Boutique bank PWP's insane pay strategy paid off, finally
“Diamond hands” is a slang term to describe holding onto a volatile investment even when there’s pressure to sell. It’s mostly used by crypto bros to describe their “fartcoins” or whatever else, but there’s a much more august institution that could be described has having diamond hands: boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners.
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PWP's Q1 results for 2025 were published earlier today. They were excellent; revenue more than doubled at the firm between Q1 of 2024 and 2025, and it swung back from a significant net loss to a strong net income.
PWP’s staff were rewarded for the performance. Its compensation spend for the quarter went up by 29%, and average pay per head reached a stratospheric $213k, up from the still-significant -but-more-moderate $178k it paid in Q1 of 2024.
It might be worth asking why exactly the increase was so “moderate” in comparison to revenue. The reason is simple: while the M&A market ground to a halt and banks were scaling back compensation significantly, PWP kept pay high. It was a high-risk strategy, and at one point the bank’s compensation ratio (the amount it paid its staff relative to revenue) reached an eye-watering, and no doubt painful, 113%. The bank was taking a financial hit for the quarter to keep pay as high as it did.
What PWP didn’t do, however, was hire. The firm had “approximately 700” people at end of Q4, and “approximately 700” now. That number might creep up (approximately) in the future, however, as CEO Andrew Bednar noted that the firm continues to “invest in talent in attractive industry sectors.”
PWP’s success was in contrast to some of its peers. PJT Partners, for example, had a mild revenue decline and cut some heads (to make way for partners). But it’s not all doom and gloom there, either. “We're always available to hire the best, most talented people,” founder and CEO of PJT, Paul Taubman, said. “The demand on our part is unwavering.”
John Weinberg of Evercore, who had results earlier in the week, said something similar. “If there's A plus talent that would like to come over, we accommodate that,” Weinberg told investors. “We have a good pipeline, and we're going to continue to consistently hire very strong people.”
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