Digital media company expands into Wall Street recruiting

Litquidity, the digital media company closely followed by Wall Street’s junior bankers, is expanding into their recruitment.

The anonymously led startup — known for shedding light on everything from finance industry salaries to meal stipends — has launched an effort to land its followers roles at private equity firms, hedge funds, venture capital firms and other alternative asset managers.

Founded in 2017 by an anonymous former investment banker and private equity staffer who refers to himself as “Lit,” the service is partnering with executive search firm Whitney Partners to launch Litney Partners. Bennett Jordan, a Whitney managing director and Harvard University graduate known by fans of "The Bachelorette" for his 2020 run on the TV show, will be managing partner of the new venture.

“Litquidity’s following is so powerful with the younger generation, and we think there’s a massive opportunity to leverage it for recruitment and to disrupt how top junior talent is connected with financial institutions,” Jordan said in an interview.

Young financiers already use Twitter to network and form relationships, according to Lit, who noted that his Gen Z and millennial audience spends upward of 2½ hours a day on social media — and not LinkedIn, but rather the likes of Instagram and Twitter, across which Litquidity has more than a million followers.

Despite smaller bonuses, a dealmaking slump, job cuts and a cooling in the war for talent on Wall Street, Litney Partners believes prospective clients remain desperate for analysts with at least two years of investment banking experience, as well as associates, including those who have already made a leap to the buy side.

“Junior recruitment remains a huge challenge for firms,” Jordan said. “Juniors are not as loyal as they used to be — they can easily move laterally for a compensation bump, so there is an ongoing void.”

Litquidity’s move into recruitment was an obvious next step after Lit realized his followers engaged most heavily with advertisements for financial-modeling courses and career-coaching services. 

“Given the revolving door of juniors moving in and out of firms will continue throughout the recession, it is natural for us to bring recruiting to the digital media spaces that are most efficient and en vogue among Gen Z and millennials,” Jordan said.

Litney’s recruiting efforts — and an opportunity to upload one’s résumé — will be shared with Litquidity’s 200,000-plus newsletter subscribers, according to Lit, who said he hopes familiarity with and trust in the brand he created will help Litney compete against traditional headhunters. The venture will focus on junior investment professional and investor relations roles in the U.S. before potentially expanding to the UK, with New York and London home to the largest concentration of Litquidity followers.