How to Build a 50-Banker Tech M&A Team | Robin Graham, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

00:00 Intro 02:00 The State of Tech Markets 05:42 AI in Investment Banking 09:30 Building the Tech Banking Team 14:05 Hiring & Investing Through Cycles 18:43 What Makes a Future MD 21:17 Robin's Career Path 25:33 Team Culture and Tenure 28:49 Lessons from Rowing Robin is the Head of Technology Investment Banking at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., where he leads a 50-banker team spanning 12 tech verticals. He has 30+ years of investment banking experience advising high-growth technology companies on M&A and capital raising. Top Takeaways Growth opportunities are increasingly coming from venture-backed targets. Most of the M&A activity Robin's team is seeing isn't traditional buyouts but portcos making strategic acquisitions to build out their existing platforms. Oppenheimer’s recent sale of Kentik to PE-backed Infoblox is one example. For sponsors, it’s a reason to look beyond the traditional add-on universe when building their M&A pipelines. The best use of AI may be capacity creation rather than headcount reduction. Oppenheimer is using an internal analytics tool to offload model-building, SEC data pulls, and other repetitive work. Robin sees the payoff not as needing fewer bankers, but as giving the existing team more capacity to process transactions and spend time with clients. The practical opportunity is to identify where AI can remove execution bottlenecks, then deliberately reinvest that capacity rather than treating efficiency as the end goal. High-stakes moments are built through low-stakes repetition. Robin learned that lesson rowing at Harvard, where months of repetitive training came down to a handful of six-minute races. Dealmaking requires the same discipline: keep doing the work when the payoff is distant, so you’re ready when the moment that matters arrives. About Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. is a full-service investment bank and wealth manager. Robin leads its technology investment banking group, with about 50 bankers across 12 verticals, from semiconductors and enterprise software to defense tech and aerospace. The team has advised on transactions including Backblaze's 2021 IPO, Corvex's $33M data-center financing, and Gilat's ~$157.5M acquisition of Comtech's satellite and space communications segment. === With over 1M organic views and counting on LinkedIn, 51 Labs is disrupting the M&A market through the use of videography and content creation. In a market that longs for authenticity, 51 Labs helps strengthen your brand and tell your story. From concept to distribution, we strategize and produce thoughtful content to be used across a multitude of channels, to help you stand out in an otherwise traditionally boring market. ===== 👇 SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL FOR MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS 👇    / @51labs60   → → → CONNECT WITH 51 LABS ← ← ← ▶︎ LINKEDIN |   / 51labs   ▶︎ INSTAGRAM |   / 51labs   ▶︎ FACEBOOK |   / 5149labs   ▶︎ TWITTER |   / 51labs   → → → CONTACT US ← ← ← ▶︎ WEBSITE | https://5149labs.com Jordan Selleck ▶︎ LINKEDIN |   / selleck