Entrepreneurship or IB?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently in my 3rd year of college, majoring in Organizational Leadership, and I’m stuck between two career paths, investment banking and entrepreneurship. Long term, I absolutely want to build my own startups as I find it more fulfilling.

I believe I would enjoy working in IB, and it would be really helpful for financing my startups, but it's not something I want to do for the rest of my life. I’m unsure if I should dive into IB for 5-7 years to build capital and gain experience or if I should focus on my own projects right away.

The problem is I do not know what I would do to gain capital if I work on startups right away.

Any advice or insights from those who have been in a similar situation or have experience in these fields would be greatly appreciated!

6,106 WSO Academy Investment Banking Session Reviews: 4.82/5

Class of '23 Dec 2026 Cohort

5.00/5

Investment Banking Career Roadmap (optional)

“I had a really informative and actionable career roadmap with Tim. We went through what I wanted to do longterm and and then we went over the two different paths I was interested in. Tim gave me personal experience of colleagues that made similar steps to the sector that I want to be in. He then provided me with information on the timeline of I should expect when it comes to recruiting and what to do ahead of the time. There was a huge focus on getting a great resume fleshed out, networking with recruiters, current analysts, people who knew people who were hiring. There was a huge emphasis on getting the Series 65 that the company I'm currently working at done before continuing anything else. I look forward to working back with Tim on this endeavor around mid-November. ”

Class of '29 Oct 2026 Cohort

5.00/5

Investment Banking LinkedIn Review

“Johnathan was really good at checking out my Linkedin and making surfing there were not many issues with it. He seemed to know his stuff very well and he was curious about all the posts that I had liked and he had different tactics to make sure that my linkedin could stand out from the rest and make it very competitive for my 2028 internship. The only criteria I had was minimal and it was that he was a few minutes late but that is not a big deal, I know he is a busy guy but overall he was great.”

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Entrepreneurship or IB?

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Entrepreneurship or IB?

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