Learn how to spell before you call other people stupid.

Riiiight... *burns 'DUMBA**' into idiot's forehead with her hammer*

What about her Father, 'Howitzer' Al?!

I interviewed with and worked for Houlihan Smith for about a week. The key is THEY TRAIN YOU TO BE RUDE. THEY TRAIN YOU TO BE PUSHY but it's all a script. I'm not an A##***E so I COULDN'T WORK THERE. Don't give them an inch or they'll take the full mile. Confidential business matter my @$$... When I changed jobs, they called my new company and I gave the guy the WORKS and then hung up on him.

None of the tombstones were from Madison Street Capital.  They all had Houlihan on them; and most of the tombstones were real deals done by Houlihan Smith & Company, before the merger with the "questionable" group.  None of the tombstones are dated either.

STOP THE CALLS!

How come most of the negative posting sound like they are from people who never retained this company or worked with them beyond the initial contacts.

You have been grossly misinformed.  They do tons of deals.  If the deals were not real you know they could not have a tombstone.  Quit lying.  What's in it for you?

Loved your comments.  Nobody wants to take responsibility anymore.  The business owners or their employees.  This Houlihan company seems pretty aggressive.  Thank you for the in-site.  It's a company like that(proactive and persistent) that I want to work with.

Good thought, maybe these  people should be working instead of blogging, including you and me.  Cutting down things we know nothing about seems to be a common pass time these days.

Businesses call businesses all the time to do business.  You only have to work with people you choose to work with based on your needs.  Quit whining.  Unless you actually do work with some one, your opinion of what may have been means nothing.

I found this blog interesting based on such modest fees.  My guess is that if 40K  put your former employee out of business by working with a bunch of smart guys that were trying to help him, you have no business blaming it on Houlihan Smith.  The company had a lot more problems than you must have been made aware of before it failed.  Maybe your former employer should blame you.  You worked there.

I had an incredible experience with Houlihan Smith in everyway.  They were the ultimate in experience and professionalism.  Every single statement of fact in this blog is fabricated and false.  I hope the editorial opinions are based on some reality.  Needless to say, I doubt it.  His infantile complaint shows how little he knows about working with proactive and diligent investment bankers to accomplish goals.  Get a life.  Stay out of the business world until you know something about it.

Come on Michael, they don't have the capacity to raise money, nor have they produced any legitimate tombstones.  You clearly work there, Madison Street Capital is a joke.

this company raised several million in equity for my company and were the most professional people I have ever delt with

Sounds like they have a nice business calling people and getting them to fork over cash for a valuation.  Look on their website and see that much of their business is "contracted for a business valuation," etc.  They called me on my cell and indeed we are looking for capital, so I talked with them.  The initial caller was quite pushy and did make me tell him to back off several times (and it's hard to get my blood pressure up).  A second guy got involved in a subsequent call.  Then I met with a scout in my office, who was indeed pleasant enough.

They wanted $2500 for an advisor to fly out to do a transaction analysis.  And my partner had to be present for 2 days, which would mean flying him in from another office. Hmmm.  The other thing was, it had to be IMMEDIATE (true of every conversation I have had with them).

Next step, I talked with my partner, we decided that indeed it was a strange turn of events that the I Banker wanted to be paid for his work.  We told them thanks but it was hard to coordinate our schedules, maybe we could do it in a month, and in fact we were stunned that they wanted our $$$ besides.  They have continued to call but I have been ignoring them.

Since then I've started to talk with other I Bankers (met with some yesterday afternoon in fact) and turned over other stones - most are much more pleasant and accommodating.

Where are we now?  Houlihan called again and I talked with yet another senior advisor who is not on their website (none of them seem to be) - he cut the price in half and said he had someone in the area who could be here Wednesday... I asked for the resume.

Will post again if anything exciting comes out of this positive or negative.

I realize I'm not the first former employee to vent here, so I'll save how much of a waste this job is to recent grads.

I'd rather try to reason with some of you. I'm familiar with some of the names referenced in previous posts, and while I'm not friends with any of them, I do think they are good people - based on my time at Houlihan.

I consider myself a pretty easy-going guy, I enjoy conversation, but not argument. Which brings me to my main point. They (management) make their employees be condescending and diminutive on the phone, not just to the secretaries but owners too. It's this mentality of not sounding submissive or subordinate to the owners, because apparently only a-holes are successful and deserve respect.

