Investment Banking
Name 3 bulge bracket investment banks
Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Citi, etc.
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google
Name the top 5 cities/regions with the most venture capital activity (2020)
1. Bay Area
2. New York City
3. Los Angeles
4. Boston
5. Seattle
-Ideally, you need some finance experience
-Hungry, scrappy, grit
-Make sure you understand the business model, problem the startup is trying to solve, mission, etc.
What are some pros and cons of working in San Francisco?
Massive network, many opportunities
Not super family-friendly, really expensive
How many hours can you expect to work in investment banking any given week?
70 - 100+ hrs. No joke
A lot less than banking; 40 - 50 hrs per week. Maybe 60 or 70 if you're on a big project
Seed/Angel: $2M - $5M in funding
Early: Series A, B - $5M - $50M in funding
Late: C onward - $50 - $100M in funding
-What's the revenue growth been recently?
-What's the customer retention recently?
-Who are the investors! Very important
-Employee retention or average tenure
-Attitude. HUMBLE SMART
-Speak well
-High energy (but not out of control)
Name 4 services an investment bank offers
IPO, Sell-side advisory, Buy-side advisory, debt offering, secondary offerings, fairness opinions, others
How much money could you make in big tech?
What do you do on a daily basis if you work for
Seed, Early, Late stage
Seed - talk to founders, really evaluate the vision, team, there are no solid financials
Early - company has some traction, there are financials, you need to network a lot with other VCs and other founders
Late - proven, IPO or M&A bound, pretty much a sure thing. Very competitive to get into these types of deals. More modeling, more diligence, takes longer
How much could you expect to make at a startup?
Lots of negotiation room!
Analyst level - $75K - $90K plus equity probably valued at around $30K / $40K on a 4 year vesting schedule
Manager - $100K - $150K ($85K - $100K equity)
Ideally - the equity value will increase significantly over the 4 years
10 years ago, everyone went to B-school...Now, it's a little different
What's the difference between an industry group and product group at an investment bank?
Free answer
What are some of thing things a finance analyst does at a Big Tech company?
This is a trick question because you can do almost anything. Downside is that you're pretty siloed. Like only headcount or focused only on the cost side or the revenue side for one sliver of the business. But you have flexibility to move around
What's the career path look like at a VC? How long does it take to make partner?
Associate -> Principal -> VP -> Partner. It really depends how long it can take to be a partner. If you're good you can make partner in less than a decade.
What's could you expect to do at a startup? What's your day look like? Hours?
Early stage: Reporting / preparation of financials, metrics, help make major business decisions, help with fundraising, help with board materials, interact with investors, C-suite. Hours can vary wildly!
<>
What are some career paths that IB sets you up for if you choose to do something else?
It's a trick question bc it really can prepare for you anything
WHY do you want to work in Big Tech
Cushy, safe, very predictable career progression, decent money, work/life balance, lots of perks
WHY would you or wouldn't you want to work at a VC?
-At the cutting edge of the latest and greatest, meeting and learning from great founders, being able to help them. Being apart of major success stories. Hours are relatively good, pay and upside are very good
-Really competitive, hard to get to the top
What are some of the Pros and Cons of working at a startup?
Pros - lots of fast-paced learning. Really see and understand the mechanics of a business. Not-siloed. Make your mark on the business, own a process, build the process
Cons - pay is the lowest, highest risk, least amount of perks, hours can fluctuate, higher pressure
Should I work at one place forever? How long should I work somewhere before I look for a new job