WSO Podcast | E127: Principal in VC from M&A at Lazard
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In this episode, Solomon shares his path from Ethiopia to the DC area when he was just 6 years old. Learn how his path was shaped at UVA to consider finance and how his internship at JP Morgan in S&T pushed him to consider banking instead. Listen how he shares some great advice on brand name and taking on risk early in your career.
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WSO Podcast (Episode 127) 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, Solomon shares his path from Ethiopia to the D.C. area when he was just six years old. Learn how his path was shaped at UVA to consider finance and how his internship at JPMorgan and sales and trading pushed him to consider banking instead. Listen, how he shares some great advice on brand name and taking on risk early in your career. Enjoy. All right, Solomon, thanks so much for joining the Wall Street Voices podcast.
Solomon: [00:00:56] Yeah, thanks for having me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:58] So it'd be great if you could just give the listeners a short summary of your bio.
Solomon: [00:01:01] Yeah, sure thing. So I was born in Ethiopia, moved to D.C. when I was six, went to UVA undergrad, was pretty undecided, ended up going the undergrad business school path, did an internship at J.P. Morgan in sales and trading realized that wasn't really a fit for me. And then after that, I found my way into Lazard doing summer internship and then ended up accepting a full time offer to join Power and Energy Group a year in. Like many analysts realized banking isn't a long term path for me. And at the same time, I didn't kind of want to recruit for the mega fund pee shops because a lot of them were only marketing power and energy opportunities, and I wanted to try something new. So began exploring startups and venture funds serendipitously, as I began that search test the firm I'm at Tusk. I guess it's not much of a secret is was looking to expand the team I reached out to one of the partners began a dialogue. It was a long winded process, but joined about three years ago and I've been there ever since.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:09] Cool. So let's start all the way back. I guess in Ethiopia, like you grew, you were there until you were six. So kind of not not a ton of memories there, probably. But tell me a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
Solomon: [00:02:19] Not a ton. But when we moved over, it was me and my parents spoke in Amharic, which stuck and I'm super thankful for as a kid, I'd always say, why can't we just speak in English? And now I'm like, I'm so happy. Like, I have like a second language and our two younger sisters. And you can see with kind of age difference, one is twenty one and the other is thirteen. So I'm kind of a native speaker. The younger one can speak but will like interject English words here and there when she gets flustered and the youngest one, just like, understands what you says, what you say. But we'll only respond in English. So it's kind of funny.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:57] Why are you so thankful that you can speak a second language now?
Solomon: [00:03:00] Well, you know, you can take a phone call in the middle of a room. No one knows who you're talking about. Like, there's just a lot of like practical reasons why it actually works really well.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:08] Nice. You know, my mom is from Columbia. She spoke a lot of Spanish when I was growing up, and now I wish it was more. I'm like, Why don't you speak like one hundred percent Spanish to me? Like, what the hell?
Solomon: [00:03:18] As a kid, you're like, Oh, this is so much work.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:20] I know, I know. It's interesting. Ok, so let's you kind of what grew up in the D.C. area and. Why did your family kind of move move from media? Why did you guys come out here?
Solomon: [00:03:32] Yeah. So the U.S. has a like immigration program called a diversity visa that allocates a certain amount of visas per country, just a lottery process. My dad just happened to apply that year and we got it, and at the time, he had a small retail shop, but was like, This is a great opportunity for for me and my family. So kind of made the jump without much of a network. Kind of like quintessential American dream. And yeah, so we moved over. We had a few family members in the D.C. area. Thing that listeners know the area. There are a lot of just eastern African people there. But yeah, that was kind of the genesis of the move.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:19] Ok. And so you're there, you're growing up. You're going. What was that transition like kind of through high school and stuff? Was it pretty easy for you to assimilate as you were speaking English already?
Solomon: [00:04:28] Yeah. At that age, I think like, you just make friends really quickly. You don't really overthink it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:35] Yeah. And then in terms of like college and starting there was it like was finance always on the radar or something?
Solomon: immigrant parents always look at careers in very tangible manners. So it's like you're a doctor. You make people feel better. You're an engineer. I can see what you're building. It's like growing up. I thought I was going to be an engineer or doctor because that's what I was always told is like, This is what you need to do. And actually kind of going into UVA, I was going to go into E! School and then just realize like, this isn't really a fit for me. And then I went to kind of undergrad College of Arts and Sciences being.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:16] Why did you say it wasn't a fit for you? What do you think? Because I think these students, their students in that same spot right now?
Solomon: [00:05:21] I think I think it was more so. My parents are really excited. They were like, You're really good at math. You should be an engineer. It makes a lot of sense, and I just didn't have that inherent passion and I thought medicine might be more interesting. It also was a little more open ended because you could be whatever major you really wanted to and then still pursue pre-med. Yeah. So it's pre-med in the first year. And then like the terribly and cam, to be honest. So it's like, Well, I don't know if this is like the right man like me. Yeah. And I've always been pretty open minded and I took like classes that I just thought were interesting. And coincidentally, McIntyre, which is the undergrad business school, had a lot of general requirements that I fulfilled. And going into my second year, I was like, Oh, I just really need to take accounting, and this is also an option. So I ended up doing that. Actually, I have one friend to thank who is like, just take accounting. Like, I think like a lot of people go to UVA because McIntyre is a great kind of program. Going into it, I didn't really know what undergrad business school was, so I was like, I'm probably just going to be like pre-med or engineer. So I kind of followed that. And then after my second year, I did an internship at J.P. Morgan doing sales and trading, which was a really quick pivot because like,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:42] Yeah, tell me how you landed that sophomore sophomore summer. It was like recruiting. And yeah,
Solomon: [00:06:46] So JP Morgan has this program called launching leaders just focused on getting underrepresented students into kind of either sales and trading or banking. And I just kind of applied because I thought it was interesting, and I think they thought my application was interesting because it was so all over the place. And and yeah, I had a great summer there. I was covering fixed income. Muniz film trading is a really interesting opportunity because if you're very market oriented, you can just ask a lot of questions. It's a lot of shadowing, but if you're not already deep into it, it is a tough internship because you're kind of watching someone else and asking a lot of questions. So overall, I took away a lot from that summer, but I was more interested in what my friends that were on the banking side and kind of experience they were getting.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:41] Were they telling you, like, stay away from sales and trading? Not at all business
Solomon: [00:07:45] That actually didn't come up. I was just super green. Like looking back, I was probably a terrible intern, but I, you know, I got along with everyone, which is
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:56] Expected as sophomores. I mean, more. You're like a kid.
Solomon: [00:07:59] Yeah, I think I had a lot, a lot of people understood, like, yeah, like, you're just getting into it. Like, just take it as it comes in. Like next summer, you'll have a little more direction in terms of like, where
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:10] Did you feel like it didn't interest you because you just didn't have an inherent interest in like the stock market or like, were you trading on your own?
