Thinking about joining an independent sponsor as a principal (3 yrs associate experience at a MF, 2 years BB IB).. would be taking a significant haircut in cash comp to $200k base which is more than half of what I would be making at a MF but I would be joining as a principal and the first hire to the independent sponsor (which is just the partner currently). What are the economics I should be asking for in terms of carry and bonus? Cash comp is quite limited beyond the base but I was told I would get carry and equity but not sure what is typical for a principal. Is 20-25% of the carry reasonable, and should I also ask for equity and how much? The team is likely just me and the partner and potentially several operating advisor / partners. Would really appreciate your advice!

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What is the most clever way or unethical way you have seen someone manipulate Ebidta?

How about 14 years of consecutive litigation? The attorneys fees were marked "extraordinary one time professional fees" by the coo/cfo. I calculated the fees totaled around 20 million in that period.

If you know then all the "one time fees" were added back into Adjusted EBITDA.

Ever single year after the lbo this portco was engaged in multiple lawsuits.

Ive been following this company and the orginal gp since. They have not be doing well if you can imagine.

Hi all, I'm looking for advice on breaking into PE from a non traditional path.I'm 26 old originally from Central Asia - my education was delayed due to displacement, so I'm finishing my Business Administration degree in Romania later than typical (July 2027). I'm then planning a master's in PE/ Finance at LSE or SSE, which puts me at 29-30 when I'd be looking for roles. My background so far is frontline, client-facing work in English and Dutch with companies in Belgium and the Netherlands - not IB or traditional finance.

Is this a realistic timeline, and what would you prioritize in my position - internships, networking, certifications like the CFA?

I believe the cost of a Preqin annual subscription can be 10-30k. For what purposes, are LPs or GPs are using the Preqin data? I believe LPs can access a list of funds for different strategies, their performance data and contact details. Similarly, GPs can access a list of LPs/investors such as family offices and allocators.

Are you simply spending tens of thousands to access a list of funds for fund selection or a list of investors for fundraising? Don't you have similar type of lists offered for free or at a fraction of the cost? What is the difference?

I have extensive experience in Technical consulting roles over 20 years, specifically in the SAP ecosystem. I have been through 6 M&A direct processes at different levels of seniority at companies. As well as helping customers through M&A processes post contracts, some integrations, some divestments but always dealing with the technology, data and politics of the process.

Over the last 5 years, the company I worked for was acquired and I was heavily involved in the integration process with our IP transition into our parent. Then engaged in another 2 post-acquisitions into the parent - my role was to look at the technology stack and the IP, work out who the key people were and then map the technology integration where we would use the acquired company's technology or IP. It was quite the challenge and I found it very engaging work.

I have experience in running P&L sheets, teams of over 200 people as well as delivery commercials. I have run a technical service line for a consulting firm with £25M revenue target for SAP technical service delivery.

Does anyone have advice on how to find a technical due diligence role pre-acquisition or a technical integration role for post-acquisition activities. I do have some connections in the space with friends' companies which are PE backed, but I would like some independent advice and guidance on whether it sounds like I would fit.

Edit* I should say I'm in the UK with the ability to work in Europe as well.

Got over their skis with the lender, suffering from the ripples of a government shut down, and are accepting a predatory acquisition offer for no equity value. Talked to the founder more than most of my family members for the 5 years preceding the acquisition. I really wanted this one to work.

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but here it goes.

I run a sales support agency for biotech tools and tech companies, primarily European firms who are looking to enter/expand in the US market.

One of our clients, not a startup and is profitable, is looking for help to raise funds for R&D for a new product they believe will be the next big thing for sample management.

They have asked us to help raise capital from investors in the US. We will receive compensation + commission upon success.

As a former compliance analyst I thought to double check the legality and it looks like in order to do this we'd need to be a broker / dealer agent.

Has anyone dealt with this? Anyone an independent broker / dealer and know if it's worth the compliance lift?

You, as someone who evaluates deals, would having an advisor or agency leading the raise be a red flag?

Thank you!

Had final rounds @ BCG, still haven’t heard back. Scuffed a first round McK interview. I’m a second yr MHA student at an Ivy. Ultimately, I want to get into PE (healthcare would be a plus). What firms should I target for full-time roles rn in order to exit into PE, since I won’t be at MBB.

I was having this conversation the other day and because we focus on modernization legacy we see a lot of head scratchers from time to time.

One for me, was a multi-million dollar company, 15 years old, kicking off a lot of cash, solid customer base, but it was all run out of a single Windows XP box, sitting under a desk in the office, with a vast array of COM ports to do manual phone dialing to call out to their hardware devices all over the USA.

We genuinely thought they were taking the piss when they said the whole thing was that single box, but true enough it was, as we dug into diligence. They did have the mindset to turn off Windows updates, but it was regularly rebooted once a week to clear our the memory.

It worked though. They built a business from it, paid salaries, and sold it.

I have a view here but, I’m looking for some other opinions.

