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does anyone here work for Veeva Crossix?
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Anyone still in this bowl?!!
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Found this hilarious!!!
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Subject Expert
If you don’t have product experience, this is a great chance to get it. If it doesn’t work out you now have product experience and can easily interview for other startups and/or big tech.
Getting the first product job out of consulting is hard for many people. Getting one at a high growth tech company is even harder.
Reason not to leave is it’s probably going nowhere…like the vast majority of companies in that stage. And if you don’t want to do product. Or if you want to do learn more about other topics—MBB provides much more opps to do that over time.
Would approach it from the perspective of “could I get something materially better / more suited to my interests by sticking around at McKinsey for another year or so?”.
If yes then maybe ride it out a bit longer before looking for exits. If this is something you think you’d still want to take a year from now and do long term then might as well jump.
2000 all over again...
Mentor
💯
Cash comp more or less matches my mck comp (though won’t grow the same way), equity comp obviously depends on growth but starts at $140k on top of cash.
It’s at their B round, it’s above market based on data I acquired from friends. Also I negotiated tonight and this person went to bat for me increasing the base by 15% plus a sign on bonus. Sealed the deal for me.
Mentor
Do it. You can always go back to McKinsey.
Yes this was my thinking—I have great partner/senior partner relationships and I think they’d understand that I left for a very appealing offer that would be hard to turn down. At least that’s my hope.
Agree on most of this. Their A was last summer and B was in Feb. It’s positioned super well and has hit PMF (problem with meeting demand right now also).
FWIW, I took it.
Company has a much higher probability of failure than mckinsey, that's one reason not to take it. Big tiger global type dumb money seems to be drying up.
I'd still take it.
Yeah this isn’t tiger money but not entirely far off, and agree.
Mentor
Nah. Coming from McKinsey your exit gotta be big. The biggest. Top 5 atleast. Series B? What was then even the whole point of going to McKinsey if you are trying to go for a mediocre exit. That grind gotta return some value. If you are going into product, I would learn from the big dogs first before taking your talents to a series B etc. For me it would be a hard pass. Stay until you get the right exit
Subject Expert
And fwiw the kind of PE-backed companies that would hire a young ex-MBB to be C-level are probably not very attractive and on the smaller side.
Coming from someone who jumped ship at KPMG as a 3rd year associate in 2008 after 12 months with the firm, would advise you to stay at McKinsey. That would always come up several years as to why you left McK that soon. Got 3 offers at the same time before I left K. One of the other 2 offers I turned down the hiring mngr was very heartbroken that I had to refer a friend / colleague at both K and prev employer who I submitted his resume before he got hired at KPMG. Luckily he got the job and he is still with the o&g company after 13 yrs. During an intv I had 6 yrs after, a CEO of the largest listed conglomerate erroneously mentioned in the panel that I must have left KPMG cos of poor performance even after I gave my reasons
Can guarantee that nobody cares in reality as long as you are not lying and you have a real reason you made the jump at one year—and if I’m across the table and someone is giving me shit about “you only were there for one year,” I guarantee they are not someone you want to work for.
Leave
Depends a lot on what you want to do long-term. If future goal is to stay in startup ecosystem or even big tech (still in tech world), startup could accelerate you faster than McKinsey. So many have McKinsey experience, far fewer have consulting+startup experience. Startups always prefer someone with consulting+startup experience or even just pure startup experience over someone with only consulting. This is even more true as you go for higher-level roles at startups. Also you could probably lateral to other functions within the startup if product turns out to be not what you want. If you might want to go into traditional industry, however, McKinsey allows you to explore more industries/functions within a traditional corporate world and provide faster career progression than going directly into industry.
Do u mind sharing expected TC?
Are there any red flags - like The Dropout red flags? Does it seem too good to be true?
Manager is also ex-mck with very solid track record in tech. So seems very legit. Founders 3rd company, backed by tier 1 VC.
Mentor
Do you believe in the product and have justification for that thought? Experience aside, if you’re in a product role, you now take on much more responsibility to deliver a product that customers want (which is much more difficult than most think). Also, are you okay with 140k if it all goes south, since the likelihood of IPO is low?
I would take it in a heartbeat. That said, if the competitor was acquired, chances are it will make it much harder for this startup to succeed.
Also I think there’s a way you could “try out” the new role without leaving Mckinsey: take a 3-month unpaid leave of absence at Mckinsey for “personal matters/reasons”, work at the series b startup for 3 months during your leave at Mckinsey. In 3 months you should have a good idea of whether you want to stay at the startup long-term. If yes, tell McKinsey you came across a fantastic opportunity during your leave and decided to take it. If not, go back to McKinsey as if nothing happened. That simple. You’re welcome.
For the record I would never do this and think it’s quite fucked up.
Do you mind sharing the name of the company?
Think a lot about the company and its prospects for success. B is risky (most don’t make it), and if its round was done in 2021 you should be discounting equity heavily given how frothy the market is. Avg time from A to IPO is ~7 years, only about 20% of B co’s exit successfully.
The VC funding market is drying up and will continue to be as we experience rising rates this year + better places for capital to find risk free returns, so your time to realize equity gains will be extended.
All that said, this exp is far more differentiated / interesting (if more risky) than McK. If I were you I would take it