Looking for advice: B4 Consulting to Boutique M&A IB

Know there are a ton of forums on B4 TS to banking, but this is a fairly different situation

Background: Big 10 (Non-Michigan/NW) accounting grad, 5 years out of school. Spent the first half of my career in B4 audit and was able to transfer to a management consulting group focused on the CFO function (Finance Org Strategy, Process Improvement, Post-M&A).

Situation: I've always wanted to be in finance, but during the financial crisis I took the best opportunity I could find which was in Big 4 audit. Self admittedly, I wasn't a hard-core finance kid in school and the Wall Street Options wouldn't have been realistic. It's taken me to this point in my career after being exposed to different facets of business, to understand that I want to a part of the force driving the deals that I work on in the back end through post-deal readiness/integrations.

Goal: My end goal may seem outlandish given where I'm at in this point of my career but I want to start a lower-mm fund in non-major city (15-20 years). I view my first 5 years as experiences that will serve me well in the future and understand to even begin to make this goal plausible, I need to cut my teeth with a massive amount of deals experience.

With a solid technical background, proof of working with executive level clients, and pre/post-deal experience is it realistic to target boutique M&A shops, as a way to break into the industry?

Appreciate any advice.