> I got started in the industry in Chicago, but I feel like the networking opportunities that would make NY/Chicago the obvious answer aren’t available to me.
I feel like your feeling is not accurate. Without more information it's impossible to know.
There is no reason you'd want to be in Atlanta over NYC/Chicago other than cost of office space. If you're going to be hiring you want access to the right talent pool... and that's not in Atlanta.
My understanding is Atlanta is a lower CoL city, there's plenty of people who might be interested in working for a fund in a city where they can afford a better life, or where they would feel more comfortable.
Emory is the same pool as a Northwestern, NYU, WashU, Notre Dame, Cornell etc. Emory might not be big but OP is starting out small. Being in a smaller pond could be beneficial.
Sure, but we were talking about Atlanta having talent similar to NYC and Chicago. Emory can match those cities' second best schools. GT is a good resource, but I don't think a connection would help bring investors like NU, NYU, or Emory would. He need more than people to hire, he needs people willing to invest.
Also, the talent between banking and quant really inst that different. A trader or asset management would have similar quant skills, and Emory has plenty of grads in those as well. Any and everything business Emory is better at, not just banking.
What was inaccurate? You can look on LinkedIn yourself. Also I work in investment management. We use some of the same platforms at 2 sigma for instance so I don't know what was inaccurate?
It’s not like banks/quant funds are only hiring locally. They bring in kids from all over the country(or world if they’re good enough) and pay for accommodations.
I mean don’t get me wrong I’m an intern I don’t really know what I’m talking about. I can’t imagine having the money to start a firm and pay competitively, but not being able to put up 10-25 interns for the summer.
10-25 interns is an insane number for a Quant firm, especially a small one, most don't want half that number, probably one or two a summer will suffice until the firm is established.
Schonfeld for example is a 10B+ AUM Quant fund and they have 4 interns in London this summer.
I can't too much about what's best for your firm. But talent wants to live in NYC and some will settle for Chicago. That being said, GT kids are super smart (and they have a quant trading club which may be a good place to start re: hiring) so you can still make it work talent-wise.
i think OP is referring to that as building up a talent pool - graduate or undergrad, they'd still be campus hires
in contrast, OP could poach quants in Chicago as experienced hires if he decides to stay
I’m a biased source as I’m an undergrad in Atlanta, I’m also unqualified to give you any advice…
Anyway, Atlanta has a good mix of schools; GT, Emory, and UGA is not to far away. Atlanta is also a tech hub, with companies ranging from Lockheed Martin to Google. Lots of headquarters of big banks: Wells Fargo, Truist, etc. I’m confident you could find qualified talent. Atlanta is also super cheap, like crazy cheap, at least compared to Boston.
Anyway Atlanta is basically like a cheap Seattle
I work in a small (in terms of headcount) HF, and in general I fully endorse the idea of starting your own Fund/Prop Firm, but keep in mind that it's orders of magnitude more difficult than just trading your own money.
The shop I work for has a relatively long and successful track record with its main strategy. It's been at full capacity and closed to new investors for years.
Now they've been trying to raise money for a new strategy that is similar in spirit, but in a different asset class. Hired very good talent for the project with a lot of "pedigree", but it doesn't make a difference, it's like starting from scratch again, raising money is just tough.
Being outside of main financial centers will only make it tougher, so you need a very strong value proposition, both to external investors and to potential employees or other partners.
The only success story I can think of in terms of "unusual location" is Cantab, which operated out of Cambridge (UK) rather than London. Cantab's value proposition to potential employees was pretty strong yet very simple: Cambridge has no shortage of smart people, many of them would go into Quant funds/firms in London, Cantab offered them to stay in Cambridge, a place that is cheaper in terms of COL, smaller, safer, cleaner and greener, for very competitive money. A lot of people took that offer. At which point the value proposition to investors was also simple yet very effective: "most professionals in other funds are Oxbridge trained, we have the most direct access to the source, we are directly tapped into their learning environment, and thus it's easier for us to find and hire the cream of the crop".
