"The Pulse" -- #96 / Oliver Wyman's App Opened

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: No updates here. 94 firms are recruiting for SA 2026. We will begin tracking FT 2026 recruiting by mid-late April as the SA 2026 recruiting season winds down 

• If you need some interview support or just need a place to vent, check out our Coaching Program: Coaching for banking, consulting, and buyside recruiting | The Pulse. 95%+ of those coached for the summer 2025 recruiting season received offers!

New SA 2026 Applications:

• None

See below to gain access to our premium database, updated weekly, which houses the application processes for over 300+ banks/consulting/buyside firms! Gain an edge over everyone else by not having to spend countless hours tracking applications and deadlines.

Consulting:

Where We’re At:

• Oliver Wyman released its SA 2026 application! OW is a consulting heavy weight that works with fortune 1000 companies. There are currently 5 applications open. Remember to apply early!

SA 2026 released apps:

• Oliver Wyman - Summer 2026 Consulting Intern (SA 2026)

FT 2026 released apps:

• None

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Madison Investment Advisors, Irvine Company, and Founders Circle Capital opened apps this week. Currently 84 buyside firms are recruiting for SA 2026 seats 

New SA 2026 released apps:

• Madison Investment Advisors: $29bn mutual fund manager (SA 2026)

• Irvine Company: CRE investing (SA 2026)

• Founders Circle Capital: Small VC fund (SA 2026)

The database is updated weekly and contains 300+ Investment Banking and Consulting internships/full-time positions along with:

• Interview tips for specific companies

• Interview prep material

• Applications and deadlines linked so that you can apply with one click

• Insider information about the application process

• Professionals to network with

• Buyside deadlines, interview prep, and people to network with for the sweatiest of students

We send the updated dataset every week with the latest banking and consulting job postings. We released our 96th update today.

Students we have been helping have already landed roles at Blackstone, Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Citi, and Solomon.

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Market Update:

Sponsor vs. Strategic Deals

The dream is not to get bought out by Blackstone, KKR, or Apollo. The dream is to be grossly overvalued by a partner or competitor and just be rolled up into their existing structure.

I mean look what happened when Google bought Wiz for $32 billion which was a wait for it …. 32x pro-forma ARR multiple.

Thirty-two TIMES ARR. Annual recurring revenue. REVENUE. Not EBITDA. For reference, a 2.0 - 4.0x revenue multiple is typically what you see in the public markets. 32.0x is not something you ever see and it’s being financed with all cash.

Wiz is a cloud cybersecurity startup founded in 2020. Somehow the FP&A team at Google justified a 32.0x purchase price with the idea that Wiz will quickly grow into its purchased value. However, growing ARR 8.0x is not a small feat especially when you’re already running in the $ billions.

Anyways, I doubt the FP&A team really even cared about the multiple or the price paid. They just really wanted to acquire Wiz as an asset to roll into their internal Google Cloud business to snuff out competition. Many big tech companies like Meta and Microsoft have been following a similar playbook to hoard cash on balance sheet for strategic acquisitions vs. paying out dividends to shareholders. By doing this, you can just eat the competition as long as the FTC does not get on your ass about it.

The Wiz acquisition was a good demonstration of why a strategic buyer can pay more for another company than someone like a financial sponsor. For a strategic buyer, the multiple they pay is just an element under a long list of greater priorities.

Strategic Buyer Motivations:

-Top Considerations-

• Grow market share

• Be the best provider of products / services in the industry

• Retain the best talent to run the business

• Dominate competition

• Build for the long-term

• Expand the products / services offered

• Grow geographic presence

-Other Considerations-

• Make good acquisitions

• Optimize the capital structure

• Be investor friendly

• ESG positivity

• Cut costs*

• Regulatory compliance

• Charitable actions

*cost cuts could be a top consideration if you have significant excess fat hanging around

As you can see, many of the classic financial characteristics are not a top priority for strategic buyers. Running the core business is so much more important. When an FP&A guy is assessing an acquisition he is so much more focused on solving the question of ‘how does this support our core business’ vs. ‘am I paying too much.’

