Elevate with Sahil: Technology Private Equity Investor at Warburg Pincus, Consultant at BCG

On this episode, Kaushik is joined by Sahil, Technology Private Equity Investor at Warburg Pincus, one of the largest private equity funds in the world. Prior to Warburg, Sahil was a Management Consulting Analyst at Boston Consulting Group and graduated from University of California, Berkeley. 

1:15 - At Berkeley, was very confused about what he wanted to do with his career 

2:30 - Interned in Investment Banking, but chose Consulting over Banking full-time

3:20 - Working at BCG, the “happiest place to work in the world”; First project in Bangkok

4:25 - Investing was the ultimate career path he wanted to end up in; interviewed and got the PE offer with Warburg 

5:20 - Warburg’s technology investing business; wear the hat of VC investor, growth investor and late-stage investor 

6:00 - Sourcing: As an associate, responsible for building own book, meeting with CEOs and execs

6:55 - Transaction Execution: Traditional PE role

7:20 - Portfolio Company Management: Real operational experience

9:30 - Thinking like an investor and what he looks for as an investor: over-indexing on business quality, moats around business, stickiness, unit economics 

10:55 - Trends he’s following the most in technology as an investor

13:50 - Banking vs. Consulting route into Private Equity; What skills consulting taught him and what it didn’t

17:00 - What was his recruiting process like?

18:50 - What you would tell your college self? Take combination of more data classes and out of the box classes

21:30 - Working in Consulting as an Analyst; build a network of strong people who do cool things, diversity of experiences in consulting vs. more homogenous in banking, solving problems you don’t even know existed

25:20 - Caution people to steer clear of online forums (written by people who don’t really know) and rather listen to young professionals; Lots of noise in recruiting process find people who you can trust

27:00 - How to deal with competitive nature of recruiting, rejection and feeling inadequate at times: (1) Don’t think about where you are at 22, think about where you want to be at 30, 35, 40; (2) Define your own path and measure yourself on that path

30:00 - Defining success and impact over your career

32:50 - Rapid-fire questions:
Favorite things to read on a daily / weekly basis
1 year from now, market up 10% / flat / down 10% 
Books that have left an impression on you
What makes you more likely to respond to people’s emails 
Worst Interview Experience
Best Advice for the next generation

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