IB to Tech Start-up

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bump, gonna be starting FT in an NYC IBD non-tech coverage role and wondering if it's difficult to make the move after

Have a similar background here: majored in Philosophy at a liberal arts college (so had little exposure to programming), went to a top 3 bb as SA, then moved on to VC followed by GE, currently at a tech startup as founding member. 

To be honest, I think my BB experience helped little, especially in our early stage. Rather, my experience in VC and GE helped significantly more regarding network, fundraising, keeping track of competitors, making strategic judgment and decisions, etc. Sure, my experience at BB honed my attention to detail, business etiquette, paperwork and pitchbook drafting, modelling, industry research... None of those matters in founding your startup. None. Not even drafting pitch books or industry research because: 1) Good BPs look drastically different from pitch books in banking, especially in early stage when you are selling your ideas as you need to be presentative and requires good aesthtics - think Steve Jobs' presentation (the only section my BB exp helped was the "industry" section); 2) As for "industry research": entering into a new market, you don't have industry reports that really address your target market (while those reports are what bankers largely reference) - if there are, you might want to check if it's a red ocean already.

Of course, the ability of industry research and research-based decision-making are crucial; but I think these skills of mine are more honed during my GE experience where my seniors cared a lot more about my reasoning and would really critically dig into my investment thesis about the industry because we needed to make decision upon that and they actually bear responsibility for their decisions. 

My experience in GE and VC also helped me build an investor mindset which I personally regard as a big plus for founders - awareness of building your barrier at the very beginning, identifying the key drivers of the industry and of your business model, analytical thinking and decision-making, etc. Working at VC also helped me build a valuable network of both investors and successful founders which is super useful: 1) easier access to fundrasing; 2) both investors and founders have useful network that help you grow your team; 3) industry insight and experience - especially solid if they come from founders who have acutally fought in the field, they could really help you avoid serious mistakes that tend to be easily overlooked; 4) "insider" information, especially about competitors and trends of industry trends and capital markets... and the list goes on. 

So experience at GE and VC funds are helpful, internship at other early-stage startups might be, and starting to build your own startup also helps (you don't need to do something super fancy or aim at building a unicorn, just to get your feet wet and test the waters - I actually learned a lot from my earlier startup experience of building a fitness app and selling it).