WSO Podcast | E213: Investment Banking to Top Megafund Growth Equity Team in London
In this episode, Laura shares her path from Eastern Europe to a top target uni in London. We learn how she broke into investment banking, how she survived with ADHD and being neuro-diverse and eventually, how she broke into one of the top growth equity teams at a megafund.
Or Listen to the Podcast Here:
Resources:
WSO Podcast Episode 213 Transcript:
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:06] Hello and welcome. I'm Patrick Curtis, your host and chief Monkey. And this is the Wall Street Oasis podcast. Join me as I talk to some of the community's most successful and inspirational members to gain valuable insight into different career paths and life in general. Let's get to it. In this episode, Laura shares her path from Eastern Europe to a top target uni in London. We learn how she broke into investment banking. How she survived with ADHD and eventually how she broke into one of the top growth equity teams at a mega fund. Enjoy. Okay, Laura, welcome to the Wall Street Oasis podcast.
Laura: [00:00:48] Hi.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:48] So it would be awesome if you could give the listeners a short summary of your bio.
Laura: [00:00:53] Sure I work at a large private equity fund in Europe, but I am in the growth equity team. We can get into that later. Prior to that, I did technology investment banking at a European bank, and prior to that I was in college.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:15] Awesome. So back in college, did you know investment banking was your calling and private equity?
Laura: [00:01:21] Of course. I've known it ever since I was born. Of course.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:25] Look, because it looks like you you were an accounting major.
Laura: [00:01:28] And so the trade line.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:32] You have family in it or anything, or who taught you, who told you about it or anything or nothing?
Laura: [00:01:37] You know, it's a funny story because actually I've always thought I grew up in Eastern Europe and I always wanted to study in the US. So I applied to US colleges and I wanted to do econ because I loved econ in high school and it turned out to be too expensive. So when it came to actually me going, we realized that's just not going to happen. And I hadn't applied to anywhere in Europe. So everybody was going off to college and I was like, Well, grades are I literally have nowhere to go. And I basically moved to the UK and I worked at KPMG for a year. They were offering like a gap year intern sort of scheme at the time and I was in the advisory department and that's when I kind of started learning a little bit more about finance. And I thought, Well, this is really good to know, but this is not what I want to ultimately do. But this is like a really great skill set, and that's kind of why I went on to study at a university.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:38] So that that one year program at KPMG, it was kind of like a transaction services, like almost like a transaction advisory, what you would call in the US type of thing.
Laura: [00:02:46] Exactly. And I mean, yes, that's exactly right.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:49] And so did you use that to save up for university because the school you went to, I'm not going to say it is pretty expensive to.
Laura: [00:02:55] It is expensive. I actually couldn't save up because I was in London. And London is extremely expensive, obviously. And I everybody all the other interns were from London, so they lived at home. They saved up all the money. I actually used it for food and rent, and so I was like basically broke even. But it was really good because it was, you know, I do recommend to the extent that anybody can, you know, and doesn't need to be yearlong to summer internship even if they don't pay you. But it was just like a really good insight into the corporate life, I guess. And I do think it helped me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:34] I'm surprised. That's right out of high school. You don't even need a degree for that. They let you say, Hey, come, you're what, 18 or 19?
Laura: [00:03:40] And I was 18. There were like six of us that they took home. So it was pretty unique. And I do think it was a really good experience. I was officially in transaction services for advisory, but I did. Couple of months in restructuring because there was a huge broker that went bust in the UK. So we had to work on that and then I did around a month in corporate finance. So that's kind of the closest to investment banking that you could get.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:10] And so when you were doing that, is that does that still happen today? Does that program still exist? You know.
Laura: [00:04:16] I'm not sure. Yeah. Honestly, if it was me, I would if I wanted to do if I was in high school and if I wanted to do something like that, I just like email all of them and ask if they're up or it may not be paid, obviously, in that case, but even if it doesn't structurally exist. Yeah. If you're if you're down for an unpaid internship, like, you know, everybody likes free labor because before then actually, I mean, I was really working the big Four, but I also spent a few months at Deloitte in my home country, and that was unpaid. It was extremely boring because obviously that was a really small local office. But, you know, it's easy to get these things if you don't expect it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:59] So yeah, and then I'm surprised even at like a KPMG they would take on I mean they did pay you. Do you remember what they paid you like what it was.
Laura: [00:05:08] Yeah, they paid. I mean it was nowhere near, it was.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:12] Probably at your high school. You have a high school degree and that's it.
Laura: [00:05:14] So yeah, it was probably 50, around 50% of what the new grads would get.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:24] So. I don't know enough to bear the rent barely paid.
Laura: [00:05:29] It was around. It's fine. I can say it was around. I want to say $20,000 a year before tax.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:35] Yeah. So it's like you're really tight living in London. So you had roommates or you're just renting a tiny.
Laura: [00:05:40] Yeah, I was renting a room, actually, in my house, but this landlady was really far from central London. Oh, God.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:48] Yeah. You had to commute in, right? So. So you ride that year, it kind of exposed you to finance. And then what made you say, okay, well, I'm going to. Did you take out loans for for school or did something happen? The financial situation changed or.
Laura: [00:06:03] So for school in the UK. If you're from Europe, if you're from the EU, which you know now, I don't know how that would.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:10] Work, may not exist yet, but.
