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Index and defined-benefit pension plans lol. Don't ever underestimate compounding the shit outta market returns starting from 22 years old to your retirement. You can set aside a portion of your portfolio that you can afford to lose on active management, but the literature heavily suggests otherwise lol

Providing advisory services as a 22yo IB analyst?

One idea I've been considering is investing in startups while simultaneously providing advisory services for those companies. I understand that this is a risky strategy and that I could potentially lose thousands of dollars, but I believe the experience I would gain from helping these companies would be invaluable. I also think that this could potentially lead to more lucrative opportunities down the line.

This idea isn't bad because it's risky (which it is but that's not even the main problem). This idea is bad because you believe a startup founder would want to give up equity in exchange for advisory services from some dude who has literally no experience running a business or otherwise. The arrogance underwritten in this proposition is absolutely laughable.

Above comments already flame you plenty for the silly stuff in the post.

It depends on how risky we're talking. Single equities is fairly risky. You could buy a bag in something and hold it. Could be a 5+year low like PYPL, could be a pre-COVID level low like RUN. It could be a quasi-thematic approach, e.g. "I think sports gambling will become even more popular". I don't think I'd dabble with options, but you could buy ~2 year LEAPs with a specific hypothesis (still for single equities) - buying longer-dated would offer less leverage, but protects better against theta decay. And if all that is still too low risk, there's always the bucket of longing s**tcoins. 

only invest in yourself bro

Don't do anything you described in your post.

Best, actual advice:

Put between 80-100% of your money into 1 or 2 cheap index funds that track the market.

You can then consider the remaining 0-20% your "fun money" to invest, but I still wouldn't suggest doing anything too crazy with it.  You could use this money to invest in some individual stocks you like, or a specific sector you want to concentrate in i.e. an ETF focused on AI technology or Mexican manufacturing or whatever.  You can then track the performance of your fun money vs the market and learn what lead to over/underperformance, and you can chalk up any underperformance to the "learning experience" of making calls yourself. 

When you're actually rich and experienced you can get into more exotic things like VC/Angel investing but its not necessary, you can just keep the majority of your money in boring broad market index funds forever and you're set.

If you want to get rich quick it won’t happen by investing in the stock market. You need to actually make more money. Become an entrepreneur

I’m a bit older than you but I’ve done something similar to this. While working decent hours and needing OBA approval. It’s doable.

I found 3 other like minded friends. We all chip in and invest together on various opportunities we see that we think (1) may make us some money, (2) help us learn, and (3) build our network.

We’ve bought multiple real estate properties, invested in financing a movie, invested in a few start ups, bought a whisky cask at its infancy from a distillery, etc. We even started a DAO during the NFT craze which was fun but not profitable in the end (but it opened super interesting doors)! In the start ups we invested in, we weren’t providing regular strategic advice but I definitely had multiple calls where I learned a ton from the founder and where he had questions he wanted to bounce off me given my background.

By doing the investing with friend, you can extract just as much learning and build your network but without having to contribute all the money yourself. You also will see more deal flow because you tap into your business partners’ networks as well. 

You won’t have amazing investment opportunities at first but as your friends (and friends of friends) grow in their professional career, you’ll be interacting with people who are starting a business or know somebody who is and they will make introductions if they know you are actively investing. You will hit a tipping point where cool opportunities are literally flowing in. Hopping on a phone call with your buddies to vet new deals while drinking a few beers is a blast for me.

Another cool aspect: we set up LLCs for our investments so we take group trips regularly for our “board meetings” and it’s a tax write off. The board meeting in a Vegas pool side cabana just hits different.

Don’t do it for this reason but the ppl I work with that know about my side hustles (in many cases, very senior buy side folks) are often super impressed.

Start slow and manage your expectations but you should definitely pursue this. But yes, as others are saying, also put a majority of your savings in boring index funds.