The Wall Street Skinny

Send us Fan Mail Back by popular demand!!  We continue a listener favorite: the finance of "Succession", the hit HBO series. We explore the hot topics of private equity, venture capital, mergers & acquisitions, hostile LBOs, and MORE through the lens of one of our all-time favorite shows.   Even if you watched the show and loved it, you might not have understood all of the finer points!  We are he...

Send us Fan Mail What is Project Finance?  In this episode, we are joined again by Rahul Culas, Julie Kim, and David Albert to get into the basics of this sector of Investment Banking.  We explain what project finance is and why it's used, how it differs from the types of financing that traditional companies do, who uses project financing, who invests in project financing and more. We explore what...

Send us Fan Mail Today as a followup to last week's episode where we sat down with two doctors, we are chatting with two investors in the Healthcare Private Equity space, not only talking about that segment of the investment community but also answering the mountain of questions we’ve gotten from listeners who ARE doctors and want to pivot into the world of finance but don’t know how.  Rahul Culas...

Send us Fan Mail Many ambitious young people (Kristen included) consider pursuing a number of prestigious careers outside the financial services industry, and medicine often tops the list.  Today we are joined by two incredibly accomplished doctors --- Dr. Bella Avanessian,  a board certified plastic surgeon with a focus on gender affirmation, and Dr. Nisha Narayanan, a pediatric ER doctor, double...

Send us Fan Mail Let's talk about MONEY.  Maybe you're hoping to land a high paying job on Wall Street . Maybe you're hoping to maximize your earnings potential in your current job.  Or maybe you know people who work on Wall Street and are curious to understand why their pay structure is so different from most other jobs.  Whatever your perspective may be, THIS episode is the first open, honest, t...

Send us Fan Mail Today we take a deep dive into Private Equity  --- specifically, Lower Middle Market PE.  We sit down with experienced investor A.J. Tracey and discuss topics ranging from "what is the traditional path to PE?" to "what is a day in the life like?", and  "how important is the name of the college or firm you're coming from?".  We explore the differences between megafunds and MM/LMM P...

Send us Fan Mail Ever heard of a Private Equity "search fund" aka entrepreneurship through acquisition?  Well, we hadn't either... until this episode!  Search funds are a relatively little-known but incredibly exciting and highly profitable niche within the private equity  investment space. Our guest, Nate Wasson, co-founder of growth equity firm Hal-Bar Partners, joins us to explain how Search Fu...

Send us Fan Mail The news --- and the finmeme space --- has been abuzz with headlines talking about hedge fund returns (or lack thereof) in 2023.  In a year when the S&P500 was up nearly 25%, the NASDAQ up nearly 50%, and risk free fixed income investments yielded 5%, most hedge fund returns look disappointing by comparison AT A GLANCE.  But is there more to the story?  Comedian and brilliant fina...

Send us Fan Mail Whether you are looking to break into your first job, trying to move up through the ranks or pivot within your current firm, or you are looking to transition from one career to a completely new field, NETWORKING is the most important skill you need.  In fact, "networking" is the answer to so many questions we get asked, ranging from "how do I break into finance from a non-target s...

Send us Fan Mail Wrapping up our 3-part Caesars Palace Coup series by interviewing one of the authors, Financial Times writer Sujeet Indap.  Sujeet explains securitization, subordination, and distressed debt investing through the lens of Caesars’ LBO and subsequent restructurings.  We discuss the future of private credit, a segment of the industry currently getting a lot of attention.  Sujeet give...

Send us Fan Mail In Part II of this three-part case study of Sujeet Indap and Max Frumes' book Caesars Palace Coup, we pick up in 2008 after Apollo and TPG's $30bn Leveraged Buyout of Caesars closed.  With the economy immediately taking a nosedive, Apollo spearheaded a series of restructurings to stave off bankruptcy.  These restructurings ranged from more vanilla "distress-for-control" maneuvers...

Send us Fan Mail Private equity is one of the most coveted job opportunities on the buyside in the current market environment.  In this episode, we do a deep dive into a Leveraged Buyout (“LBO”) using one of the largest, craziest deals in history: the $30bn LBO of Caesars Palace by Apollo and TPG.  In part 1 of this 3-part series, we discuss the deal structure, explain the financing terms, and hel...

