Thelander IF Digest: October 2024

Global Insights into Investment Firm Compensation

Welcome to this month’s edition of the Investment Firm Digest. This edition offers an exclusive look at highlights from our recent PitchBook panel webinar, featuring key segments on compensation in Private Equity vs. Venture Capital, Carried Interest and Carry Dollars at Work, and Year-over-Year Compensation Trends.

Let’s dive into these focused discussions by exploring the following video clips to gain valuable insights into the evolving compensation landscape within investment firms.

Video 1 explores compensation in Private Equity vs. Venture Capital. We see the following:

Compensation in venture capital has significantly increased as firms have raised more capital.

The more robust management fees associated with larger AUMs enable the payment of higher salaries, sometimes aligning venture firm compensation more closely with that of private equity funds.

Video 2 explores Carried Interest and Carry Dollars at Work. We see the following:

Carry dollars at work effectively illustrates to junior team members their potential earnings if the fund achieves a 2x or 3x return. This is often a more attractive number than a small carried interest percentage. 

The LP/GP structure for carry in the US and UK is typically an 80/20 split of profits – 80% to the LPs and 20% to GPs. This is the industry standard, though the exact percentages may vary between 10% and 30% to the GPs.

Video 3 explores YoY compensation trends. We see the following:

Participate in the Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Compensation Survey to gain valuable compensation insights for your firm.
For firms with $500 – $999 Million in total AUM, recent data shows a slight increase in total cash (base pay and possibly bonus) since 2022 for Managing General Partners and Managing Directors/Partners, while compensation (base pay and possibly bonus) for Directors, Senior Associates, and Associates has remained steady.

The Bottom Line: 
The data is only as good as you know what to do it with it. By participating in the Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Compensation Survey, not only will you be able to access a free subset of compensation data for the next 12 months but you will also have access to previous webinar recordings and monthly newsletters. All data is published in aggregate only with NO individual names or firm names reported. Have questions? Schedule a demo to view what’s included in the free subscription. 

Access the compensation survey here