Hi all. I’m currently in my second year at a top EB and cannot wait to leave.
However, I have a couple startup ideas that I’d like to personally explore. My question becomes, if I leave are my chances of getting into PE 2-3 years down the line gone? If my startup fails, I want to have a backup, curious to hear your thoughts.
Note that I would have 2 years of IB experience once I leave.
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You can always make time for physical education.
Take this with a grain of salt since I’m not a PE partner, just have spoken to a lot of PE professionals. Nothing is ever impossible, but you won’t be a target candidate anymore for the vast majority of traditional MM/UMM buyout shops. But who fucking cares? Every choice we make closes some doors but opens others. There will still be SOME shops that value your experiences as a founder. That’s not even considering the Bull case scenario where your startup is very successful and suddenly many PE shops are interested in you as an operating partner. I say go chase your dreams with everything you have and don’t worry what PE firms think or what doors are closed. If you decide in 3 years that God put you in this earth to buy out $15M industrial piping companies, you will find your way home.
lmaooo
Not going to share their profiles here, but I've seen several cases of people going IB>startup/corporate>either directly to PE or MBA then PE. Not saying it's the norm at all and we also don't know the denominator of those who tried, but this happens more often than you'd probably think.
Is your startup idea so time sensitive that you can’t wait 2 years and pursue after a PE stint? Maybe I’m just risk averse but unless you expect to be immediately making revenue within the next 6-12 months with adequate market fit - there’s no reason to jump the gun today. Also, if your idea is worth anything in the long run, I can’t see how starting it up 2 years from now will make a difference. Just my 2 cents
Everyone's calculus for whether and when to make the leap into entrepreneurship is personal and different. OP may get married and start a family in 2 years, meaning his risk aversion may go up (or at least should). Maybe he's being tapped for a senior associate/VP promotion in 2 years and he's left wrestling with pursuing an idea he's always thought he would pursue vs. cashing fat checks and accruing carry in a career track chair. When to pursue an idea has less to do with time sensitivity relating to the idea itself and more to do with where people will be in life if they pursue path A over B.
I do agree, though, that if OP does not have a vision to revenue or some sense of market-fit with even 15% confidence, they should keep solidifying the foundation of their idea while balancing their career before jumping in truly blind.
OP, I forewent PE to pursue my own idea. I figured the likeliest worst case is I can't do PE and if I want to work in M&A I'm "stuck" with banking. For me, that was a risk I was willing to take and didn't mind "losing" in. The reality I've found is that LMM PE still seems very possible, and since telling recruiters soliciting me for IB opportunities that I'm no longer in IB but working on my own business, they've been sending me interesting portco opportunities, some of which are allocating equity for those opportunities (the kicker, of course, is that unless the PE firm hits their preferred equity dues in an exit, you won't see much).
I knew I'd look back 10 years later wishing I'd at least tried and that's what drove me to do it + the notion that I wouldn't actually starve if I couldn't get my career back on track to a T.
I echo comments above and think there is some good commentary / advice there. I would be curious to know though, if you don’t like EB banking why do you think you may want to do PE? Maybe I’m misguided / misinformed here but I’m not sure if the jobs are that different at the end of the day? I would think PE loves to recruit from EBs/BB M&a because the jobs are fairly similiar…
maybe I’m also just not understanding your question?
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