Left a Partner role at an MBB a couple of years ago to lead the CorpDev team at a fast-growing pre-IPO tech company
Still relatively early days for me and the company, but it has been a great ride so far
There are several things I've been surprised by on the positive end: 1. Total comp turned out to be considerably higher so far (albeit riskier & mostly in equity) than I would have seen as a consulting partner 2. Our ability to attract top talent (specifically onto the CorpDev team) was a bit better than expected 3. Some of my closest friends are on our exec team, I get a great deal of satisfaction from working with them every day to solve interesting problems that impact our company and industry in a meaningful way
And also a few surprises on the downside: 1. The capability level across the org is more mixed than you'd find at a top bank or consulting firm, I spend a large portion of my time cleaning up dumb shit as a result, I've found this to be super annoying 2. My wife and I have both worked hard and have ostensibly made enough money on paper to be 'post-economic' + I guess I've checked off enough of the 'prestige' boxes at this point in my life, but I don't feel all that excited about either of these things - instead I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about how I can be a decent human & wondering if staying on an intense career path will help or hurt that
Realize the scope of CorpDev can vary considerably, in our case the work consists of a relatively even mix of M&A, strategy, and fundraising
Happy to answer questions (e.g., rationale, experience, or how I did it) for anyone who is interested
