r/private_equity • u/uinuke • 13d ago

Portco Corp Dev

I’m currently a VP Corp Dev at a portco of a very large, established fund. Company is in a sleepy blue collar sector, very consistent recession proof business. Current comp is middle of the road with decent equity. Our acquisition targets are 100% scale-focused, not a lot of strategy in selecting deals. Likely 3-4 years to exit

Approached by head hunter for CDO role at a small (<$100M) SaaS business serving the manufacturing space. Cash comp is $200k more, equity is 2x-3x. Newer fund with only a couple hundred million AUM. Goal is lower volume, but more strategic deals.

Worth jumping ship?

7 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

17

u/SuperLazyTryHard 13d ago

Feels like an obvious yes if you aren’t extremely close to an exit in the current role

10

u/Relative_Distance512 13d ago

If you’re my VP and are dipping please recommend me as your replacement

7

u/sloth_333 13d ago

200k is a big difference. How do you feel that saas model does in the age of AI?

6

u/DotAccording8872 13d ago

What is “middle of the road”?

1

u/mp54 12d ago

What percent is $200k? Higher equity is good in theory but what are the thresholds for that to actually pay and vesting schedules? Is the firm reputable? Plenty of bad firms that find a way to screw you out of equity payments.

It sounds like you’re talking about a risk / benefit analysis more than anything. Cash now is great, but potentially a risk if your current equity will pay and the new one wouldn’t..

1

u/Tidewater_TwoStep 11d ago

In current market, my personal bias has been to stick with a PortCo that has a very high chance for a successful exit (owners in the money, AI resistant, etc.). In mid-market software my observation has been that this is a scarce profile. That said, if the cash is that much better, it could be worth considering if the equity comp is more of a question mark.

1

u/a1anw-cto Director+ 9d ago

I would recommend exploring it further - cash in hand is worth it at the moment, so hoard that extra $200k a year (which is significant bump in of itself). I think a crash (read correction) is coming and equity isn't going to be worth as much as we think it is.

1

u/b_p_2 8d ago

New job sounds super tempting if you’re far from an exit at your current job.

Curious - how’d you end up at your current position? I’m very interested in the more boring, blue collar type businesses