Career Advice // Possible to move from CPG Marketing to PE/VC?

Hi All — looking for some honest career advice here.

A bit about me: I'm 31 and have been working in CPG for almost 7 years now. I'm currently on the brand management track (no BA or MBA) and have hustled my ass off to get to where I’m at now. It’s been a combination of sheer hard work, drive, passion, amazing mentorship from leaders in the space, and an instance or two where I was in the right place at the right time.

My experience has been primarily working for high growth, early-stage brands in the natural/specialty category. Three years into my career I ended up working for a brand that was recently acquired by one of the big CPGs. It gave me insight into how these bigger companies work and definitely served as a resume builder, but more importantly, the previous founder/CEO who stayed onboard invited me to come work for a boutique VC he was starting for early-stage brands.

After a year at the recently acquired company I left to work as the Brand Manager for the fund. We’d raised a small amount of capital ($15mm) to support what at the time was a non-traditional model (for CPG) of both internally ideating and incubating our own brands as well as investing in early-stage ($1mm-$10mm) brands with proof of concept. As someone with no formal finance background, it was nothing short of amazing to find myself working at a boutique VC with a bulletproof team of industry veterans behind it.

I continued to gain more experience as an operator by way of commercializing two brands simultaneously, while also getting to help with ad-hoc projects on the investment side. I assisted with sourcing deals, communicating with founders and their teams, and reviewing the numerous pitch decks we received each day. My core focus though was Brand Management which allowed me the opportunity to become more of an expert on all aspects (Finance/Ops/Marketing) of building, scaling, and operating a successful CPG.

After two years of working insane hours and below market pay, I pretty much burned out and left to pursue a Brand Manager role at the company I’m at now — which brings me to my question:

I'm aware I lack a traditional finance background and the usual 1-3 years in IB that is commonplace in securing an associate level role at a PE firm — but would love some input on whether there is potentially a home for someone like myself at a VC/PE that specializes in CPG.
While knowing DCF & LBO models is obviously important (I've spent some time to teach myself as much as I can on my own), I know there are other important factors involved like market/category sizing, team and founder story, product roadmap, etc — all of which I’m very passionate about, and according to many of my peers, seem to grasp quite well.

Let’s assume that I get past the hurdles of not having the proper finance background or BA and am able to get some phone or face time with an MD or Partner at some of the funds (we are at an all time high right now with regards to how many funds have launched in the last 3 years and the amount of capital available) out there — are there more operator type roles for someone with my background? In reality I’d love to be analyst, which I understand at the earlier-stage funds, involves a lot of deal sourcing, connecting with founders, category analysis/market sizing, etc. (and is less focused on modeling, right?).

By no means am I an industry veteran at this point, but I’ve had a really awesome ride working for some very well known and successful brands, and also know I’m a smart dude and have continually proven over time that I’ve been able to create some unique opportunities for myself.

I’m very content following the path I’m on as I’m super passionate about working in CPG and am just about ready to make the jump to Director of Marketing, but I also can’t ignore the part of me that loves the investment side of things and the work involved therein. Would appreciate any advice you all might have!

 

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