LeapFrog Reviews

- Compensation in bottom quartile for PE firms of comparable AUM and focus - Promises the moon and more in recruiting, then fails to deliver. Hires McK / BCG / Bain / JPM / GS type backgrounds for data entry, formatting documents and photocopies - Markets as an "impact" firm but impact is not an internal priority, and not seen in investments. Only important to leaders when it's time to fundraise. - Hierarchical and political. Decisions are based on "power of the story" and not data, and thus next steps require painful consensus building and string-pulling. Top-heavy structure means strategic decisions take a very long time; LeapFrog has the turning radius of an ocean liner. Junior staff have no ability to correct or make suggestions to senior management, no matter what their model or industry report may say. If a partner says it, it's right. - Male leaders get to skip conference calls to put kids in the bath, but female leaders... actually I don't know, since there are no female leaders - Obsessed with PR. Don't bother making a Google alert. The CEO will email you if his name ever comes up in a news article, and ask you to Tweet it. Ridiculous for a PE firm to have 10% of FTE devoted exclusively to PR, on top of IR staff. Why spend time making investments, when instead you could talk about hypothetically making investments?

CEO and partners are all talk, no substance. They treat employees terribly, don't create career/growth paths internally, and have created a toxic and painful work environment. CEO in particular is bad news - unethical, thinks he is God's gift to the world, obsessed with PR, and a bad human being. No loyalty or respect for the team. People are expendable. Facts don't really matter when there's the opportunity to get some news coverage. He will blatantly lie and manipulate. Not an enabling environment for growth or professional development in any way. They will lie to you when they hire you and tell you that you're going to get great opportunity and exposure, but once you're in, they'll treat you like dirt. Junior staff are expected to be at the beck and call of the partners, with no upside. Lots of turnover at the mid-level, so mentors for junior staff are often partners who are incredibly inaccessible.