Moving from Finance to Earlier Stage Business Roles

After a few years in banking and 2 years in the public markets, I've realized that I'm ready to hang up the cleats and call it a career in finance. I could speak for hours on how I realized this, but it really boils down to poor WLB (big one), limited view of impact, and inability to build towards something.

I'm still trying to explore options and think about what I really enjoy, but in the meantime, am curious if anyone made a move from finance to an earlier/ mid-staged business with a role focused on strategy/ biz dev. Not that interested in something at large corporates as it doesn't really fulfill the last two parts of my criteria.

Was also curious how people even go about finding those roles. Are headhunters usually employed, or is it more about building a network and getting in that way?  

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