Former M&A banker seeking advice for pivot into Corporate Venture Building via MBB or agency (IDEO, Frog, Board of Innovation etc.)

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BCG Digital Ventures Finance background venture architect

New answer on Dec 01, 2022

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Anonymous A asked on Nov 29, 2022

Hi guys. I'm a former M&A banker with 10 yrs experience working for top-tier M&A boutique in consumer / retail, advising founders, management and boards on financial and other strategic matters. I'm hoping to leverage my deep financial expertise and my knowledge of design thinking, business model and value prop design to pivot into venture design / venture building for a consulting firm or agency. My dream firms at the moment would be BCG DV and IDEO, although I'm open to feedback if anyone else feels favorably about any others.

Any thoughts on which consultancies / agencies have the best venture building practices on the street?

Any advice on how to best position myself and sell my experience to make a successful switch? Happy to work with someone 1:1 if they feel they have the requisite expertise…..

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Answer 1

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Anonymous replied on Nov 30, 2022

Hey,

Based on my interview experience with BCGDV, I can say that they really value first-hand entrepreneurship experience. In that sense, that experience definitely would be valuable. On the other hand, they expect fundamental consulting skills to come with a structured business solution to a problem, which will provide a basis for the other teams as well.

In terms of venture building roles, I would agree that there are 2 groups but I wouldn't restrict the first one to MBB. The first one is the extensions of consulting firms such as BCGDV as part of BCGX, Next for Bain, Leap for McKinsey, and frog for Capgemini Invent. Since the field is still a growing one, I would say the most important factor to choose from them would be their focus areas in terms of project pipelines.

The other group is agencies such as IDEO, ?What If!. I had the opportunity to talk to employees from almost every company I mentioned and as you can imagine, the main difference compared to the consulting companies is that the consulting companies reflect their existing know-how about business consulting more when approaching a problem since they also recruit a number of consultants from the parent companies.

There is actually a third group, which they call themselves as “creative consultancy firms”. That group would have Prophet, Fahrenheit 212 and Bow&Arrow. I would also encourage you to explore these companies as well.

All the best!

Emre

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Anonymous A on Nov 30, 2022

Thank you so much Emre, this is incredibly helpful. Would it be possible to schedule a 30 min call at your hourly rate to discuss the below further? - What do you mean when you say "the main difference is the consulting companies reflect their existing know-how about business consulting when approaching a problem" - do you mean agencies tend to pursue a more human-centered design thinkin approach to problem solving (slower, more discovery oriented, more grounded in first hand customer research) whereas the consulting agency extensions tend to be more programmatic about how they tackle problems? Would love to dig into this some more.... - Were you also considering joining one of these three groups to engage in venture building? If so what made you opt to go with Bain? Why not an agency or creative consultancy? - Anything else you learned about these 3 group and how they compare / contrast you can share? - This third group is really interesting, other than for Farenheit 212 (who is now part of CapGemini Invent) these weren't on my radar. Any others you have come across you would recommend? Thank you again Emre :)

Anonymous on Dec 01, 2022

Hey, Happy to hear that the answer was helpful! Of course, I would be happy to provide more details on that and also about the interview process, so you would have an idea about what to expect when you get into the process. You could just DM me and we can book a session via here based on our availabilities. Bests, Emre

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Answer 2

Maikol

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replied on Nov 30, 2022

BCG Project Leader | Former Bain, AlixPartner, and PE | INSEAD MBA | GMAT 780

To be honest I see a lot of confusion here.
Agencies and MBB do completely different things.
M&A advisors in agencies are like a penguin in the savannah.
I don't get how an M&A advisor can prove to an agency or MBB that has some experience in design thinking, business model, or value proposition design.

MBB for sure value M&A advisors but for PE, asset management, and corporate finance, for sure not for design thinking projects.

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Anonymous A on Nov 30, 2022

Hi Maikol - thank you for your response, I understand why off the cuff the above might have seemed confusing and misguided - I left a lot of color / context out which would have probably been helpful to frame the situation. Based on my research and conversations with folks, the boundaries between agencies and MBBs are starting to blur, especially when it comes to venture design - firms like IDEO for example are now hiring MBAs / folks straight from consulting MBBs to join them as Business Designers to provide a business viability lens to IDEO client projects. A lot of those projects involve corporate venture building, which is exactly what folks like BCG DV do....Their approach may be different, but the end work product / client deliverable is usually the same. From the standpoint of validating my knowledge of, and experience with design thinking, business model innovation and value prop design, I've been taking night courses with IDEO U and Strategyzer Academy among others to build the knowledge, and moonlighting as a venture designer (both freelance and via a venture studio project) to build my experience and skillset. I also started a company a few years back, which gave me entrepreneurship experience which is the #1 thing most venture design firms (such as BCG DV) look for. I will be demonstrating all of this via a portfolio to make that design thinking / venture design skillset more tangible for folks who might dismiss me as "just a banker". From my research, and meeting with BCG DV folks, many of their Venture Architects come from finance backgrounds, though they typically dabbled in VC or entrepreneurship prior to joining BCG DV. I think based on my founding my own company a few years back, and my recent moonlighting as a venture designer, combined with my finance knowledge and skillset, I should be able to position myself favorably for a Venture Architect type of role at an MBB or agency.... Maybe I'm drinking my own kool-aid, but based on the numerous conversations I've had with folks at BCG DV and agencies such as IDEO, the leap feels doable

Maikol on Dec 02, 2022

I still continue to think that your experience is a long long shot for BCG DV or similar.

Answer 3

Ian

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replied on Dec 01, 2022

Hi there,

My mind definitely jumps straight towards BCG DV right off the bat here. Other than that, to be honest I don't know who is the best. That said, it's likely not your “classic” consulting firms. I highly recommend you get out there and network to start to figure this out. Use “leads” and names/roles etc. as starting points to branch out from (i.e. asking x person for more contacts, looking at similar roles/companies on LinkedIn, etc.)

Good luck!

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Former M&A banker seeking advice for pivot into Corporate Venture Building via MBB or agency (IDEO, Frog, Board of Innovation etc.)

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