Summer at Caprae
I joined Caprae as an intern not really knowing what to expect. Coming from an economics background, most of my academic and work experience had been focused on business strategy and consulting, not private equity or finance in the traditional sense. I hadn’t done a finance internship before, and diving into something as fast-moving and unfamiliar as Caprae’s environment was definitely out of my comfort zone.
My first few weeks were grounded in lead generation and number gathering. On the surface, the tasks felt pretty repetitive (pulling company data, building lists, checking for accuracy) but they ended up being more foundational than I expected. That early work helped me get a better sense of Caprae’s search fund model, and more broadly, how a deal even begins to take shape. It also gave me a more intuitive sense of different industries and business types. The weekly Sunday strategy meetings were especially helpful. Even though I wasn’t working on every stage of the process myself, hearing how others were thinking about deal flow, due diligence, and owner conversations made the whole picture come into focus more clearly. It felt like getting to sit in on the finance curriculum I never formally took.
I knew early on that I wanted to contribute beyond my initial scope. When the internal tech team mentioned they were looking for help on project management, I raised my hand. That led to a new role supporting the development of Saasquatch, Caprae’s internal lead generation platform. I got to work directly with the tech team on improving user experience and internal workflows. I didn’t come in as a product management expert by any means, but being involved in building something in real time by giving feedback, managing timelines, and thinking through how users actually interact with the tool taught me a lot. It was one of the first times I saw how my softer skills could intersect with more technical environments.
Around that same time, another opportunity opened up on a data analytics project. A mentor intern pitched an initiative to identify and compile a list of all Asian-owned businesses in the U.S. I volunteered to help. As someone more comfortable with statistics and data analysis, I was excited to apply those skills in a more meaningful way. This project pushed me to think critically about how to clean data, use predictive tools, and build something that was both accurate and actionable. But the real highlight came when we got to meet the client behind the project. As an Asian-American, seeing investment interest in Asian-owned businesses was interesting and inspiring. His personal motivation for targeting Asian-owned businesses added a completely new layer of meaning to the work. That conversation reminded me that there are people and values behind every data set. It made the project feel real.
Later in the internship, I had a chance to support Caprae’s recruiting function, which was scaling to meet increased client demand while balancing changes in the workforce. I worked on building a dashboard to help visualize workforce flow and forecast how much additional recruiting would be needed as our in-house tools improved. The dashboard used historical performance data to model hiring needs going forward. It wasn’t the flashiest project, but it was satisfying to create something that could be used to guide actual decisions.
Across all of these different projects, the common thread was that if you wanted to do more, you had to speak up and show up. Caprae isn’t the kind of place where someone hands you a roadmap. You have to be assertive, stay engaged, and find ways to bring your own strengths to the table, even if you’re not the most traditional fit at first. On top of this, Caprae isn’t the kind of place that honors a hierarchy. Those who put in the work and have the skills will progress. Overall, while I wasn’t coming in with heavy finance experience, I left with a much stronger grasp of the private equity process and...