Newsletter – CVC Edition

As we transition into 2025, our focus this month is on the emerging compensation data for some of the most crucial support roles for your portfolio companies—platform roles. These roles act as a vital link between venture firms, their portfolio companies, and the broader private capital market ecosystem, ensuring that firms deliver value beyond just capital. The growing importance of these roles is evident in our platform, which now features seven new job titles across platform and portfolio operation roles. The Thelander Digest leverages data from the Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Compensation Survey. Unlike static reports that quickly become outdated, our results

This month, we delve into exclusive analysis from the recently published Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Salary Increase & Bonus Report. If you haven’t participated yet, you can still input your data here to secure your free participant report. In the meantime, we’ll explore which roles received the highest salary increases, how AUM influenced the actual percentage and the driving factors behind them. Chart 1 looks at the year-over-year percent of investment professional positions that received a salary increase. We see the following: A closer look at Investment Professionals 1 through 6—from Managing General Partner to Associate—reveals that professionals ranked 3 to 6 (Director/Principal, Senior Associate, and Associate) were more

While base salary is a fundamental compensation component, annual salary increases serve as a strategic tool aimed at achieving multiple objectives. They reward performance, address cost of living adjustments, and help retain key talent. Given the nuanced role of salary increases at investment firms, it’s essential to align them with market benchmarks and the strategic value of each role within the firm. In this issue, we delve into how compensation trends have evolved since 2020 for managing general partners at firms with either less than $1 billion or more than $1 billion in total AUM. The Thelander Platform allows you to customize compensation data tables

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

This month, we focus on the dynamics of investment firm carry dollars at work and how it shapes the compensation strategies across various investment firms. Understanding carry dollars at work—a crucial compensation lever—is essential for gauging potential returns on carried interest, which in turn helps with strategic planning and in attracting/retaining top talent. Carry dollars at work is defined as the potential carry in dollar amount an individual might receive if their funds achieve a 2x gross multiple. This measure gives a clear view of what might be earned from successful fund performance, making it a valuable metric for investment professionals. So

Welcome to the August edition of the Investment Firm Digest. Thelander is the only firm to cover compensation for the entire private capital market – from your firm to your portfolio companies. That is why we wanted to give you an exclusive preview of the findings from our Thelander Private Company M&A with Change of Control & Severance Survey to look at liquidation preferences and how to stay competitive with market.  Liquidation preferences are a critical component in venture capital deals, determining the payout order during an exit such as a sale or merger. These preferences ensure that investors receive their returns before common stockholders, which can

In this month’s edition, we delve into the regional differences in compensation for key roles within investment firms, focusing on Managing General Partners, Senior Director/Partners, and Senior Associates. Understanding these differences can help firms tailor their compensation and recruitment strategies and ensure they remain competitive in various markets. How does region impact compensation for each role? Let’s dive into the data! Chart 1 shows the total cash of managing director/partners at firms with an AUM of more than $500 million. We see the following insights: Managing Directors/Partners in California enjoy the highest median total cash compensation, while the highest 75th percentile is

This month, we are going to dig into the higher AUM classes and examine what the mix of cash and carry looks like once VC firms pass $1 Billion in total AUM. Similar to how private companies have been staying private longer, investment firms are raising larger funds – and it’s taking time. This could be attributed in part to the increased support firms are committed to provide their investments as they grow and mature over longer periods, with additional rounds of follow-on financing. VCs are also eager to diversify and are on the the hunt for new investment opportunities in

It is commencement season, which means many graduates will soon be in the market for jobs that will jumpstart their earnings and their career. (If this is you, check out Complander). Among hopeful jobseekers are those who wish to dip their toes in venture capital, an increasingly difficult industry to break into. With thousands of job openings in the US, the question remains – how much money can entry-level job seekers earn in venture capital and what negotiating power do they really have? According to data from the Thelander Investment Firm Compensation dataset:  The 75th %ile for total cash and carried