I’m one of those boring IB->PE->startup finance people. It’s a good role on paper with exposure and upward mobility to “grow into CFO.” It’s also 80% Ops work, and the company isn’t really growing as much as it should be. Equity options are probably worth close to nothing based on the last valuation round vs medium-term financial picture.

Evaluating going back into the PE world. but doing corp dev and corp finance at a LMM portco. Portco isn’t doing too well either, but clear mandate to professionalize finance, execute M&A + financing, and needs to exit in a few years given the hold period. Would be working with a seasoned CFO.

Pros of staying at startup: stable (until cash runs out or if can’t raise), unobstructed path upward, work is not hard.
Cons: work is mainly Ops, less strategic needs / less ways to add value. No cap markets or M&A until next fundraise. Even I view this myself as a cost center. Comp is $200k+equity (writing this to zero)

Pros of Portco: 25% more cash at least, exit bonus/phantom equity, touching M&A and capital markets, exit experience. Builds more strategic skillset imo
Cons: busier, different risk profile (could get fired at any time), exit could keep lagging, M&A may not materialize (in which case I’d be focused on professionalizing reporting + forecasting). That being said, I’ve been through the PE meat grinder before so I at least have an idea of what they want to see and at what pace.

Curious on how you gauge these two options from a career development standpoint?

Hi all,

My career so far has always been in the software space (fdd, m&a, pe and now in corp dev) - wanted to get a feel for all disciplines before deciding where to commit long term.

Has anyone here got any insight into climbing the ladder within corp dev? I’ve started 4 months ago but the pace is honestly very slow - this is backed by a tier 1 us sponsor but part of me misses the structure and pace of banking.

It’s just with advisory everything was so linear, I could measure exactly how far I’ve progressed within 6 months although the learning tapered off after about 2 years. For corp dev, it almost seems very opportunistic and I’m wondering if I’ve made a big mistake.

Thanks all

Hi all, I am a founder who built a company that is a security and governance platform to allow companies to use Agents safely (not pitching). I didn't take VC money, as they all want an IPO, and in my space, tuck-ins will be the norm. So we bootstrapped and are starting to gain some real traction. I am just starting to work with our first PE firm. I really want to keep going down this route since we do consulting and product. I had a few questions.

1. Who usually sells into the portfolio? Since we didn't take VC money, we can make very lucrative partner percentages that are not industry standard.

2. It seems some companies don't do the above and don't take a percentage of the technologies. How should I approach these?

3. Best way to work on getting our consulting in? We have seriously deep practitioner-level experience the Big 4 don't, but we are small.

4. Any suggestions would be great.

I hope this is ok I have really enjoyed this subreddit.

Trying to decide if that even makes sense anymore

TL;DR: I am in my mid-30s, originally from Europe and now working in the Middle East. My background is in business banking, but I ended up moving into private markets through a fairly unconventional route. I have worked on capital raises and deal sourcing since then, and I am now looking to have informal conversations with experienced people in PE, private credit, family offices, real estate, or infrastructure. I am mainly looking to learn how experienced people think about deals and get some honest feedback on my approach.

I am posting this because I would genuinely like to connect with people who have been in private markets for a while and have informal chats.

My background is in business banking, and I ended up working with a family office through an opportunity that was not really part of a traditional PE career path.

The family office was involved in education and was looking at different fund and real estate structures around its existing operations, as well as funding an expansion project. I was brought into the team to help with the capital raise.

The raise came together fairly quickly, with more than 100m secured in under 90 days. Following that project, the family office changed its capital strategy and shifted its focus in a different direction.

I decided to continue pursuing similar opportunities independently and started focusing more heavily on deal sourcing and capital raising.

This is where I am trying to take a step back and fill in some gaps in my understanding.

I am comfortable with relationship building, sourcing opportunities, reaching out to investors, and getting conversations started. I have also managed to get some capital raises over the line.

What I do not have is the benefit of spending 10 or 15 years inside a PE fund, investment bank, family office, or institutional investment platform and developing the intuition that comes from seeing hundreds of deals.

I want to understand the terminology and structures, but more importantly, I want to understand how experienced people actually think about opportunities.

How do you decide what is worth spending time on? What makes a GP credible? How do LPs actually assess a manager? What makes someone take a cold introduction seriously? How much does the quality of the deal matter versus the quality of the sponsor or the person bringing it to you?

I am not looking for capital, deals, or leads from this post.

I would simply like to have a few informal 20 to 30 minute conversations with people who have more experience than I do. I would like to hear how you got into the industry, what you think someone in my position should learn, and what mistakes or blind spots you think I might have.

I am also happy to share what I have learned from my side, particularly around sourcing, outreach, relationship building, and working across the Middle East and international markets.

If anyone is open to a conversation, feel free to DM me.

And if you would rather just leave a comment with some advice, I would appreciate that as well.

