IB-->Tech Sales-->Potentially Corp Dev Director, Advice?
Sup Monkeys,
Long-time lurker, first actual posting. I am in a bit of a career predicament and could use some advice. Last year, I switched from MM IB to tech sales and was recently offered a corp dev director position at an early stage startup. I took a comp cut to go from IB to tech sales but lifestyle upgrade has been more than well worth it. The corp dev director position I didn't even apply for - is a stealth-stage company and got directly headhunted from C-suite. Comp is largely the same as tech sales gig (not significant funding at startup yet) but options are significantly more at early stage startup (7x+). The corp dev position is M&A and integration, at a pretty highly acquisitive company so hesitant that it's going to be a lot of work on both ends of spectrum and much more technical/finance heavy. Is the upside worth pursuing or is it better to stay in tech sales and continue to build book of business?
Appreciate all the input - love this forum.
I have a few questions:
- Are you an enterprise sales rep, or SMB / SDR role? Because it would be pretty unusual for someone in corp dev to outearn a decent enterprise sales rep
- How acquisitive can an early stage startup be? If it isn't funded, how are they financing acquisitions, and what early stage company needs or wants the distractions of making and integrating acquisitions if it has a promising business model of its own?
- Beware an unfunded startup. It's never been easier to raise money. I'm all for bootstrapping, but bootstrapping doesn't finance M&A (or hypergrowth of the sort that will really make your equity valuable)
All that said, having finance, sales, and corp dev experience could put you on a very good path (toward a CEO job).
- it’s enterprise sales but at a well-funded, low ACV tech sales company (think $40k average deal size)
- company is self-funded by a former entrepreneur who took company public and has raised $25m of outside capital
-agreed. The acquisitions they are looking at are small in nature and a lot of bolt ones for customer base vs product
thanks for the input! I agree on bolstered skill set. I guess I’m just hesitant to trade my cushy sales lifestyle for what could be a grind on the acquisitive/integration front - but may well be worth it.
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