This month, we’re going to dig into compensation trends for the top investment positions at investment firms. Since 2021, the median cash compensation for VC investors has gone up across all positions at the highest levels, including managing general partner, sr. managing director / sr. partner and managing director / partner.  There’s a number of reasons that could be attributed:  We’re seeing the biggest jumps in compensation within the 75th %ile. These are people who, for a number of reasons (including experience and expertise) are paid higher for their skill sets and contributions. Again, because vesting periods are more commonly extending to 10

In honor of women’s history month, we dug into the investment firm dataset to analyze how representation of female VC investors has changed over the last four years and what progress has been made in closing the pay gap between men and women in venture.  Here’s what we found:  When looking at senior managing directors (IP 2), women earn 12% carried interest compared to 15% earned by their male peers at the median. For women, this represents a two-year decline in the percentage of carried interest allocated to them.  The median total cash compensation (base + bonus, or just base

This month we’ll be exploring different hiring trends at investment firms. We’ll take a look at where new hires come from, and how long one stays in a position before being promoted.  Chart 1 looks at where new hires to venture capital (VC) firms came from. We see the following trends: Chart 2 looks at the median number of years one stays in a position before being promoted by total AUM. We see the following trends: The Thelander Digest is powered by the Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Compensation Survey. We invite you to take less than 10 minutes to participate here and secure free access to a subset of compensation data. All data is published

Last month, we looked at a preview of salary increase data. This month, we give you an exclusive look at the bonus section, and examine how bonuses are looking for 2024. To review, a cash bonus is the preferred mechanism for rewarding individual performance, and is meant to be a short-term/annual incentive. With the current talent market being highly competitive for key skill sets and experience, as well as vesting times for carried interest increasing, bonuses can be a valuable financial tool. It’s important to determine the right mix of base pay, bonus, and additional incentives (both short and long-term) using Thelander real-time data.

Each year, we team up with PitchBook to run our annual Salary Increase & Bonus Survey. As it’s the holiday season, we wanted to provide our email subscribers with a treat for our December Thelander Digest. We’ve included an exclusive preview from the Salary Increase & Bonus Survey that examines how salary increase percentages are looking for 2024 from those that have responded to date. Take a look at our data below to find out! Once you know your salary increase percentages, we invite you to take less than 10 minutes to complete the survey and secure your free report which will have updated data and analysis. There is no cost to participate and all

For our November Digest, we’re looking at committed capital and if you have to commit capital for your carried interest. First, we need to define what this means. Committed capital is the percentage that the General Partners (GPs) contribute to the overall capital of the fund.  So, why is this important? It shows how much skin GPs have in the game by indicating the amount of cash compensation they are contributing into the fund(s). Let’s jump in using data from the Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Compensation Survey.  Chart 1 shows the percentage of the committed capital that the GPs have to contribute year-over-year (YoY). We see the following: Chart 2 shows the percentage of the committed

For our October Digest, we’re looking at gender compensation data for investment professionals. Today, we examine the gender pay gap for three positions: 1) Managing General Partner (Investment Professional I)2) Managing Director / Partner (Investment Professional III)3) Associate (Investment Professional VI)  To do this, we looked at median total cash and carried interest for males and females at venture firms with less than $250 Million in AUM, $250 – $999.99 Million in AUM, and over $1 Billion in AUM.  Thelander has been tracking gender and ethnicity at investment firms for over five years, and we’ve used this exclusive data in our analysis. Let’s jump in! Chart 1 shows

Welcome to September’s Thelander Digest! A few years ago, we added new questions to the Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Compensation Survey to collect data on carry dollars at work. Using this data, we’ll be looking at insights on carry dollars at work and how it has changed since 2021. What is carry dollars at work? It’s defined as the amount of carry you will receive if your funds achieve a 2x gross multiple funds. Below, you’ll find three charts that show how carry dollars at work have changed year-over-year for investment professionals by total AUM. Let’s dive into the data!  Chart 1 shows the median carry dollars at work for firms