Laura: [00:06:12] The EU, the UK was always the EU and if you are from the EU then you could take almost an interest free loan from the UK government. It's every pay. I repaid it like really quickly and it's like if you never earn more than a certain amount of money and that bar is really low, it's something like you never earn more than 20 K, then you never have to repay it. Obviously most people who go to do pay do get paid that or more. So that was really easy. And then my parents luckily could support me with living expenses.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:46] And then what was that? How much how much debt did you take out? Was it like 50K.
Laura: [00:06:50] Oh, for the tuition or the tuition was nine, unfortunately £9,000 a year because it used to be 3000. But then they switched like the year I started uni.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:02] It sounds really low to me.
Laura: [00:07:04] Is it, compared to the US? Of course. So it's really 20 and it's three years now. Four. So it's £27,000 of tuition of debt, which is nothing compared to the 200K plus that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:17] Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you hear that in the US. So. So you're going through your first, first year immediately you know, hey, I'm going to Did you think investment banking right away or were you thinking hey go back to the big four do accounting audit. What was what was your thought process.
Laura: [00:07:30] I knew that. So the reason why the Gap internship actually existed is because this precisely that's why, you know, they tried to get people to come back as grants. And I knew that I did not want to do that because, you know, when I saw in the last the last month of that internship I spent in corporate finance, and that's what I like the most. But I soon learned that the corporate finance teams within Big Four are going to go after these little small, medium sized enterprises in the UK. You know, I'm exaggerating, but these are not going to be big sexy deals. And I was like, Well, if I do this may as well do it properly. And so I was one of those very sad, pathetic students who were very, very keen. I think this has to do with me growing up in Europe where people start going out and partying really early like before high school, basically. And so I felt like I had kind of done that. So when I joined.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:30] When you're a mature 19 year old.
Laura: [00:08:32] I was ready to go. I was like ready to climb the ladder. And so in my first year, I was like really, really focused. And and I don't necessarily I think there really needs to be a balance because I do think I could have had a lot more fun. And it's really, really important to. I went to a college which was extremely fine and focused on campus, like, I don't know, 70% of people probably want to do investment banking, and I don't think it's necessarily the healthiest environment. I think it's really good to explore. But anyway, I was very focused and again, you know, every it was I went to a Target university. And what that meant was that recruitment all over campus and I went to all the Morgan Stanley Coffee chat server to join us, Goldman Sachs, you know, coffee and cake, there's the evenings or something. I went to all of these and the bank where I ended up working at, I connected really well to a couple of them, a couple of the women in the team, and they were offering spring weeks in the UK. It was cold. It was just a week of kind of like a shadow time. You know, it's not like work experience because you're not working. It's just one week and I landed two of those and you know, it was so competitive like crazy and everybody wanted to get like spring weeks and like the biggest overachievers had like five points kind of crazy. And that's also right before exam.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:01] You put spring weeks on your on your resume.
Laura: [00:10:05] Like, I don't think I have mind still I mean, I hope I don't but I had like so many spring weeks and like, I really felt like I was crushing it and like, you knew that you weren't doing very well if you had a spring secure, like really early. So the term starts in October and the spring weeks are in spring almost. I feel like come December before the New Year, I had my spring break secure. So you were basically the go to stuff.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:33] So here you have you said two or three.
Laura: [00:10:36] Kind of.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:37] Two. And then so when do they actually happen? Like February, March.
Laura: [00:10:40] So those were actually they were in April, I think .
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:42] And April. So is I've had enough guests from London or I think I understand. So then that turns into an actual internship over the summer, sometimes.
Laura: [00:10:52] Next year. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:52] Following Not that. Yeah, the following. So it's super early. It's like it's a way for them to get like in front of sophomores or freshmen.
Laura: [00:11:00] Yes. And you know, it's also. I mean, obviously from a security perspective, it's amazing because that first summer I did my exams and I could chill the whole summer I went and traveled and I mean, I did internships actually, because that's the sort of person I was. Well, I could actually have fun and not be stressed out.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:20] Yeah.
Laura: [00:11:21] And then you enter second year knowing that you've already got an internship and some people prefer to kind of look for other things. So there were some that secured banking internships, but they wanted to try out consulting. I wasn't one of them. I thought, You know what, I worked hard for this. I'm just going to focus on other things at this point.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:43] What do you mean other things? Like just enjoying.
Laura: [00:11:45] Studying extra curricular hobbies?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:48] Yeah. Do you think do you think that hurts at all for full time recruiting? Like if you once you get your spring week, if that first summer when you don't have to do anything really, do you think you should take advantage of it knowing, looking back? I know what I would say, but.
Laura: [00:12:02] If you have something secure, you just just enjoy it. I think, you know, I think I'm the sort of person who I would never advise, like, you know, just go or whatever. Just like, it doesn't matter. You can always get something which is true. But we also live in the real world and you want to get a job. Yeah, but on the other hand, so I think you have to be focused and try and secure things and do it at the right time. Because if you are focused at the right time like I was, you can later reap the benefits and that's what I'd recommend. And then you can have fun. Absolutely. And you can explore whatever you want. I actually went to the Middle East and I worked at an NGO, so that was just something that I liked for me, not because I necessarily want to work in that field.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:50] Very cool. So you kind of are coming up, you do your spring weeks, you get to the summer, you travel a little bit, you do kind of an NGO thing, you come back to school, you still know you have that internship at that. So it's like that whole year you're just what, focusing on grades, having a good time.
