Why Coatue: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

Coatue Overview

Founded in 1999, Coatue is an American investment firm with a singular obsession on supporting tech-based companies.

The firm is led by its founder and portfolio manager, Philippe Laffont, who is also a former investment professional at McKinsey & Company and Tiger Management.

Coatue invests both in private and public markets in the following sectors: technology, telecommunications, media, healthcare, and consumer.

Their core technology-driven strategies include:

• Public
• Growth
• Venture
• Thematic
• Structured Capital

Coatue’s headquarters is located in New York City, with additional offices in Menlo Park, California, Shanghai, London, and Hong Kong.

Coatue AUM

According to most recent regulatory filings, Coatue has $50.5 billion in assets under management as of March 30, 2023. 

Coatue Interview Process & Questions

Firms can always make adjustments in their interview process with each candidate. However, some of the general nature of the process stays the same for Coatue (or a firm like it)

• The interview process will consist of 4 to 6 rounds of interviews.
• Junior investment professionals or the HR team tend to supervise the initial rounds, while more senior staff conduct the later rounds.
• The entire interview process can take several weeks unless it’s “on-cycle” or “on-campus” recruiting.

Interviews at Coatue will have you answer a mixture of behavioral questions, fit questions, and technical / investing questions.

To better prepare for interviews, check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Why Coatue

The most common question you’ll encounter during interviews is “Why this firm?”

Interviewers like to ask this question because they want to check if you’ve done some research and if you have specific reasons why you decided to join their team.

If you’ve done networking, this is the right time to mention whoever you’ve met at the firm and how their insights compelled you to apply at the firm.

Also, take some time to research the firm. One of the best ways to do this is to go through the interviews with its founders, investors, and management team.

You can start with this great interview with Philippe Laffont, Founder and CEO of Coatue:

More interviews

• Interview with Thomas Laffont and Alex Izydorczyk of Coatue
• Interview with Dan Rose, Chairman at Coatue

Coatue Case Study

Interviewees are almost always required to perform a case study during interviews. Case studies is a means to evaluate the candidate’s technical knowledge and communication skills. 

Most case studies at firms like Coatue will require you to conduct financial modeling and investment recommendations. However, cold calling case studies can be included in the process for junior roles.

Check out my in-depth discussion of case studies inside my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Coatue Salary & Compensation

Analysts at Coatue can earn an estimated total pay of $116,896 per year, while Associates make around $155,396 per year according to Glassdoor. These numbers represent the median, and can still vary depending on your experience, qualifications, and performance.

Analyst

Associate

Based on other publicly available data, recent associates and analysts at Coatue have both earned salaries of $150,000 per year.

Coatue Careers, Jobs, & Internships

Head over to our job board to see open roles at Coatue. We also feature job vacancies from other similar firms.

Coatue Portfolio & Investments

According to Crunchbase, Coatue has made 43 investments and operates three funds since inception. Some of their notable deals include Verse, Sundeck, and Endor Labs.

Notable Transaction: Nomic AI

Nomic AI is an AI startup which introduced an open-source AI model called “GPT4ALL” which is free for everyone to download and could  work on various devices such as laptops and mobile phones. It also has a tool named “Atlas” which enables users to visualize unstructured datasets used to build LLM.

Nomic said that their goal is to drive the visibility of datasets in model training and to allow everyone to have free access to AI models in the future.

In July 2023, Coatue led a $17 million funding round for Nomic, with participation from Betaworks and Contrary Capital.

This investment valued Nomic at $100 million, which demonstrates the continued interest of VCs to support small teams building AI products.

Coatue has a history of investing in open-source AI startups including their deals with Stability AI, Replit, and Hugging Face.

Next Steps

Coatue might be the right firm for you if you’re interested in technology investing.

Now, if you want to land a role at their firm, or any similar firms, make sure to check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide. Inside this self-paced online course, you’ll find step-by-step lessons on the topics that firms like to go over during interviews such as case studies, valuation, financial modeling, and many more.

The course also provides expert tips, mental models, and frameworks which are quite helpful when answering interview questions under pressure.

Get the course today and maximize your chances of landing a role in finance.