Is CDD mostly boring desk job of research without any travel? Does it meaningfully teaches skills of entreprenuership? Considering AI how are dynamics changing in CDD and is it worth it for future prospects, entreprenuership and knowing business?

CDD is often a high-intensity desk job with bursts of calls, and travel is usuallly limited (many diligences are run remotely unless there’s a specific need for site/customer visits). It can teach real “business judgment” (market sizing, customer economics, GTM, competitive dynamics), but it does not automatically teach the hands-on parts of entreprenuership (hiring, product, selling, cashflow ops).

• is it mostly boring research w/ no travel?
  mostly desk + excel + slides + expert/customer calls, short timelines, lots of repetition in the workplan (market, customers, competitors, forecast). travel exists sometimes (mgmt meetings, site visits, conferences), but if you want travel as a main perk, cdd isn’t the best bet.
• does it meaningfully teach entrepreneurship skills?
  it teaches “investor style thinking”: what to check, what drives revenue, what breaks a business model, how to sanity-check a plan. it teaches less of “founder execution”: how to build product, close customers, run ops, manage cash, deal with messy people stuff.
• ai impact: what’s changing
  ai is killing a lot of the grunt: first-pass research, transcript notes, draft summaries, fast competitor scans, and even some market-model boilerplate. the bar moves up: you’re expected to (a) ask better questions on calls, (b) triangulate truth, (c) spot bs in a story, and (d) make a crisp investment view faster.
• worth it for future prospects / knowing business?
  yes if you want a strong base for investing, strategy, corp dev, or “general business operator” roles, because it trains pattern recognition across many industries. but if your goal is entreprenuership, you’ll still need a second chapter (operating role, sales/product exposure, or building something on the side) to get the full skillset.

if you tell me your current level (analyst/associate/manager) and what kind of entrepreneurship you mean (tech vs physical business), i can give a more direct “do cdd vs skip” take.

Hello!

As someone who did 15+ CDD and TDD projects at Altman Solon, happy to share my perspective.

The answer is nuanced — it depends on short-term vs long-term view.

Short-term

CDD is definitely not just a boring desk job — especially in the first years.

• Intensity: 3–5 week DDs are extremely demanding. Tight timelines, high pressure, little room for error
• Skill acceleration: You become very strong in Excel modeling, scenario thinking, and slide structuring
• PE exposure: You see firsthand how private equity approaches acquisitions — investment logic, red flags, value creation
• Industry depth: Especially in boutiques, you learn industry dynamics very quickly and at a granular level

You develop strong analytical discipline and commercial judgment fast.

Long-term

Here the view becomes more mixed.

• Some parts of CDD are repeatable (e.g., business plan assessment, market sizing, growth validation).
• If you do only CDD for many years, the learning curve can plateau.
• I would strongly recommend combining CDD with strategy projects to broaden your profile.

Personally, if I had done only CDD, I likely wouldn’t have moved to Netflix. Strategy projects gave me broader narratives and more versatile positioning during interviews.

Entrepreneurship angle

CDD teaches:

• How to assess markets quickly
• How to identify risks in business models
• How to think like an investor

However, it does not teach execution, team building, or product development — which are core entrepreneurial skills.

It builds analytical muscle, not founder muscle.

AI impact

AI is already changing the space.

• Automated Excel modeling tools
• Faster data scraping
• Slide drafting support

Some repetitive elements of CDD (e.g., benchmarking, business plan validation) are becoming more automated. Over time, this will likely reduce manual workload and increase emphasis on judgment and interpretation, not raw modeling.

Bottom line

• Great training ground early on
• Excellent for understanding investment logic
• Even stronger if combined with strategy work
• Valuable, but not a complete entrepreneurship substitute

As a coach, I’m here to help you — we can think through whether CDD aligns with your long-term goals and design a path that maximizes both skill development and future optionality.

Is CDD a boring desk job?

Mostly, yes. You're working with data, Excel, reports, and slides. 80 to 90% of the time you're at your desk. Not much travel.

But if you enjoy figuring out whether a business is really as good as it claims to be, it's actually interesting. Think of it as detective work with spreadsheets. If you want more travel and client time, traditional consulting is a better fit.

Does CDD teach entrepreneurship skills?

More than people think. You won't learn how to build a product. But you'll learn something most founders are bad at: understanding whether a business actually makes money and why.

You'll look at 30 to 40 businesses up close in a short time. You'll learn to tell the difference between a company growing because the market is hot versus one that's actually good. That skill is hard to get anywhere else.

How is AI changing CDD?

The basic stuff like data gathering, market sizing, and competitor mapping is getting much faster. What took two days now takes hours.

But the big judgment calls aren't going anywhere. Is this company's growth real? Is the management team trustworthy? No PE partner is betting $500 million on what AI thinks. If you can only pull data, you're at risk. If you can think, question, and form a point of view, you become more valuable.

Is CDD worth it?

For entrepreneurship, 2 to 3 years gives you a strong base in how businesses actually work. For the deal world, it's a solid path into PE, corporate development, or VC. If you want broader leadership skills, traditional consulting might be a better fit.

It really comes down to what you want to be good at 5 years from now.

This is a fantastic breakdown, and I'd echo much of what's shared here, especially the nuance around short-term versus long-term value in CDD. From an MBB perspective, the initial years in CDD are an incredible training ground for analytical rigor and commercial judgment. You learn to dissect business models, identify critical value drivers, and understand investment logic at a pace few other roles offer. This foundational skill set is invaluable and often a direct pathway into private equity or strategic finance roles.

Where the long-term view becomes crucial for broader career optionality, as pointed out, is around the specific type of "business acumen" you develop. CDD definitely teaches you to assess businesses like an investor, but it's distinct from the operating or building skills essential for entrepreneurship – things like execution, sales, product development, and team dynamics. If founding a company is the ultimate goal, view CDD as an exceptional lens for market analysis and risk assessment, but recognize you'll need to actively seek out experiences to build that "founder muscle" elsewhere.

The impact of AI here is also key. As automation handles more of the repetitive data gathering and initial modeling, the premium shifts even more towards the human elements: synthesis, judgment, strategic interpretation, and client communication. This isn't a threat to the value of the role, but rather an evolution that elevates the strategic thinking components.

Ultimately, it’s about being intentional with your project selection and understanding how each engagement builds your overarching narrative. If you find yourself heavily specialized in CDD, strategically look for opportunities to round out your profile with pure strategy projects or even internal firm initiatives to gain that broader experience.

Hope this perspective adds another layer to your thinking!

hey!

CDD is more desk based than general strategy, yes. It is intense, research heavy, interview driven and often done under tight timelines, with limited travel compared to classic transformation projects. But it is not just passive research, you pressure test business models, assess market attractiveness, evaluate management teams and identify value creation levers.

For entrepreneurship it is actually very powerful. You learn how investors think, how to size markets quickly, spot risks, challenge assumptions and understand what really drives value. That pattern recognition is extremely useful if you want to start or buy a business later.

AI is automating parts of data gathering and basic analysis, but the core skill of synthesizing ambiguity, forming a sharp investment thesis and making judgment calls is still very human. If anything, the bar for structured thinking is increasing.

It is worth it if you enjoy fast paced, high stakes analysis and want strong commercial instincts. If you want lots of operational execution and travel, then general strategy or ops might fit better. 

Alessa

It depends on the firm.

With some you travel, with others not. 

The best thing you can do for yourself is have a proper chat with somebody who has done the job for a couple of years. They're going to give you the sort of insights that a Q&A isn't able to provide.

And ideally you speak with a few different people to account for the individual bias they might have.

Best,
Cristian