Laura: [00:13:06] Like making sure you can basically do whatever you want. Because in the UK this is a double edged sword and doesn't work well for people like me. I actually do the structure, but there's almost no structure, there's no assignments, there's no midterms, there's
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:21] Oh wow. Your final.
Laura: [00:13:22] Yeah, that's 100% of your grade. So it didn't work well for my mental health. But yeah, but yeah, that's what it effectively it is but if you you have complete freedom so you can do a lot of things with your time.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:35] That's cool. And so as you're approaching that, so where you ended up summering, is that where you ended up going full time. Yeah. The age bracket. So you're kind of like. Approaching that summer. What was. What did they tell you? What was the communication like? Was it like, hey, we're going to put you in this group or you didn't know until you showed up?
Laura: [00:13:55] So my screening was done in TMT, tech, media, telecom. That's where I wanted to be. That's where I did my summer internship. That was just kind of it was done. They hired for those teams. Got it. And because for me, I really loved the people that were in the team and that's what I would always recommend to people. You want the brand name? Yes. And you want it to be what you want to do, right? Like if you don't want to do trading, don't do training, but you ultimately choose the people versus the company. So I really, really like the people. Bigger issue is that when I actually join as a grad, most of them have left, but that's another story. So I really like the team and yes, and that's when I started in terms of communications, they basically said. You know, I think there were three of us in the team in training, and they said. If you all do well, you can all get the offers.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:49] Got it. Okay, so that's kind of nice, because you're not necessarily feel it doesn't feel as competitive. It's almost like you're helping each other. And this was at a time a little bit where stuff had kind of slowed down and the economy was picking back up, I feel like. But it wasn't like, oh, no, at that point it was pretty good. So then what happened kind of when you started the internship, how was it once you actually arrived at the office? Then you had the three people, you know, luckily wasn't as competitive, but since they said you could all get offers. But what, what was it like when you, you already met the team and everything, but was it like immediately long hours? Was it like a ramp up period of training period? What was that like?
Laura: [00:15:34] You know, I was actually my buddy. We all go to Sun Buddies and it wasn't necessarily the case that the body had give you work, but it oftentimes happened. So, you know, because you're with them, they have something to do. Their job is to make sure you integrate, help you with any admin, etc.. My body was amazing, amazing, amazing. She was really, really supportive of women in the workplace and just of young people. She was really, really awesome and kind of like she she, she was doing extremely well and. You know, despite, you know, she was someone who had a really, really good grasp of kind of work life balance, obviously long hours. But she you know, she was just a great role model in general. And so I was paired with her and she was a really big deal. And so I you know, from day one, she kind of put me on it to help her out. So for me, it was actually long hours from the get go.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:29] Mm hmm.
Laura: [00:16:31] Which was hard. But, you know, I'm a night night owl. I actually don't really mind late hours. I mind early mornings, but it was okay. I knew it's easy when you have an expiration date. Right. Really different for you for grad. But here I knew it was I want to say it was around ten weeks, so it didn't bother me and I was expecting it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:54] Yeah. So you're going to bed at like, two, three in the morning? Four in the morning, and then back in the office around ten in the morning.
Laura: [00:17:02] You're back in the office around ten and you know. Yeah, I think. It's just. As an intern. You don't know how to do anything. Everything is so new.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:14] You're really you know, you expected those hours. But how did it feel to actually do it? Was it harder than you expected?
Laura: [00:17:21] You know? No, because I think because of my high school experience. So I did the International Baccalaureate in my home country, but there was only one school in the country at the time that offered it. And I also had to do the national diploma. So like two, I did two high school programs at a time. So I had extreme amount of workload and I did a lot of extracurriculars. And then in college it was during the year, first and second years, I was really bad. Actually. I focused on career. I focused on the spring weeks. I focused on a lot of my curriculars. And when when the exams came two months before exams started, that was crunch time because that's hundred percent of your, you know, grade. So I'd be in the library. Yeah. Until one, two, 3 a.m.. So I feel like I've always done this in chunks throughout my life, so it didn't shock me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:16] That's good. I think for me it was harder. When I started full time, I was like, Yeah, I guess full time is harder, right?
Laura: [00:18:24] Yeah, full time is really hard.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:26] It's hard. So you're kind of getting through the internship you're doing while you're working with this. Sounds like a great mentor and she kind of pulling you along, giving you the ropes. You're probably getting faster as the summer goes on. In terms of like financial modeling, were you doing mostly pitch work? It sounds like it was actually a deal, so.
Laura: [00:18:47] I wasn't a deal, but I didn't do much modeling at all during my internship, I think, because, you know, it really depends. I think in the US people are extremely keen because it's even more competitive and you probably some people have heard like they know modeling when they start dangerous. That was not I didn't know how to use Excel. I mean like when I say I didn't know how to use Excel, I mean, I didn't know how to use Excel again in in continental Europe. A lot of the universities have, you know, Excel assignments during the you know, there's things you do some modeling actually as part of university, my university and the UK in general, it's really, really academic. There's I didn't have to own a laptop, I'm pretty sure. So So it was more theory.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:34] Yeah.
