Monkeys - As many of you have sat here pondering on what to do after banking, I came to write this post.
I sit here with a decision that I would like to hear some of your insights. I am currently in a position with relatively high job security and with a firm that has been nothing but good to me. I have an opportunity to join a tech-startup (equity is on the table as it grows and based on performance). I have also dabbled with private equity recruiting but nothing has materialized at this point.
The question I want insight on is what people think from moving from an investment banking position with a clear sight to associate+ to go potentially to an operation/strategy role with the tech firm or to private equity. Regardless, there is risk of loss and upside in any of the different paths, and I left out some significant information based on the roles themselves. Essentially, I am looking to seek comfort in the decision with unbiased advice and to hear the stories of anyone else that has been in this position before.
I'm going to sound like a WSO risk averse wimp saying this but do think it's worth considering that to ever break into PE, you kind of have to do it now (not literally true, but pretty true). Vs. you could always do PE for 2 years and then do a start up. In that scenario you could still come back to PE after if you didn't like the start up experience (have seen it done). The reverse would be pretty tough.
All that said, if you're not interested in PE then that's all irrelevant. You could do IB > start up > back to IB. Particularly if you did an MBA after start up.
Didn't see this response but circling back. I've come to learn its more of an investing role through the arm of a family office - thesis towards early stage tech solutions with flexible capital to facilitate acquisitions but also develop new offerings. Pretty unique I'd say? Any thoughts on family office investing or experience there? Happy to chat privately as well.
It ultimately depends on your wants/needs. Do you want more optionality in your career long-term? Do you want more control over your schedule/a better WLB? Would you prefer to develop an operational skillset vs an investor skillset? The above poster has some very sound logic that now is by far your best opportunity to jump into PE, but you just have to ask yourself the question if it is truly what you want.
I work in PE now (sector-focused LMM fund), but came from a bit of an unconventional background going from Corp Dev (PE PortCo) -> Corp Dev (tech startup) -> PE. It is certainly possible to move from tech startup to PE but (as I can attest) you will face an uphill climb and be disadvantaged if you are looking to pursue MM+ funds.
Happy to provide additional detail about my experience, rationale, etc.
Best of luck!
Would it be tough to make an unconventional move like that in a LMM/MM fund?
As alluded to above, the path I described was the “unconventional” path that I took to break into a LMM PE shop. It is definitely challenging but 100% possible if you approach it correctly. I decided to make my life a lot harder by recruiting with a sector-agnostic mindset, but you would certainly have the best chance to break into a firm that focuses on the sector(s) you’ve spent time in. Outside of that, I would be very diligent about networking with anyone and everyone in the industry (spanning headhunters to principals) to best position yourself to be included in interview processes. I had a hard time convincing headhunters to give me the time of day given my experience but they were incredibly helpful for me to understand the gaps in my experience and how to address them in my interviews.
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