Solomon: [00:08:16] I think if it was over my junior year or summer, I would have been more interested because I just would have been a little more knowledgeable about it. Like I didn't grow up in an environment where I was surrounded by. Financial markets are kind of like it wasn't really dinner table conversation, so I just kind of went in there and I was like, I don't know what's going on. And Elise, with kind of banking, I do think like the workstreams are a little different. You get to like, you know, even if it's just doing like a logos page or whatever like you can read about, you can do make a pin. It's just a little more tangible so you feel more involved, whereas on a trading floor, you just have to be like on and asking a lot of questions, which as an entry point into finance, having a little more background is probably that's interesting.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:02] Yeah, I hadn't even thought of that. Yeah, it's a little bit more like on you to ask the right questions and like, be proactive versus like banking. They're like, Hey, go fix the sliding
Solomon: [00:09:10] And you're like, OK, this is tangible. I know what to do. I'll print it out. Like, I'll like, track my work, whereas it's like, you know, yeah, why are why are we interested in like this new bond issuance from, like Missouri utility? I don't know. Ok, so that's
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:26] So that leadership program you come out of there, did they like give you an offer for the following summer, too?
Solomon: [00:09:31] Yeah. So and I'll be super honest, I didn't get a return offer. So because I was like, I was probably not great at this job in terms of at least going back to sales and trading. And I was like, Oh, it's probably a good idea to like, leverage this into like, you know, I firmly believe that when you look at your career, it's almost more important to figure out what you don't like rather than chasing what you like, because I do think you're just a little more focused. And I knew that like this wasn't the right career field I wanted to get into. I think banking will be interesting because it kind of checks a lot of the boxes that weren't there on the sales and trading side, at least in terms of a summer internship. So starting from scratch, UVA has a great on campus recruiting program. Also data program called Echo and ended up at Lazard, which was great because it was a generalist program. One of the things
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:25] Can you talk to me about how we're working with SEO actually on a lot of our mentors? And you just talk just for the people who aren't familiar on the call?
Solomon: [00:10:31] Yeah. So SEO is a really great program based here in New York, and they place highly talented, underrepresented students with front office roles. It's not all investment banking, they do some sales and trading. They have a law program.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:46] Do they like drill you own like mock interviews and stuff internally?
Solomon: [00:10:48] So that's probably why I did so much better at Lazard because I went through the CEO program. They had like a training program before the Lazard summer training program, and I came in, which is much sharper and on top of on top of everything. Whereas, you know, after my second year, I was like, I don't know which pays out. So definitely thankful for that. And then I got a return offer. And Lazard is interesting because their return offers are just to the firm and not to a group. So you just accept the offer. And then there's a placement process in the spring where you rank the groups or there's a networking event. You rank your top groups, they rank you and it's like a kind of like joining a fraternity
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:31] A little bit like a dance.
Solomon: [00:11:32] It's like, Yeah, exactly.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:35] That's interesting. I wonder. Like, so you almost have to accept with the faith that you may like group that you want. So tell me, how did you how did you get comfortable with that and was there when they made you the offer after your junior summer to come back? Was it actually before we even get there? Tell me a little bit about more about the summer. Was it like long hours? I assume Lazard is pretty notorious for her good deal. Good deal flow, but not the easiest place, right?
Solomon: [00:12:02] So yeah, I do think Lazard does a great job on on the summer internship where no one feels too burnt out. I think like you'll probably work on one or two things that really test you, but I didn't know anyone that got worked really hard the entire summer if they were just kind of peaks. But and the good thing is because it's a generalist program, you you have the ability to kind of take ownership and you didn't get any experience with TMT. You could go over there and ask if there's any work and you have a little more control over your destiny, if you will.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:38] How did you think about that? How did you navigate that during that summer? Like, did you get on something you didn't like? And we're like, Hey, get me more TMT? Like, was that on your mind?
Solomon: [00:12:47] Yeah, kind of. I like there were a good number of gay people, so they are
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:52] Just curious, like. Because it's hard for me to remember back, it's so long ago from when I was like, I didn't even have an internship, so I'm curious like the thought process. How much of your UVA classmates are like guiding you like, OK, I want to be like, You want to be in this group and not this other group, that type of thing.
Solomon: [00:13:08] So there is one in TMP, there is one in real estate. There is one in power and energy and there's one in health care. So like all the kind of big groups, there were someone I could kind of talk to. So I was able to I worked in health care, TMT and a little bit of fig and power and energy. But I also sat with the power and energy team, and I think that was actually the biggest driver for me because I just enjoyed the people that were in the group. It was by far the most collegial and like laid back as far as Lazard goes, and I just felt really comfortable with with the guys there. And that was actually the driving factor in terms of me ranking it pretty high. So I think my my top three were health care and power and energy. I mean, you might have been number two, but yeah, it kind of worked really well. And my logic was. It was hard you'll get good experience on the technical side regardless, and if you have to work long hours, you might as well work with like work really hard with people that you already know and like versus working on something you think is interesting, but like not enjoying a company, if you will.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:21] So you sat with those guys during the summer and you felt comfortable you coming out of the summer, you get the offer. They like, Hey, this is exploding in a week or, well,
Solomon: [00:14:31] They were pretty good. They gave me like a month. And I think part of it may have been UVA, where they were like, You cannot do it if you want to recruit, I guess.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:43] And so what? What was the thought process around potentially shopping that and.
Solomon: [00:14:48] Yeah, I to be honest, I didn't shop it at any other banks. I thought about I did like two interviews with consulting firms like McKinsey and Bain figured that like, both options were good. But I just kind of knew that like, and this is still me on the traditional finance path is how I'll put it where kind of the people in front of me where like to your thinking to your HBS or Stanford? And I was like, Oh, that's what I need to do. So I was like, I think Lazard really helped me get into like a good private equity fund. And that's like a more it's a more traveled, well-traveled path. So that was.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:30] So you already you already kind of leaning banking? Yeah. And so but you wanted to kind of at least do the interviews of McKinsey and yeah, give it some thought.
Solomon: [00:15:39] And I think like, I'm the kind of person, like many listeners, I'm sure like I like optionality and it's just like, I want to know I have as much information as I can possibly have before making a decision. But ultimately, when who desired? I like the analyst. Some of the people in my group are still some of my closest friends in the city, and I do think like some other larger banking programs, there isn't that level of camaraderie. And I'm like, How
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:11] Was at like 30 panelists?
Solomon: [00:16:12] Yeah. So the whole class was 30 and
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:16] I got it right on. Yeah, I guess so.