Laura: [00:19:35] Right, exactly, exactly. So it was a really big learning curve and I actually didn't do that much modeling. I think I did a bit. So it was mainly pitch work and sort of stuff. From.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:51] Did you know you were going to get the offer? Did you feel like I might not get it? Or what was your thought process? Kind of. As did they give you like a feedback, some feedback halfway through and then near the end, or was it a surprise or were you like, Ah, I have this, it's okay.
Laura: [00:20:03] I think I'm like, I was born with imposter syndrome. So I feel like I never feel like, oh, like I got this. But, but like halfway, yeah, we had a halfway review and only feedback, like negative feedback or like critical feedback was more around soft skills rather than like, you're not that rather than hard skills. And I implemented what they told me. So I feel like.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:31] What were what were you doing with the soft skills? That wasn't.
Laura: [00:20:36] I mean, I actually tried it later and you're.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:39] Too intense. You're too intense.
Laura: [00:20:41] They were saying, like, sometimes, like I look really pissed off or like, look really kind of, like, upset or basically I'm not, like, hiding my emotions at all. And people sometimes see, like, I'm not rude, but that was kind of the but I think it's also cultural, like in Eastern.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:01] Europe, it is cultural.
Laura: [00:21:03] It's a really different mentality to the US where everyone's like, Oh, nice and friendly, but then they talk badly about you behind your back. And from where I'm from, people are really direct and also explained to them is like, you know, I'm focusing, I want to do the job, I want to meet the deadlines. I don't want to like chit chat in the coffee room and stuff, but so and they got that and that was fine. But I did adjust to it and try to become more likeable. But yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:33] It's hilarious, you know? Yeah, it's it's so true. You know, the cultural differences. Do you know when you're in the UK or where you're in the US or whatnot? If you're coming from a country where people are more direct or vice versa, it's not an easy adjustment for sure. So so then so you ended up getting the full time offer, obviously. And then so then it was just like, relax again for another whole year before you start are like and then tell me about that, like how you're approaching full time and how that went.
Laura: [00:22:03] So I started obviously the year after. For me, the biggest adjustment. You asked me what was hard. It wasn't hard because you're still at uni, you know, you've got a had. I climbed Kilimanjaro after my internship, so it's awesome. You have so much stuff to look forward to. But when I started when training started in London, I think the first day, that's when reality hit me because the whole day it was so training was the whole summer, right? And the first day it hit me like, I'm in accounting, I'm in this setting now, accounting, finance, banking, and there's no expiration date. It's up to me now to if I want to exit at some point. But and that hit me actually pretty hard, but then went on to become extremely fun because the group of people normally training is in New York, but that was done in London. And the people are really fun people from all over the world, like super diverse group. And I just had an amazing time and I mean, we were out like, and that was your first money. Oh, we all got a £5,000 starting bonus. I call it that. And like for me I was like, This is sick. Like you can go to restaurants being like £100 a meal. Like I thought, this is amazing. And we would like have the training 9 to 5. Then we go home. You have go to a sports class, then we'd do dinner in some fancy place and we'd go out until like three or 4 a.m., rinse, repeat. So it was and we do fun stuff. And I remember I was like sick the whole summer, I think, because just like going out. Yeah, going out all the time. Exactly.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:47] So funny. And so then you basically get through training and then suddenly the hours start ramping. I assume
Laura: [00:23:54] That's when real life hits you.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:57] Your mentor, your mentor is gone At this point.
Laura: [00:23:59] No, my mentor was there. Luckily, my mentor was. But here was the catch. She was doing telecoms and I wanted to do tech and it was that because I wanted to do I only I actually knew that I wanted to do either growth or venture capital or private equity, but something like tech investing. And so I started to think about it. I knew I had to do tech. And so but the tech group within my group was actually quite underdeveloped. And because I actually did not go to the three bulge bracket. So Goldman, Morgan and Jp morgan, I did not go to any of these three banks. It meant that we got like we were doing like really crappy deals in tech because the cartels franchise was extremely strong and so was our media. The head of the group was a media guy and it was really strong, but the tech practice wasn't. I hope my boss from the Times not listening to this, but and that meant that it was a lot of pitching, a lot of our fees that you didn't win and a lot of stuff like that. And it meant that it was a lot of smaller deals, but that was a blessing and a curse too. So I can I can go into that later.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:25:16] Well, yeah. Tell me, what was the blessing? What was the curse of?
Laura: [00:25:20] Well, I'll start with the curse. The curse was that, you know, if you keep doing these like 300 million, 200 million private placements, you know, sell side all the time, sometimes like oftentimes they don't even get done. This was often companies in Turkey, Israel, e-commerce, gaming and all these, you know, these are sort of the best deals So you don't the modeling is not as intense. The modeling is not as complicated Sells and materials in general are more pitchy than by side. But so that was not good in terms of hard skills, skills, technical skills. But the blessing was that that's exactly the sort of. How shall I say this exactly? The sort of deals you should surround yourself with if you want to go into growth, because that's effectively what we were doing. We were pitching to like the, you know, the growth equity groups.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:25] A mega fund.
