In a Wall Street Jornal article today Secret Formula, Intelligence Tests Fuel Buyout Firm Miriam Gotfried and Laura Cooper detail some procedures behind Vista Equity Partners’s hiring and operating. VEP is a highly successful software buyout firm. (for a list of the biggest PE firms in the world, head over to PEI 300).
“Vista primarily hires job applicants who do well, often young people with modest credentials or experience. These are its “high performing entry-level” workers, or HPELs.”
If what is said holds true. this may be the one firm that doesn’t hire M7 (Magnificent Seven) graduates on autopilot and doesn’t grade people on their connections. The test is not just for new hires, but for employees of the acquired companies as well.
On the operations side, we are told they have an in-house ops shop (their own consulting business, VCG) which implements a set of standards of “110 directives known as Vista Best Practices.” My guess is the niche of software is predictable enough to scale.
Quote of the Day: “Man needs entertainment simply to hide his madness. If he was perfectly sane, he would not need entertainment. He could just sit and watch this bamboo grow. He does not really need entertainment.” -Sadhguru
While we don’t know what those precise practices are, when I have a software related question, it’s worth checking with Ben Murray. For example, he shows how to calculate the Saas Magic number, Bessemer CAC Ratio, and the CAC Payback period and what these numbers mean to your SaaS business in his blog post here.
Ok. If I was interviewing for something like that, what can I do to prepare ?
College was 15 years ago.
Thank you !
You know I'm writing a book -almost finished- and, at times, I went into it like an engineer. That means reverse engineering.
I would look at sure bets, then see if you can do the same with what they throw at you.
There's this book 101 Bets You'll always Win
There are many others on brainteasers and puzzles.