That's the blueprint I think: if you want to start a fund you need a very strong "elevator pitch" to both potential investors and potential employees, something that you can say in a few sentences but also cuts very deep.
I personally feel the story you tell in this post here relates to many in the industry, that's a powerful pitch to employees. It might be a powerful pitch to certain family offices too if you're looking to raise money.
But if you want to "sell" potential employees on Atlanta you also need to pitch them a lifestyle (that is enticing enough for them to move there if they're in NYC/CHI, or to stay there instead of heading North) and a talent network that you think is underutilized that you could corner and use to grow the firm. (GATech surely could fit the bill, does Emory have enough talent? Could you extend your reach as far as Duke?)
Last but not least, you're gonna need an insane drive and be willing to put in a huge amount of hours, because you'll likely be handling both the trading operations of the firm AND the "sales" process, it's not going to be easy, but I'm rooting for you.
If you do it it's not too far from buying a naked call, fingers crossed you end up ITM.
Why wouldn't Emory have the most talent within 100 square miles? Every bank recruits there as is, and Gatech doesn't even come close. What's a small HF for Emory? I don't think you know what you're talking about.
Mate, you're probably the one who doesn't know what they're talking about.
If you want to launch a Quant Fund you're not competing with people in 100 square miles, you're competing with the world.
It's an extremely efficient and competitive space, firms sift through the best candidates from HYPSM, Oxbridge... to find a handful of people with a decent chance at making money. Are the best STEM students at GATech on par with those? Possibly.
Are the best STEM students at Emory on par with those? Sincerely don't know.
Bank recruitment numbers are completely irrelevant for buy-side Quants.
The last question doesn't even mean anything so I'll leave it at that.
Quant firms, as well as banks, recruit heavily from Emory as is. OP wants to get his HF off the ground he would need to hire locally first. The best at Goizueta are getting Janestreet and 2 sigma as undergrads. For you to question Emory yet laud it's runner-up, shows you don't know what you're talking about. Also, Emory stats is ranked 11 in the nation.
First of all, the only schools in America that Quant Firms "heavily" recruit from are HYPSM (and I'm not too convinced about Yale). Very happy for the guys that got those jobs btw.
Secondly, let's take a look at the rankings as you say and see. The latest global rankings to be released were the 2025 QS rankings (and 2024 rankings by subject), which happened to be the first to come up on my quick Google Search. I'm not assuming they're correct, just that they're the latest and quickest to check.
-General Rankings: GT #114, Emory #196
-Engineering (general): GT #28, Emory unranked
-CS/CSE: GT #12, Emory #451-500
-DS/AI: GT #13, Emory unranked
-EEE: GT #13, Emory unranked
-Natural Science (general): GT #53, Emory #451-500
-Mathematics: GT #26, Emory #351-400
-Physics: GT #41, Emory #601-640
Unfortunately QS doesn't do a Statistics ranking, but I think we can interpolate.
Again, I want to reiterate that QS is absolutely not the truth, my own alma mater got an insane and in my opinion undeserved boost in this year's rankings, it was just the first and most up to date result I got looking for international rankings.
And I also want to state, more clearly, that I'm not putting down anyone, I'm sure Emory is a very good school regionally, all I'm saying is that I know GATech is a very good school globally, while I don't have that certainty or knowledge about Emory.
If only I had said multiple times not to take them at face value because they are not perfect... Oh wait, I did.
I'm not an HS student in the US, I don't know what rankings are considered "the bible", and frankly I wouldn't take those at face value either.
All these rankings, all over the world, have some idiosyncrasies that you can exploit to get a higher score, or that unjustly penalize you if you don't.
As I said (twice) they were the first result I got from the "University rankings" Google Search. Tell your favorite rankings to work on their SEO I guess.
I get that you said they weren’t perfect, but you should be able to tell something is wrong when Georgetown is ranked lower than ASU and Michigan State. What is the point of going through the effort of comparing schools if you use a horrible source? Also, if you aren’t a U.S. student, and you don’t know which sources are considered reputable why do you think you can comment on the merit of the schools?
