> $100k buy in at the hedgefund I know. Its a big figure for most but starting salaries, friends & family, and personal loans will get you there.

Surely this is a HN culture bubble? Very few people can borrow tens of thousands of dollars from family and friends to lend to a hedge fund. Not only would I be refused, I'd damage friendships by exposing the moral vacuum at my core.

It has more to do with the nature of the industry and firm. If your TC yearly is all cash and exceeds 500k, asking 100k of that as buy in is not too different from being granted stock options as an outcome. They could just reduce your TC by 100k one year and replace it with equity in the pool.

Being able to borrow that amount might be a bubble, but depending on the fund I don't think it would damage friendships at all. If you had access to the internal Renaissance fund for example I think your friends would be happy to get in on that.

Big Canadian bank I know had something like a requirement to own $450k of shares to be a board member. But they sliding scale exempted you for your first 5 years and gave you $90k in shares each year, so as long as number go up, there was no actual outlay.

I would think JS pays most of their employees well enough that the buy in can be waived, or as part of total comp that vests over some years.