Solomon: [00:16:19] Sorry. Well, let me rephrase 30 in New York and 30. Yeah, yeah. And there were six in my in my group that I was much closer with. But of course, yeah, I just enjoyed that like that. To me, that was part of the experience in terms of like enjoying the people you work with, getting close to them. And because everyone I talked to, I was seniors like, yeah, like, I'm still really great friends with like my analyst mates and I'm like, OK, I guess it's like something to look out for.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:47] Yeah, you go through it, right? You go through it together. Yeah, the long hours, it's kind of like you. You're forced to be friends if you even if you don't get along perfectly. But so, OK, so you're kind of coming out of school that senior year, you have the offer in hand. You're you're basically like
Solomon: [00:17:02] Loving life, right? Oh, it was vacation.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:04] Yeah, senior year at UVA. Not bad. I've been on. Yeah, I've been on that campus. It's gorgeous.
Solomon: [00:17:09] So it's yeah, it was. Yeah, it was an unbelievable year because I was like, I have my job like, I'm pretty much done like school.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:20] My parents were like, What are you? What is this banking thing? Are you going to get a bank teller over the hill?
Solomon: [00:17:24] Yes. Oh my God. So way this happened after second year, though, when I worked out, when I told them I was going to JP Morgan, they knew JP Morgan from its retail banking. They're like, Oh, like, you're going to be a banker like a bank teller like that doesn't insure. So the thing is, they're always really supportive. So they're like, Oh, that's great. But they were like, But why like, like, what made you decide to do this? So, yeah, it was really funny.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:48] That's hilarious. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot of kids that are in the same boat or, like everyone, associates the retail arm. Yeah. And so like, they're probably like Lazard. What's that right?
Solomon: [00:17:59] Exactly.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:01] Ok, so you're you kind of have a great senior year. The parents are on board or you're convincing them and you're kind of approaching graduation. What any, any kind of last hurrah before you started any trips or anything like that before?
Solomon: [00:18:13] Yeah. So I did a Southeast Asia trip went to Chile during during the year, in the spring and just really just like kind of enjoyed college without the stress because a lot of my friends who weren't in the business school were either stressed out about applying to law school or med school or all this other stuff. And the one thing I told myself was, OK, like, you have it easy, you should totally take the GMAT. That's like the one thing you should do. And I I didn't do it. I was like, This is great. So I just I just think like Charlottesville Senior Year was a it was a fun time. Definitely look back on it fondly.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:55] Cool. So, OK, so you're approaching graduation, you finish and then you do a little trip and you kind of get to the city and the training starts and reality sinks in. What's? What's it like during training and then once you hit the desk, what's it like?
Solomon: [00:19:09] Yeah. Training was still a lot of fun. Like, stay with us when we are, yeah, yeah. I think I think it's, you know, you have a lot of energy because you're in New York, like you're living in New York, you're getting paid, but it's more or less a nine to five like it's it's super show and everyone's like ready to go drink every day. It's actually like quite exhausting from the social element and not so much about the training. And then we use training the street. So we have like kind of a. I guess after like I think it was a three week program, we have like a presentation with a team where I think we're analyzing coach and Tiffany. I think everyone did that. But yeah, overall it was good. I would say, like coming in from MacIntyre. I had some of the kind of finance already down and then having been there a summer. But most of the learning occurs on the job. And I think, were there
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:09] Any kids that came in from like a liberal arts background like me that were clueless, like didn't know any accounting and had to like, we're drowning?
Solomon: [00:20:16] Yeah, or not many? Not not many. I think, like most of the people that came at Lazard. I think we're like, I want to
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:27] Warn kids, there's probably some more kids.
Solomon: [00:20:29] Yeah, I also think like ninety five percent of the class already summered because New York was only 30. So I don't think anyone was completely caught off guard in terms of like what to expect.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:41] Cool. Ok, so you hit the desk. What's it like immediately? Long hours? They ease you in what's the yeah?
Solomon: [00:20:47] Yeah, I worked on this one deal that, like just kind of rocked my first three months and I was actually like, Oh my God, like, is this going to be my life ended up falling through? And it was also in the renewable space, which I didn't really look at at all. And it was just a lot. Thankfully, like the second, your analyst was awesome. He was also a UVA guy, so we were already friends. Definitely helped guide me through that kind of three week period
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:17] Renewables, meaning you had never done like a financials for.
Solomon: [00:21:19] Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, it was like, What is this? Yeah, it's like it was rallying like wind farms and like rolling them up. And I was like, I have no idea what I'm looking at. And the thing is, the group was just building out that practice. So like, there were like there's like one person who really knew what they were talking about, but like everyone else, was still trying to figure it out a little bit.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:38] I think I've seen a couple of those models and it's totally different.
Solomon: [00:21:40] Yeah, if it was a cool experience, but like it really added a lot more than just, oh, this is long hours. It's like, Oh, it's long hours, and I don't really know what I'm talking about.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:51] Yeah. So, OK, so you're there for like the first three months, it's long hours, like 80 hours, 90 hours hundred plus around there.
Solomon: [00:21:58] Yeah, it's probably in the nineties. Like a hundred. Yeah, like for like maybe a two week period. It wasn't anything that was absolutely
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:07] You weren't sleeping at the office.
Solomon: [00:22:09] Yeah, not not yet. But honestly, that like set me up where I was like, it kind of toughened me up pretty quickly, and then everything else was pretty good. I had some resistance. Yeah, sure it is. But like just having that, that early, I was like, Oh, OK, like, like, I'm not really fazed anymore.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:30] Like, Oh, you're like, what? Seventy five hour week? I'm good. Yeah, coasting.
Solomon: [00:22:36] Yeah. So it was a good experience. And the great thing is like the culture of the group with exactly the same. So I was really happy to come back into it and everyone was. It wasn't like business formal, like Mozart's a French bank. So like the consumer team is always like dress, suit and tie. Like, Yeah, look good. Yeah. And the power and energy guys were like just much more casual and low key, still doing great work. But it was just nice to be in an environment where you're not always like on like in terms of like, are the office
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:11] Still a Rockefeller Center area?
Solomon: [00:23:14] Yeah. 30 Rock.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:16] Yeah, we were at total fifty one having in America. So yeah, it's always right next. Actually, we were right next to there. That was a long time ago, though that was way before your time. So cool. So your junior two years pay, I assume. What was it like? 90 base, 80 base, something like that. And then big bonus. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Solomon: [00:23:37] It was eighty five and then went ninety five. I want to say yes. Yeah, yeah. And then and then they gave us a signing bonus, which was nice when for the for the interns,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:50] Least 10 or 15 or something,
Solomon: [00:23:52] 15, which was, yeah, that was was nice and helped move into New York.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:58] The brokers fees are expensive, man.
Solomon: 00:24:00] Yeah, I was like, What's going on? I'm getting robbed.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:04] Yeah.