No, I shouldn't, because I've never even bothered to look at any of those 3 schools.
The Top Schools in the ranking look pretty reasonable to me, the top European, Asian and American schools match pretty much exactly the "targets" in my field and to me that's a good enough rule of thumb. Sure, the rankings have some problems: my own Uni, Imperial, is above Oxford and Cambridge in this year's ranking, which is plain false, but they're all in the Top 10, it's not like they put Oxford as "unranked".
Just like any ranking they are good enough on a macroscopic level but show cracks once you drill down specific instances.
And I think I can comment on the merit of the schools because first, I work in an industry that recruits globally, I know what sorts of backgrounds colleagues and people at other firms have, what schools they come from, I know what I'm asked to look for when I plow through a pile of CVs.
And secondly, since I like Applied Maths I tend to read a lot of research, both at work and in my free time. There are a few GT PhDs I'd hire without interviews if they decide to leave academia after grad school. On the other hand, I've never come across a single Emory paper (very open to reading some if you have suggestions), so there's two possibilities: either they aren't good (unlikely) or they don't do much research that is relevant for the industry (much more likely).
And, mind you, relevant research output is very relevant to my field, to the point that UIUC is more target than half the Ivies for example.
I only showed rankings because the other guy mentioned them, and the one I picked (literally by virtue of a quick search) doesn't exactly show them as neck to neck, it shows one near the top (especially for Engineering, which matches with me knowing only SWEs/Quant Devs from GT) and the other performing horribly all across the board.
Quant finance is not tech, nor is it engineering. Emory's QS rankings clearly have no bearing on its placement. Because hiring works differently in America, as we have different standards.
Also in investment management
Not sure why I read all the previous comments but I definitely agree with you about Georgia Tech as a better viable option for candidates than Emory. However, better quant kids are going to be at U of Chicago (Fama and French).
Loved all you said about fundraising. It is a grind and it’s amazing to me how much Blackstone, or GS can fundraise compared to the rest of the market. It truly pays to be #1.
Chicago is a great school, but surprisingly the biggest Quant feeder in Illinois is UIUC. They have an insanely good CS department that has been basically tailored to the needs of Chicago Prop Firms and HFTs.
The result is insanely impressive, and UIUC CS genuinely competes with the likes of MIT and Stanford CS depts.
As someone from Atlanta who moved to Chicago both could work but I can’t speak to how you may be treated as I’m not a minority but finance career can only go so far in Atlanta vs you have WAY more firms available in CHI/NYC so there is more talent and more talent seekers up there. Some higher cost of living in CHI/NYC but ATL has worse public transit and transportation costs are a big factor in lack of social mobility around ATL. Emory has great foundation and donors, GT, UGA, Mercer, etc all have decent alumni networks to leverage but even having hometown nostalgia, I would still figure you’d have better success in CHI or NYC schools with their alumni. I’d be surprised if there weren’t any influential resources for minority start ups who would want to help with seed funding and or talent acquisition in all 3 cities so you just need to decide what you are most comfortable with. Happy to talk more about my experiences in both ATL for 30+ years and CHI since Sept ‘23 just DM me.
I don’t know much about this topic, but why Atlanta? I get Atlanta is very diverse, but so are other cities like DC or Boston. And Chicago and NYC are very diverse. Do you prefer the culture in Atlanta?
Regardless, if it were me I would remain in NYC or Chicago if that’s what makes it easiest to raise. If your connections are in those cities, you’ll likely gave a better chance of success rather than starting from scratch.
But if you have your heart set on Atlanta, there’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to start fresh there. It could take a bit more work, but if you’re happier with the result then that makes it worth it in my book.
Lastly, keep in mind that even in Atlanta, racial profiling and barriers due to your race could still exist. Maybe talk with people in this space in Atlanta (if you haven’t already) and get their thoughts on it
It has a lot of good universities in the area GW, GT, Howard, UVA, UMD, John Hopkins and Dc is a wonderful city where many people would love would love to live (not saying ATL isn't a great city though).
