Entrepreneurship: Your thoughts?

Do you want somebody on here to tell you that trying to start a business is a big sham people use for their resumes? Worry/critique a little less on what others are doing, and focus on building yourself up.

I think it's more dangerous to say you're an entrepreneur and founded a company unless you actually did and it was more than reserving a domain and putting up a website. If it's going to occupy any real space on a resume it should have (or had) some decent revenues (not a few hundred/thousand), or employees, external capital raised, maybe you sell it to someone, etc. It obviously doesn't have to have been a phenomenal success, or it doesn't even have to be high tech or cool (I hired a kid a few years back who started a cleaning company in college, had a few dozen ee's and made ok money from it, not glamorous but it was real, but I like non glamorous) but I think "entrepreneur" gets tossed around way too frequently because it's so easy to go online, register an LLC and set up a website.

Most work experiences for kids in their early 20's aren't glamorous. Sure some kids get hooked up or are really impressive, but most are doing menial tasks related to making the jobs of the MDs, VPs, and associates easier. This isn't to say that this work is useless (because it isn't), but it doesn't necessarily look good on a resume. Saying you built a product for a company is more interesting than saying you went on Capital IQ to research potential competitors and everyone is trying to differentiate themselves in the resume screening process.

I would say that building a legitimate app on the App Store is far more impressive than most of the stuff that people do at smaller boutiques. Getting users/sales is harder than people think.

Most kids going straight into entrepreneurship out of college are......meh.......and they'll realize how dumb of an idea it was to try to start a company with no work experience outside of their college internships. There are, of course, the handfuls of exceptional kids each year, but most will rely on constant self promotion and inflating their progress in social settings so that they can convince themselves they made the right decision so that they can sleep at night.

In the context of recruitment, when I see a kid as "Founder & CEO" on their resume, I'm never impressed unless they include a revenue number and speak maturely in a way that IS impressive. If they avoid talking financials or realities about the company, it makes me think they're grasping at straws. I'd much rather have a kid that worked at Applebee's or McDonalds.

Only a fucking chump would start a business just so that he/she can put it on a resume. Reminds me of those kids in high school who would take non-existent positions at clubs and join the track team for one month just so that they can put it on their college applications. Anybody who puts that he/she started a business on their resume and refuses to back it up with specific financials, achievements, thought processes, etc. would be an instant rejection for me.

Now, having said all of that, you shouldn't pay attention to those types of people. Just focus on what you can do to make yourself stand out and put an honest, earnest effort into achieving something meaningful.

My view is that very few actually have the vision and skills to come up with something truly successful. And many turn to entrepreneurship simply because they have no idea what they actually want to do. But as someone here pointed out, there is a handful of 'kids' (people my age pretty much) who have truly had an amazing idea and have shown enough character and dedication towards turning it into a successful company/business.

Also, +1 to the "CEO," "Founder" comment - I feel like many startups focus too much on attributing different fancy titles to the members of the team. It does sound incredibly cool and stuff, but if questions regarding the financials would make you blush, why risk it and bump yourself in the chest?

If they have the intelligence and ambition to follow through on a company, then who cares? If the company has a great idea for a product, let them try. I've advised many kids building companies, and it is true that it takes a certain kind of person to be a successful entrepreneur. It honestly usually runs in the family (ie- if their parents are successful entrepreneurs, chances are they will thrive in the uncertain and ambiguous environment of startups). That being said, entreprenuerism is becoming the hot new thing, and many think 'if Zuckerberg could do it, surely I can!' Sadly, when the going gets rough (and it does), they abandon the endevour.

I guess my point is, don't write off every kid wanting to be an entrepreneur. You never know where or when a business is really going to 'pop.'

Also, +1 to the titles comment. I've always told my advising companies to not assign titles until the product they are creating starts generating sales. That is when a startup stops being a product, and starts being a business. Until that point, there is no 'CEO' or COO, etc. It's only 'team lead' and co- leads.

Mr. White:

Doesn't seem like modelling is so useful outside of ibd and pe.

Well I think many of the ladies would disagree and would the men.

See the WSJ article in today's paper - "After a Son's Death, Casino Mogul's Return."

yea, tragic situation, but that guy has some steel balls.

bump -- very interested in this topic

Contrary to popular belief, IB and entrepreneurship have 0 overlapping skills (other than working your ass off).

Yes, you might have to do some basic financial "modeling" but it's limited to figuring out your P&L, COGS, negotiating with suppliers, forecasting sales, etc... Your sole purpose in building a new company is to generate revenue and sales so at this point, any knowledge you have of valuation multiples of free cash flow is essentially moot.

Consulting is much more applicable to entrepreneurship than banking, especially on the operations, IT, and logistics side. Lastly, banking is about the most risk-averse position that you can take. Entrepreneurship is exactly the opposite.

Even consulting doesn't seem to be the same. having started a few businesses (with varying degrees of success) it is like nothing else.

Well banking could help you prepare for exits from entrepreneurship. Also brings credibility and rolodex - easier to get initial capital with both of those. As far as the work though, of course it is different.

I'd presume it would help you in securing a loan from a bank, especially if your company is new and lacking a stable history. You may shrug this idea off now, but bankers like to hear a nice little story before they approve any type of loan. Knowing exactly how to tell this story could be very important to your future success as an entrepreneur.

Contrary to popular belief, IB and entrepreneurship have 0 overlapping skills (other than working your ass off).

I'm not saying that IB will help you grasp how to quickly react to your changing market or something, but you will need to know how to build complex models to source capital, as well as how to effectively create powerful presentations and communicate complex ideas (your model & business) and how to SELL. I worked at a start up and these were the most necessary part of the funding process. Of course, they just hired a banker to do it (initially it was outsourced to some guy @ $500/hour).

