Q&A: Strategic Finance / Corp Dev at late-state technology company (series C+ / $2bn+ valuation)
Hi all - thought I'd give back to the community that helped me a lot when I was in your shoes by doing a Q&A.
Some background on me:
- BS in Business from top 25 university
- Worked as an analyst in the M&A group of an EB / advisory shop
- Currently on the strategic finance team at a late-stage, pre-IPO tech company (Series C+ / $2bn+ valuation)
- ~4 years of experience across both banking and my current role
Open to answering any questions you may have - feel free to ask away.
WSO Mentor
Want to work with me? Check out my profile here.
Thanks for doing this! A few questions from me if that’s alright:
What motivated your switch from banking to Corp strat/dev? From what I see here the primary reasoning is hours, but have you really seen that much of an improvement in your WLB?
Did you take a pay cut? If so, put bluntly, how badly did it hurt? How did you rationalize a drop down in pay without it affecting your ego in what seems like such an ego-driven field?
How did you make the transition to the new role and when? I know corp strat roles are more filled as-needed, but did you start looking as a first year analyst, or did your new position only recruit for second year analysts+?
Thanks so much for doing this! May have some more questions later if that’s okay :)
Hey man thanks for doing this. So would you say 9-7 / 9-8 or something like that is your norm each day w/ little weekend work, so 50-60 hours per week on average probably? Also do you think this is representative of most strategic finance roles at the stage / size of tech company you're at ? Just asking as I'm in the final stages for a very similar role, and am trying to get a better sense of the actual work / life balance offered.
Hi thanks for doing this, interested in potentially making a similar transition as well. I had a couple questions:
1. Were you in a tmt group? And do you find being in a tmt group is generally necessary when trying to move to such roles?
2. How much of your job is split between Corp dec and strategic finance? 50/50? And are these combined roles hard to find?
Thanks!
Perhaps dumb question - what is the distinction between strategic finance and corp dev? I always thought they had a lot of crossovers, with the former doing more FP&A related work and latter focused purely on M&A
As another analyst at an EB looking to jump into tech corp dev/strat/finance roles really appreciate you doing this. Have a few questions -
1. What would you say is the minimum amount of experience you need before making the jump?
2. Do you have to be part of a tech group to make the jump? Or if you have related experience in consumer/media will that work?
3. What is the typical pay range for these roles?
4. How do you go about recruiting for these roles? I assume no headhunter help.
Thanks, this was really helpful.
Quick follow up - does networking help in any way?
What specific job titles / keywords did you set up alerts for? Thanks for the post, super helpful.
Following
how much of the job is ad-hoc admin-related stuff and what specifically does that entail? i.e. in pe, the admin stuff is portco stuff like doing valuations, employment agreements (IMO), managing trackers
also, what's the furthest you've gotten on a deal, and how much worse is it than banking / deeper does your diligence go?
is working with other departments (i.e. marketing, engineering) a huge part of your job, and what are the nuances of that?
how often do you feel like you're constantly on call?
Not a huge amount. Most of the admin work that I do involves sending reports on business updates to the CFO. However, that being said, my team also has to manage the preparation of the quarterly board materials and board KPI updates which tends to be a lot more time consuming/annoying.
I've closed one deal since I joined. We work cross functionally on processes, with my team managing the process, so there's a pretty good division of labor according to each department's functional area (e.g. legal, engineering, etc.). My personal responsibilities would be building the model and any other financial analysis that needs to be done, which is similar to banking, but with less BS work, such as having to create decks for everything, pull logos, etc. My entire team is also ex-IB or PE so that also helps things move more quickly.
It's a pretty big part. The best way for me to describe it would be as an banking analyst you're able to utilize various departments based on what you need (e.g. presentation center, research center, India-based outsourcing services, etc.) and that's kind of the same concept when you work with other departments. Instead of having to find something you have no expertise in, you reach out to other teams for that information, whether it be legal, engineering, etc., to move a project forward.
Not very often. The only instances where I felt like I was constantly on call would be the days leading up to a board meeting, but even that is way better than what I experienced in banking and I never felt like there wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel.
thanks man, i appreciate the answers!
do you think you would hate your job if you weren't 100% interested in the tech subvertical that your company is in (do you mind sharing)?
do most folks in your company proactively stay on top of the sector news, or do company specific events take priority/
also, how do you feel at the end of a workday - do you still have enough energy to research stuff you're into / the sector or are you pretty much ready to relax at 6pm?
Does your corporate strategy/dev team typically only recruit from IB, or is it possible to break into corp dev/strategy coming from FP&A and other backgrounds?
Everyone on my team is from IB/PE. It's definitely possible to break in from other backgrounds, but it probably requires more networking/joining the finance team then trying to internally transfer (think a lot of companies have flexibility if you have an overlapping skillset).