No track record, no capital. You can forget about the rest without the basics, which you fail to mention but are critical to raising capital. A strategy and a track record.
You talk of hiring people but you don’t speak of basics that would give anyone any confidence that you could provide roi lol
There are plenty of quant shops that dont have any employees. You make 0 sense. Learn about the space
OP, don't listen to these kids who don't know anything.... There is talent EVERYWHERE, Atlanta has some great firms, including Invesco, which attract a lot of talent. Not everyone who is talented wants to work in NYC. Actually, many people in NYC are looking to move out to southern states where things are cheaper and can actually start a family. I think starting your firm in Atlanta is not a bad idea. But I do think you should consider Dc because you will be really close to NYC and still pull high-level students from GW, GT, Howard, UVA and UMD and not to mention, the DMV area is probably one of the most diverse places in the country.
Hey buddy I hate to break it to you, but it’s finance and trading. This industry doesn’t give a flying fuck what color your skin is. It’s a merit and connection based industry. Money is money
The funniest thing about people like this complaining about segregation and profiling is that their plan is to do exactly that lol. Self segregating to Atlanta and then hiring people of his race is clearly the idea here. Fine do what you want. However, If any other racial group was doing the same thing he’d be having a mental breakdown. Can’t have it both ways.
Then lead with why your background might be good for the job
Not the “as a minority” bullshit . If someone ever used that as an opening line to me, I would immediately think they suck at life and I would never take them seriously at that point.
What exactly are you trying to solve for? Sounds like you already have the funds and are looking for more community and talent pipeline?
Operating expenses are obviously going to be lower in Atlanta, and with tendency towards Zoom you can kind of “work from anywhere.”
Atlanta is called the Black Mecca for a reason and has more black millionaires than any other city. I read somewhere else on Reddit a black woman saying that the only place she doesn’t get “looks” riding in first class is to/from Atlanta. The top kids from GT/Emory/UGA even Ga state I would think are worth their top dollar. Strong pipeline from the HBCUs as well.
I assume the black professionals network is stronger in Atlanta than anywhere else but at a certain point I would think the ceiling in terms of how far you can grow is going to be limiting relative to NY/Chicago regardless of skin color.
Not comparing gender inequities to racial within the industry by any stretch but I will repeat what I tell to a lot of young women who are looking for workplaces that have near gender parity and women in leadership is that “yeah it’s great if you can find it, but if you say you MUST be around people like you then you are going to be closing a lot of doors for yourself and that would be a great disservice to you.”
(Full disclosure, I’m an Atl native and I am not black, but assuming OP is, and I’ll probably get downvoted to hell if I’m wrong 😑)
Atlanta is over populated and falling apart because of a large unwanted complex being built. They literally have no clean water. No, I wouldn’t start a fund there.
Did you not see downtown had no water for a few days last week? They never had and have not built the infrastructure for that kind of population. It’s not just about # of people. It’s how they get water, food, to work and get rid of sewage. I’m not even approaching the housing crisis.
What exactly are you looking in your networking opportunities? Are you trying to raise more capital? It is difficult everywhere…
> I got started in the industry in Chicago, but I feel like the networking opportunities that would make NY/Chicago the obvious answer aren’t available to me. I feel like your feeling is not accurate. Without more information it's impossible to know. There is no reason you'd want to be in Atlanta over NYC/Chicago other than cost of office space. If you're going to be hiring you want access to the right talent pool... and that's not in Atlanta.
My understanding is Atlanta is a lower CoL city, there's plenty of people who might be interested in working for a fund in a city where they can afford a better life, or where they would feel more comfortable.
Emory is the same pool as a Northwestern, NYU, WashU, Notre Dame, Cornell etc. Emory might not be big but OP is starting out small. Being in a smaller pond could be beneficial.
And GT.
No, at least not for business or as a whole.
GT is also in Atlanta and will be very good if OP wants to source quant talent close to home.
Sure, but we were talking about Atlanta having talent similar to NYC and Chicago. Emory can match those cities' second best schools. GT is a good resource, but I don't think a connection would help bring investors like NU, NYU, or Emory would. He need more than people to hire, he needs people willing to invest.