Like I said, not going to make you Steve Jobs, but I would not say there are 0 overlapping skills.

with everyday I do banking I feel dumber and less creative, the best thing you can do if your plan is to become an entrepreneur is start saving every single penny of your salary and bonus and gtfo out of this hell as quickly as possible.

the one thing that you get out of banking is that you become conditioned to working your ass off... my dad started a window cleaning/powerwashing company 22 years ago and its still running strong...

the only similarity I see is in the beginning you bust your ass and are working 100-120 hrs a week

Banking should also give you more credibility as an entrepreneur raising capital.

It seems the average job in finance is SO BORING and MIND NUMBING that people dream of starting their own business to keep their minds happily thinking about something. The reality is that it will completely take over your life for a long time, and there's a very high likelihood you'll lose everything.

im in agreement with many of the posts above - your credibility and set of relationships are definitely the best upshots. when looking for growth capital opportunities, the fact that you are a type-A personality that lives and dies by the numbers is a great source of confidence for venture capitalists too.

but at the end of the day, entrepreneurship is about having balls of steel. no job or career track can truly prepare you for that.

as others have said consulting isn't a good route either. The best way to be a successful entrepreneur is to pick an industry and learn all the ins and outs of it. Keep up with the latest news and read a bunch of research articles. If you're lucky, you'll strike up an idea (this is more prevalent in products industry than services). consulting, on the contrary, provides you with very shallow but broad exposure to different arrays of products and services in various induistries.

know a couple successful entrepreneurs and they all had a passion for very specific things that they went after. you can pick up the financial aspect along the way or bring an ibanker monkey on the team; the most important factor is to come up with a good idea, which requires a lot of in depth research and learning.

Access to VC/angel investors possibly to raise capital is probably the only benefit of IBD -> entrepeneurship. IBD is at too high a level for you to understand how to be successful in any particular industry. Reading research reports and interviewing mgmt to build a financial model off projections does not translate into you knowing how to run a ocmpany in that field. Consulting is much better since you're execuring the client level, preferably operations than pure strategic, since most often strategic plans once placed into execution often change due to the X factor, aka reality.

In b-school, almost every banker and PE associate really had no in depth understanding of how a specific industry works. IBD/PE is too generalist, and generalists do not make good entrepeneurs. The first, and actually only rule in entreupeneurship is go into a business that you know and love.

Wow you guys are delusional...

your biggest jobs as an entrepreneur will be in operations, R&D, logistics, supply-chain management, human resources, etc...

your singular goals will be to DEVELOP NEW PRODUCTS and GENERATE ADDITIONAL REVENUE...

the growth capital and private placement portions literally represent 0.0001% of the actual work the average entrepreneur is engaged with, lol

delusional

One is a risk seeking career other is risk averse

Mr. White:

Can someone offer any thoughts on any skills you would learn from banking that would be good for entrepreneurship? I know lots of people cite gaining financial experience and industry exposure as part of the learning from ib, but what REALLY can you get out of it? Doesn't seem like modelling is so useful outside of ibd and pe.

I think the whole concept of "entrepreneurial skills" is basically nonsense. Most entrepreneurs I have come across have a specific skill or interest (e.g. engineering, computer science, etc.) and create a business out of that interest. If you want to be an entrepreneur I think skillsets around the hard sciences are your best bet.

As for banking and pe, they teach you how to process, synthesize, analyze, and distill large amounts of information quickly and accurately. Some would consider that a valuable skillset.

Financial modeling and analysis is required for every company at some point if the goal is to be a successful company. Might was well have a former banker build the models as then they will at least be organized, efficient, functional, and accurate. Until you have worked with a model built by a non-banker you will not understand the importance of this last point.

A large part depends on the risk-tolerance of the person we are talking about.

Also, look up the biographies of Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Bill Gates before you declare entrepreneurs as being street-smart (as opposed to book-smart).

I'm not even sure what the point of this thread is. Different strokes for different folks.

And I never said entrepreneurs weren't book-smart.

IBD - you're someone's bitch: your boss, buyside, corporate clients Your own business - you're still someone's bitch: VC, your customers, your bank, your mom (you'll be living at home because your income is -ve)

There is no set path to becoming an entrepeneur. In fact, you don't need any real skill set to be a successful entrepeneur, all you need is a good idea, the right people, and a shit load of luck. That said. IBD analyst will give you the ability to manage cash and capital in your startup to the extent you need to, access to investors and brand equity when pitching for cash..that's about it I think.

Remember there's no skill set required to be an entrepeneur. Get the right team in place and bring something to market, and the rest you'll learn as you go. It's not very complicated.

Depends on the product or service. If it is something that you invented/created only you know that product well and only you know what you want the future to be. On the other hand, you want to start an investment bank with no knowledge then you should obviously wait.

Really depends.......

The idea is 10%, execution is 90%.

That being said, if you want to maximize your chances of succeeding, I feel that you should pursue the entrepreneurial route after you have some work experience, a legit business network, and capital under your belt.

Definitely not dead:

http://www.shopify.com/contest

I'm curious about this as well. I was talking to someone at Evercore, and he said that he had quite a few friends that started businesses after their analyst stint there and that their businesses were faring well.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487042068045754678327671616…

Double post

More than anything, its probably the work ethic that is the leading driver behind the success of these analysts -> entrepreneurs.

I really don't see how building DCFs, merger models, and pitchbooks can equate to good business acumen. However, the fact that "perfection" is drilled into an analyst's head since day 1 of his job probably does help (e.g. looking at every detail, no matter how minute).