Solomon: [00:24:05] Yeah. And bonus was pretty healthy, I would say, for the first year. I can't even think think for sure is maybe like one fifty one, it's 150, 170 kind of range.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:19] All you're saying? Yeah, so I don't know. It was probably about the same size of the base. It's great, man. That's huge.
Solomon: [00:24:27] Yeah, I would say. Yeah, that sounds right, but it was it was slightly above market, but not like amazing. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:35] Ok, so seven around. Yeah, around 70, let's just say 70 to 90. And then so then second year, was it a big bump, your second year like a dramatic bump because I know my second year was a big bump.
Solomon: [00:24:47] Really? No, it was. It was. It wasn't as big as I anticipated, but I do think. There was something going on with the group where it was like, Oh yeah, bonuses, are you angry worked, but
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:59] You're getting close at two hundred by that point. So like, you're two years out of school, you're you're doing well. But tell me, like after that first three months, were you thinking at what point where you think, OK, private equity you would set? You had said private equity was kind of on on your mind? Yeah. Consulting. So was that something that? I'm trying to think back in twenty fifteen, it probably kicked off in like February then, right?
Solomon: [00:25:21] Yeah. People were getting coffee chats in December.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:25:27] Oh my gosh,
Solomon: [00:25:28] So was it. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty early and you kind of were reaching out to these headhunters. Building a resume without much, which I always found this funny. It was like, OK. And the problem with it was, and I'm actually really thankful it worked out this way is kind of the way Headhunters operate is like the businesses get someone hired and then get paid. So like it's in their best interest to give you things they think you can get in terms of like you did power and energy. You should look at all these like power and energy and midstream opportunities. I'm like, I don't really want that. And by like. While I kind of like February, I just fully realized that they're not going to be helpful in terms of like where I where I was really headed, which was great because then I
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:15] Like tell me why no on power and energy and tell me why, because it was just to levitate. You didn't want to kind of. I thought I was yourself in that early.
Solomon: [00:26:23] Yeah, I wanted to have a little more flexibility. I was more interested in kind of. Other sectors, it was just a little too niche, and once you go super deep, it's not like that transferable. So I was like, I know I don't love this enough to make my whole career around it. Yeah. And and what I was saying was like after February, I was like, OK, I'm going to take the pressure off myself and just like, think about what I want and like where I want to go. And all these things are 18 months out anyway. So like, it's a little if you know you don't want to do it, there's no point in feeling I have to get a job just because my my coworkers were getting jobs, which which would definitely factored in because everyone was getting offers. And I was like, Oh, am I not doing this right or should I just like?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:10] There's a lot of doubt. Yeah, but the idea of staying at banking, did that ever cross your mind? Or you're like after the first few months, you're like, I got to get out of here?
Solomon: [00:27:19] Yeah, I realize I kind of wanted to get out of here. Yeah, part of it was like, you know, was right at the top shop. I looked kind of like above, and I was like, Can I really see myself being like one of these people and not these people, but like, have the lifestyle they had? Yeah. And the answer is just, no, I love this subject matter enough. I didn't love my boss enough to, like just kind of follow him. So it actually made that decision a lot easier. So kind of fast forward fall of second year, I was like, All right, time to like, figure out what I want. And I realized that like, I mean, startups are pretty interesting and funny enough. I've been in finance, but I've never really explored venture capital up until this point. It was kind of this black box, and I was more so kind of reading TechCrunch and looking at all these startups. And I was like, Oh, like, I could definitely go work at an early stage startup or like venture seems interesting because their whole job is to like, kind of find, find these interesting companies. The thing is, I didn't want to leave New York because my family is in D.C. and I like the East Coast, and this is where luck really comes into play, where I was like, OK, I'll look at like interesting startup opportunities and as like associate positions come up at venture funds. I'll like just start applying to them. Well, they don't come up that often and like when they do like, it's very like network driven, as I've learned. So I first reached out to all the UVA people I knew that was that were in venture. And then second, I just started.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:54] How did you how did you do that just through LinkedIn? You just found it.
Solomon: [00:28:56] Yeah. Linkedin is like an amazing tool. Like, I think like if you know how to use it intelligently. Also, like you just need to find the email format of the firm and you don't even have to like because I don't believe in LinkedIn messages because I think everyone spammed by them. But if you're able to like, you can find my email and email me and you'd have a much higher likelihood.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:16] Yeah, I mean, you can also you get a decent even if you're not able to use messages once you're connected to a profile, you can see the email on there. Yeah. And then also in our company database, there are email formats in there. So but we don't have. So you could even just look there.
Solomon: [00:29:28] Yeah. So I mean, our
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:31] Point is, so you you were going emails direct. We're using anything to like, remind yourself and follow up. If they didn't answer like a writing box or a boomerang or any of those
Solomon: [00:29:39] Boomerang was clutch. Yeah, I Boomerang was a big one.
Patrick (CEO of WSO):00:29:42] I'd also cast all the listeners working using it.
Solomon: [00:29:47] I also preset all my emails to send at like seven forty five, so it would be top of the inbox. But I'd be writing them like after work at like 10 12, whatever and people would think I'm like up and at it and like trying to, like, get a job,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:04] Which you should have done. Six? Forty five, man.
Solomon: [00:30:06] Yeah, I my my fear was I wanted to catch them before a lot of the daily emails would go out. And I figured like, that was a good time where either they were like commuting to work or like just checking first wave stuff. Anyway, there's a science, it's art science use whatever time kind of works for you. But use boomerang, it makes your life a lot easier.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:27] Yeah, boomerang or I use one called writing box. That's great, too. Same thing. Basically, you can set reminders, automate it, even automate follow ups. Send it, schedule all emails. All that good stuff. Yeah, yeah. It's like a light. It's a seriously game changer. There's even templates you can put in there. Yeah. Like our whole process of like onboarding mentors, setting up the podcast. I don't know if we followed up with you, but like, that's all template. So we were like, Click, click, click change the name. Yep. And done instead of people like having to court, even copying and pasting takes a lot of time. Yeah. So it cuts all of that out. So, OK, so you are you can reach out to UVA alum. You start chatting with some people and venture there like like, Hey, man, there's like no seats or like it comes up once.
Solomon: [00:31:11] Three Yeah, they were just like, I'll keep you in mind. Definitely. Like, keep reaching out to people. And my entry point was actually not through like the UVA connection. Someone like a friend reached out to the girl who sat next to me being like. Is just like you find coming up, like, let me know if you're interested. And she knew I was interested and she was like, Oh, you should totally reach out to this person. So I got in front of it. And like the venture time cycle or recruiting cycle varies drastically based on fun size, larger funds like, for example, like an MBA or more growth, but insight. They have a cadence that they follow and like. If you're able to get in on that, that's great. But I want to say anything sub one fifty. It's just like one
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:07] Fifty for the listeners 150 a year assets.