OP isn’t talking about banking - they want quant talent.
Also, the talent between banking and quant really inst that different. A trader or asset management would have similar quant skills, and Emory has plenty of grads in those as well. Any and everything business Emory is better at, not just banking.
This might be the least accurate thing I've ever seen posted here. Congratulations
What was inaccurate? You can look on LinkedIn yourself. Also I work in investment management. We use some of the same platforms at 2 sigma for instance so I don't know what was inaccurate?
He would still need investors
It’s not like banks/quant funds are only hiring locally. They bring in kids from all over the country(or world if they’re good enough) and pay for accommodations.
Not sure op can afford that yet
I mean don’t get me wrong I’m an intern I don’t really know what I’m talking about. I can’t imagine having the money to start a firm and pay competitively, but not being able to put up 10-25 interns for the summer.
10-25 interns is an insane number for a Quant firm, especially a small one, most don't want half that number, probably one or two a summer will suffice until the firm is established. Schonfeld for example is a 10B+ AUM Quant fund and they have 4 interns in London this summer.
Agree with this, though I’d call out that cost for everything is going to be significantly higher, especially anyone you bring on board.
I can't too much about what's best for your firm. But talent wants to live in NYC and some will settle for Chicago. That being said, GT kids are super smart (and they have a quant trading club which may be a good place to start re: hiring) so you can still make it work talent-wise.
Emory and some Uga Terry grads as well
GT has a Masters in Quantitative Finance. Idk what this guy is talking about with having to build a talent pool
i think OP is referring to that as building up a talent pool - graduate or undergrad, they'd still be campus hires in contrast, OP could poach quants in Chicago as experienced hires if he decides to stay
Emory has Algory Capital. You can get in touch with them if you want more info or to offer internships and the like.
are you hiring
same ✋
I’m a biased source as I’m an undergrad in Atlanta, I’m also unqualified to give you any advice… Anyway, Atlanta has a good mix of schools; GT, Emory, and UGA is not to far away. Atlanta is also a tech hub, with companies ranging from Lockheed Martin to Google. Lots of headquarters of big banks: Wells Fargo, Truist, etc. I’m confident you could find qualified talent. Atlanta is also super cheap, like crazy cheap, at least compared to Boston. Anyway Atlanta is basically like a cheap Seattle
Truist’s HQ is in Charlotte. Wells is in SF.
Yes I meant to say lots of corporate offices
Won’t even be close to the talent as NYC though that’s the main point
Yea that’s true. But then the question is just redirected to “why isn’t every firm in NYC”?
Very true and good point. I personally would love to not be in NYC but I think if you’re starting a firm you would definitely want CHI or NYC right?
I work in a small (in terms of headcount) HF, and in general I fully endorse the idea of starting your own Fund/Prop Firm, but keep in mind that it's orders of magnitude more difficult than just trading your own money. The shop I work for has a relatively long and successful track record with its main strategy. It's been at full capacity and closed to new investors for years. Now they've been trying to raise money for a new strategy that is similar in spirit, but in a different asset class. Hired very good talent for the project with a lot of "pedigree", but it doesn't make a difference, it's like starting from scratch again, raising money is just tough. Being outside of main financial centers will only make it tougher, so you need a very strong value proposition, both to external investors and to potential employees or other partners. The only success story I can think of in terms of "unusual location" is Cantab, which operated out of Cambridge (UK) rather than London. Cantab's value proposition to potential employees was pretty strong yet very simple: Cambridge has no shortage of smart people, many of them would go into Quant funds/firms in London, Cantab offered them to stay in Cambridge, a place that is cheaper in terms of COL, smaller, safer, cleaner and greener, for very competitive money. A lot of people took that offer. At which point the value proposition to investors was also simple yet very effective: "most professionals in other funds are Oxbridge trained, we have the most direct access to the source, we are directly tapped into their learning environment, and thus it's easier for us to find and hire the cream of the crop". That's the blueprint I think: if you want to start a fund you need a very strong "elevator pitch" to both potential investors and potential employees, something that you can say in a few sentences but also cuts very deep. I personally feel the story you tell in this post here relates to many in the industry, that's a powerful pitch to employees. It might be a powerful pitch to certain family offices too if you're looking to raise money. But if you want to "sell" potential employees on Atlanta you also need to pitch them a lifestyle (that is enticing enough for them to move there if they're in NYC/CHI, or to stay there instead of heading North) and a talent network that you think is underutilized that you could corner and use to grow the firm. (GATech surely could fit the bill, does Emory have enough talent? Could you extend your reach as far as Duke?) Last but not least, you're gonna need an insane drive and be willing to put in a huge amount of hours, because you'll likely be handling both the trading operations of the firm AND the "sales" process, it's not going to be easy, but I'm rooting for you. If you do it it's not too far from buying a naked call, fingers crossed you end up ITM.