Laura: [00:26:26] Runs these deals. So I saw so this was a lot, you know, when I started doing my job growth, I already knew the main metrics in Internet metrics and software that you would look at at this stage. So that actually helped me hugely.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:42] That's great. So you're kind of there for the first year. When did you start thinking, Hey, I need to make this transition to growth equity?
Laura: [00:26:49] So I'm banking was not for me. I am, you know, I have ADHD basically. And what that means is I'm neurodivergent. And what that means is I cannot focus on I physically can't focus. I can do a job that I don't literally love. It's like impossible. It's not, you know, amount of money. I genuinely just can't do the task. And I found banking. I love my tech deals and I really loved the concept of it. I always felt like I would have been a really good MD, but I just it took everything out of me to work on these pitches and these sheets. You know, it was really tough and I was really, really passionate about growth venture basically by side and doing tech specifically. So I actually didn't I knew from day one that it's not what I was going to do and I started probably six months in for six months and the honeymoon period, six months. And I want to say I started like networking. I mean, headhunters also reaching out to me very, very early. Yeah, girl from our grad thoughts who left six months in the she was the first one, but I was definitely and they were reaching out for growth equity.
Laura: [00:28:09] And actually I didn't have a good understanding at the time what that was exactly. Yeah, I just said, yes, I'm interested in growth, but actually I was in my head thinking venture or private equity. I didn't realize growth existed actually. And what I was doing is at the time I was focusing more on venture capital. And so I would meet, you know, any spare minute. I had holiday days, all of that. I would network, I would fly to San Francisco and go to tech conferences, meet people from venture fund companies. There was no company like are small that I felt like I didn't need to meet them. You know, any networking contact. I would go on LinkedIn and message. I started actually with gaming just because, not because I thought it was a good investment category. But that's kind of what I knew from work, right? So I would just email these gaming CEOs and media companies, CEOs, you know, smaller companies obviously, and try to meet them. I did that in LA. I did Cisco. I went to Berlin, just volunteered in some of the conferences if I couldn't, like, make it happen otherwise. So I tried to basically, you know, I just networked as much as possible.
Laura: [00:29:29] I was really without even consciously thinking about it, I was doing the you have to do the job before you have the job. So I was definitely doing that again, blessing And it's a curse because, you know, it does distract you from your day job. You know, sometimes, you know, I had to obviously you have to juggle, you have to do your job. But then in like little breaks or whatever, you're like doing stuff on the side. So I don't necessarily recommend it's definitely a risk because you're going to appear not committed to your job. Right. But then on the other hand, you know, you can blame the first or second year on list and I'll be committed. It's kind of obvious that at some point most of them leave. So as long as you do the fine. But I just I put all of my eggs into that basket and I just almost, you know. I almost even didn't even think, is this strategy going to work? It's not going to work because actually getting into venture growth is really hard. Really actually, I think harder than private equity at the time.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:32] Seats. There are no seats.
Laura: [00:30:34] There's no seats. And it's like, well, you come from banking and you're don't even come from a good bank. So. Well, it's a you know, so it was really hard, actually. And that was the.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:46] Tell me, tell me about that. So you started looking pretty early. It sounds like you're pretty aggressive in terms of building your network, which is key. But you kept I mean, did you enter into a lot of processes that there's recruiters were kind of throwing at you like at other growth equity shops or were you just like staying around in touch with people and then eventually you got into some sort of process?
Laura: [00:31:07] Yeah, that's more like it. I actually didn't do any these in the first year. I don't think. I think I did one.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:31:15] Maybe you did No processes. The first year you said no processing.
Laura: [00:31:19] Yes. Second year I start the second year. I was really like, Right, I have to do this now, like this year. And I didn't do any processes too. But I actually, it's very interesting. I sometimes there was a thought. I also had a thought about joining a startup because I thought that would help me like a growth stage because I thought that would help me get into venture growth offshore. So again, I actually did do some not really processes, but kind of like interviews at growth stage companies in in fintech. And I'm so happy like that didn't work out sometimes they were like, well you just you don't have the right experience, just banking sometimes because I really wanted to be in the US. They didn't want to sponsor me, but I'm so glad it didn't work out. But I'm so glad I did all those conversations because that was just really teaching me how to ask questions to a company.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:17] What type of roles, What type of roles were you applying for at these startups?
Laura: [00:32:22] I think business development is what I was thinking. I mean, I had no idea what I was doing, but I think business development, because that's the only one almost where you didn't need to have like a technical background.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:31] Right, Right. That's it's tough. So you you're kind of finding your way, it sounds like, in that second year. And then tell me how you eventually ended up at this mega fund growth equity shop.
Laura: [00:32:43] Yeah. So I was actually about to I was really fed up with banking and I signed an. Oh, so yeah. So I was again spending all my free time doing these conversations and I was also spending all of my free time practicing the modeling side of things and all of that. And then I was in a process with a growth equity fund that I really wanted. I really like the team and there was a new fund. I was extremely excited and at the end they basically said. Something like we need to wait, you know. That's a bit of an excuse, I guess, because they did hire a guy who later became a friend, but they basically said we need to wait. And so they didn't give me the offer and that was spring. And I just couldn't I was like, no, this summer I'm not going to do banking. And then I actually accepted an offer at a small fund that mainly did Internet, and a lot of it actually was gaming. And I just got that from my contacts because again, I was really hustling in that industry and that's what I accepted. And my thinking thinking was, Well, this is not my ultimate dream place, but from that I can go to like Excel Growth or index. I'll kind of move up or maybe do business school and change.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:07] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Laura: [00:34:08] I like that. So I accepted that offer and I went on to travel yet again. I went to Cuba and Mexico and the Bay Area again, still networking and.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:20] Vacation and business at the same time. I get it.
