Which offer to choose for fulltime: Ardea Partners, BDA Partners, DBO Partners, FT Partners, or JPM Corporate Banking??? URGENT

DBO

Imo: Ardea>FT Partners>JPM Corporate banking (transfer internally if you are a top performer after 1-3 years to IB)>BDA Partners (they are mostly active in Asia I don't see what you'd do as a junior sitting in the London office)>DBO Partners (haven't heard of them)

From Ardea you should be able to move quite easily to a good BB/EB after a year or so, maybe also from FT partners although your deal experience will be very niche.

JPM is very open to internal transfers, and I would strongly consider them over FT Partners.

My end goal is to get to PE as soon as possible, so would going through JPM corporate banking be too roundabout? Which of these firms get the most looks from headhunters?

If you find fintech to be fascinating go FT for sure

I'd do JPM just because keeps the most doors open for the long term. Also, are any these guys still recruiting? I'm still trying to find a ft 2020 role

Ardea Partners have been doing quite well since their inception. They've done like $45bn in under 5 years with a team of 30-40. The work touches (fin)tech at times, e.g. ETRADE - Morgan Stanley. The overall quality of deal flow is arguably a tier above FT.

The flip side is that there are few past analyst exits to compare to since they're quite new and that there seem to be very few analysts at the firm, with the majority of junior members being associates.

Can't speak to the others too much, but just felt that Ardea was a bit undervalued in above comments. (I'm not an Ardea employee)

Isn't DBO a spin-out from a couple MS senior bankers? They seem to advise on a bunch of Silverlake's deals. I would consider there but defer to others more knowledgable.

Edit: Looked at the founding partners and they were all heads of West Region Sponsors at MS's SF office, which possibly seems in line with your PE goals, but maybe's a risk because this is a "start-up" investment bank.

There’s a reason most of them came from their PE buyside exits after GS FIG back to Ardea. Chris Cole and the other senior partners have extensive and deep connections which results in fantastic dealflow relative to their size. The compensation structure is quite unique in that you get a cut of the overall firm P&L (everyone at the firm does) and so in good years the comp for analysts has been beyond what you would make at any MF PE associate role. I’m not kidding, over $300k for analysts in prior years. BUT if you want to move to PE do not go there. Ardea has a fantastic pedigree but don’t go there if you want to just leave to the buyside - this won’t serve your purpose. I’m surprised they’re even hiring new grads. They’ve only taken experienced hires up to this point.

Ardea is the best option. I know someone at GS who is thinking about leaving for Ardea. That tells you all you need to know. NFW on JPM corporate banking dude.

I used to intern at one of BDA's Asia office. They suck. They don't do modelling in house most of the time. They use WB's fame as their marketing point, but house's capability is bs.

There's an associate who moved to Ardea from FTP you should contact

Had never heard of Ardea before but damn they're pretty stacked

Guys I really appreciate all this insight. Seems that Ardea is an understated and lucrative option but not the best if I want to do investing later on? t feels now that decision-making is even more difficult if anything... how would i stack up to my peers in BB / EB if I end up joining a "start up bank" if I come from target with high test scores for recruiting?

I'd do JPM Corp Banking for a year and transfer to IB, highly doable. Might take a year longer but exit opps will be much better. Also the brand would help if you want to do MBA or move to something outside of finance. The embedded option value makes JPM the best choice in terms of risk-adjusted rewards, imho.

Also strike out BDA from your considerations. Worked there - London and NYC offices mostly do marketing works as they're Asia-focused.

So for PE exits, could it be something like DBO Partners / JPM Corp banking (brand name & internal transfer) > FT Partners > Ardea Partners? Looks like BDA is off the decision table based on what ppl are saying.

In terms of brand prestige, perhaps Ardea Partners and JPM Corp banking are my best options i guess.

I know DBO is run by former group/division heads at Morgan Stanley and Ardea is run by former IB group/division heads at Goldman Sachs.

Do not take JPM Corp Banking over the boutique banks...Corp banking is very different from investment banking and you will likely have to work 2 years before moving to the IB side. Who knows what the economy is gonna be like and internal mobility won’t do you any good if M&A market is dead.

The founding goal of Ardea is to become a merchant bank one day, so kinda like Raine or maybe BDT but with more focus on advisory. They’ve been very successful in just m&a so from what I heard they only started recently to try to establish an investing arm (though you shouldn’t make your decision based on a rumor, and nobody knows if it will be able to raise money & be successful). If you look at the team page, a lot of the folks there have buyside experiences. I would say the experience you’d get at Ardea would be top notch, especially if they focus on M&A execution. You just need to be more proactive when talking to headhunters but if you have solid deal experiences, it won’t be hard to get interviews.

FT partners could be a solid choice as well. You should also think about location. You can recruit to pretty much anywhere from NYC, but it’s difficult to recruit for PE in NYC if you are on the west coast.

I just want to help you out but the exits you mentioned except for Accel were all through prior connections those analysts had. It's hard to prove otherwise but that is actually the case.

Ardea Partners or DBO Partners, depending on your location preference, is your best choice. They were founded by veteran bankers from GS and MS respectively and have recruited top talent. My impression is that Ardea is trying to expand rapidly while DBO is more strategic about it. Either way, you're looking at two fantastic opportunities to work closely with former heads at two of the top IBs. I think you'll gain some of the best banking experiences at these two shops.

BDA Partners and FT Partners are also solid shops with strong deal flow. But it seems like you'd be limiting yourself to either cross-border or FinTech deals with these two. I began my career as a generalist and appreciated the opportunity to explore.

OP which firm did you choose?

Interviewed with DBO for their SA program. Didn’t get the position, but they’re some of these best people I met during the recruitment process. They care about learning about you as a person. Not just as a finance kid from a good school who memorized a bunch of answers from M&I guides. Would’ve taken it if I had an offer.

don't rely on others to make your decisions. take the one that is the best fit for you.

FT Partners gives out great comp and focuses on a very niche but interesting space. Firm's also growing a lot. JPM Corporate has good internal transfers to IB if you're a top performer. Don't know enough about the others to give an honest opinion on. Choose where you fit in the most and where you could see yourself growing at.

I don’t think it would be smart to narrow yourself to just FinTech when you are beginning your career. You generally want to start broad, and then make your way into a niche. Don’t get me wrong, I think FinTech is exciting. But since you have other solid options, I’d consider those before FTP. If you want a true generalist experience, take DBO. They do everything from tech to industrials to sports to sponsors.