Why The Westly Group: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

The Westly Group Overview

The Westly Group is one of the largest venture funds in North America, specializing in clean energy, transportation, buildings, and Industry 4.0.

They invest in businesses at various stages, from Seed to Series C, with check sizes ranging from $500k to $15M. Their focus is on high-growth, capital-efficient companies in sectors such as energy, mobility, buildings, industrial technology, and cybersecurity.

Over the past two decades, The Westly Group has partnered with exceptional entrepreneurs from the very beginning of their ventures.

In 2008, they invested in a 29-person team called Tesla when Elon Musk set out to create the first mass-market electric vehicle company.

In 2014, they invested in the Series A round of Sentinel One and have participated in every subsequent round, supporting Tomer Weingarten and his team in building the future of endpoint cybersecurity.

The Westly Group’s network of LPs includes 30 of the world’s largest energy, mobility, and industrial brands.

Steve Westly founded The Westly Group in 2007. Currently, the firm is based in Menlo Park, California.

The Westly Group AUM

According to the official website of The Westly Group, the firm has $800M+ in assets under management.

The Westly Group Interview Process & Questions

Firms can always modify their interview processes for each candidate; however, if you interview at The Westly Group (or a similar firm), here’s what you can likely expect:

• Around 4-6 interview rounds
• Initial interviews are typically led by junior investment professionals or the HR team, while more senior staff conduct the later rounds
• The entire process usually spans multiple weeks (unless it is “on-cycle” or “on-campus” recruiting)

Interviews at The Westly Group will include a mix of fit questions, behavioral questions, and technical/investing questions.

If you need help preparing for interviews, check out the Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Why The Westly Group

“Why this firm” is one of the most common and important interview questions.

If you’ve done some networking, this is a great opportunity to mention anyone you’ve met at the firm and how they made a positive impression on you.

Try to research the firm as well. One of the best ways to learn about a firm is to listen to interviews with its founders or investors.

For example, here’s CNBC interview with Steve Westly, former Tesla board member and The Westly Group founder and managing partner:

More Interviews

• Steve Westly talks about the EV automaker
• Discussion with Steve Westly at “Closing Bell” overtime

The Westly Group Case Study

Interviewees almost always encounter a case study during interviews. Case studies help firms evaluate your technical knowledge and communication skills.

Most case studies at firms like The Westly Group focus on financial modeling and investment recommendations. For junior roles, a cold calling case study is often included as well.

If you need help preparing for case studies, check out our course: Growth Equity Interview Guide.

The Westly Group Salary & Compensation

There is no recent data on analyst and associate hires, however, Salary.com estimates the average salary for employees at The Westly Group to be around $109,942 per year. Those in the top 75th percentile earn over $124,585.

Salaries vary based on the job, department, location, and the employee’s education, certifications, and additional skills.

Here is a table showing different job titles and their corresponding salary ranges at The Westly Group.

The Westly Group Careers, Jobs, & Internships

To view open positions at The Westly Group, visit our job board. It lists all available roles at The Westly Group and similar firms.

The Westly Group Portfolio & Investments

According to Crunchbase and The Westly Group’s record, the firm has made 100 investments across five funds. Some of their notable deals include Condoit, Diagon, and Ampcontrol.

Notable Transaction: Learn to Win

Learn to Win is the leading provider of personalized, predictive, and secure enterprise training software.

Using artificial intelligence, data science, and a modern cloud-native platform, Learn to Win revolutionizes how organizations train their teams, ensuring success in complex, fast-paced environments.

Learn to Win’s platform is the only modern training technology accredited with sole source contracting authority to serve IL6 (SECRET) customers at the Department of Defense.

On June 12, 2024, Learn to Win announced it had raised an oversubscribed $30 million in Series A funding led by The Westly Group, with additional support from Norwest Venture Partners and Pear VC.

This funding will accelerate the company’s efforts to scale its cutting-edge training platform, which redefines how people learn critical information in high-stakes situations.

Next Steps

The Westly Group is an excellent firm to build your career in finance. If you want to be part of their team, you have to stand out during your interviews.

For that, I would recommend my Growth Equity Interview Guide which is a self-paced online course designed to teach you the critical topics such as case study, financial modeling, and many more. Check it out and start learning today!