Thoughts on joining a small firm vs. big firm in terms of learning? Having a hard time getting real traction at large cap funds and I have an attractive offer from an intriguing, but small firm in the LMM. Coming from Mck. Don’t intend to stay in PE forever but don’t want to cheapen my learning experience unnecessarily

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I’ve been a portco exec at both a LMM portco and at a MF portco. MF is more strategic in their involvement and portcos have strong management teams and processes. You might have an internal consulting team or value creation team working full time on the portco. You will look at larger, more complex transactions both platform and bolt on. Depending on the firm, the upper level seats may be full so upward momentum could be limited
At a LMM fund you are more hands on and the management teams are solid at the C level but thin and uneven below that. Also lots of process and automation not in place at the portco.
However, if the LMM is on the rise, raising another fund etc there may be more of a runway and you will learn a ton.

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Super helpful perspective. I’m honestly drawn to the work of LMM more than MF because it seems growthier and more like actual business building vs. cost-cutting. But I’m wary of hamstringing myself in some way unintentionally by going downmarket

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What makes the small lmm intriguing. Without understanding hard to say

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A couple things, but mainly 1) impressed with the founders backgrounds (MF + interesting operator experience), 2) young firm with room to grow (if i end up liking PE) and very fast fundraising (~3 successively larger funds in a few years), and 3) fairly unique strategy that feels much more growth-y than your typical buyout shop using heavy doses of leverage

What is the play here from a career perspective?

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I’m still figuring that one out ha - I think I’d like to be a growth/buyout investor in a specific space one day (climate tech) but I’m just struggling to break into that industry right now given the broader macro environment, I assume. So I figure - join a PE firm, learn how M&A works, learn more about how to grow businesses, build some more skillz, and figure it out later

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