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My end game is to eventually start a company, but I see finance as a hedge against that. Do a couple years of banking and pe then use the money I saved as seed funding for my startup. If that doesn't work out, I at least know I chased my dreams. Then apply to an M7 MBA program and take a pe/ib/f500 job afterwards.

If I just started a company right now, without any work experience and it fails, the only option I have is to go to another startup.

 

Your post comes off like you lack self-awareness. At least if you don't recognize how instrumental working at Lazard and Cisco were to landing your coveted start-up role. If anything your story should be viewed as a perfect example of how important it is to get in the door at those excellent companies. It may not have been your intention but your advice appears to be "closing doors is the key to success."

As far as finance goes, there is no better opportunity than starting out in an analyst stint. After which you have the opportunity to explore the world of finance that has now been opened to you and an MBA can be a welcome respite and value add when the time comes.

 
Another:

Your post comes off like you lack self-awareness. At least if you don't recognize how instrumental working at Lazard and Cisco were to landing your coveted start-up role. If anything your story should be viewed as a perfect example of how important it is to get in the door at those excellent companies. It may not have been your intention but your advice appears to be "closing doors is the key to success."

As far as finance goes, there is no better opportunity than starting out in an analyst stint. After which you have the opportunity to explore the world of finance that has now been opened to you and an MBA can be a welcome respite and value add when the time comes.

Yup basically exactly how I feel. The reason you had the ability to have such an impact at your startup was because of the skills you gained at Lazard and Cisco. Plus you don't discuss job stability at all, which is absolutely crucial to someone in their 20s who is looking to build a financial foundation for themselves. At a big bank or a big tech company you can guarantee that you'll have steady income, a good bonus, and can start paying off student loans or saving for B school/retirement etc. Many startups lack this, which could be pretty damning if one slaved away from 21-25 only to have their company fail on them, which is more likely than not considering the about of startups that fail.

One other thing is that because of the small nature at startups, the opportunities for kids right out of undergrad is extremely scarce. Because of your experience you are probably able to wear a number of different hats and have a lot of impact on the company. Someone who has just finished up school will not have those abilities, will be much less valuable to a startup than you will be, and thus won't get hired.

With all that being said I'd love to work at a startup. I'm pretty fresh out of undergrad and have no experience besides my internships, but please shoot me a pm and let me come and work for you... I think you'll find that its not as easy to hire undergrads than you think.

 

Edit: That's kind of the trade off with being an entrepreneur. A true entrepreneur will make big sacrifices, like job security, to get what they want.

 

Are you talking about FirstCommunications U.S or Europe? I presume you meant the Euro version. That company was started by Lynn Forester de Rothschild so how were you able to get into that one on the ground floor?

As a founding member of FirstCommunications, how much equity and stock options were you given? Seeing that the company was sold for $1B in 2000 (bottom of the market post dot com bubble 1.0, could probably fetched a lot more in different environment), presumably you came out pretty well yourself? So what have you been doing since.

Re not working for Google, starting out at an amazingly innovative company like Google provides a great platform to jumpstart into the startup space and you have plenty of time to learn and discover yourself while working there.

Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep.
 

Im sorry but Cisco experience does not equal to Google experience. Lazard experience does not equal to Goldman Sachs experience. I hate it when people make generalisations. Experience with teams within a company can vary highly. Different people have completely different experiences year on year sometimes within the same team. Everyone also doesn't want to end up in/own a startup so these are not bad career starts for them. Also you cannot deny Lazard/Cisco helped somewhat to get you where you are today... Everyone starts somewhere in life ;)

 

Really? You should probably ask some of the top guys @ some of the top cyber security startups how instrumental their Cisco experience was.

Everyone in this thread makes a startup seem like this very easy process that anyone can master. If you all thought getting buyside out of UG was hard, then creating a marginally successful startup will be next to impossible. I review hundreds of decks after conferences and the hit right for a demo or a phone call is maybe 5-10% and 5% for a term sheet after a demo.

 

I have the opposite scenario. I spent my entire 20's as an entrepreneur. I had millions in revenues and made and lost hundreds of thousands of my own money before I turned 27. It's been quite the experience and I feel like I have a couple of MBA's worth of business IQ (if that's possible), even though I still only have my bachelors in finance and management from a non-target school. Now I'm 30 and completely accustomed to the life of the entrepreneur and have zero contacts on Wall Street. All the questions start going through your head: Am I fit or is it possible to come in as an Associate somewhere? Should I try consulting? Can I adjust to being subordinate to anyone? Will my health start deteriorating or stress level go through the roof? Do I have a shot? Who can help me figure it all out? That has been my last 4 months and I'm telling you - it isn't fun.

 

Well from my experience, I'm glad I started off at a late-stage start-up/growth-stage company and not on either end of the spectrum. It was probably the luckiest thing I was able to do in my life.

I worked close with a very successful VC firm and 40+ year-old c-level exec team, closed a couple fundraising rounds, talked with executives from other firms about partnerships, analyzed new market opportunities, restructured operations department, built models and financials from the ground up, etc... Probably 5% of my friends at larger firms had similar exposure, and probably about 1% of my friends at start-ups were actually successful in exposure/exiting opportunities.

Now although I'm not quite there yet, I'm 90% confident I could take over an executive role and not only present decent strategy, but close and generate execution as well. I highly recommend anyone with an opportunity to join a growth-stage company, in a growing sector, to do it above all other options; you wont regret the learning experience (and hopefully equity ;) ).

 

Why is everyone against entrepreneurship rather than working as a drone in a corporate setting or for a tech company?

Sure IB gives you a good skill set, but discouraging someone from starting a business in their 20's is a horrible idea. You're young, you've got next to nothing to lose, you don't have a family to look after yet - it makes the most sense to start now rather than in 10 or 20 years.

@"cvsdjs" your point is not a good one. When starting a business, you have full control over how successful it is. Sure there is a little bit of luck involved, but I'd say its far from buying lottery tickets and hoping for the best.

If you've got a dream and don't want to be slugging away in a cubicle for the rest of your life then starting your own business is the answer. If it fails, you learn from it - and try again. Until you get it right. Once you get it right, the sky is the limit.

 

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