Associate, (Private Equity Consulting – M&A, Value Creation & Exit Readiness)
Department
Location
- Founded in 2009
- Serving 200+ leading private equity firms
Company Overview
In 2009, Accordion set out to prove that there was a better way to work in finance and more specifically, a better way to unlock value potential in private equity portfolio companies. In the years since, our firm has grown into a nationwide team of 350+ finance and technology professionals, serving the worlds leading private equity firms from ten offices and remote locations across the U.S. (Accordions headquarters are in New York, with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and South Florida.)
Working at the intersection of sponsors and management teams, Accordion partners with clients at every stage of the investment lifecycle to elevate the finance function. Our services span the Office of the CFO providing hands-on, results-oriented execution and technology-enablement.
So, what does it mean to work at Accordion? It means thriving in a high-growth, agile, and entrepreneurial environment. It means changing the way private equity firms create value at their portfolio companies. And ultimately, it means making your mark on the firms future by embracing a culture rooted in humility and a firm-wide commitment to building something great, together. Join us!
What You’ll Do:
As an Associate on a lean, cross-functional team, you will work collaboratively with a diverse set of colleagues to assist clients in a variety of transaction related projects focused on helping to:
- Prepare companies for a sale and support them throughout the deal process (working alongside CFOs and other executives)
- Work with company management, private equity deal and operating teams, investment bankers and other third parties to support the development of an equity story and other go-to-market materials
- Utilize both excel and business intelligence tools (i.e. PowerBI, Tableau) to develop a variety of granular financial, operational and business segment analysis (profitability, trending etc.)
- Analyze, quantify and validate deal related assumptions including synergies, add-backs, pro-forma financials
- Manage and / or support the development and population of an investor ready data room
- Work with CFOs and their teams, respond to due diligence and other deal related questions from either financial (private equity) or strategic (corporate) buyers
- Assist private equity firms and their portfolio companies on a variety of corporate development activities:
- Project manage the end-to-end process for add on acquisitions
- Perform a variety of due diligence activities
- Develop financial analysis including deal, merger and synergy models
- Prepare deal memorandum and other documents for key stakeholders
- Execute merger integration planning and post-merger execution services
The following representative engagements are emblematic of the type of work youll do as an Associate at Accordion:
- Sell-Side Readiness: A PE-owned SaaS company required sale preparation and related transaction support. Accordion has been engaged to take a leadership role alongside the CFO in the sell-side process by preparing key analytical deliverables. These deliverables include historical financial reporting, financial and operational KPIs, a 5-year financial projection model, and other key analytical materials. The Accordion team will:
- Serve as an extension of the CFOs office to support a sale by coordinating and responding to requests from investment banks, the executive team and Sponsor during the preparation process, and to potential buyers during the sales process.
- Leverage business intelligence tools to collect and consolidate all data (transactional, operational and financial) from a variety of production and financial systems.
- Create a detailed, bottoms-up 5-year financial projection model down to the segment, geography, product type level that was used to highlight key business performance value drivers and support the desired valuation.
- Analyze the historical performance of the business and prepared financial and operational schedules including:
- Historical trending Income Statement and Balance Sheet
- Detailed analysis on revenue (price, volume), operating expenses, and margin by segment/geography
- Key financial and operating KPIs (ARR, MRR, churn, retention, CLTV, customer acquisition cost, etc.) by business line, geography, and product type
- Full customer analysis for each business line
- Manage the population of the data room, including all supporting documentation and analyses from different departments throughout the firm.
- Corporate Development Support: A private equity firm has been making a series of add on acquisitions across their portfolio. The deal teams are stretched and look to Accordion for outsourced corporate development leadership to manage portfolio company add on acquisition deal processes and support financial analysis and associated presentations. The Accordion team will:
- Perform qualitative & quantitative analysis to support evaluation of targets based on fit with corporate strategy and financial criteria
- Provide financial modeling support for building preliminary valuation model
- Conduct target management interviews
- Work with the management team to develop financial baselines
- Perform high-level synergy analysis identifying initial synergy targets
- Support development of investment case
- Prepare investment cases and associated deal memorandum
Ideally, You Have:
- Bachelor’s degree in business, finance or economics is preferred. A Masters degree (MBA, MA in Finance etc.) is highly recommended.
- Minimum 3 years+ experience at a top tier private equity firm, investment bank, consulting firm or within a corporate development group preferred.
- Demonstrated strong quantitative skills, exceptional organizational skills and a keen eye for detail is highly regarded.
- Strong ability to leverage Excel to manage, simplify, analyze and present large and complex datasets.
- Exceptional financial modeling and data analysis skills.
- Relevant experience to prepare reports, presentations, and memos to put your thoughts into writing in a clear, succinct and comprehensive manner.
- Ability to demonstrate good judgement, take initiative and seek guidance when needed in order to advance your projects.
Ideally, You Are:
- Excited to be part of a growing team, with a focus on driving future growth
- Passionate about delivering exceptional client service
- Knowledgeable about the relationship between Private Equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, particularly within the office of the CFO
- Willing to get your hands dirty in the details of a project while simultaneously seeing the whole picture
- Comfortable managing projects with multiple complex workstreams while also focused on your single workstream (you are managing and doing)
- A self-starter with a strong work ethic
- Full of entrepreneurial spirit and comfortable in a fluid, flat organization
- Able to effectively communicate complex issues and solutions, and raise issues to senior team members when necessary
- A team player, able to work with team members across all levels
- Someone who enjoys mentoring others and doing meaningful work
- A leader of others; you lead by example
- Willing to travel according to client needs