Solomon: [00:32:09] Yeah, or fund size. It could just be, I'll just say, sub 150 fund sizes. Yeah. So it's not it's not super structured. So there's a lot of luck that goes into it anyway. The firm I was at announced that they just did a first close of fund one. I was like, Oh, congrats. It seems really interesting. Got in front of the managing partner. It took about like eight emails, but finally got a conversation and was like, Oh, like, I'm not looking to hire immediately, but I will so like, keep in touch and I like, kept in touch. And I think this is probably like one of the things where over eagerness may hurt you, where it's like you got to have like the right IQ of what the right cadence is following up because there's a fine line of just being really annoying, totally and being really motivated. And for me, that was like kind of like once a once a month, once every six weeks.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:33:06] How did you know that? How did you develop that IQ to even know that
Solomon: [00:33:10] Because of the other side where other people would reach out to me about like, Oh, we'd love to hear about your experience? And I was like, This is like, really exhausting. Like, You're on my radar. Like, I know, like when this comes out, every two
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:33:22] Weeks is like, Hey, how about now? Hey, you're like, Oh yeah.
Solomon: [00:33:25] And I think, like, that's a really big part of venture because like, I mean, a big part of it is like talking to founders, getting them to like you, getting access to a deal and that no one really talks about. I used to hate the word EC because I used to think it was like BSE. And of course, everyone knows how to talk to people. But that's not true. Like, some people are just kind of like better at it than others. And that's part of kind of your sell as a candidate. It's like, Look, I got in front of you. I was persistent. And people have this false notion of venture being like Shark Tank where you're just sitting there and people come in and all the great ideas are like coming to your front door. And that's just not how it happened. So on really great deals, you have to like find your way in getting an allocation, whether it's using a VC contact to get you into the syndicate or reaching out cold to the founder because you know they're about to race and you heard that through someone else. So that level of that's almost part of the interview process, because if you're hiring, you're like, OK, this person gets it. I think like you could took
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:27] Six weeks even surprised me. It sounds like a little. That's pretty frequent. I mean, how how long did you have before you were done with your second year? And do you know, like, Hey, I want to be out five years to the first?
Solomon: [00:34:37] I connected officially in January. My second year program was ending in June.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:43] Oh, so only six months before you're.
Solomon: [00:34:45] Yeah, yeah. So I like I was. I got to the point where I was comfortable. Like, if I didn't have anything lined up, it was fine. I knew I could get a job like I would. I would be able to get a job and pay my bills, but I didn't want to just take a job just because out of the fear of it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:35:04] Why did you say you can get any? You could get a job. Could you have stayed right?
Solomon: [00:35:09] Yeah, I could have. But knowing myself, I was like, This is how you kind of fall into the slippery slope of not like, do it like you're making decisions out of fear as opposed to like, I'm genuinely interested and I'm confident that like if I if I'm persistent enough, this will work. And to some extent, that is kind of what venture is right. It's like placing a bet, being contrarian and being like, I think this will work and kind of running with it. So anyway, I didn't have to figure all that out because it worked out really well and began like a formal interview process in like late February, March, where they were like, Oh, we're looking to bring someone on. It involves, like, probably like five interviews in a case study. I pitched a like e-sports company called Gen Z, which to me just raised a Series C, actually. It's like and my logic there was actually, I know, like, everyone's going to pitch. Something, something that's always in the media, and five years ago, EA Sports wasn't a popular thing yet, and I played a lot of halo growing up. Perfect. Oh, this is totally a great idea. Like, I think it makes sense. And the partner didn't really believe it, but he liked that. Like, I went deep on a space that he didn't think about. I showed that like, the underlying numbers are really strong in terms of engagement with the average like kind of user looks like. And I think that's what really got me the job in addition to like answering a lot of like behavioral questions.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:43] What made you think? What made you think of doing that EA Sports thing? I know you said you played Halo, but was there some other? Was there some thinking like, I got to come at this at a slightly different angle? Was there in your thought process? And then why that company, like how did you even source that idea?
Solomon: [00:36:56] Yeah. So from a sector perspective, I definitely read an article about EA Sports
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:04] And you thought, Hmm, that's a one off, and you said, Oh,
Solomon: [00:37:07] That's interesting. Most people kind of glance by it because it was like, Oh, sure, people playing video games, that's not real
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:13] And just pay to watch other people play.
Solomon: [00:37:15] If you if you look at like Twitch figures, the average sessions like 90 minutes, like people are on it for a while. So. So I like looked up all those numbers and I was like, Oh, this is really interesting. And I wanted to have an infrastructure style bet because like, I knew that although I liked it, like pitching it to an investor, you don't want to go like application layer where it's like so focused that you're like, This is the one thing that's going to really work
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:44] Like a specific league or specific or specific
Solomon: [00:37:47] Goal. Yeah, a specific game or publisher where you're like, this is also keep in mind, these are startups. At the time, this was a serious seed company. So like, it'd be like a very narrow bet of being like, this is the greatest thing ever in my logic was this is already niche. I think, like no one's really going to be talking about this space and it might you might as well kind of go infrastructure approach where their business was basically enhancing the audience experience. So. If you think about how streaming works now, it's very like two dimensional, where the the screen you're watching is just a mirror of the person playing and there's no like dynamic viewing or anything like that in which it did or does is bad allows you like they kind of paired with the publisher so that you had the ability to control camera angles, follow a specific player so like enhance like it's kind of like theater mode and how Halo or all these games now where you're kind of like, Oh, like I can like, look at this specific part of the map, and it was kind of geared to the more. High frequency user, not necessarily fully competitive. But anyway, I was like, Oh, this is interesting, or you should totally look at it. Didn't really believe in e-sports, but like the fact that I had like logic behind my like my investment thesis was grounded. It was like, if you
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:39:11] Believe it, but they push you, did they push you on like the financials? How is this ever going to make money?
Solomon: [00:39:16] Not, not really. I mean, is this seed stage company and like kind of like they're basically like making money off. The publishers and publishers want this because they'll see more streaming and they'll kind of improve their their their reach. But it wasn't too hard on that. It was more so like, I mean, at the seed stage, part of it is also like. How big is this market today?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:39:41] Did they do a lot of seed or they were they interested in C? Yeah. So is the right? It was the right stage, OK?
Solomon: [00:39:46] Yeah. And the market was big and they understood that. And kind of there was a clear path to how they could be profitable. But unlike a private equity interview, no one's going to be asking you super hard technical questions. It's more like, do you understand, do you have a really good thesis about how customer preferences are changing? And this
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:05] Is specific to make you build an LBO they didn't make, you
Solomon: [00:40:07] Know, just it would have been funny, right? Like, you're like, Yeah, I made up all these figures. So yeah, it was an interesting it wasn't.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:15] The company is now doing a Series C or they just did a Series C. Yeah, so they're doing well.
