Why Five Elms Capital: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

Five Elms Capital Overview

Five Elms Capital is a growth equity firm which prefers to invest in fast-growing B2B software companies.

The firm provides resources and capital to help companies propel their growth and maintain their positioning as industry leaders. Five Elms Capital typically invests $5-75 million – majority or minority investments, liquidity or growth capital – in companies with revenues of $2-20 million. 

In 2007, Fred Coulson founded Five Elms Capital, which is currently located in Kansas City, Missouri. Fred is also the Spring Venture Group’s Founder and Chairman. Before founding Five Elms and Spring Venture, Fred was a senior investment professional with TH Lee Putnam Ventures.

Five Elms Capital AUM

As per the most recent regulatory filings, Five Elms Capital has $1.6 billion in assets under management as of March 30, 2023.

Five Elms Capital Interview Process & Questions

Firms can always modify their interview process with each candidate. However, the general nature of the process stays the same at Five Elms Capital (or a firm like it). Here’s what you can likely expect:

• 4-6 rounds of interviews
• Junior investment professionals or the HR team conduct the first rounds, while more senior folks handle the later rounds
• Unless it’s “on-cycle” or “on-campus” recruiting, the entire process can last multiple weeks

Be prepared to answer a mixture of behavioral questions, technical / investing questions, and fit questions when you interview at Five Elms Capital.

Check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide if you need help preparing for interviews.

Why Five Elms Capital

“Why this firm” is one of the most common and important questions you’ll receive during interviews.

If you’ve done networking, make sure to mention whoever you’ve met and how they left a positive impression on you which influenced your decision to apply.

Also, it’s a good practice to research the firm before attending interviews. One of the best ways to learn about a firm is to listen to interviews with its founders, investors, or management team.

To start, here’s a discussion with Thomas Kershisnik – Managing Director, Five Elms Capital:

More interviews

• Interview with Nassir Criss, investor at Five Elms Capital
• Q&A: Fred Coulson on Five Elms, funding region ‘for decades to come’ – Silicon Prairie News

Five Elms Capital Case Study

Case studies are almost always part of interviews. That’s because case studies help firms assess the communication skills and technical knowledge of their applicants.

Most case studies at firms like Five Elms Capital center around investment recommendations and financial modeling. However, if you’re applying for a junior role, your interviewers may ask you to perform a cold calling case study as well.

For in-depth video lessons on case studies, I invite you to check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Five Elms Capital Salary & Compensation

The estimated total pay for Analysts and Associates at Five Elms Capital according to Glassdoor is $80,986 and $85,985 per year, respectively. These figures represent the median and can still change depending on your experience, education, and skills.

Analyst

Associate

Five Elms Capital Careers, Jobs, & Internships

If you’re interested in joining Five Elms Capital, check out our job board to see open roles for them and other similar firms.

Five Elms Capital Portfolio & Investments

According to Crunchbase and Five Elms Capital’s record, the firm has invested in 50+ software platforms and raised $1.5+ billion capital commitments across five funds. Some of their notable deals include Prismatic, Field Agent, and Lumar.

Notable Transaction: Continu

Continu is a Learning Management System that’s built to provide good user experience to customers, employees, or third party vendors by making it easy for them to access training they need.

Continu had 200% year-over-year revenue growth and their team had 400% growth in the last nine months. They also worked with some notable clients such as Slack, Impossible Foods, GoPro, Upwork, US Foods, and many more.

On February 10, 2022, Continue closed a $13.5 million Series A funding led by Five Elms Capital – with participation from Geoffrey T. Barker, Chairman of Smartshee, and Reformation Partners.

Continue plans to use the funding to scale its product offerings and expand its team so they can achieve their vision of improving the future of workplace learning.

Next Steps

If you’re interested in investing in B2B software companies, Five Elms Capital could be the right firm for you. To make sure you maximize your chance of getting selected for the role when you interview at Five Elms (or a firm like it), I highly suggest you check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Growth Equity Interview Guide is a self-paced online course that contains step-by-step video lessons which cover growth modeling, valuation, case studies, and all other topics that firms typically ask during interviews.

Get the course and make your preparation easier and more effective!