Warburg Pincus Reputation Amongst Megafunds
Heading into the on-cycle PE recruiting process and wondering for those that have been in the industry for a while, how does Warburg Pincus stack up against megafunds such as Blackstone, Apollo, KKR, Carlyle on culture, pay, lifestyle and general reputation?
Overall, Warburg is a good shop. They are one of the few MFs to invest across company lifecycle out of the same fund.
It has a good reputation, perhaps slightly below the Apollo, BX, KKR, Carlyle tier. Lifestyle will be rough at any MF, but it will depend on which vertical you get placed in. Some are more rough than others
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Wrong. Warburg reputation is absolutely top tier. IBS group is crazy good at Warburg, easily better than other similarly sized funds
How does IBS at Warburg compare to the other verticals at Warburg?
Reputation is very good - comparable to all those funds you listed; though they are more lowkey out of (the PE) industry they have a very favorable historical reputation in-industry and are well known.
I think (am not 100% sure, based what I have been told by two from my banking group who went there) pay is second to Apollo in NY and higher than street by a bit.
They are fairly verticalized in the flagship fund - when you get an offer you are placed in the 'generalist' pool and then choose a group just before starting - this is different than some other firms which recruit on a group by group basis (i.e. Carlyle or KKR)
Culture I don't have a pulse on very well. They historically have been willing to write smaller checks and therefore spend time on more, smaller deals, which is almost always a bad thing for lifestyle since that means there are more projects to go around and more questions to be asked. I would assume they work about 60-70 hours a week in slow periods and 80+ if things are busy (i.e. either participating in an auction process, proprietary deal, selling portco, etc)
No idea what investment committee process is like, but would be curious if others know
Agree with this - know several folks who used to work there at the associate level and my understanding is they spend more time than other firms do on sourcing and doing prelim diligence on smaller deals. Associates are expected to go to conferences / meet with executives / cold call and then bring deals that sound promising to the VP to present to the group internally (not IC, more just championing a deal to a deal team). Definitely a good skill to have, but if you don't want to do that then it probably isn't a good fit.
I will caveat and say this is what I've pieced together from a few folks I've spoken with - I have no first hand experience there nor do I know if it varies by group.
Didn't know they had a sourcing component to them which is interesting to hear.
Mostly off the mark.
Comp is known to be bottom of street (among MFs), there is an arrogance about being able to pay you more, but you should feel lucky enough to just have the seat.
Prestige is a notch below Apollo+Blackstone.
Investment-style, as someone had mentioned is stage agnostic.
Lifestyle varies from group to group, but can range from tolerable to inhumane.
Zero sourcing, no idea where that came from. Maybe they do that in SF or something. The "smaller checks" they write are in still $75-plus million.
Returns are very good. Pedigree is top notch. Placement to H/S for b-school very very good. And comp if you're on a partnertrack can be quite lucrative, as is the case for most large cap PE.
Key thing to keep in mind is that of the public PE MFs, they give away 40-60% of carry to public shareholders. So a $20bn fund at Blackstone creates the same wealth for the investment professionals as a $10bn fund at WP. WP doesn't raise huge headline funds however, they'll just raise a $12bn flagship fund in 3 year increments, rather than raising one $24bn fund every 6-8 years.
So prestige-wise where would you put it?
Read the third sentence...
This whole emphasis on prestige when you're talking about these types of firms is really stupid. MFs are all prestigious.
What really matters is if you think you match well with the culture, like the investment mandate, upward mobility prospects, etc. Not prestige.
Do different folks specialize in different stage investments? E.g., within their TMT vertical, is someone covering early, and someone covering growth, and someone covering buyout? Or do you cover everything within your vertical?
Have heard comp is > some MFs MFs. From what I know, they do a lot more growth investing and are more stage agnostic. This experience would be a lot different from BX / KKR, and is definitely not value / distressed like APO.
Just some thoughts.
Long time lurker / new account and currently at a MF.
If on-cycle kicks off and you are lucky enough to have interview opportunities at WP, KKR, APO, TCG, BX, you’ll really need to pick 1-2, so now is a good time to figure out what type of investing you’re interested in. Given all of these names are top shops, you’re splitting hairs if you’re looking at prestige or associate comp.
Figure out if you’re interested in traditional buyout (KKR BX etc) or value investing (Oaktree APO etc) or growth oriented investments (WP etc) or some other strategy. Also figure out culture of the firm as this is the most important thing in the long run (how are the seniors, do they promote or 2 and out, etc). Think about industry as well - a number of these firms will hire specifically into verticals.
This forum places an unbelievable amount of emphasis on comp and prestige, which are both important but remember your career is a marathon, not a sprint. Making anywhere from $250-$400 as a 1st year puts you far ahead of almost any other career. If you want to sustain this relative level of income, don’t burn yourself out over marginal difference in comp or prestige.
Are you willing to speak on your own MF's culture/experience via PM?
From what I know: BX: Generalist role, top notch name. Requires MBA. KKR: Most famous name on the street but these days seems like they're not mentioned as much as Apollo or BX? Sorted into verticals I believe. Requires MBA? Apollo: Pay is top of the street, but work is crazy hours. Deep value + distressed investor, tends to seek complex/intricate structures and transactions to carve out value. Hires heavily from RX shops such as PJT RSSG. Are they generalist? Doesn't require MBA I heard. Warburg: Growth-oriented and stage-agnostic (invests all across lifecycle). Get hired generalist but immediately sorted into a vertical. Tech group I heard is top-notch. TCG (Carlyle): Government connections. TPG: Large cap investments, but haven't seen them active lately? Don't know much about them. BainCap: More operation/consulting heavy approach to building value. Recruits lots of consultants.
Sure PM me
With the exception of Apollo, the others in terms of strategy are all at this point pretty similar with very minute differences. The group dynamic / assignment and culture is quite different, so would focus more on that. Each of these guys has continued to build out strategies and teams, so that now even a KKR has a group like Capstone which only works on operations (mainly former consultants) narrowing any meaningful differences between it and a BainCap. Put differently, with the exception of specialized sectors, I can't really think of any process on the PE front where Warburg (insert any of the other funds) would be on the Tier 1 buyers list and the others would not be.
KKR doesn’t require an MBA for promotion FWIW
Would you take WP FT Analyst spot over top IB groups like GS TMT or MS M&A?
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