Are you in the bay? And do you feel like there is a good path to management roles at these high growth companies from strategic finance/corp dev roles?
Also how much of your strategic finance work would you say is typical routine fp&a stuff vs how much is actually 'strategic'?
I don't want to say too much about my location, but I'm in a tier 1 city (SF/LA/NY). I'm not sure about at my current company as the management team is pretty built out and many of them have strong backgrounds even by WSO standards. That being said, I think there is a good path as long as your team has a lot of exposure to departments across the organization and that you personally are able to take on as much responsibility as possible. I think I'd be well positioned further down the line to move up the corporate ladder (probably at other earlier / growth stage companies) because of the broad experience I've had here so far and because I feel like I've been able to take on a ton of responsibility (my team is very lean).
Almost none. We have a separate FP&A team, but a lot of companies do refer to their FP&A teams as "strategic finance" so it's important to diligence that when looking at an opportunity.
Can you further describe what you mean by optimize your resume?
You just want to show that you've done things as close to what they have in the job description as much as possible. I've noticed that a lot of tech companies expect people to have worked "cross functionally" which isn't necessarily possible if you're a banking analyst, so it's important to explain how you have experience managing the expectations of multiple parties in your resume. This can be anything, including having to coordinate senior bankers, legal advisors, capital markets team, etc. I personally found that once you do this, interview conversion rate goes up by a lot even without networking.
What does the work entail for strategic finance and corp dev? What's the difference between strategic finance and FP&A, if any?
The work itself is pretty similar to banking with the biggest difference being less unnecessary work. In banking it felt like a deck had to be created and turned for everything, but people here tend to be much more efficient and don't expect new decks/perfectly formatted slides for everything. Aside from that it's a lot of building models to analyze scenarios (e.g. product launches, partnerships, expansions opportunities, M&A, fundraising, etc.) and synthesizing that information whether it be through excel outputs or on slides. It's also a lot less processing work and you actually have to think a bit more.
The main difference is strategic finance tends to be more special projects for the CEO/CFO while FP&A is more along the lines of forecasting and preparing the budget.
Do you see any associates/VPs come in from IB, and if so what level?
If so, have you seen any groups other than tech and which groups?
Not personally at my company, but I think it's pretty common across the board.
As mentioned above, I'd imagine it would be harder if you're coming from a less conventional group (FIG/RX) but I think most M&A and coverage groups would probably be fine as long as you have good deal experience and show that you know how to evaluate technology companies.
How hard is the job compared to banking? The main things I've found difficult about banking are the fast-paced nature of things (people expecting another turn ASAP) and the lack of guidance (many times, I'm given a piece of financial analysis and don't know where to even begin or progress until an Associate helps me out throughout the process). I noticed you said you have to think a bit more and that you are taking on more responsibility than when you were an analyst. Do you feel comfortable asking questions to get help and how often do you get stuck and can't progress in your analyses / the work you do? For someone who struggles with these two aspects of banking, but is interested in strategic finance / corp dev, do you think I would do well in these fields? I guess what I'm trying to imply is that do you know if these fields are a good and easier option for someone who struggled a lot as an investment banking analyst? Or is this just banking with less hours?
Also, what do you think are the best parts of your job as a whole? I know you mentioned being able to learn from seniors while also keeping exit opps rather open, but what else do you enjoy about the job like the culture, tech company perks, etc.?
I think the nature of the work is the same (e.g. you're still doing analysis in excel and finding ways to present that information, whether it be on slides or excel outputs), but the types of analysis are more based on internal company data instead of trying to find information to show clients what they want to see. Due to that, the work tends to be much more intuitive in my opinion. For me personally, there's a much bigger sense of camaraderie/everyone being on the same team vs. banking where it felt like people would try to push off as much work as possible to whomever they could. That said, I am expected to operate with a bit more autonomy, but on the flip side the turnaround times aren't nearly as unreasonable as those of banking (e.g. I almost never had a project assigned to me late afternoon that had to be sent out the same night).
I think the biggest thing for me would be more autonomy. If someone on my team tells me they need something the next day or by the end of the week, I'm able to budget my time however I want as long as I finish it on time without being micromanaged. I also appreciate how it feels like my company is able to get things done pretty quickly instead of having to jump through a bunch of internal hoops each time we went to do something (basically it feels like things are just as productive as they were in banking but with more reasonable deadlines and better hours). Aside from that catered lunch/dinners, fully stocked kitchens, generous gym stipends, etc. are also really nice.
Pretty different environment than IB. So would you say it's a more dialed down version of IB? Are the expectations just as high as in IB? Looks like based on your prior responses, that people care a little less about the formatting of slides and things like that, but given they're all former IBers / consultants, they still have pretty high expectations.
Could you give some actual #s for comp v/s IB instead of just ranges? Curious how much equity you got / what all in cash comp is / how you thought about the cost-benefit vs IB. Thanks!