Solomon: [00:40:22] I mean, they're growing, I haven't looked at the revenue figures now. Now they should make a lot more money, but that's interesting.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:29] I think Gary B. didn't have an investment in like one of these like Minnesota, EA Sports or something like.
Solomon: [00:40:35] Yeah, I mean, it's it's pretty big topic now in terms of either owning sports teams or
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:43] How much are this franchise is worth right now? Do you know? Oh, I know I know it's in the billions of dollars for the big franchises for like NFL franchises and yeah, is it like a couple of million dollars for those?
Solomon: [00:40:56] No, I actually think someone bought a team for like close to one hundred. So like, it's not nothing. I would probably say some of these teams are valid more than like. Some like WNBA or like teams that are smaller
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:41:10] And smaller markets, yeah, a little tangent there. I just find I think it's pretty interesting. Ok, so you're you're kind of making you're you're doing this interview process. You have the several round five very unstructured. Did they were they giving you kind of indications that you were doing well or were they did they kind of did it take like three months or what was the deal?
Solomon: [00:41:33] Yeah, it probably took about three months, maybe a little over. I mean, I got the offer in mid-May. So like, we're talking, you had no time. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:41:41] So what was going through your head? Like, what if I was
Solomon: [00:41:43] Getting nervous where I was like I was? I was looking at startups where I knew like I would just come in either as a growth person or someone who was just doing more Biz Dev. And I was like, That could be like something I do that like kind of will give me some experience and hopefully we'll be able to pivot over. So I had some other leads that were like,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:03] Tell me about how you looked at those and y growth and Y and what types of startups at what stage you were looking at to kind of hold you over to potential. Was the pay like 80k base and just basically like minimal bonuses options?
Solomon: [00:42:17] Yeah. I ended up getting one offer. It was I mean, he was actually pretty good for a startup. It was one twenty five based. Wow. Like, no real, no real bonus. And I was I was coming in mainly on the I work under the CFO, so it would be a very finance oriented role which made sense. Everything else was kind of all over, I would say, like. Yeah, you're probably looking at eighty five to one hundred being like kind of an average salary. But the reason I ended up, well, I got the offer. But like and chances are, if I didn't get the offer, I probably would have just accepted that job just because I didn't want to. Knowing me, I say I would have been OK with the risk, but I probably wouldn't know, like
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:00] Not having a gig and just thinking,
Solomon: 00:43:02] Yeah, because I think it was it would have been enough of a bridge where I like kind of am transitioning into a different ecosystem, and then I could continue looking at opportunities and stuff like that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:16] Got it, so you're coming up in your second year. You did, did they know you were leaving? Did you tell them what was?
Solomon: [00:43:21] Yeah, yeah. So I told them, you know, I got a job at this fund. And it's funny. No one really. No, I don't think anyone in the firm or not the firm, at least that group went the venture route, I think it was always like, I'm going to go to a hedge fund or P. Actually, some people went corp dev at like Fortune one hundred companies, but they're like, Oh, and venture is really interesting because especially now there's there are a ton of seed funds, a lot of money out there, and you generally don't know about a lot of these, especially if you're coming in from a a investment like from an investment banking perspective. Sorry, I got distracted. So they were like, Oh, I've never heard of it. Like, What are they in? And you know, at the time, like, it was still a new fund, so there weren't any like marquee names. And this this is actually my advice to a lot of people where if you're thinking about joining a firm that doesn't have like, don't be so worried about name recognition, especially if you're coming from banking or like, let's just talk about just my experience that I think it was checked enough boxes where this person smart, this person works hard, they can get a good job. But I do feel like herd mentality is so strong that often you go take a job just because you feel like socially it'll be better acknowledged than something different. And I can tell you now that I've going to the shop that wasn't a billion in a room or whatever. I know, like 10 times more about venture, both both from a legal term sheet understanding just because you're solely working with a managing partner that is like, Hey, you need to do this versus a distributed team that's like four layers where you're only really making landscape pages and then you have a
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:17] Huge legal team taking
Solomon: [00:45:18] Care of. It's it's you're drinking from a firehose. But if your end goal is like, I want to raise my own fund like. Ultimately, like it's either you're going to learn that really early by taking a risk on a firm that's new or you just have to kind of go through the the longer path of being at like an established manager and until like, you're like a junior partner, you're not really going to be looking at the LPA or like what fans are. A lot of the other stuff that like, I
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:50] Care about what's LPA and what's that?
Solomon: [00:45:53] It's a limited partnership agreement. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And MFN is most favored nation. So when you're raising a new fund like you're kind of working with your anchor investor, and I do think my experience was probably like a little closer to the fire than most people, where even if they are at a new fund.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:46:12] Were you the only associate brought on and there's two? Yeah.
Solomon: [00:46:15] So yeah, so it was it was. It was one of those things where the partner was just like, Hey, like, you know, you're smart, you can hold your own in a room. I need you to come with me to this LP meeting, and I was like, Oh, and LP stands for a limited partner, so it's one of our investors. And on my own really well, and he's like, Oh great, you should actually be more involved with this. I can use some help. And that escalate, and that was about four months into the job and helps raise our second fund got like super involved in that. And I think like opportunities like that are only available if you take the risk of obviously going to a smaller but higher growth place. It's exactly like you would with venture like it's funny that someone whose job is to like, find diamonds in the rough or, like, you know, take really high conviction. Bets only wants to go to the blue chip name. It doesn't, doesn't really tie, doesn't jive.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:47:11] So the startup, it's not a startup venture. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's cool. So it sounds like you've got a really great experience and you were promoted pretty fast, actually. Tell me a little bit about. Sorry, go ahead.
Solomon: [00:47:24] Yeah, that was solely because of how close I was to all of this. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:47:30] Tell me a little bit about like what your day to day is like. So is it like how much are you on calls with founders sourcing versus actually trying to close deals, dealing with lawyer agreements?
Solomon: [00:47:43] I would say probably split like a third sourcing, taking the first meeting and bubbling up what's interesting, a third diligence and putting together the investment memo. It was interesting at the early stage side, most people, their investment memos are in word and it's more of a narrative versus like a pitch which took some adjusting but actually like it more because kind of tell a story like it kind of ties a lot. It's just a little cleaner. And the last third is like the infamous other bucket, which includes, like some fundraising stops, like random operational thing because it's a lean team and like, make sure there's capital call goes out, work with our third party administrator, stuff like that. And those are like kind of the three streams. And some days it's all sourcing. It's all diligence, or it's all kind of like fundraising other. But that's how in the long run, you're probably like, breakout.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:48:44] Got it. And so what about like workflow and like hours and stuff like that? I assume that it was
Solomon: [00:48:50] Like, it's good, like compared to banking, like it's
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:48:54] Like you work a 70 hour week and you're like, Oh, that was a hard week. No.
