Triago - 28 year old CEO making bank

recently published piece here on Triago

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/28-old-dealmaker-jump-started-113000305.html


what does everybody think ? seems like he introduced primary directs and GP-led transactions to the firm here and managed to convince the Chair to do it even though rest of the committee turned it down initially. now the firm's revenues was $13mm 3 years ago and now expected to be $55mm this year with the direct business as a driving force. 

solid comp model here so he must be making bank as the CEO at age 28... - "Triago pays its 55 professionals a huge share of the fees on what they raise. Of the $55 million in revenues, overhead absorbs only $15 million, including salaries. The managers spilt $40 million among themselves and their aides, in deal bonuses as well as the profits shared among the whole team"

i didn't know what kind of start he had but seems like he came from a privileged background, had money, went to great private schools and his dad was connected in the industry... otherwise, no matter the hustling and making connections, it's going to be impossible for most people to achieve what he can do in couple decades... then again, maybe i'm just feeling a little jelly from the article.

 

 On his 10th appeal to a family office in Atlanta, a money manager screamed, ‘Stop calling, you mental midget!’” To which Swain riposted, “I am rather short.”

 

Anecdotes like this trip me up. The face value read is that this guy is a hustler and it worked out, so he is smart and the people who turned him down are dumb. But the reality is for every one of these, there’s 9 people who dialed everyone under the sun with a bad idea and roasted their own reputation in the marketplace. It’s tough to square that with wanting to take conviction in your own new ideas and force them down other people’s throats to achieve success. Most people probably thought he was annoying and maybe it would have been to his detriment and he could have just learned from others and done things the way they were. I guess that is, when it succeeds, what separates the men from the boys.

 

Following, what do you guys think about family offices these days

 
Most Helpful

I know this team extremely well and can shed some light on what this article is not telling you:

  1. When the CEO was an analyst he reported to the guy who is now currently his subordinate - pretty hilarious.
  1. Triago has a reputation for non-institutional grade deals. Most of their stuff are co-investments and capital raising for independent sponsors. I've never seen a quality GP do a GP-led via Triago. Every now and then you'll find some desperate group out there that uses them but they're definitely known as rough around the edges.
  1. Firm is owned by the guy that also owns Palico and the secondary fund manager Mantra. Mantra gets access to see all secondary buyers bids on various deals and gets a first look on everything. Not really an issue since Mantra's strategy is literally to pay the least amount of money for the worst quality assets and hope they don't depreciate too much - hence triago works well for them since it's just a funnel for low quality deal flow.
  1. The current CEO built up relationships with family offices and wealth channels as secondary buyers instead of pure play secondary funds. Most secondary funds wouldn't touch their flow so they had to go down market so solve their deals.
 

yeah agree with all of these points (respectfully, the article does actually your point #1 though directly (it says he recruited his former boss and his former boss' mentor haha). Pretty embarrassing for the former boss, like how do you report to a 27 year old? (the older guy seems to be listed as an advisor rather than active member so it's probably all pure upside for him with minimal work).

 

Nah, Pilson is full time and reports to Swain. Swain was an analyst for Pilson a few years ago. Lol super wmbarassing

 

I know this team extremely well and can shed some light on what this article is not telling you:

  1. When the CEO was an analyst he reported to the guy who is now currently his subordinate - pretty hilarious.
  1. Triago has a reputation for non-institutional grade deals. Most of their stuff are co-investments and capital raising for independent sponsors. I've never seen a quality GP do a GP-led via Triago. Every now and then you'll find some desperate group out there that uses them but they're definitely known as rough around the edges.
  1. Firm is owned by the guy that also owns Palico and the secondary fund manager Mantra. Mantra gets access to see all secondary buyers bids on various deals and gets a first look on everything. Not really an issue since Mantra's strategy is literally to pay the least amount of money for the worst quality assets and hope they don't depreciate too much - hence triago works well for them since it's just a funnel for low quality deal flow.
  1. The current CEO built up relationships with family offices and wealth channels as secondary buyers instead of pure play secondary funds. Most secondary funds wouldn't touch their flow so they had to go down market so solve their deals.

thanks for shedding light and sharing additional details. if you had to estimate, how much would he be making annually? decent 7 figures?

 

Everyone's gotta make money somehow I guess. Wouldn't be my chosen path given the types of transactions they do but hey, if he's successful and people keep coming for their deals they must be doing something well enough to warrant it so kudos to them. 

"The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly" - Robert A. Wilson | "If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

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