager exposure. Their returns are top decile for almost every fund since inception and they work with some of the largest institutional backers in the world (obviously w/ a $30B+ aum). They're not even remotely like Softbank and that's genuinely one of the dumbest comparisons I've ever seen. Vista is mature enterprise software businesses that are in most cases already profitable and still growing healthily. Softbank is basically taking the "what could you accomplish if I gave you 5-10x the amount you're asking for" VC approach, often with visionary founders hawking unprofitable unit economics from the get go that don't scale unless they manage to develop a technology that doesn't exist. Masa is a fucking goon from the far east whose already lost tens of billions on bubble bets before the Vision Fund was even an idea, meanwhile Vista has returns better than 90% of alternative asset managers in the market.
You’re right about Vista and the differences with SoftBank, but wrong about Softbank and the VC model. Just because it’s a very different investment framework/mindset than cash flow / cost cutting driven investing doesn’t make it invalid. They also pulled billions from some of the most sophisticated institutional money allocators in the world and Masa has certainly made enough good calls beyond just Alibaba. The hit rate in VC is by design much lower than buying mature businesses. And to the extent you want to use wealth as a measuring stick, Masa is far richer than the Vista guys. He’s also actually operated a large cap TMT business with great success.
Is this a parody post? If not you have no idea what you're talking about with regards to Vista.
Always interesting when Vista employees go and quickly defend Vista on WSO... I've never seen a PE firm so hyped up to increase AUM as fast as possible before LPs realize that the marks aren't real.
It may be a great experience to work at Vista but it's not as good as it seems, believe me. This bubble popping hard soon
I agree with the point earlier about Vista being more narrowly focused (enterprise software) vs. SLP's broader TMT and now media mandate.
Work-life balance will always be tough at any active PE shop. That being said, I do agree that the word is SLP is slightly better than Vista (especially if you can work at the Menlo Park office vs. NYC). Also, Vista requires a suit and tie and not to mention the stories about its culture.
All that being said, both are great places to learn the ropes in PE. There's nothing inherently bad about Vista to outright not even bother considering it if you know you want to do tech PE
Any well known vista culture stories?
Could you elaborate on the culture/lifestyle at SLP for menlo & nyc?
Does anyone know how the two compare in terms of their growth funds I.e Vista Endeavor vs. SLP Waterman?
FWIW I'd definitely take vista over SLP, just raised the largest tech fund ever at 16bn (larger than warburg and bain capitals flagship funds) and have arguably the most momentum of nearly any PE firm from what ive heard on the street
It seems like Vista and Thoma Bravo are very comparable firms. Would anyone be able to add insight into how they differ?
bump
Looks like the Wall Street Journal answered this for us this morning: "A pioneer in technology investing, Silver Lake has at times been overshadowed in recent years by other private-equity firms such as software specialists Vista Equity Partners and Thoma Bravo LLC, which have done deals at a breakneck pace, posted high returns and raised big funds."
I would still work at Silver Lake over either of those places. Vista is a disaster culture wise.
It's high finance, you really aren't going to find "great cultures" anywhere unfortunately, especially in mega fund private equity. If culture is your focus LMM / MM should be the target
When it comes to B2B Enterprise Saas, Thoma Bravo seems to have a more sophisticated playbook / better returns than Vista. Silverlake has a much broader mandate so not the best comp.
I would disagree with this. Vista has their own in house consulting group/capital markets team and has a large cap fund / middle market fund / credit fund / permanent capital vehicle / hedgefund. On returns, these are both top quartile (probably decile) performing funds hence their massive funds. Though one point to think about from a momentum perspective is it took Thoma 14 funds to get to a $14bn fund and Vista did $16bn in 7. Also 52bn aum vs thoma's 30bn
any insight into what the culture is like @Vista vs Silver Lake vs Thoma Bravo?
Rerum est ut officia possimus nam. Autem et saepe vero qui facilis aut.
Quam voluptates sunt dicta omnis nulla esse. Sed delectus praesentium provident libero adipisci iusto doloremque. Necessitatibus iure nihil sequi voluptatum illo numquam.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Tenetur natus consequuntur consequatur sed et suscipit voluptates. Cumque beatae aliquid aspernatur excepturi.
Illum enim qui vitae non laboriosam. Recusandae et vero et voluptates libero. Porro illo exercitationem modi aut. Eos nostrum sint quod qui.
Optio repudiandae ut temporibus. Beatae quis aut eum quia odit. Illum sit ab et vero. Minus ad impedit incidunt quis. Quo sed sed aut vero eveniet.
Sed quisquam provident nostrum et rem officiis et ut. Occaecati libero fuga aut hic aut reiciendis qui rem.