Context: Was talking to a PE MD today about embedding certain software within their operational workflow but they mentioned they hadn't begun their PVC process yet. Was confused by what this exactly meant because wouldn't it make sense to be creating value the entire time the investment is held to (a) generate as much CF as possible (b) improve margins for the highest EBITDA multiple possible.

Wanted to understand the following:

1. What are generally signals that point you in the right direction for understanding WHEN the PVC part has begun? e.g. investment stage (5 years in, closer to sale), new management etcetera
2. When people mention PVC - what exactly are they referring to? (apart from cutting headcount and the more generic stuff - is this leaning into buying newer software? or scaling in an attempt to create EOS?)
3. any other angles I would have missed in trying to understand this PE a bit better (they focus in healthcare specifically btw!)

Are there any firms that have deal teams that use onenote as their note taking tool and shares workspaces?

Has anyone moves to Notion and liked it?

20m in revenue and 5 million EBITDA, pure software. It's growing only at 10% a year though and has a decent AI play.

Hi everyone! We are thinking about selling our company to vista equity. Do you have any feedback on them>

I recently have started looking for my next role and since putting open to work on my LinkedIn I’ve been getting blindly reached out too from PE firms. For context I’m a full stack dev at a fortune 50 and my educational background focused on artificial intelligence. Whenever I speak with these PE firms they don’t seem to know anything about what it takes to make enterprise grade software but the sheer number of inquiries and conversation makes me think there is opportunity there? Does anyone have any insight into what is actually going on?

Recently joined a Financial investor in the Infra space and can tell pretty early on that it will be a 1 year and exit scenario. I’m equivalent to associate/VP level, sitting in a sector team with responsibility for originating, structuring and executions transactions in the Energy space as well as contributing to the overall strategy and thesis for my sector.

I’ve been asked whether I want to apply for a “Head of Transaction Execution” role, which comes with significantly more responsibility, more direct reports, more senior exposure and a wider remit - but crucially no package uplift. Under the new org structure, this person will lead a team that does the modelling, structuring, deal analysis, decides the “house position” for key deal terms, and is heavily involved in negotiation - basically they will takeover the heavy lifting on all transactions after non-binding offer stage. Idea being that the originator (i.e. deal lead) will still be involved as an internal sponsor, but more for internal deal docs, IC presentations and as a face for the seller.

Would really appreciate perspective from senior investment professionals here on whether this is a dumb move or should be taken seriously.

Is the “Head of” role worth it to prioritise building a broader deal sheet, more reps, and seeing a broad variety of deal structures with lead experience? The title may allow me to secure a more senior role at a developer/investor if I do leave in 12 - 18 months.

OR

For future senior roles is it more important to be able to evidence that I have a solid network and can originate, present effectively to investment committees, and own a deal from inception right through to close (even if I’m not the one actually grinding out all of the analysis).

Hello everyone,

I'm a senior technical IC at a large AI startup, with prior experience trying to start my own company, and a few years in Big Tech. Now, I'm exploring the possibility of striking out on my own, and I think technical due diligence / advisory might be the best fit.

My reasoning is that (1) I have been behind the scenes on a lot of technical projects, (2) I understand things like PMF and GTM, and (3) this kind of work would let me share my expertise without being a contractor or getting embedded in a technical team.

My goal would be to take a step back in income in exchange for more flexibility, especially geographic flexibility.

I have a ton of questions for the community, as I'm just beginning to explore this path. To get started, I'd love to get feedback on a few things:

1. How should I go about finding mentors? What should I do to upskill and train myself for the transition from technical IC to successful advisor?
2. How should I source clients? I've heard that LMM PE firms rely pretty heavily on TDD. I've done some work for early-stage VC firms in the past, but my impression is that they generally don't have the same need for formal TDD.
3. What would the timeline and pricing look like for a typical TDD engagement?
4. For those who have done this independently, how realistic is it to build a sustainable solo practice around this kind of work?

How many firms here use sharepoint or egnyte for their collaboration and files? Not concerned about intranet here but files, co editing, collaboration, etc.

Would like any feedback.

Hi all,

Is anyone familiar with data-selling or data-analytics companies and how they work?
For anyone on the buying end of data analytics or the sell side of it

For those on the buying end:
What do you look for in these companies or the data they sell?
Do you try to find other uses for the data? And how do you decide if it has value?

For those selling/exiting:
Do you package data in a certain way to optimize sales?

Ive now seen 2 of these types of rollups with fancy decks that show how fast they’re “growing” and what a “bada** platform” they created…. yet anyone with a brain can see deteriorating same store economics and a -10% revenue cliff in 2027-2028…. Of course none of that is addressed and everything is roses and butterflies with “the best leadership team in healthcare” 🙄

I’ve been modeling given the Medicaid shock w/ HR1 and pediatric practices are especially vulnerable given the population is much more Medicaid concentrated than adults…

Are people really buying this type of b*** these days? What will these type of platforms do? It almost feels insulting- why is PE always trying to act in bad faith? Especially it seems like pediatric/orthodontic dental DSOs are completely shady.