Synergist Senior Sound Bites - October 2020:
Angela Zhang

Background
 
Angela Zhang is a Principal at GI Partners, a private equity fund in San Francisco, and focuses on investments in Software, Fintech and Payments. Angela joined GI in 2015 and is the first woman to rise to the ranks of Principal on the private equity team at the firm. Angela currently serves on the boards of software companies Daxko and Togetherwork. Previously, Angela worked at Advent International where she focused on investments in the Technology, Media and Telecom sectors. Angela earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from the Ivey Business School at Western Ontario. Angela began her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs in New York. Angela has been recognized for her leadership and investing acumen, being named as one of the Top Female Deal Makers by the Wall Street Journal and in the Electronic Transactions Association’s (ETA) 2020 Forty Under 40, which recognizes young leaders and gamechangers in the payments technology industry.
 
Tell us about your background.
 
Inspired by my Dad who is an entrepreneur and started his own software company, I decided to major in business in college. I attended the University of Western Ontario, where I studied 2 years of software engineering before completing my 2 year business program at the Ivey Business School. I interned at Goldman in the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) over the summer of 2008 – amid the Great Recession – and went back full-time. FIG was great and I loved Goldman, but FIG was a specialized, technical industry, and I wanted to branch out early in my career to diversify my industry experience. Given my software engineering background, I decided to focus on technology / software and I joined Advent’s first ever dedicated TMT team as an Associate. I then went to HBS and am now at GI.
 
How did you know you wanted to be in investing?
 
I was always fascinated by how much you can learn about a company by just looking at the financials. I loved learning about businesses and thinking through key strategic issues so finance / investing was a natural path for me. After Advent, I briefly thought I would start a company (follow in my Dad’s footsteps) but quickly found out it wasn’t a fit after starting 3 companies in my first year at HBS. I then explored the public markets and interned at a mutual fund during my business school summer, but also felt it wasn’t a fit. Ultimately, with high conviction, I wanted to go back to PE. In PE, we deal with the most important strategic issues at our companies every day, we have the ability to impact change and we do it in a team based environment with extremely smart and driven people.
 
How did you end up in San Francisco and why did you choose to work in middle market private equity?
 
My summer internship in business school was in SF and I absolutely loved living in the city. My family lives in Calgary (Alberta, Canada) so the West Coast brought me much closer to home after spending many years on the East Coast. I wanted to join a PE firm that 1) had great people 2) had high deployment velocity (given this is an apprenticeship business and I needed reps as a new VP) and 3) was growing and offered growth opportunities for its investment professionals. I felt that mid-market firms were a better fit for the career trajectory that I was looking for. I narrowed it down to ~10 mid-market firms in SF and reached out to every firm on the list. I actually was not selected for a first round interview at GI – one of my friends knew GI was on my list so told me he had heard they were interviewing. I cold emailed the Director leading HBS recruiting and said, “Hi, attached is my resume and I feel I would be qualified for the VP role at GI… would love to be considered in the process.” So, long story short, I did a first round interview virtually (as I missed the on-campus in person slots), got to the final round and got the job. You have to fight for the things you want!
 
I really enjoy the amount of interaction and impact you have as a board member and investment professional in a mid-market PE firm. I feel ownership for the performance and success of my portfolio companies and for the GI private equity franchise as a whole. At GI, I helped us develop a playbook around underwriting and launching payments processing as an important value creation initiative for our vertical software companies. It is incredibly rewarding and interesting to see how we can systematically develop this capability across the GI portfolio. The cross-portfolio, more operational view is quite unique to investment professionals and was a great way for me to add real value across the firm.
 
What is your favorite part of your job?
 
I find the intellectual stimulation amazing. Tackling a problem, understanding a company / industry and how things work is really exciting for me. I also love the people I work with. It’s really important to develop your teams, build the culture internally and mentor up-and-coming investment professionals because it makes a huge difference in how much I enjoy my day to day. I would not be where I am today without the help and guidance of so many that came before me.
 
What’s a challenge you’ve had to overcome in your career?
 
One of my biggest challenges early on was self-confidence. When I joined Goldman, I didn’t speak at all for the first 6 months in team meetings or in front of clients. My staffer pulled me aside once to ask why I wasn’t speaking. I told her I felt like the least qualified person in the room and didn’t have much to add. She told me I had to start speaking up. I started small with just affirmations like “yep” or “ I agree.” Over time, it became more natural and I even got comfortable enough to walk directly into my MD’s office to ask him questions that only he would have the answers to. It’s been a continuous  journey since then – being an associate at private equity firm, going to HBS in a case-based model (and speaking every day), and now being a little bit more senior and in a leadership role. At some point, I just had to get over it and realized I was getting in my own way with negative self-talk. It can be hard when you might not have the physical presence (I am 5 ft 2!) and you need people to take you seriously in a different way. I command presence by being a subject matter expert and knowing my stuff – asking thoughtful questions, getting to the bottom of an issue, and voicing my opinion.
 
Most days I don’t actively acknowledge being the only woman in the room – but, a lot of things do pop up in my head that my male colleagues likely don’t deal with like “what should I wear to this event,” or “gosh, they’re talking about football again”. The key is to find your own way to connect with the people in the room. You will also want to make sure you are working at a firm and with a team that values what you’re bringing to the table regardless of any perceived differences.

Advice for young women in investing?
 
I once sat in on a session where Holly Haynes, founder of Luminate, said “Women are so focused on being perfect and 99% right before they make a comment or voice their opinion. What men understand earlier than women in their investing careers is that the question we are always trying to answer is how do we make money.” The question is not “is this company the most well positioned in the market,” but instead “how is this company positioned and how do we make money.” It may be that the target is not (yet) a leader in its space, which doesn’t automatically mean it’s a bad investment! The answer could be there are acquisition targets to bolster its positioning, or product improvements that can be made. Re-frame the question, take a view and speak up. There may not be one “right answer” to some of these questions because there could be many ways to reach your target returns. At the end of the day, this is the common language investors have as we try to generate returns for our LPs, management teams and other stakeholders. So take the extra time to summarize the “so what”, figure out how to push the ball forward and be creative. This has been a very helpful piece of advice for my career.
 
How do you balance your personal life with a demanding job?
 
One misconception about PE that it is not a career for women. If you can find a firm that values diversity and a partner that understands the demands of the job, you can garner a support system to balance the two. As you get more senior you have a lot more control of your schedule, but I have to remind myself that you can’t have everything and it's ok to make sacrifices. My partner and I recently had our first baby in September, and while it has been complete madness, it was great that GI was so supportive of my professional career and my personal life. I recognize that my life will never go back to life without the baby, and that I will need to be more flexible going forward, but my team recognizes that too. I had a vision for how I wanted my parental leave to work and GI has been very accommodating to date. It’s tough to navigate some of these specific issues on your own (whether it’s parental leave, promotions or comp) so reach out to other women that have gone through it for help!
 
If you weren’t in private equity, what would you do?
 
I’d be a singer. When I was 7 or 8, I told my dad I wanted to a businesswoman after seeing him run his own business. He told me I needed to work on my “executive presence.” I obviously didn’t know what that meant at the time but he guided me towards the stage. I started singing opera, pop and Broadway, and even worked at an amusement park as a performer. I started competing and was given a spot at an international singing competition in Hong Kong culminating in a record deal. In the end, I decided to turn it down and pursue college instead of committing to a career as a singer. But, I’m still passionate about music and am grateful for all the joy it brings – especially at karaoke or performing at the occasional friend’s wedding!

 

Thank you for your time, Angela! To learn more about GI Partners, click here.