Laura: [00:34:23] That was me, classic me. And then I got a month before I had to start. I got three funds reached out. One of them was Atomico. One of them was SoftBank Vision Vision Fund, and the third was the one where I ended up working and they all reached out a month before and I thought. All right, I got to fly. You have to see this out. I just have to see what happens. I had already prepped for everything, so I flew back and met all of them. And with the one where I ended up working. Which is immediately, I don't know, I get really clicked with everybody. And some of those people have left. Most actually haven't. But but some especially. There's one guy who's quite senior. I felt like he really saw in me the qualities that maybe other funds wouldn't see. And I think that for me was really like they really appreciated the hustle, the scrappiness, because that was kind of the team, the team culture, which wasn't more so much about your pedigree and feeling and title, but it was about hard work and etc. and ambition and really the hustle. So the cultural fit was great. And so that was a really intense two week interview process. I had interviews every day, modeling case study, all this stuff every single day that was really, really, really intense. And I got the offer on Saturday and I had to then call that previous firm and said, Right, I'm not coming in on Monday, which was.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:35:57] Really how did that go?
Laura: [00:36:00] You know, it was fine. I think they knew that I was maybe not necessarily overqualified, but it kind of makes sense. It was fine, you know? I know hurt feelings, I think. So It was all good, uncomfortable conversation. But I knew in my heart that I just had to join this firm.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:25] It was very old and it's worked out. You've been there for a long time.
Laura: [00:36:28] It has worked out. I think the culture is really, really great and I would really just encourage anybody listening to to kind of remind themselves that, you know, everyone always says it's about the people and it sounds really cringe, but really it is about people. Either you do banking. Banking is different because you have an analyst so well, analysts in my case, right CLOs that you close to them but you're not I wasn't close my associate VP so hierarchical right like you're not friends with them I think in most cases. But in this case I was the fourth person to add 1 to 3 for fourth or fifth, depending on how you count to join the team. And, you know, two associates, I guess, a principal and a director in the team. So it was kind of like you have to get along with them because you're going to spend so much time. We travel a lot. So the travel, the the work and, you know, it's just a lot of hours. Like even if even though it's not banking, it's not better than banking. It's still a lot of hours. I think the travel especially.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:41] Let's talk about let's talk about more specifically hours. So what you averaged at your bracket bank and then kind of how that transitioned to your growth equity job at a mega fund, was it similar like, yeah, was it like 80 hours a week on average at the bulge bracket? 90 and then it would drop to 70 or what was it like?
Laura: [00:38:01] You know, it's really hard to say. And I probably it was probably 100 hours or something. I mean, it was really intense. I want to say, like during the week, it was probably like three or 2 to 3 a.m.. And then you come back like 930, ten, something like that maybe. Yeah. And then Fridays, obviously you can leave, but so many Fridays or there's a 1011. So still just I mean, I had Friday, it was really bad. I had Fridays like one and two. Then it really changed. I mean, my first year was my. Learning curve at the mega fund growth equity was really really steep and. It was a lot of hours to on some deals. But the difference is that. You are constantly pitching things to somebody. So the difference is that when there's a deal. You do work a lot. You don't do like for him every day, but you do work a lot. You have late nights, I think, let's say, and let's say a deal which isn't like extremely rushed time line you could get away with maybe like 1 a.m.. So for me that's fine because then you get like 7 hours of sleep or so. There will always be one. We always used to say, like, there's always going to be one terrible week at the end.
Laura: [00:39:23] Like before you submit to the investment committee, there's always going to be an awful week. But but Max, it's one, two, three weeks. I think that differs from private equity to so the bad stretch is never the bad. And then the good stretch, it's still not 9 to 5. I think it may be actually, if you really go to venture, the lifestyle's a lot better. We still work really hard. We were also really small team at the time and there was a lot of, you know, kind of hustle culture which resonated with me. So I was fine with it, but then it made me like nine or 930 to say eight or nine and maybe have dinner at seven. And then you go and work from home for a few hours. And Friday you can sometimes leave at five. You know, it's like really it's just it just so different because you are more in charge. And again, I really like this industry and I really like this job. So no one is forcing me to log in on Sunday like no one's beating you with a steak. I just kind of.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:25] More like that, right? Banking. They're like, overseeing everything. Yeah.
