Does IB help with a start up or is consulting better?

Really curious to hear what everyone’s thoughts were. The data suggests the split is quite even but of course this is quite hard to take at face value given the small sample size and how absurdly hard founding something is. But are there any tangible benefits - say with fundraising?

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IB absolutely helps with startups, and it depends on a few factors imo.

If you worked in a relevant coverage role, you will have a great skill set for doing competitive analysis & market research.

Depending on the types of deals you did (IPOs, M&A, ECM, DCM), you'll also have great insights into relevant problems / opportunities that startups go through, such as whether to raise capital, the right time to go public, and the basics of handling an M&A process or just companies casually sniffing each others' butts.

Lastly, and I can't stress this enough, you'll probably have incredibly strong problem-solving skills and general technical efficiency compared to your peers at a startup (expect for like a Strategic Finance team that's all ex-IB). This means you'll be able to hammer out any busy work in 1/4th the time of a typical employee and you can spend the rest of that time having interesting calls with stakeholders / leadership and building a reputation as a thought leader / strategic partner.

So yes, IB definitely helps. I would imagine consulting isn't too far off, but I see many more successful ex-bankers at startups than I do consultants.

 

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