Newsletter – PC Edition

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

The Thelander surveys are constantly evolving to keep up with the ever-changing market. We are excited to announce that our total assets under management (AUM) filter has expanded to include the lower categories of: Less than $25 million, $25 – $49.9 million, $50 – $99.9 million, $100 – $249.9 million… all the way up to $7 billion +. August’s Thelander Digest takes some of this data for a spin, and examines how compensation for investment professionals looks under $100 million in total AUM. Let’s dig in! Chart 1 shows the median total cash for investment professionals from managing general partner to associate. It

Since Thelander surveys private companies and investment firms globally, we are frequently asked about regional compensation data within the United States and internationally. Per popular demand, July’s Thelander Digest compares how investment professionals are compensated in the United States vs. Europe. Europe data is reported in USD. Let’s take a look! In the first graph we examine the median total cash for investment professionals in the United States and Europe. The job positions range from managing general partner to associate. For this dataset, we looked at venture capital firms with less than $500 million in total AUM. The median total cash is higher for all investment professionals

In June’s Thelander Digest, we compare managing general partner compensation at venture capital firms to private equity firms. Let’s take a look at the data! About the data: Thelander Data Shows:  The second graph shows us a snapshot of the median, 75th, and maximum total cash and carried interest for managing general partners at venture capital and private equity firms. Thelander data shows that regardless of firm type, compensation is much higher. Here, we see it starting at $1,200,000. After examining the Thelander data above, our main takeaway was that the type of firm makes less of a difference in compensation than the total assets

In May’s Thelander Digest, we examine which factors make the biggest difference in investment firm compensation.  So, what filters really make a difference? The Thelander platform allows you to easily customize investment firm data by by four filters: total assets under management, size of most recent fund, type of firm, and region. Plus, the data is real-time and the tables are interactive.  In order to explain which filters truly make a difference in compensation, we break it down by examining the median total cash and carried interest for investment professional II – senior managing director / senior partner. The two charts below customize the

In April’s Thelander Digest, we examine what the compensation landscape looks like for CVC professionals.  Last month, J.Thelander Consulting hosted a webinar with DLA Piper and Bell Mason Group to give a full market update, and examine how CVC compensation trends have evolved in recent years. Jody Thelander, founder & CEO of the namesake firm, discussed exclusive insights, which you can watch here if you missed it.  Watch The Webinar Here Key takeaways from the webinar:  Watch the full webinar to get access to all the exclusive insights that were discussed. Have you participated in the Thelander Investment Firm-CVC Compensation Survey yet? There is no cost to

In March’s Thelander Digest, we examine how median total cash compensation varies across the US for managing general partners and senior associates. The data presented is collected from the Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Compensation Survey, which is now open-year round. There are two charts below: By examining the Thelander data above for managing general partners, we see that: Participate In The Investment Firm Compensation Surve By examining the Thelander data above for senior associates, we see that: After reviewing our data from the chart above, we found that total AUM makes the largest difference in compensation rather than region. You can accommodate for cost of living adjustments by using the percentiles on the compensation

In February’s Thelander Digest, we examine if equity / program distribution bonuses have grown in popularity.  Since carried interest can often take a long time to pay off, some firms choose to offer equity or program distribution bonuses. This allows firms to distribute earnings upon the success of a deal. When there’s a hit, a percentage is distributed to the team. Let’s take a look at Thelander data with the two charts below. The Thelander Digest is powered by real-time compensation data from the Thelander Investment Firm Compensation Survey. There is no cost to participate and all respondents will receive free access to a

In this month’s Thelander Digest, we examine different trends on how investment firms are retaining their talent for 2023. All of this data comes from our 2022 Year-End Salary Increase & Bonus Survey. Let’s dig in by exploring the numbers!As seen in our charts below, two trends become clear: By examining the final chart, we can see that merit and performance were the most common factors in determining a salary increase for investment professionals. Inflation played more of a factor for salary increases for entry-level analysts. After analyzing our data, we see some notable trends: Want to learn more? The full report is included in a subscription to the