Is IB a good industry to break into for future entrepreneurs?
I would think that if you're in an industry or restructuring group you'd learn a lot about the companies you're working with that can enable you to pick up enough on the job to one day start your own venture. Is this realistic? How many folks have you heard of doing this at your firms? Or are entrepreneurs more likely to be born out of consultancies or corp fin functions?
Currently in VC. Previously in IBD, retail banking and/or commercial banking.
The most successful founders I met previously (pre-VC job) were: - oddballs/creative folks - independent and strong-willed - corporate contractors (not FTE) - within innovations or comparable groups inside corporates
These people don't fit the corporate mold. And they don't want to. They use their network and leverage knowledge and ideas. They are creative folks who come up with concepts that work. Their experience in their respective field warrants a cool MVP much faster than people without any industry exposure.
HOWEVER the founders I met on my current job (VC) are very different: - serial entrepreneurs - some without formal education - very young (average age around 27-32) - lots of trial and error - no corporate exposure before becoming founder - often co-founder instead of lone founder - often focused on accelerators and startup competitions
IMO, a formal educational and professional IBD experience gives you insight into how a company could be structured, executed and eventually exited. You know all about term sheets, how to raise a round and all about how to deal with the legal eagles of the game. In fact, you know enough to advise other founders about these things. But, I have met incredibly successful founders and startups that didn't know any of these things. Guess what, it didn't matter too much. There are startup lawyers who can do this for you without breaking a sweat. As a founder/entrepreneur your job is to know 105% of your business, industry and where your company is headed.
I think there's a bit of a fallacy in the question. There's no favourable path to entrepreneurship... entrepreneurship by definition is an amalgamation of skills... and depending on the product, may bear no relevance to anything learned in IB. I'd also argue that people coming from corporate backgrounds are more risk averse and by following a set path (I.e. IB) they are less likely to strike out on their own, and favour climbing the corporate ladder.
Anecdotal obviously but the majority of entrepreneurs I know started their careers in a niche/undesirable industry, spent some time becoming experts in that industry and inadvertently networked with clients which stood them in good stead to create their own business. Depending on what kind of entrepreneurship you're alluding to, I think it would be difficult to solve a real world problem if you don't actually have experience of the nitty gritty of what that industry entails. Its easier to look at the bigger picture and think 'this is inefficient' but if your working in that inefficient process, pulling the levers, you may know that there is a specific reason its inefficient, and come up with a better solution.