Leaving IB as a second year analyst to found own start up?

Throwaway for obvious reasons but rather than going down the PE pipeline, I wanted to try my own start up (in a related field to the sector I cover).

If things fail, I was wondering, any idea what my backup plan could be? Could I potentially come back to the bank on good terms? Would it still be possible to move to PE? Or is a debt-fuelled MBA my only hope?

Any anecdotes or advice would be greatly welcomed

Also: from the uk if that matters

2 Comments
 

Have seen a few people do this. Some do well, some fail. And those that fail, end up going into something better. Their stories tend to be well-received at VCs as a lot of people in that space are ex-founders opposed to PE though. And I personally haven’t seen many people move from VC to PE often either but maybe that’s because the work in VC can be more interesting and the WLB tends to be much better than PE.

I think if you were to do this and it doesn’t work out, it’ll be harder or impossible to place at MFs/UMM. And whether you can go back to your previous firm will entirely depend on your relationship with them and if you’re on good terms upon leaving. But it’s definitely no guarantee and imo, very unlikely.

Would be interested to see what others say though.

 

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