Laura: [00:40:29] That's what worked for me. But again, as I said, I need to work on the things I'm interested in. The good thing is that in growth, of course, every job is going to have parts that are boring the admin stuff. But in this job those parts are really small and then you just do them out of respect for yourself and your team because it has to get done. But then the bulk of the work I genuinely think is really, really interesting and. I genuinely think is an extremely interesting job. Even money and all that glamour aside, I mean, it's just such an interesting mix of again, consider this venture or private equity. It's a mix of modelling and where I work is actually the analysis, the model and the operational analysis is really, really rigorous and it's typically the most work that anyone does in growth. So there's like real focus on fundamentals, which I think is great when you're earlier in your career. But then there's also the research part of the job where you look at which sectors are going to be relevant for us today, tomorrow and in a few years, research different spaces. You own the spaces in software, but spaces within those as well. Then there's obviously the sourcing piece, which I love because I was kind of already doing that without doing it right. There's the people piece where you're constantly around extremely smart, kind of ambitious people, whether in your team or the entrepreneurs that you speak to or the VCs you speak to. So I just really think it's such a diverse job that it really interested you.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:14] Yeah, No, I love I love my time In private equity. You probably get to see a little bit more exciting stuff too, because it's a little bit earlier stage, which is.
Laura: [00:42:21] Which is. Yeah, exactly. And I always actually good to start with later stage and then move earlier rather than starting from like early.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:33] You mentioned the learning curve. I know we have we recently released two private equity deals process course, and we also have a venture capital course. And it's funny because when we approach growth equity shops, we sometimes tell them you need both because you need like the VC, like the cap table modelling and bill. It's the cohort analysis, all that technical stuff and the term not understanding term sheets for the fast. But you also need to build like detailed underwriting models and more like the P type stuff and understand the deal process from like NDAs through funds flow. So I'm like, do you feel like what you said the learning curve was super steep. What was the hardest part for you coming out of banking going to the growth equity?
Laura: [00:43:11] Well, for me, but I'm not a typical guy. For me, actually, the the the the analysis was the hardest because I had never had to like really critically think about, is this a good business? Because frankly, even if is a bad business, we're still trying to sell you all knew the MD you know but no I'm.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:30] Thinking thinking like an investor, basically.
Laura: [00:43:32] Right. But thinking like an investor in Excel, like do the analysis that's going to then tell you, is this a good business or not? And, you know, you have to like really use your brain and you have to. So that was a really that was a kind of and the first I mean, the first deal that we did was. Pretty, you know, it's just crazy. We had like, I've never I had never done a cohort model like that at all. And like, in banking, we also this is bad. Like in my team in tech, we just use a lot of templates and a lot of models prebuilt. So honestly, sometimes you don't need to do that much. And here, you know, I had this smallish growing internet company, we had like ten years of historical monthly cohort data, so my boss wanted to build a monthly core model. I literally had it for like 2014, 2025, like monthly cohort model, like so many different product lines. It was a big mess, Like a big mess. And that was like my that was the project where I hit rock bottom. But then it was only up from there and that was a really big learning curve. But I think when it gets better and you get a lot quicker and you get independent, it just becomes really interesting because. Because you have a lot more freedom and you can really think more versus just crunching the numbers. You basically, you know, you still need to crunch numbers, but you can crunch the numbers and then you have some time over to think.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:06] Tell me about pay. So how did it how did it trend from banking to growth equity? In terms of base base bonus, you can give ranges to give exact, but just approximately.
Laura: [00:45:18] I've forgotten the banking actually range, but I want to say that we are probably on like £60, £60,000 base and I think bonus was like 100. I mean, it depends on yourself, but it was up to, I think, 100%.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:36] What did you get? Did you get 100%? That's a lot.
Laura: [00:45:39] It depends. Yeah, it's a lot. But, you know.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:45] From what I understand, I guess those were good years. So maybe it was there were there were a lot of people who got paid 100%.
Laura: [00:45:51] Well, it was there was a good year, but actually, I just don't want to disclose. That's fine. But actually my institution was doing very badly at the time. So we had a lot of like lawsuits and things like that, but it didn't affect the analysts as much. So. Yeah, a lot of money and then but but it's a lot obviously more in growth equity. So when I started, I started as an analyst. I didn't start as an associate. It started as an. I was paid. So the base was really slow. The base was like £70,000, but I really don't remember what the bonus was like. But I think I got like as an analyst non associate 200K all in.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:46:41] So 130 K, £130,000 as a bonus. Yeah, something. Did that hit in one check?
Laura: [00:46:49] Ab It was 200. K 200,000 more pounds. I think that was right.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:46:55] Okay, So but that did that hit in like one check, like a similar to banking bonus cycle.
Laura: [00:47:00] Yeah. In one go. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:47:03] Yeah. And then I assume that's significantly increased over the last several years or no.
Laura: [00:47:09] Yeah, it increases a lot, but I don't, I'm not going to give specifics.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:47:12] That's fine. That's what I always get. I get screamed at if I don't ask by my listeners like you got to ask pay.
Laura: [00:47:20] All I can say is if you go to a megaphone and do private sector growth like money, you're not going to worry about it. It's not going to be. Something that you really need to worry about. But again, I would just encourage people to, I guess, choose places where they like to work because I wouldn't even for me, like I really enjoy my day to day. I enjoy doing this work, I enjoy growing and then the paycheck comes and you're like, Oh wow, this is pretty cool. I can afford things, you know, or want to do with it. My fund, actually, I actually can afford things because my fund, which is really great, they allow us to co-invest in our funds. So. Many people, including me, do that. Which is bad for your disposable. Yeah, exactly. In the near term. But it's just great, right? I mean, money is supposed to be invested, right? So. So that's really, really cool. It's such. It's like an unparalleled opportunity of actually to be a private equity investor, quite literally. Right.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:48:28] No, it's awesome. It's a huge benefit.
