Internship applications open earlier every year, but the real race doesn’t begin on Day 1 of the summer. By the time an intern walks into a floor at 1585 Broadway or 277 Park, they’ve already been filtered through multiple technical rounds, Superdays, and coffee chats. What comes next is the actual test—whether they can survive
Private equity used to approach software deals the same way it tackled industrials or retail: financial engineering, cost control, and EBITDA margin expansion. But that formula doesn’t hold when you’re buying a codebase instead of a factory. Over the last decade, a distinct breed of PE funds—focused exclusively on software—has rewritten the buyout playbook. And
For all the attention that bulge brackets get in front-page M&A headlines, many of the most strategic and nuanced deals—especially in healthcare services, industrial tech, or food distribution—never cross their desks. Instead, they’re led by middle market investment banks. These firms, often operating with fewer than 500 employees and managing deal sizes between $50 million
There was a moment—late 2020 into early 2021—when every other pitch deck seemed to feature a SPAC option. Private companies from vertical SaaS to flying cars suddenly had an IPO alternative that bypassed traditional scrutiny. But what started as a liquidity shortcut quickly turned into a cautionary tale. By mid-2022, most SPACs that had de-SPACed
Joint ventures have always been a tool of strategic necessity—used when the cost of going solo is too high, or when the learning curve is steep enough to threaten capital. But today’s JV activity isn’t just about market entry or resource pooling. It’s about building agile, cross-sector alliances that can move faster than full-scale M&A.
Private equity and venture teams love to talk about deal sourcing, value creation, and exit strategy. But ask anyone who’s managed diligence on a live deal, and they’ll tell you—what slows things down isn’t the model or the CIM. It’s the data room. Or more specifically, it’s a bloated, poorly structured VDR that creates friction
Private equity isn’t just about picking winners—it’s about managing capital when the path to liquidity is long, uncertain, or locked. Capital portfolio management used to be a back-office discipline, something GPs talked about in fundraising decks but rarely treated as a dynamic, front-line function. That’s changed. In an era defined by volatile interest rates, exit
Private equity’s power centers aren’t just measured in AUM anymore. The biggest private equity firms now operate more like strategic ecosystems than traditional funds. They raise capital faster, enter markets earlier, and monetize cycles more efficiently than anyone else in the industry. But scale alone doesn’t explain their dominance. It’s how they’ve institutionalized discipline, structured
Some LPs treat them as cousins. Others see them as competitors. But for investors who actually construct portfolios or deploy capital across both, private debt and private equity are distinctly different instruments, not just in risk and return, but in strategic function. And the real edge? It comes from understanding when each one works best,
New York City is the epicenter of private equity transactions, far surpassing its reputation as a financial hub. From towering headquarters in Midtown to deal teams buried in Flatiron co-working spaces, the city houses firms managing everything from multi-billion-dollar buyouts to niche, sector-focused carveouts. But while many markets have matured globally, NYC still commands something rare: simultaneous
There’s no shortage of investment books promising secret formulas, timeless wisdom, or Warren Buffett’s “next big idea.” But most of them fall short—either too dated to apply or too shallow to matter. For serious investors, the goal isn’t to collect mantras or repeat buzzwords. It’s to sharpen a worldview. And thebest investment books aren’t the ones
There’s a quiet tension in modern investing that doesn’t get discussed enough: everyone reads equity research, but few admit how much it shapes their own positioning. Portfolio managers posture independence, PE teams claim proprietary insight, and hedge funds say they’re “model first.” But open any investment memo or watch any real-time idea vetting, and one
Conglomerates used to be dismissed as bloated relics of corporate history. For years, the market penalized them with discounts, analysts saw them as black boxes, and activist investors lobbied to break them apart. But that’s only half the story. The truth is more layered. Some of the most sophisticated capital allocators of the last 50
Private equity professionals rarely get the luxury of working with textbook businesses. That’s especially true in niche industries, where standard comps don’t exist, market depth is thin, and even defining “EBITDA” can spark debate. From medtech contract manufacturers to specialty logistics or dental DSO platforms, valuation often requires more art than science. The further off
There’s a pattern investors have learned to recognize: when a corporate giant announces a spinoff, the market often responds with cautious optimism, followed by a sharp re-rating. And yet, many deal teams still treat divestitures like defensive maneuvers. That’s a strategic blind spot. Because in the right context, spinning off a business unit isn’t just cleanup.
Private equity has always had a knack for pattern recognition — identifying inefficiencies, scaling execution, and exiting before the music stops. But in fragmented markets, pattern recognition alone isn’t enough. These sectors are chaotic by design: low barriers to entry, limited brand equity, and operational sprawl. What gives a fund the edge isn’t spotting a
Private equity bets on strategy, sure — but it exits on execution. And that execution, more often than not, depends on the first five hires, especially the CEO. Miss that, and you burn time, capital, and conviction. Get it right, and value creation moves from theory to traction. That’s why PE firms have become some
Every deal team has a war story about diligence gone sideways. Sometimes it’s a missed earnout clause that tanks an exit. Sometimes it’s a codebase held together by interns and duct tape. Other times it’s more subtle: a go-to-market engine that looked efficient but buckled under scale. The common thread? These weren’t surface-level misses —
When people talk about private equity, they often fixate on the mechanics: leverage ratios, IRR targets, exit multiples. But ask seasoned operators or strategic buyers, and they’ll tell you something different — private equity doesn’t just invest in companies. It remakes industries. Over the past two decades, PE firms have moved from financial engineering into sector-wide
The idea that emerging markets offer untapped growth isn’t new. What’s more nuanced—and more valuable to unpack—is how equity finance actually functions across these economies when capital meets volatility, and when Western frameworks meet local friction. Investors often enter these markets armed with assumptions built from developed-world deal dynamics. But timelines are longer. Outcomes are
