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Worked for someone who was the head of M&A for the US Navy, procuring the latest technology and equipment. I think that is pretty tough to top. 

Lots of people would say like alcohol / weed industry, but TBH, those deals have to be boring af. Aside from the closing dinners, what else is cool about it? All the products are inherently the same. 

I think working for a company looking to expand via new platforms is generally the coolest criteria. That way you are learning about something completely new, and truly strategically (if successful) growing the business. 

To answer your question though, from an industry perspective, I feel as though  A&D / Consumer are the two coolest places. You get to look at a lot of unique applications under one umbrella. 

 

Used to work in M&A for big tobacco. Fascinating industry, a lot of companies are trying to pivot/divest from standard cigarettes which leads to high dealflow. Regulatory risk also implies a lot of strategy work, which is extremely interesting. Learned a ton and how he people were great despite being in such a traditional industry!

 

Anything with national security or defense applications. Not corp dev but the CIA's VC arm In Q Tel would be pretty cool. More tech focused but would love to be a fly on the wall for corp dev at Palantir.

Space tech would be sick too. Corp dev for SpaceX, partnerships at NASA that sort of thing.

Deep tech stuff like synthetic biology, just lots of uncharted territory.

 

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