Solomon: [00:48:57] If anything, I probably should have like adjusted to the new norm faster and not been like, Oh, wow, this is so great. Like, I'm not working 90 hours a week and you get into office at nine. Believe it, five or six. Like no one's like there's no real face time. And B.S. is a kind of people oriented business. So like oftentimes you're not in the office because you're meeting someone at their office or grabbing coffee or whatever. And it was just really refreshing to have that kind of autonomy where people trusted that you do work and there was no need to be glued by by your desk. So like Steve, it's a big perk,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:49:37] So people want to follow in your footsteps. Any advice besides like just starting out working early within the venture? Yeah. If you're going to
Solomon: [00:49:43] Make the same start, start early in terms I wish I knew of a little like a lot of the resources that are available. So like John Gannon is a guy that posts a lot of venture jobs around the country. I was just like, subscribe and check it frequently and keep applying because it's just a slower process. It's not like I want a job. I'm going to get one in like a few months. It could happen that way.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:50:08] It could take even even check. So we do occasionally have a venture gig come up to work in our job stuff.
Solomon: [00:50:14] So yeah, and I think a bigger part is just like begin cultivating the relationships that you already have, whether it's through work or people that were previously at your firm. And just kind of build that out a little more, because ultimately, you hear the most, the most interesting jobs come through the grapevine and not necessarily like a formal post. I do think VCs are being more transparent now, but still they have their own pipeline of people that are looking at closely because they, you know, I've told them, you should totally
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:50:51] Like referrals and stuff. Yeah, watch
Solomon: [00:50:53] It. Like, Bob's looking for something new, like he's great and it's just how it works, where he'll get an interview and look be looked upon really favorably. And like, if you just apply code like you got to work harder, you got to have some kind of some kind of end. And there aren't that many jobs, so it makes it a little that adds to it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:51:10] Any advice around the specifics? You mentioned a case earlier, any specific advice and you said kind of don't make it so mainstream. Yeah, it's good advice, but any any other advice around specifically how to structure it, how to make it look like an interesting idea. Like, did you drive all the way into the unit economics? All that good stuff?
Solomon: [00:51:27] Yeah, I would say if it is that kind of a series A or B like that is definitely something you should look at. But like, I didn't do it this way. But looking back, like if I did it as a narrative, it probably would've been better. Just because this early on, there aren't enough data points to make like a great presentation. It just comes up a little choppy versus like if you just did a two page memo on like, this is why this is a good investment. And the other part I did not do was kind of the financial side of it, which was kind of like underwriting it to the deal. And if it's looking at like a Series C company, just like do the simple math of like, yeah, you're getting 20 percent ownership here. Like for this to return the fund, it only needs to get acquired at like five hundred million dollars. And we've seen a lot of exits in this space for kind of this amount. And I think that that really ties a bow around it. And I think a lot of people don't do that piece, which shows that like you're an investor and not just like, Oh, I think this idea is cool.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:52:30] Got it. Yeah, almost like, where is the exit here?
Solomon: [00:52:32] Yeah. And I think at the seed stage, you kind of have to just tie it to market size and like what you've seen, there's no like financial math you can do to be like, this is how much it's worth.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:52:44] Fair. Ok? Anything else before we call it? It's been great. Anything else you'd like to share with younger listeners before before the pot ends like advice or they looking back on your path?
Solomon: [00:52:54] Well, yeah. Yeah, looking back, just step a little step further back and don't be so worried about like kind of that whole name brand thing. I honestly, especially if you kind of look at all the firms you do want to work at. Chances are like you need to be somewhat contrarian and have that kind of bullish attitude and kind of your ability to drive value and not necessarily look for the validation of just the logo of like, I think these are all great places like you should go work at a really big, successful pipeline. But ultimately, I think like the real success of money comes in from taking the bet no one wanted to take it and making it work. And I think, like most people realize that I would say, like later in their twenties when they enter their thirties and are like, I'm going to spin off.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:53:43] A hundred percent agree with you, man. I mean, look what I did. Like, I had a pig. I had to go back to pee, probably after Wharton. But I already had this little thing growing with Oasis, and it's like, why wouldn't I just focus on? It's like upsides uncapped. And I don't have to do all the politics. I'm free, I can travel
Solomon: [00:54:01] And you're and you're like, Just ask yourself, like, what I'm doing is, I'm just kind of betting on myself and knowing that, like, these are the three things I want to get out of it. If I can do that, that's great. And if not, I know I'm like, I have the skill set, and I've built the experience so far to really like Reset, whether that's business school, go back to the banking. And I just think people don't do that early enough. Like, I think like after doing
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:54:24] That, the bankers man,
Solomon: [00:54:26] I think it's because you're you're kind of like groomed in this like herd mentality, high pressure cooker environment where you feel like you've always been competing with these peers and everyone's been fixated on the same goal and you just get tunnel vision and you lose out on like, well, like look at what you could be doing.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:54:44] I see that I've been seeing a lot more, though, of kids who've gone to banking. They've done the PE at the megaphone, but then they're like, That's enough. Like, they go, try to do a search fund. I've been seeing a ton of search fund search on this. I'm running a search fund. How much of that do you think is like because they just didn't want to do the megaphone anymore and they actually are looking, they want to be more entrepreneurial versus like. They were pushed out and they didn't want to go to business school like I often I'm thinking to myself, I'm like,
Solomon: [00:55:10] I think the harsh reality is a lot of the people I knew that did kind of two years making two years megaphones like coming back to the microphone is also hard. Like there is like, you know, capital scales really well and they don't need to hire a bunch of people just because they're raising another $20 billion. And also, like once you're senior. Like, as long as things don't blow up, that's like a cushy job. You can kind of like sail off and know,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:55:41] Are they going to bring out a ton more partners? Yeah.
Solomon: [00:55:44] And that's why, like you see a lot of spin outs like I made your your principal at like Apollo or whatever. You're not really getting you don't see the next five years. You're getting to that stage and you're like, Well, I'm going to just go do a search fund or I'm going to like, take one of my colleagues and try to do my own thing. And a lot of successful funds have been created that way. But again, it's kind of you betting on yourself and not necessarily removing yourself from the rat race more or less.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:56:14] I think that's hard. It's especially hard if you wait super long, I think you think you're thinking about it the right way, taking the big swings early. Yeah, because if you fall down, you don't have a family or they say, I don't think you do. Exactly. Yeah.