Now, why do strategic buyers often use cash and stock to finance acquisitions instead of debt? Isn’t debt often the cheaper form of capital?

Unlike a financial sponsor, strategics are absorbing the capital structure of the companies they acquire. If they lever the fuck out of an acquisition, then that’s debt that will ultimately sit on their balance sheet. Additional debt isn’t all that bad, but lenders are another group of stakeholders you have to deal with. If you have the cash or are ok with additional dilution by issuing stock, that might be a more convenient alternative.

Ok, let’s talk sponsors.

Sponsors are a much simpler acquirer. Their goal is to buy a company today for the cheap and sell it in the future for more. An easier playbook than the laundry list of considerations a strategic buyer must consider.

Sponsors will attempt to conduct operational synergies with the businesses they buy but because they’re investors and not operators, emphasis often falls around the financial engineering. Also, sponsors are beholden to strict investing criteria and timelines detailed within their Limited Partnership Agreements signed with LPs. These guard rails essentially force sponsors to only invest within a certain ‘box.’

Due to these constraints, you’ll never see someone like Blackstone pay 32.0x ARR. The odds of buying something for 32.0x and trying to expand the business enough to earn a profit in 5-7 years is highly unlikely. Even less likely is buying something for 32.0x with the expectation of selling it for an even greater multiple.

Now, when it comes to financing—sponsors lean much heavier on debt to juice returns. As previously mentioned, debt is often a cheaper cost of capital. Also, sponsors don’t really have access to stock financing unless they’re acting as a strategic making a corporate-level acquisition vs. a fund-level acquisition. When sponsors acquire businesses, they’re placing debt on the balance sheets of the businesses they acquire. There is typically no recourse at the fund-level or sponsor’s corporate-level.

This agency means that sponsors are often much more liberal with their use of debt to buy businesses.

Disclosure: Nothing written here is financial advice or should be used for investment decisions.

Market Sizing

Market sizing questions are very common during consulting interviews.

They are great for understanding how you think. They’re difficult because you’re expected to come up with a specific number (but one that no normal person possibly knows the “correct” answer to).

These are commonly referred to as Fermi Estimations.

An example might be: “How many piano tuners are in New York City?”

—Step 1: Ask clarifying questions. ✅ 

You might ask if they want you to consider all 5 boroughs or just Manhattan. Are they inquiring about grand pianos or all types of pianos? Are they including concert venues or piano stores (for the example below we will assume not).

—Step 2: Take a moment to plan out how you will address the question/your calculation ✅ 

Knowing how you will approach the problem will make explaining your logic to the interviewer much easier.

—Step 3: Execute ✅ 

Make sure to use round numbers/percentages as this makes things much easier.

They are not looking for the “correct” answer but rather that you can approach a difficult question with organization and logic.

Regarding piano tuners in Manhattan:

-Start by assuming that 2 million people live in Manhattan

-Assume that there are 2 people/household. That leaves you with 1MM households.

-Next guestimate that 1 in 20 households owns a piano. That means ~50,000 pianos need to be tuned

-Next, assume that they tune their piano once/year

-Now it’s time for assumptions about the tuners:

-It takes 2 hours to tune 1 piano

-The tuners work 8 hours/day, 5 days/week, 50 weeks/year = (8*5*50)/2 hours = 1,000 pianos per year

-From the simple math above we can see that it takes 50 tuners to fulfill the piano needs in Manhattan.

Is this the “correct” answer? Probably not. But it is a sound approach that is logical and will certainly impress your interviewer. 🔥

Going Forward:

Are you starting your banking / consulting FT job this summer?

We are carefully rolling out our Buyside Associate prep solutions. This will be the best tool to land a job in PE, PC, HF, or VC / GE after your analyst stint. Please shoot us an email @[email protected], if you’d like to be a part of our first cohort—services will be 100% free.

Please reach out to us with any questions about recruiting or if you’re interested in meeting the team! ([email protected])

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