M&A and Entrepreneurship
So many people have this plan that after doing 2/3 years of banking or consulting that they either:
1) Go to the buy-side 2) Become entrepreneurs
On (1) there are a lot of examples of people successfully doing that.
On (2) I don't know of that many examples. Can anybody give some real-life examples of someone who did M&A/Front-Office role at a bank and then became a successful entrepreneur. I am not talking about making a $100,000 a year website (which is amazing in its own respect), but someone who appears on the Forbes list or has made a millions doing some sort of business.
There has got to be tons. First person that comes to my mind is Frank Giustra who founded Lions Gate (the film company). From what I know though, he did a lot more than 2-3 years in IB...more like 15+ I believe.
Ironically, Lions Gate also produced/distributed American Psycho.
And the other Bateman, in Rules of Attraction, which is an even better/very different film
That should help derail this thread...
People with an entrepreneurship itch come from a lot of different backgrounds, those who are successful probably have several thing in common, such work ethic and risk tolerance, which can be found frequently in A-type bankers.
The guys who started Village Vines were both bankers.
Jeff Bezos worked at DE Shaw prior to starting Amazon
I personally know plenty of bankers who started "lifestyle" businesses, which are defined as businesses that wont scale but pull in a good chunk of change. Typically the entrepreneur who go after VC money and try to scale huge businesses frown on these types of ideas, but that doesnt mean they're not great businesses, its just they'll never be worth a billion.
do you mean VIneyard Vines UBMonkey
Patrick from WSO
Nope, http://www.villagevines.com/ its like groupon but for restaurants. I forget where but both founders were Ibankers, i met them a while back at a NYtech meetup.
Although the Vineyard vines guys i have heard worked on "wall st" but that could mean anything.
In terms of appearing on the Forbes list, would you consider all the PE and HF guys entrepreneurs because they are the purest form of it. They dont actually sell any physical product but merely the ideal or illusion of something.
In terms of like VC/Tech startups and making billions that way, i dont know where this idea that IBD is a good stepping stone to get into that, bc it isnt. The VC, flashy, tech version of entrepenuialism and IBD are two completely separate mindsets, some maybe able to cross over but i would argue they are almost polar opposites.
if u include hf dudes, theres paulson.
how about pretty much everyone that started there own private equity firm or hedgefund? Most of these guys started small shops with 3-4 guys and grew bigger and bigger through (1) investment skill and financial knowledge learned from banking and (2) entrepreneurial spirit / drive / instincts
Dolor quos sed sed. Quia sint earum nemo aut ut.
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