Solomon: [00:56:26] Yeah. Now it's like, Oh, I failed. And thankfully, like, I didn't have any debt after graduating under undergrad. So like you really like, don't have that much. You don't have many excuses. And the longer you wait, you're like, Oh, one day I'll do this. And it's like, Yeah, you know,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:56:42] I think it's good. I think the banking also the banking, I call it the banking bootcamp. The two years is good for you. I think because it kind of resets your perspective on what hard work is to. And so then like like if you want
Solomon: [00:56:54] Something like professionalism, I do think like no one, no one thinks about that where it's like you just know how to conduct yourself in an office and in a meeting. Granted, like banking doesn't do a good job of like getting junior people engaged, and that's part of the issue of the hierarchy. But at the same time, like, you know, how to read a room, you know, like what's going on, you know, the numbers, and I think people don't give that enough enough credit.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:57:18] Yeah, I mean, I know, you know, based on like the searches we run, there's everyone wants that experience analyst that like one year and like that isn't super expensive yet, but has like the chops they can exact for the modeling and all that.
Solomon: [00:57:33] That's very coachable. It's like, OK, I have like something I can work with.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:57:36] Yeah, it's interesting. But yeah, so kudos to you for for not chasing the brand and the prestige and the and going for swinging. If it sounds like you've had it, awesome experience and I got a ton of exposure early to doing everything.
Solomon: [00:57:50] Yeah, yeah. No, it's been, you know, I will say hindsight's twenty twenty in the moment at some point and I was like, Wow, like, I didn't really think I was going to be doing all this. Like, I kind of want to just focus on deals. And now I'm like, Oh, wow, that was great. I'm really happy that I kind of worked out.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:58:06] So are you able to share anything on pay at all just ranges? Like, is it obviously a pay cut? I assume from
Solomon: [00:58:13] Yeah, I would say, like venture expected, pay cut. Unless you're at like a really big fund that's doing more growth oriented stuff
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:58:20] Like that, like in any way might be a pay increase, but any sort of it
Solomon: [00:58:25] Depends what bank I would say, probably flat like at best. If you're at like a top paying bank, OK, but the value of venture is more the network and access to all the people, and you should be able to monetize on that like the two years of mis pay. I don't think are worth like, you know, I'm very close with the CEOs in our portfolio. I know like other investors and like, you've got you kind of get what you put in, but you can get a lot because like shops are lean, you're working closely on deals. And if you're at it like a bank, like you don't really have any relationships in venture like you actually can cultivate meaningful relationships.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:59:06] Yeah, I think that's there's something to be said for that. But tell me a little bit about what your thought process is in terms of now that we're on this topic and you talked about like what you can get in and taking the lower pay going to the smaller place. Tell me what your thought process is in terms of there being so much money chasing like on the seed in the series a do you feel like does that scare you? Like, our valuation is so crazy and people are just getting money thrown at them or now with COVID, it's just more interesting.
Solomon: [00:59:30] Yeah, now it's more interesting. I'd say. See, valuations have come down a lot, obviously. And like, it's interesting that the really good companies are getting funded and they're not like, it's like, we know this is a good company. We just need ownership. And it's these horizontal venture strategies are the ones that are really interesting now. And by that, I mean, you have like a lightspeed that has an early stage fund or growth fund and opportunities fund. So like their goal to make money is like I want to put in like 40 million dollars when this thing is like at the series. What is like a one million dollar check, it's nothing to me, it's optionality. But now I have like an inside track on this company and you get into this like interesting a U-M game of like, I just need to keep growing this fund. And if you're a senior partner like you make a lot on fees. So.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:00:24] So yeah, it's what you're saying. Do you think the horizontal strategy of like the places that are just doing seeds are a little bit of a disadvantage because you're not able to do the huge follow ons? Potentially. Yeah, I think I think
Solomon: [01:00:35] I think some founders will understand that and they understand it's an optionality check. And I think what I tell founders is like when you're thinking about round composition, like just ask yourself, how much skin do they have in the game and how important are you to them? And that's generally aligned with, like how much they value you. Obviously, like a check from Lightspeed or NEA is great. They've really deep pockets. They can backstop you. But at the same time, it's not like you're going to get a general partner working hand in hand with you until you kind of reach scale. And they're like, Oh, now you have my interest versus like, if you're leaner, if you're choosing kind of like a newer fund that is like one hundred million dollars and they're putting three million dollars.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:01:17] How does venture think about companies that get the seed like, let's say, it was a Wall Street if I had if I had taken venture funding earlier, let's say for whatever reason, because I sold some sort of dream of, Hey, we're going to explode this, but we didn't, and it grew. You know, let's say five years down the road, it's doubled in size. What do they call it? Like the sleeping, whatever, like the shadow? It's definitely not a home run. It's in that middle range. It's not a loss.
Solomon: [01:01:44] What where you're just kind of making money. But there's no immediate. It's just called a lifestyle business. And at that point, ventures venture like as a
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:01:54] Fund, you don't. They want out, though eventually. Yeah, what
Solomon: [01:01:57] Happens is like they'll try to get something on the secondary. Or if you're if you're a cheeky founder, you'll be like, I'll buy you out for like 20 cents on the dollar and they need to return that capital. So if it's not a liquid name, you basically buy your company for really cheap.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:02:12] Well, maybe they should do that.
Solomon: [01:02:14] Yeah, but yeah, it is interesting. I think founders need to.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:02:19] As I've always thought, I've always thought to myself, there is an opportunity for some tuck ins, but it's it's too small for most places to care,
Solomon: [01:02:26] Like if you have a nice business and like it, if you're not interested in growing at a really rapid clip and selling like, yeah, you're just going to lead into a contentious relationship because like the venture business is, I'm raising capital for MLPs. I have a ten year fund life. I have maybe a two year extension on that. Like, let's go. Yeah, it's like, I need. I'm here to make money so I can, like, raise my next fund. And there are challenges in the business where it's like, you know, if you're seven, I need to return capital.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:02:58] Maybe seen some venture structure. Maybe they don't call themselves venture funds, but like it's more of a lifestyle type thing where they're looking to acquire for like a 15 20 year. It's like a family office and they're looking just for a cash flow business. Yeah, I
Solomon: [01:03:10] Think we're definitely seeing the rise of like investment company holding company style where it's like, Yeah, and I think that kind of ties into like the search fund idea where people are like, there are a lot of holes here where it's too small for a big, not a big, but a middle market shop venture is not interested, but like you know, a lot of family offices, I think are kind of playing around that space.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:03:33] Yeah, it's interesting. You can get a 20 30 percent return on your money. It's not bad. Yeah, yeah. Anyways. Great. Well, Solomon, any other any other words of wisdom? Sorry, kind of like kept you on for longer, I thought. No.
Solomon: [01:03:46] Yeah, no. I really enjoyed the conversation. But yeah, that's I mean, that's kind of my high level.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:03:53] It's really got into your wisdom to young Jeff.
Solomon: [01:03:57] Yeah. Yeah, don't don't start early. I'll just start early.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:04:04] Very good. Right. Well, thanks so much for taking the time and really appreciate it.
Solomon: [01:04:07] Yeah, thank you. Cheers. Have a good night.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [01:04:09] 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 dot com. And till next time.
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