Since leaving the taint that is Houlihan, I've worked at a similar Business Development job. A similar outcome desired but a complete 180 turn in approach. I was cordial and respectful and I was denied by a secretary at most once a week (while dialing as much as at Houlihan) where I would get denied maybe 95% over at Houlihan. If the owner didn't need my services, fine, but at least I didn't feel dirty doing it and I didn't give my company a black eye in the process. Houlihan's "bully" mentality is a terrible idea, and the sooner they realize it, the better their company will look to diligent businesses that need their services.

I can't defend their valuation process or fees because I had NO part in that, just the initial contact. But I just want you all to know that the people behind these calls aren't necessarily jerks, they're just doing what they're told in a crappy climate for jobs. I apologize on behalf of all current and former houlihan employees that were embarrassed about their actions while working there.

No matter which company or person calling trying to do business, should not be rude.  If you are, you do not go sny farther than I, because I have the power to stop you.  We do not want to do business with you, if callers have a lousy attitude or no phone etiquette!  We receive many calls from other businesses and the polite and friendly ones may get a free pass.  Most of the rude ones are liars, too.

These guys are so rude. When I told the caller that my boss was not available and could I take a message, he says " Write this down, never mind you can probably remember this, Tell your boss there is a real world out there and he needs to answer the phone instead of hiding behind his desk." I said my boss didnt have to take any calls if he didn't want to and the guy said " Oh now your defending him? How about I come over there and F the sh*& out of you?" and he hung out.  I was sooo mad!

I believe SCAM is certainly a great way to describe the tactics used by Houlihan and Smith...especially when they attempt underhanded tactics with receptionists and executive staffing members of legitimate businesses...not to mention the offhanded attempts to do websites like this one raw in court. It seems that you serve no useful purpose here but to attempt to demean users of the site. Tell me: How much does Houlihan & Smith pay you to PR them on these sites? I bet you it's not enough.

The only idiot on this list is "banker" -- bet he lives off all of us....

Houlihan Smith, what a joke.  They need to take a class in class.

Grammar, the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Some of the grammar and spelling that is used on here by self-proclaimed "genius, business-savvy" secretaries and assistants is just beautiful!

Mr. Banker,

You must be a highly intelegent person as we can all tell.  Its always the smart people that start out by calling other people iditiots!

I work as my husband's assitiant.  He has an admin also and we have have both taken this call.  The CEO has told this guy to give the referal name and anyother to me (who is also a primary share hold so YES he can talk to me I am chairman of the board)  yet the guy will not tell me ther referal name and NO Citi does not work that way.  They have called on and will tell us the information we need.  

So MR BANKER who probably work for this company, they are a scam and full of it.  Get some morals!

I received from Nick Novak call asking for owner of company by name.  I replied he was not in, could I take a message.  Nick asked if he just stepped out or when he would return.  I said I was unsure.  He asked me to have the owner return his call at this number ext 7200.  I asked what it was concerning and he replied "This is a confidential business matter".  I replied while I won't be able to give him the message without more details.  He replied the owner knows me and knows why I am calling and assured me he would want to take this call.

Banker???? You are not a banker, you are just a moron, well not really, you are just a tiny moron.  Why in the world you insult people? People posting here are not idiots; they well intended people reporting "unwanted" calls and even scams.  I came across to this post because I we got a call today from this number, I answered the phone since my assistant was away from her desk. I am a successful business owner and I know about banking...the person that called today is not a banker, was just an untrained telemarketer like you, rude and annoying.

Wow! Took a break from the phones to write up that steaming pile of crap! Ha you losers are laughable

Banker sounds like you are the idiot! I am a CEO and I know how to find anything I need including funds without some commission driven salesperson calling here and wasting my employees time lying to them. My secretary is told to screen calls and she does. None of these salesmen will ever talk to me no matter how rude they are. No Company or private individual has ever been in financial crisis because they did not talk to a high pressure sales rep from some banking and to suggest such a thing is just another stupid statement from an angry salesman!

Someone called me from Houlihan Smith and said his name was Tom Russell. He gave another number to call him back - 312-275-5515. I do not plan on calling him back. The phone number that showed up on my phone was 312-499-5900. Tom