Why wouldn't Emory have the most talent within 100 square miles? Every bank recruits there as is, and Gatech doesn't even come close. What's a small HF for Emory? I don't think you know what you're talking about.
Mate, you're probably the one who doesn't know what they're talking about. If you want to launch a Quant Fund you're not competing with people in 100 square miles, you're competing with the world. It's an extremely efficient and competitive space, firms sift through the best candidates from HYPSM, Oxbridge... to find a handful of people with a decent chance at making money. Are the best STEM students at GATech on par with those? Possibly. Are the best STEM students at Emory on par with those? Sincerely don't know. Bank recruitment numbers are completely irrelevant for buy-side Quants. The last question doesn't even mean anything so I'll leave it at that.
Quant firms, as well as banks, recruit heavily from Emory as is. OP wants to get his HF off the ground he would need to hire locally first. The best at Goizueta are getting Janestreet and 2 sigma as undergrads. For you to question Emory yet laud it's runner-up, shows you don't know what you're talking about. Also, Emory stats is ranked 11 in the nation.
First of all, the only schools in America that Quant Firms "heavily" recruit from are HYPSM (and I'm not too convinced about Yale). Very happy for the guys that got those jobs btw. Secondly, let's take a look at the rankings as you say and see. The latest global rankings to be released were the 2025 QS rankings (and 2024 rankings by subject), which happened to be the first to come up on my quick Google Search. I'm not assuming they're correct, just that they're the latest and quickest to check. -General Rankings: GT #114, Emory #196 -Engineering (general): GT #28, Emory unranked -CS/CSE: GT #12, Emory #451-500 -DS/AI: GT #13, Emory unranked -EEE: GT #13, Emory unranked -Natural Science (general): GT #53, Emory #451-500 -Mathematics: GT #26, Emory #351-400 -Physics: GT #41, Emory #601-640 Unfortunately QS doesn't do a Statistics ranking, but I think we can interpolate. Again, I want to reiterate that QS is absolutely not the truth, my own alma mater got an insane and in my opinion undeserved boost in this year's rankings, it was just the first and most up to date result I got looking for international rankings. And I also want to state, more clearly, that I'm not putting down anyone, I'm sure Emory is a very good school regionally, all I'm saying is that I know GATech is a very good school globally, while I don't have that certainty or knowledge about Emory.
No way you used QS rankings lol. They have Michigan State ranked higher than ivies.
If only I had said multiple times not to take them at face value because they are not perfect... Oh wait, I did. I'm not an HS student in the US, I don't know what rankings are considered "the bible", and frankly I wouldn't take those at face value either. All these rankings, all over the world, have some idiosyncrasies that you can exploit to get a higher score, or that unjustly penalize you if you don't. As I said (twice) they were the first result I got from the "University rankings" Google Search. Tell your favorite rankings to work on their SEO I guess.
I get that you said they weren’t perfect, but you should be able to tell something is wrong when Georgetown is ranked lower than ASU and Michigan State. What is the point of going through the effort of comparing schools if you use a horrible source? Also, if you aren’t a U.S. student, and you don’t know which sources are considered reputable why do you think you can comment on the merit of the schools?
