Finlatics Investment Banking Experience Program

Name- Anusha Datta

Project 1
1. The most suitable profile-idea combination according to me would be B
( Economics graduate with MBA degree and experience in consultancy) and A
( health foods company). An individual with previous experience of
consultancy is the best fit for a venture which involves hitting the right
product market and target consumers. It is crucial for an entrepreneur to have
high level of strategic and critical thinking especially at a stage where the
product has not yet been delivered to the consumers.
Stages of Business
During the first stage of the business, i.e the idea stage, an entrepreneur
decides on the central theme of his start-up. Innovation is crucial in this stage
and as someone with experience in management consulting in a corporate
setting, the capacity to innovate isn’t very broad as creativity can neither be
acquired nor does it flourish out of experience. That being said, the idea stage
also requires entrepreneurs to have a good understanding of market demand
for their products and their competitive edge. A person with previous
experience of management consulting would be able to grasp the dynamics of
the industry at an instance. Therefore, in this stage the extent to which Arjun’s
experience would be useful would be limited.
After the development stage which is the second stage, comes the growth
stage. This particular stage involves analytical and decision-making abilities as
well as a focus that is directed towards profits. The health foods venture
launched by Arjun and seeking the correct product-market fit is at the growth
stage as it hasn’t reached the consumers. The analytical skills gained by him
through his experience as a management consultant will come in handy here
as they are exposed to different scenarios that are challenging. They work with
a diverse range of industries, clients and interact with consumers so it
wouldn’t be surprising if they are well versed with the growth stage of a start-
up.
Widening his horizon
While Arjun might have an edge with his consulting experience, a fact that
cannot be missed is that consultants work with established companies who
have a structured data so the consultants know what to work with. In the
initial stages of a start-up, no proper data is available and there are no
concrete forecasts or projects. Point being, there is a lot of uncertainty and
nothing very solid to analyse as consultants would normally do. Therefore,
Arjun would have to know how to separate what he has already learnt from
situations that are unrelated and where exactly his experience and knowledge
as a consultant is required. He would have to keep an open mind towards
learning things from scratch
 Teamwork and Networking
Consultants learn working with various projects in teams and delegating tasks
quite early on in their careers, they know the value of time and meeting
deadlines. Project management skills are important for an entrepreneur as
they should know how to track their progress and avoid slacking. Also, Arjun
would have developed a network through his consulting experience, this
would help him further in his venture.
A Similar Story
One of the examples in this scenario is Gagan Biyani. He graduated in
Economics and began his career as a consultant in Accenture. He co-founded
Udemy in 2009, one of the first MOOC platforms. He was also a co-founder
and CEO for Sprig, a food delivery company. Another example is Kathryn
Minshew- CEO and co-founder of Muse, a career development platform. She
was a management Consultant at McKinsey.
2. Contrary to the concept of loans, Private Equity offers quite a few benefits to
firms. These include- stamp of quality, network driven benefits, advisory
benefits and financial benefits. Keeping in mind the profile-idea combination
chosen for Arjun, his focus should be centred around network driven benefits

Network Driven Benefits- Although experience as a management

consultant does come with the benefit of a ready-made network but a lot of
times the variety of the network depends on the individual’s social skills and
how much he/she takes out of his experience. Also, while a person is
associated with a company as a management consultant, the kind of network
he/she builds also depends on the brand of the company to a huge extent and
after Arjun left his organisation, he might not have access to all of the previous
networks he built while he was a part of the organisation. Therefore, he should
look at building a network from scratch for his venture by means of his
investors. The wide range of contacts that PE investors work with would
surely benefit Arjun in his health foods start-up especially since it is currently
in the growth stage and in need of distribution channels to reach ultimate
consumers.