Lexie Bartlett

Principal at General Atlantic

Background
Lexie Bartlett is a Principal at General Atlantic and focuses on investments in the firm’s Consumer sector. Before joining General Atlantic in 2020, Lexie worked at Warburg Pincus and Bain Capital where she focused primarily on consumer and healthcare investments. Lexie started her career in the Private Equity Group at Goldman Sachs.
 
Lexie earned a BA in Engineering at Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Lexie serves as a member of the board of directors at European Wax Center, Vegamour, Restore Hyper Wellness, and Buff City Soap. She also serves as a member of the board of directors at Girls Inc NYC, a non-profit organization. She and her husband, Peter, live in New York City with their son and daughter.
 
What inspired you to pursue a career in investing?
To be honest, I stumbled upon it in college. My original plan was to become an engineer, which I was studying because I’ve always liked problem-solving and working with data. Before fully barreling down the engineering career path, I was curious to learn a bit about finance since I’d had limited exposure to it and wanted to see what it was really like. I was lucky enough to get internships in investment banking and private equity. What I found was that investing had all the things I enjoyed most about engineering with the added importance of relationship building and strategic thinking to drive decisions, all of which I loved. The fast-paced environment and the opportunity to learn from so many fascinating companies and management teams were exciting. It was challenging – especially in the beginning – because I had to push myself to get up the learning curve since I had never studied accounting or finance in school, but I was fortunate to learn from great people on my team. That’s been one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about investing – you never stop learning.

How did you think about your decision to go to business school and to come back to PE post-MBA?
The decision to go to business school was really an evolution for me. When I first graduated college, I was so eager to get out into the working world that I wouldn’t have considered going back to school. But over the course of my analyst and associate days, I started hearing about the benefits of business school from coworkers who had good experiences. I also worked long hours with little time to step back and be intentional on my personal and professional development. It became apparent that business school is a pretty unique and incredible opportunity to reset, widen your network and develop skills that you don’t usually get the opportunity to when you’re heads down in your career.
 
I look back on my business school days with so much gratitude because I learned a great deal especially about leadership, met amazing people, and was able to step back and put that intentionality I was looking for into my path forward.
 
The decision to come back to PE was a bit simpler since I knew I enjoyed investing. The piece I wanted to sort out post-MBA was exploring growth equity. Prior to business school, my experience focused on traditional later stage PE, but I always found myself most excited when we looked at growthier, disruptive deals. I ended up pursuing growth equity post-MBA, which I’ve absolutely loved.

What do you find most rewarding and most challenging about your current role?
The most rewarding part of my role by far is working closely with our management teams to help them achieve their visions and deliver strong outcomes, especially after a lot of hard work and grit. Every single company faces difficult decisions and unforeseen bumps in the road. What differentiates great companies are great business models led by great people who can figure out how to navigate those bumps and maximize their opportunities.
 
As I think about the most rewarding parts of my role, there are some big moments, like my first time ringing the NASDAQ opening bell with the European Wax Center management team at their IPO. We had put in so much hard work preparing for the IPO and the management team had done an incredible job navigating COVID after temporarily closing all their locations. It was thrilling to be together that day as I reflected on how much they had accomplished and how grateful we felt to be their partners. But I also find the little day-to-day things rewarding – whether helping a company on a new hire or initiative or an exciting call with a prospect, as these ‘little’ things can be the building blocks for great outcomes.
 
The most challenging part of my role is juggling competing priorities. At any given moment, there are a number of things I could be doing for each portfolio company, new deal and prospect. Some days I wake up thinking I will be focusing on a certain set of priorities and then by mid-day something more critical has come up. I’ve found some ways to help balance priorities, with the most important being delegating and teamwork – working with great colleagues who are curious and hungry to take on more responsibilities helps get all the important stuff done as a team and provides each person an opportunity to contribute to the end goal.
 
I’ve also always been a big user of lists to prioritize what needs to get done. While part of the benefit is just writing everything down so I can cross things off the list and avoid things slipping through the cracks, the more important benefit is that it forces me to be intentional about what really needs to get done and how to manage my time around those priorities.

What have you found to be most helpful in balancing your career and family?
It’s hard! But what’s helped me is being present in whatever I’m doing. When I’m with my kids and husband, they have my undivided attention. We’ve enjoyed creating rituals – every morning after I give my 12-month-old a bottle, I make breakfast with my 3-year-old and it’s one of the best parts of our day.
 
When I’m at the office, my focus is work. What’s really helped me is that I genuinely love both – I love my husband and kids more than anything, and I’m really passionate about my career. I feel extremely lucky to be able to enjoy both and to have support from my “village” (my husband, our caregiver, family, friends, coworkers and others, whether it’s by helping with the kids or just being a shoulder to lean on) because it’s such a team effort – and so much better that way!

What advice would you give to a junior female investment professional early in her career?
Stay curious. Believe in yourself and be unapologetically you. Don’t be afraid to take risks and push yourself out of your comfort zone – this is when you will learn the most.   

What’s your favorite book, podcast, or show?
The most impactful book that helped me reframe so many things in my life was Mindset by Carol Dweck.

Thank you for your time, Lexie! To learn more about General Atlantic, click here.