Road to Operations Exec

How common is the transition from high finance professional to working as an executive for a startup or early venture-backed company?

I’m an associate at a MM buyout fund and previously worked as an analyst at a BB bank in SF. I’m enjoying the work so far and learning a ton every day, but I’m not convinced that I want to work my way up to a senior investing role over the next ~10 years.

Is it very common to make the jump to a Series A+ company and take on serious responsibilities / risk after getting locked down with the golden handcuffs in PE/IB? I get hit up about startups all the time but I’m not talking about joining just any random shitty startup with zero legs and an inexperienced team.

Will you be viewed as “the finance guy” for the rest of your career? Is there a road to COO, CFO, Chief of Strategy, ETC?

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