Synergist Senior Sound Bites - February 2022:

Jessica Gilligan

Principal at TA Associates

B.S. Finance, Economics and International Business from Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School, M.B.A. from Harvard Business School

Background:
Jessica Gilligan is a Principal at TA Associates, a growth equity firm based in Boston, where she invests in growing consumer companies. Jessica joined TA as an associate in 2012, after working as an investment banking analyst at Sagent Advisors. After completing the associate program at TA, Jessica went to Harvard Business School. During her time at HBS, Jessica was involved with the Marketing & CPG and Private Equity & Venture Capital clubs, and spent her summer internship doing corporate strategy at Paula’s Choice, a portfolio company of TA at the time which was subsequently sold to Unilever for more than $2 billion dollars. Jessica currently sits on the board of four consumer companies - Death Wish Coffee, MAV Beauty Brands, Mid America Pet Food and Thermacell - and has been an active investor at Amplify Snack Brands (fka SkinnyPop Popcorn) and Petcurean pet food. She is a brand-centric investor and actively seeks to partner with both emerging and market leading brands. Jessica holds a BS in Finance, Economics and International Business from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Jessica is a mother of two young boys and she lives in Weston, MA with her husband, Nick. 

What originally inspired you to make the jump into investing, and why did you decide to stay post business school?
I always knew I wanted to work in finance, mainly because my mother worked in finance for British Airways for 30 years and she always served as a role model to me. At WashU, I studied finance and economics, which naturally led me to the investment banking track post school.

What I liked most about investment banking was talking to CEOs, CFOs and the exec team and being a part of their strategy decisions. However, I found it frustrating that our work with them was so short lived; you’d work with them on a deal for a few months, but then you never got to see if it was a good or bad transaction. I saw the private equity side as a way to have a longer-term impact on companies and to provide me with that accountability that I felt like I was missing on the investment banking side.

What is your favorite part of the job? What is the most challenging part of the job?
One of my favorite parts of the job continues to be speaking with and learning from different entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs who have all built really successful businesses. I love hearing their stories – it always amazes me how many ways there are to make money and its truly inspiring to hear how these businesses get built from the ground up. I also love sitting on boards and being able to set strategy and direct businesses in one way or another. Being part of the growth trajectory of a company can be so exciting. And reflecting on that path can be so rewarding…where we start out at the beginning of an investment and where we end up when we exit often looks vastly different.  

The most challenging part of the job is just how competitive the world of private equity is today. There are businesses and founders/CEOs with whom I’ve spent years building relationships with and would love to partner with but ultimately, I have to stay disciplined on entry valuation to make the math work. In today’s world there will almost always be someone willing to stretch to some astronomical value for a high-quality business. Staying disciplined and picking the right opportunities to stretch on within reason is hard and can be frustrating at times.

What was the best piece of advice you received early in your career? Any other advice for young women in investing?
The best piece of advice I received early on in my career – and what I would pass on to other young women in investing – is not to pull yourself out of this career because of a perception that it might not work for you in the long-term. When I was an associate at TA, it was really hard for me to see how I would be able to manage a career in private equity with the personal / family life that I knew I wanted for myself. I was on the road multiple nights per week, working long hours, etc. and I almost chose to make a career pivot in business school because of the perception that I wouldn’t be able to do both (work in private equity and have a family) ~5 years down the road. But the reality is that things change over time. It doesn’t necessarily get easier, but the structure of your day does change, and you naturally have more control over your day the more senior you are. I look around now, having just come back from maternity leave with my second child, and I am so grateful that I decided to return to TA post business school and figure it out along the way.

The best advice I can give is just to take it year by year and continuously re-evaluate if your current situation is working for you rather than worrying about whether the future situation may or may not work for you. And remember, if it doesn’t work later on, you’ll be an even more desirable candidate for whatever role you decide to pursue then having had that much more experience on the investing side.

What’s your advice to young women for picking the firm they want to spend their career at? What has made you stay at TA all these years?  
Prioritize what’s most important to you personally. Is it the name brand of the firm? The vertical of the industry where you will be spending most of your time? Your team? For me, it was a combination of culture of the firm I was joining, but perhaps more importantly, the culture of the group I was joining within the firm. The most senior people in the group set the tone every day and the fact that we share similar values, including one of them being family, has proven to be key in the stage of my career now where I’m navigating how to balance family life with my career. This was and continues to be very important to me.    

What is your advice for balancing personal life with work?
Having the right support at home is absolutely crucial- a supportive partner of course, but also the right nanny, house cleaners, etc. The reality is you are not going to be able to do everything at 100%, so I’ve found it helpful to prioritize what’s most important to me at home and outsource everything else. I show up 100% for the things that are most important to me/my family at this stage in our lives, and I don’t feel guilty about outsourcing the other stuff. Similarly, on the work side of the spectrum, you need a supportive team and you need to learn to be more efficient with your time. Don’t feel guilty about turning down meetings, work dinners, etc. that aren’t a priority to you. Managing a career and a family is no joke, but it is doable if you are honest with yourself and those around you (on both sides) about what’s important.

Anything else that I didn't touch on that you would like to share or highlight?
Use being a woman in investing to your advantage. Women think about opportunities and problems differently than their male colleagues – embrace that. Women also build relationships differently than men. There is a growing group of women across private equity, investment banking, executive networks etc., and I think because there are fewer of us, we tend to be a closer-knit group and want to help each other out more.

What is your favorite part of living in Boston?
I love how livable Boston is – it’s a walkable city and its easy to have a family in the city. Fall in Boston is also the best time of year and is the epitome of just how beautiful New England can be. People are also proud to be from Boston and I love the comradery of the city.

What is your favorite book?
I’m not sure it’s my favorite book, but one interesting book I read recently was Blindness by Jose Saramago. I read this in 2020 during the early stages of COVID. The book was written in 1995 but has interesting parallels to the COVID-19 outbreak. Its about a city that experiences an unexplained blindness epidemic and the social chaos that unravels as a result. The parallels to COVID are fascinating.

What’s a helpful resource (book, podcast, etc) that you use regularly?
The Broadsheet  – it’s a newsletter by Fortune. It’s like Term Sheet, but the stories are all highlighting powerful women making a difference around the world.

Thank you for your time, Jessica! To learn more about TA Associates check out https://www.ta.com/