Base salary is currently ~$110k, but I should be up for promotion in a couple of months (the move for me was pretty lateral in terms of title) so that should go up. In addition to that, I got ~$50k of equity when I joined (with ~60/40 split between options/RSU) and you generally get more each year, however the options have a vesting schedule.
In terms of cost-benefit, comp wasn't too important to me when I was wondering offers. My main consideration was to at least not take a pay cut on base salary. I mainly prioritized joining a team that had people with strong backgrounds (e.g. IB/PE backgrounds, graduated from top bschools, etc.).
How much growth has the company had since you joined?
Is the same level expected for the next couple of years? Is there alot of VC pressure?
We haven't done any fundraising in a bit, but revenue is up 50%+ and a lot of the public companies we benchmark ourselves against have done pretty well.
There's still a pretty high mark for growth targets, but it's not a "grow at all costs" mentality.
Thanks for this, several questions from me:
1) Would you consider biotech/pharma one of the "niche" coverages that disadvantages you?
2) Thoughts on marginal benefits of staying past 2 years -- if you know you want to end up on the corporate side eventually, is there significant value add (learning, add'l pay/title bump) staying 3-4 years instead of leaving right after your analyst stint?
3) Related to the second question -- any concerns about pay/slower advancement coming in at a junior level vs. a more senior role?
4) What did the interview process look like?
In terms of actual role description, what would you say is the difference between a "Strategic Finance" guy and a "Corp Dev" guy? I know you bucketed them together so assuming it's all kind of the same but just curious if there's a real differentiator
Strategic finance is more ad hoc projects for the senior leadership team (e.g. evaluating geographic expansion opportunities, new product launches, fundraising, IR, etc.) while Corp Dev is more internal M&A from what I see. That said, the two can have some overlap and the definitions can vary between companies - Corp Dev could be the same as strategic finance, etc.
If you stay in banking/consulting/PE for a few extra years which translates into fast compensation growth, when one makes the transition to tech will that higher salary from a previous job help to make your salary higher when you join a startup?
I would assume so as you would have more years of experience and come in at a higher level. Don't think it would necessarily hurt you as long as you're able to tolerate the hours and lifestyle of those roles.
Thanks for doing this and appreciate the time - just a couple here:
1. In the interview process - what kind of questions did they ask you outside of the case study (were they primarily industry and company specific? tech trends etc)
2. What kind of resources do you lean on to get a foothold and understanding of your industry / tech / megatrends (i.e. podcasts, books, news subscriptions etc)
3. Just a broader question in general - what are you trying to achieve out of the strategic finance / corp dev role? Do you have plans to climb the ladder or go into ops..
1. What is the background of your bosses and finance leadership broadly?
2. How would you describe the role of finance in decision making at your company - does the function follow the lead of engineering and product since you guys are probably gushing with cash(pre-covid at least)? The adult in the room?
All else equal, whats more important? Working on deals that are in the same industry/size but at a small or lesser known boutique or on a much different size/industry but a top BB or EB?
I'd say try and go to as large a platform as you can (in other words, top BB or EB or similar). It's too hard to actually know what kind of experience you would get/had at a regional boutique, but if you completed your analyst program at a reputable bank there's a higher likelihood that you at least have the foundational skills that you'd need for the job (from the interviewer's POV).
Pariatur quia dolores deleniti aut enim asperiores explicabo. Numquam ex temporibus qui quo amet. Eos et eius qui hic. Omnis deleniti nobis aliquid omnis. Quibusdam deserunt laborum fugiat dolores error et perferendis sed.
Fuga ut voluptatem ut beatae aliquam reprehenderit in id. Omnis perferendis quis hic consequatur.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Unde iste similique quia numquam. Ut tempora eveniet autem consectetur animi reprehenderit. Enim velit quia voluptas qui ut ut aperiam nostrum. Animi vitae iure et et aliquam consequatur sit.
Ut ex laudantium laudantium corrupti consequatur. Quod eos fugit esse et dolores. Quia reprehenderit quas natus odio. Laborum mollitia ad autem debitis ea illum ducimus. Quas et voluptatem occaecati totam. Sed nihil voluptatem animi nihil itaque corporis quo. Dolores officiis doloremque animi esse.
Mollitia provident qui magnam fugit molestias qui temporibus. Dicta sint nesciunt velit et illum nobis quas. Velit minima quos deleniti minima consequatur non.
Ipsum hic dolor voluptatem non fuga porro nam. Quo eum sed perferendis possimus. Modi sit facilis perferendis ullam. Totam quasi quibusdam itaque voluptatem quia.
Voluptatem non unde laborum dicta. Vel assumenda voluptatem doloremque ex aut ratione. Sint quia odit aliquid et facilis cumque reprehenderit.