Hwikeun Kim
Dartmouth College
St. Cloud Intern Reflection, May 2021
I am currently a Junior at Dartmouth College, studying Economics. This is my 2nd internship at St Cloud Capital, LLC; this time as a Winter/Spring 2021 intern. I had one of the best internship experiences here at the firm in the Winter of 2019, and the firm was kind enough to welcome me back during my off terms at Dartmouth. This shows how much St Cloud cares about the individual relationships with its interns and how much I enjoyed my 1st internship.
Needless to say, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected some aspects of the internship program, but I think the firm did a great job maintaining what made my 1st internship memorable. The first few weeks of the internship started off virtually. Although there were some latencies in communication due to the nature of the “remote environment,” the Vice Presidents at the firm did a great job setting individual calls to go over projects and following up to check on the status and offer guidance when needed. Furthermore, they have dedicated an hour block of their week to answer any questions regarding work and talk about recruiting, market activities, or what has been happening over the week to maintain the sense of connectedness even over Zoom.
As the COVID cases decreased and the vaccination effort ramped up in Los Angeles, I was welcomed back into the office. It was great to be there in-person to join weekly Monday and Wednesday meetings and various client/investment calls. I was also able to help with the year-end reporting, including portfolio company valuations, financial reporting, LP letters, and more. Additionally, I assisted with the firm’s fundraising effort for its new fund. Through this process, I gained an understanding of both the importance of relationship management, financial reporting, fund performance and many of the detailed rules and regulations required to get a subsequent SBIC fund approved by the SBA. This was a unique experience to learn in-depth about how the fund is structured that most people at my career level do not have exposure to.
Overall, the internship at St. Cloud offered me many learning opportunities in the private equity/private debt markets. I want to express a special thanks to Managing Partners Ben Hom, Kacy Rozelle, and Robert Lautz for allowing me to intern with St. Cloud, and Brian Chow, Matt Smith, and Sibyl Kavak for their exceptional mentorship.