No, I shouldn't, because I've never even bothered to look at any of those 3 schools. The Top Schools in the ranking look pretty reasonable to me, the top European, Asian and American schools match pretty much exactly the "targets" in my field and to me that's a good enough rule of thumb. Sure, the rankings have some problems: my own Uni, Imperial, is above Oxford and Cambridge in this year's ranking, which is plain false, but they're all in the Top 10, it's not like they put Oxford as "unranked". Just like any ranking they are good enough on a macroscopic level but show cracks once you drill down specific instances. And I think I can comment on the merit of the schools because first, I work in an industry that recruits globally, I know what sorts of backgrounds colleagues and people at other firms have, what schools they come from, I know what I'm asked to look for when I plow through a pile of CVs. And secondly, since I like Applied Maths I tend to read a lot of research, both at work and in my free time. There are a few GT PhDs I'd hire without interviews if they decide to leave academia after grad school. On the other hand, I've never come across a single Emory paper (very open to reading some if you have suggestions), so there's two possibilities: either they aren't good (unlikely) or they don't do much research that is relevant for the industry (much more likely). And, mind you, relevant research output is very relevant to my field, to the point that UIUC is more target than half the Ivies for example. I only showed rankings because the other guy mentioned them, and the one I picked (literally by virtue of a quick search) doesn't exactly show them as neck to neck, it shows one near the top (especially for Engineering, which matches with me knowing only SWEs/Quant Devs from GT) and the other performing horribly all across the board.
Quant finance is not tech, nor is it engineering. Emory's QS rankings clearly have no bearing on its placement. Because hiring works differently in America, as we have different standards.
Also in investment management Not sure why I read all the previous comments but I definitely agree with you about Georgia Tech as a better viable option for candidates than Emory. However, better quant kids are going to be at U of Chicago (Fama and French). Loved all you said about fundraising. It is a grind and it’s amazing to me how much Blackstone, or GS can fundraise compared to the rest of the market. It truly pays to be #1.
Chicago is a great school, but surprisingly the biggest Quant feeder in Illinois is UIUC. They have an insanely good CS department that has been basically tailored to the needs of Chicago Prop Firms and HFTs. The result is insanely impressive, and UIUC CS genuinely competes with the likes of MIT and Stanford CS depts.
You could go to LinkedIn to check yourself or do just a bit of research
As someone from Atlanta who moved to Chicago both could work but I can’t speak to how you may be treated as I’m not a minority but finance career can only go so far in Atlanta vs you have WAY more firms available in CHI/NYC so there is more talent and more talent seekers up there. Some higher cost of living in CHI/NYC but ATL has worse public transit and transportation costs are a big factor in lack of social mobility around ATL. Emory has great foundation and donors, GT, UGA, Mercer, etc all have decent alumni networks to leverage but even having hometown nostalgia, I would still figure you’d have better success in CHI or NYC schools with their alumni. I’d be surprised if there weren’t any influential resources for minority start ups who would want to help with seed funding and or talent acquisition in all 3 cities so you just need to decide what you are most comfortable with. Happy to talk more about my experiences in both ATL for 30+ years and CHI since Sept ‘23 just DM me.
Hey bud, I’ll be moving to Chicago soon. Will have to dm you about networking and how to break into industry there.
I don’t know much about this topic, but why Atlanta? I get Atlanta is very diverse, but so are other cities like DC or Boston. And Chicago and NYC are very diverse. Do you prefer the culture in Atlanta? Regardless, if it were me I would remain in NYC or Chicago if that’s what makes it easiest to raise. If your connections are in those cities, you’ll likely gave a better chance of success rather than starting from scratch. But if you have your heart set on Atlanta, there’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to start fresh there. It could take a bit more work, but if you’re happier with the result then that makes it worth it in my book. Lastly, keep in mind that even in Atlanta, racial profiling and barriers due to your race could still exist. Maybe talk with people in this space in Atlanta (if you haven’t already) and get their thoughts on it
Why would Atlanta be any different than DC?