Laura: [00:48:31] Yeah, it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:48:31] Is a huge benefit. So. Did you get Carrie after your analyst years or is it something where they want?
Laura: [00:48:38] No, You do not get Carrie as an analyst or associate.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:48:42] Do you feel like one that's typically principal or VP or whatever they call it? Yeah. Okay, awesome. Well, it sounds like you're in a great seat. Do you expect to any any thoughts of, like, ever wanting to go VC or earlier stage or thoughts like that or you enjoy where you're at?
Laura: [00:49:02] You know, it's always really hard to. You never really know how a job is going to feel before you. So I'm very cognizant to think that the grass is greener and then to then see that it actually isn't. I think whilst you are learning and growing and you work with good people and you get paid well. That's really rare, actually. You should spend well, which obviously I don't. I really like it. I mean, unless you have reasons. But I think once you stop growing or you don't vibe with the people or your interests don't lie there, you have to make a move. But I think that, you know, when it's time and I don't think it's time for me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:49:54] He said one thing before we call the pod before we end it. You had said something earlier that I wanted to bring back up. You said something about being neurodivergent or with ADHD. Adhd? Yeah, in finance. Can you talk to me a little bit about that and what that's been like? I know at least here in the US, I know it's been a diagnosis that's like skyrocketed and there's a lot of like treatments. And I know kids in college even for studying they're taking stuff that aren't they don't have ADHD.
Laura: [00:50:20] I don't take any medication. I mean, that's a longer story. But, you know, I think it's I wish I had been diagnosed, I guess, earlier in life, because I would have I could have understood myself and my work patterns a lot better. And I think you need some adjustments. I mean, I'm very functional, but for example, and my team is extremely accommodating. I didn't even necessarily disclose my diagnosis. I just asked for these things. It's kind of, you know, I get really overwhelmed. Like working in open plan is actually very hard for me. It's really hard for me to focus. There's too much sensory stimulation. I really can't get stuff done. And it was the same in banking. So I tried to like go, there's also offices, so I try to go in offices or for me, like really working from home works really well because I can focus a lot better. So kind of mixing that with office work is obviously still the norm anyway, or things like I have a really delayed sleep cycle. So for me, initially my colleagues would sometimes say I would come into work late and they were kind of gave me feedback on that. And then I explained that I don't have an issue working, you know, doing Calls of Midnight, but I have it real issue doing calls at 8 a.m..
Laura: [00:51:39] And then they said, okay, fine, you just get here by ten or 1030. They were like, Get here by ten you don't need, because most of the senior people can't go there like early because they want to be home for the family right early. They get here by ten. If we need you to be in early, we'll specifically say so. It's not just get here by ten and it's all good. And or in general, like, I mean, I oftentimes we have a meeting, say, in Germany, and I actually most of the colleagues, they have families, so they don't want to fly the night before. I prefer to fly the night before, like it's my day is ruined if I have to get up at 5 a.m.. And so just having flexibility and this isn't you don't need to have a you don't need to be neurodivergent, I think to actually answer these things, we're all really different. And unfortunately, there's a lot of talk about diversity when it comes on gender and sexual identity. But there is zero focus in the industry on neurodiversity, which I think is just huge because that is how you interact with the world and how you think and how you work and what your patterns are. And, you know.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:52:48] Oh yeah, well, two of my three children are neurodiverse, so like, I get it. Yeah, it's, that's why I wanted to ask more about it and. And I was curious around like how you were able to deal with it and what you were specifically able to ask for. So that's great.
Laura: [00:53:03] Yeah, but I think in general, employers are more and more kind of accepting. Obviously, it's also a medical diagnosis and I think it's about really about understanding yourself and what works for you. And maybe there's obviously a professional can to help you understand that and then asking for what you need because people with ADHD, you know, there's also benefits like I can hyperfocus on a topic like, like no other, but it's about like understanding how you work and what you need. And then I think you can get kind of a good outcome for everybody.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:53:39] That's awesome. It's it's definitely interesting the talk about diversity and also hopefully there's not just focus on diversity for for neurodiverse people as well because it's a huge percentage of the population. So that's interesting. So yeah, anything else before we call it, any other final thoughts? I think it's been really informative and interesting. An interesting one. I think the listeners will like it.
Laura: [00:54:05] I hope so. No, just obviously reach out to me if anybody needs more specific advice, but I think I really do.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:54:13] Are you part of our mentor network for people? So yeah, so we can look, we'll link that here in the show notes.
Laura: [00:54:20] I would just say I didn't come from a standard background and I'm not a standard candidate. And I ended up working at a really, really one of basically the best private equity funds out there. So it's I don't want to say it's not that hard, but it's actually not that hard. But you have to be willing to put in the work consistently. And 99.9% of people in the world do not do that. And that's that's why they don't get their.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:54:47] Agreed on that. Well, thank you so much for your time. It's been a lot of fun having a chat with you.
Laura: [00:54:53] Nice chatting. I talk to you later.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:54:55] And thanks to you, my listeners at Wall Street Oasis. If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send them my way. Patrick at Wall Street Oasis. Com And till next time
or Want to Sign up with your social account?