Best career that will set me up as an entrepreneur/businessman ??

Which career best sets up a person to be an entrepreneur few years down the line? To me it seems consulting . You are exposed to a lot of different industries ,you get to meet/work with executives(and indirectly form a network with them),you get to understand business strategies/management etc .

I'm not a tech guy even though I'm doing a data analytics/machine learning/statistics degree. I'm interested in industrials/manufacturing/real estate/construction/energy.

And I'm not interested in a tech startup for sure.

6 Comments
 

It would depend on the business the person would want to be in one day.
- If it is a tech venture, then product/strategy/tech focused roles in big tech or startups, then exit after you found your co-founders/funding/business model etc
- A colleague founded his own business after being in VC; he saw/met hundreds of startups and business over the years, learned from them/their failures and then started his own firm
- Consulting is good, as long as it is not too high level and the granularity is there; running a business on a day-to-day basis takes a lot of grunt work a consultant may not see
- Good subject matter expertise in a certain field could also make you a good founder; if you are a specialist you may be able to see a specific need/gap in the market that could be exploited

 
Most Helpful

mech60

- A colleague founded his own business after being in VC; he saw/met hundreds of startups and business over the years, learned from them/their failures and then started his own firm

This right here, except that you can get the same out of working for a boutique IB as well. If you find the right boutique, you'll be working with clients that sometimes have quirky business models and built themselves in hidden niches. Most of the time, these businesses will be relatively small ($3mm-$10mm of EBITDA) and less sophisticated (not always), meaning that the path to their current state should be relatively short (and if they're not, you need to question why a 30-year old business is only printing $3mm-$10mm of EBITDA and decide whether the right team could have accelerated growth further) and you should be smart enough to replicate the same business (I hesitate to say this because it's foolish to assume if someone as smart or perhaps dumber than you found success doing something that you could as well but if you can trim out the innate arrogance in the thought process you can hopefully make somewhat of an honest assessment).

You'll only be with them for the 4-8 months it takes to get a deal done but you'll get to hear founder stories, understand their business model (this is dependent on the banker; those that want to truly dig in and learn more always can) and know what margins look like for such a business so you'll have an idea of what to expect yourself at some scale. In hearing these small business owner stories, you'll be able to gauge whether the founders "lucked" their way into a solid business or if they have unique skill sets that most don't have, in which case if the latter you may want to cross those businesses off your own list.

The tricky part, of course, is that you will not learn really any skills you'll need to actually launch and operate a business, namely marketing, product development and customer management, but my argument has always been that it's easier (still not easy overall) to learn those skills from the outside looking in than it is to ever identify niches and markets worth pursuing from the outside looking in (idea generation). Others may disagree with me on that, though.

I've always felt that idea generation that can come out of working in LMM IB is vastly underrated... I could also be missing something that justifies why it isn't talked about enough.

 

I'm not a tech guy even though I'm doing a data analytics/machine learning/statistics degree . I'm interested in industrials/manufacturing/real estate

 

Try to figure out what in these areas you would like to focus on, there are various degrees of difficulty you would have to overcome.
- Most startups in real estate are probably in the digital space, but I would post in the RE forum for more in-depth discussions
- industrial/manufacturing, hard to point out details in a banking forum - do you have any further information that might be useful? do you want to do into process improvement or into perfecting a machine or operating something yourself?

Regardless of how we put it - at least some level of tech is probably the most popular route for a startup in these areas.
 

 

Ex enim vero voluptas. Quo fuga dignissimos odit eaque aliquid vitae quisquam. Explicabo est cupiditate neque quis iure rerum earum. Dolor ut quaerat at et dolore repudiandae.

Voluptas aut omnis nam temporibus fugit quis. Et amet recusandae enim vero dolorem dolore. Sapiente molestiae distinctio voluptatem.

Ad quo quam amet. Velit voluptates qui aut optio ipsa.

Quo rerum harum at sit rerum corporis est. A velit nemo distinctio magnam consequuntur. Iste qui earum autem quo odio natus itaque est. Vero sit perferendis aut numquam cupiditate. Repellendus qui possimus accusamus aut nisi facere temporibus. Veniam odit blanditiis similique et est autem. Aut et sit rerum voluptatem dolor.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (77) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (71) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”