Sample Day Series: “Busy” Day in TAS VBM

9:00 AM: Arrive in the office. Check emails, grab coffee, water, and fruits in the pantry and set up two external monitors and a headset to work more efficiently throughout the day.

9:15 AM: I have some work left over from yesterday, so I begin working on the corroborative calculations for multiple investments for a private equity fund. Luckily, the first company in the private equity fund’s portfolio I am valuing has a straightforward capital structure, has liquidity preferences for the different equities that are pari passu, does not have anti-dilution preferences or participating preferred stock, and has only a few rounds of preferred financing within the past year, without any complex securities involved. The second is similarly simple and our private equity client has majority stake in the company. Hooray! I get to use the current value method for allocating equity to the different tranches of securities!

10:30 AM: Staff meeting. Everyone meets in the conference room and states their availability and any vacation days for the following three weeks. Some managers request for seniors, staff, and GDS staff to work on their projects.

11:00 AM: Our group likes early lunch. We go to Foccacia, which is a VBM favorite spot. During our walk there, we lose some people to the nearby Senior Sisig food-truck. The temptation to get a California burrito with fries is too high, and many cannot resist. All the analysts who end up sticking to Foccacia except me go for a healthy salad or sandwich while I go for the Beef Brisket and potato wedges.

12:30 PM: I put my headset on and dial in a client call. We receive data on the client companies’ growth trajectories, industry cyclicality patterns, and preferred way of projecting financials.

2:30 PM: I begin the modeling for the client we just worked on. I navigate through over 20 tabs on a very nuanced ASC 805 purchase price allocation (PPA) excel sheet and begin linking tab cells to each other and to the main assumptions page. I fill out our technology projections. Today, we have opted for to use a 12-year sigmoid curve to model out the developed technology of this large technology company. The other classes of intangible assets we work with include assembled workforce, brand name, and in process research and development. This modelling takes up most of the day.

3:30 PM: A senior analyst messages me for my availability for the following weeks, and it looks like I am going to be tied up for the following weeks, because a large multinational corporation with multiple reporting units has requested an ASC 350 Goodwill reorganization.

4:00 PM: Someone in our group invites everyone to get coffee in the nearby Peet’s Coffee. I already had a cup of coffee earlier in the day, but this is an excellent opportunity to refresh before doing more work. I leave the office and join my colleagues for coffee.

5:00 PM: I update my schedule for the next few weeks, and take down important deadlines that I have to meet in the coming days and weeks. I observe that a nearby meeting room has emptied and there are free salads and sandwiches from Foccacia. I am glad I did not order a salad or sandwich earlier today when we went to that exact same restaurant earlier today.

6:15 PM: An early lunch calls for an early dinner. It does not look like the other analysts are down for early dinner. They are very focused on their work and are not hungry yet. I get takeout in one of my usual Mexican spots and bring it to the office.

7:00 PM: I shift my attention to an easier task. I write down questions for a Channel 1 409A Stock option valuation engagement that I am working with. Luckily, the valuation specialist is Duff and Phelps, and they generally do a good job. I write a few questions asking about the operational progress since the last valuation date, and follow up with questions relating to the DLOM and DLOC assumptions used in the specialists’ Option pricing model (OPM) backsolve roll-forward-method. It seems the study used to support the venture capital rate of return (VCROR) of 20% is reasonable, given my previous experience valuing past technology clients.

7:45 PM: I send my follow-up valuation questions to the audit team in charge of this client account and note that there are not any notable red flags in the concluded common stock share price and equity value of the client company. In this particular engagement, I am working directly with a manager, so I am in charge of coordinating the deliverables with the audit team.

8:00 PM: I realize that my productivity levels are going down, so I decide to call it a day and call an uber to go back home. If its busy season, I may be expected to stay later, but busy season just finished, so I plan to continue working tomorrow and delegate the economic industry report writing to our staff in our global development hub (India). Unfortunately, Lyft is on surge pricing and Uber has a rate hike! I decide to stay in the office for a bit longer.

8:30: I get a reminder for a soccer game our company will have on Saturday. This looks like fun, so I accept the invitation and look forward to playing against another corporate team (in this league, some of the MBBs and the other Big 4 are registered).

8:45 PM: One of our staff worked in an investment banking firm, so he works really hard and likes to stay in the office late to finish as much work as possible. He says he will go to the gym and come back and continue to work from home afterwards. I hope he does not stay past 12:00 AM, like he did the day before.

8:50 PM: I go to the pantry one last time and see a lone unopened oatmeal-raisin cookie. I tell myself to eat only half but it is surprisingly good so I end up finishing the whole thing.

9:00: Uber is finally charging its regular price. Lyft is still on surge pricing. I quickly request an Uber and note that the driver will be arriving in 3 minutes.