Send us Fan Mail Interest rates drive everything in the markets, and expectations of rate cuts or hikes by the Fed can move the markets and make or break fortunes.  But how do we know what 'the market' expects?  In today's skinny mini we break down the simple truth behind where numbers like 'the market expects there is a 72% chance of a rate cut' comes from and why the current situation is wildly...

Send us Fan Mail Part II of our conversation with Cameron Boland and Kate Kourlis from executive recruiting firm GoBuyside.  Our focus shifts to off-cycle recruiting for private equity firms and hedge funds.  We discuss strategies for navigating your search for your next career, identifying opportunities that set you up for success, do's and don'ts for negotiating the offer, and how recruiters are...

Send us Fan Mail Happy holidays from The Wall Street Skinny!  We are giving your brain a bit of a break this week.  We share some fun stories of holiday parties gone terribly awry, rules for navigating vacation and time off, and tips on how NOT to get fired right before bonuses are paid.  We discuss some shifts over the past decade and some prevailing attitudes toward work/life balance on Wall Str...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode we use WeWork as a case study to break down SPACs, for a deeper dive into the IPO process, the bankruptcy and we explore how the world's most sophisticated venture capital and private equity investors came up with a $47bn valuation for a company when the math didn't justify it at all….In order to keep it interesting we discuss the  beginning of the WeWork story...

Send us Fan Mail A job in Private Equity isn't the highest paying or even the hardest to get... it's actually a job at high frequency trading firms like Jane Street, highly secretive Wall Street firms you've never heard of.  So what actually takes place in those interviews and what do those traders even do? In Michael Lewis's new book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried ("SBF")...

Send us Fan Mail Ozempic and similar drugs are dominating the conversation about culture, health, and financial markets right now.  But what does it mean for Wall Street --- not just for investors, but also in terms of its impact on the social norms of the industry?  **TRIGGER WARNING:  This episode contains a discussion of eating disorders and disordered eating.**After all, the world of Wall Stre...

Send us Fan Mail Want to get an elite job on the buy side?  A recruiter --- otherwise known as a headhunter --- plays a significant role in the recruiting process for private equity recruiting.  In today's episode, we dive into  the private equity recruiting process with Kate Kourlis and Cameron Boland of GoBuyside.  We explain the role of recruiting firms, what to expect in the interview process,...

Send us Fan Mail Whether you are an investment banker working with the hottest new tech start up to take it public, working in private equity and 'exiting' an investment, OR you're considering a role in a startup with the goal of one day hitting it big, you must understand the critical function of IPOs in the lifecycle of a company.  In today's episode we use two companies that exemplify the class...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode we break down everything you've ever wanted to know about consulting ranging from a day in the life, how do projects get staffed, what to expect in the interview and more. We also have an honest discussion about business school, burnout and more with former McKinsey consultant and Harvard Business School alum, Jane Licurse.  Jane Licurse is an Executive Coach (f...

Send us Fan Mail Another listener favorite Q&A episode, where Kristen and Jen tackle real questions submitted by our listeners.  We use these questions as teaching tools to explain concepts far beyond the scope of any individual question, so be sure to stay tuned to learn valuable insight about the world of Wall Street.  Our questions in today's episode include:1.  How does changing the WACC (Weig...

Send us Fan Mail So you've finally landed your first job on Wall Street at an investment bank, consulting firm, hedge fund, private equity fund, asset manager, or venture capital fund....NOW WHAT?Navigating the ins and outs of housing, transportation, clothes, food, and entertainment your first year on the job --- especially in New York City, the world's most expensive place to live --- can be inc...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode we sit down with Camilo Acosta, founder & general partner of Perceptive Ventures, an early stage venture firm, and walk through everything you want to know about Venture Capital (“VC”). We cover differences between Angel Investing vs. VC, what a company needs for different series rounds (pre-seed, seed, series A, series B and beyond), how venture capital differs...

Send us Fan Mail What is a company "worth"?  We are tackling this question in a multi-part series, starting with valuation 101.  We walk through the three primary methods of valuation: the discounted cash flow model ("DCF"), public comparables, and precedent transaction/acquisition comparables analysis....and explore how they fit together on what's called a Football Field.  Also, we explore the me...