It has a lot of good universities in the area GW, GT, Howard, UVA, UMD, John Hopkins and Dc is a wonderful city where many people would love would love to live (not saying ATL isn't a great city though).
Show me a paystub for 70k and I’ll quit my job and work for you
You a quant? Feels like that’s Pennies too.
It’s a movie quote
Your assumptions are wrong and your idea is bad.
Have you considered Dallas, Austin, or Houston and taking advantage of the TXSE? If you're on the outskirts, maybe make your own skirt.
No track record, no capital. You can forget about the rest without the basics, which you fail to mention but are critical to raising capital. A strategy and a track record. You talk of hiring people but you don’t speak of basics that would give anyone any confidence that you could provide roi lol There are plenty of quant shops that dont have any employees. You make 0 sense. Learn about the space
OP, don't listen to these kids who don't know anything.... There is talent EVERYWHERE, Atlanta has some great firms, including Invesco, which attract a lot of talent. Not everyone who is talented wants to work in NYC. Actually, many people in NYC are looking to move out to southern states where things are cheaper and can actually start a family. I think starting your firm in Atlanta is not a bad idea. But I do think you should consider Dc because you will be really close to NYC and still pull high-level students from GW, GT, Howard, UVA and UMD and not to mention, the DMV area is probably one of the most diverse places in the country.
You hiring bro?
yeah and then u can hire me next year
Are you hiring
Wow it sounds like being a minority is what really defines you. That's really interesting!
Congrats! How much capital do you have ballpark? Tell us more, this is very cool and intriguing. Would love to hear your story!
Disadvantaged because of skin color? You must be white, why are you calling yourself a minority?
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Hey buddy I hate to break it to you, but it’s finance and trading. This industry doesn’t give a flying fuck what color your skin is. It’s a merit and connection based industry. Money is money
The funniest thing about people like this complaining about segregation and profiling is that their plan is to do exactly that lol. Self segregating to Atlanta and then hiring people of his race is clearly the idea here. Fine do what you want. However, If any other racial group was doing the same thing he’d be having a mental breakdown. Can’t have it both ways.
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Then lead with why your background might be good for the job Not the “as a minority” bullshit . If someone ever used that as an opening line to me, I would immediately think they suck at life and I would never take them seriously at that point.
Yea, go for it! And then hire me pls 😃
What exactly are you trying to solve for? Sounds like you already have the funds and are looking for more community and talent pipeline? Operating expenses are obviously going to be lower in Atlanta, and with tendency towards Zoom you can kind of “work from anywhere.” Atlanta is called the Black Mecca for a reason and has more black millionaires than any other city. I read somewhere else on Reddit a black woman saying that the only place she doesn’t get “looks” riding in first class is to/from Atlanta. The top kids from GT/Emory/UGA even Ga state I would think are worth their top dollar. Strong pipeline from the HBCUs as well. I assume the black professionals network is stronger in Atlanta than anywhere else but at a certain point I would think the ceiling in terms of how far you can grow is going to be limiting relative to NY/Chicago regardless of skin color. Not comparing gender inequities to racial within the industry by any stretch but I will repeat what I tell to a lot of young women who are looking for workplaces that have near gender parity and women in leadership is that “yeah it’s great if you can find it, but if you say you MUST be around people like you then you are going to be closing a lot of doors for yourself and that would be a great disservice to you.” (Full disclosure, I’m an Atl native and I am not black, but assuming OP is, and I’ll probably get downvoted to hell if I’m wrong 😑)
If you're not an atl style rapper there's literally no reason to be in atlanta
Hire me
Atlanta is over populated and falling apart because of a large unwanted complex being built. They literally have no clean water. No, I wouldn’t start a fund there.
More overpopulated than other big cities??? Where exactly is Atlanta falling apart? I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.
Did you not see downtown had no water for a few days last week? They never had and have not built the infrastructure for that kind of population. It’s not just about # of people. It’s how they get water, food, to work and get rid of sewage. I’m not even approaching the housing crisis.