Why don't these smart people start a business?

Abstract: Editor's note: This article is about two months ago on the manuscript. At that time Krypton although has welcomed our Tsai Zhouyu, but we sometimes want to recruit some financial, financial background of the elite to survive is very difficult (if you happen to be like this

Editor's note: This article is a two-month-old manuscript. While Krypton had welcomed our Tsai-Zhouyu, but we sometimes want to recruit some financial, financial background of the university to survive is very difficult (if you happen to be such a person, willing to report Internet finance, do listed companies earnings analysis, etc. welcome to the zyh#36kr.com).

One of the four students who had been employed was not polite to tell Zuo: "You are too low to recruit." After a big pour of bitterness, a top management consulting firm took office, and a part of the Krypton Space team of Fox June said recently in thinking about this issue there are some constructive comments. So there was this article.

Professional service Firms (PSF) refers to the investment bank, the first-line consulting company and the top law firms and accounting firms to provide a series of professional services to the party B Company. These companies are probably the most intellectually dense places in the world.

And the people who work here, although different industries and companies also have a despised food chain, but they usually have the following several common characteristics:

Couba: Learn things quickly, is generally a famous school background + glossy resume, all the way to have not encountered a major setback, at best, and other Couba fight each other. From an early age is the wind, by everyone's attention, is the elder's mouth "Other people's child"; rational thinking: very sensitive to facts, logic, numbers, have some areas of expertise: such as corporate finance, strategic consulting, accounting, etc. financial health: income is usually good, and daily expenses are basically vinyl by the company, income = Assets。 Will blow Water (bullshit): Especially the consulting and investment Bank of the people.

These Couba don't like startups, of course not, but also, like Alibaba's Tsai. But in most cases, startups need such people very much after they have grown to a certain stage. Ma Yun said:

Tsai such people inside the company is not developed, only from the outside to find. And the sooner you find the less detours.

Alibaba's first time to take soft silver investment, is Tsai suggested that Ma Yun refused son 40 million U.S. dollars offer, only took 20 million U.S. dollars, let out a less equity. Although startups need such people very much after they have grown to a certain stage, they are very difficult to recruit. And do not say Tsai, some elite graduating students only think MBB (McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting), even bat is not in the eye, not to mention the start-up companies?

Before I untie this knot, let me tell you a few stories.

Story One

A beautiful afternoon tea with a famous management consulting firm last weekend. She talked about her passion for fashion, and threw a new idea that she had just finalized last week about women's fashion industry. I said entrepreneurship should be early Ah, this year's financing environment so cool, money so good to take, quickly drafted a business plan to cheat an angel AH. "I'll look for some reports, analyze and analyze, find partners, and think about how to get started," she said with a smile. ”

I wonder how she is doing now. But this week I came to Beijing on a business trip, and saw one of her potential rivals open a store in the trade. When I talked to her earlier, I said that one of the reasons for the big market opportunity was that the potential competitor had not yet entered China, so I took a photo and sent it to her.

Story Two

A few days ago and colleagues customers in the dinner when chatting, this year's financing environment so fire how we do not go out to venture. A customer (formerly engaged in management consulting work) explained: To some extent, people who choose to work for a consulting firm tend to be more risk-averse, do things that look up and down, toss a bunch of models and do a bunch of research, and finally usually come to the conclusion that this is too risky to do.

During the dinner also talked to a he urged friends to do a project-to do information intermediary to introduce Chinese girls to South Korea's plastic surgery hospital, a cut. The Commission ratio of up to 40%, the market dispersed (now are the whole small model star introduced the younger sister past), the customer unit price is high (tens of thousands of to hundreds of thousands of), cash flow fast, the initial investment less. But the user scale growth is limited, is not the VC particularly likes the concept. Later his friend could not see this idea, feel not tall enough, also do not. Later, "Perfect Clinic", "Beautiful Plus", "aerobic" and so on springing up. It's only a matter of day before they get involved in Cross-border.

Story Three

Two or three months ago, I and my secretary of a leader to eat, talk to my heart has a dream of entrepreneurship, she tried to encourage me to go out quickly. She has a lot of opportunities to do outside the company's executives, but finally tangled to go, or feel to stay in the company is fine--limousine transfer, five-star hotel, eat a budget, no KPI. Once left the company, you do not have hotel points, no air mileage, no longer the hotel platinum members, eating out of their own money. She told me in earnest

The longer you stay here, the more you'll find the cost of leaving is too high.

One of the stories that a colleague once shared was suddenly remembered: she found the same plane at the airport when she met her colleagues who worked together as an investment bank. After getting on the plane, her former colleague sat down in business class and she continued to walk back. "This is the furthest distance in the world," she said with a smile.

Story Four

Last month, my part-time project, gradchef.com, ended because we didn't turn an interest project into a full-time startup project. Friends who are interested in this product can take a look at our CEO Ming Summary. Our team, in addition to me, there are two investment banks, one in the PE. Only one person (CEO) is full-time.

Here, these in the PSF Couba characteristics seem very clear, one is not like risk, the other is not enough grounding gas. The former cause them to be unwilling to start a full-time business, do things more willing to calculate the risk, but rarely willing to try to be wrong, there is no MVP concept, can not put the temptation of high salaries and welfare. The latter led them to even overcome the risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder, the heart still only want to do tall projects, do not want to roll up their sleeves to dry. And they have no interest in really delving into the market, and entrepreneurship is always a failure. The failure, in turn, is the lesson of the former colleagues who are hesitating, and thus the vicious circle.

But things are still changing, with Wall Street as an example. In recent years, Wall Street elites have been making the second West move to San Francisco, according to an article in Sina Finance this year. The rapid development of hi-tech, with its core of Silicon Valley, has broken the former American financial center's adherence to the New York City layout, allowing more Wall Street elites to start thinking about developing High-tech industries that are more space-oriented. According to the Wharton School's latest report:

In 2014, 13.5% of graduating MBAs opted for high-tech jobs, compared with 5.6% in 2008, and 18% in 2013 in the High-tech sector, 3 times times as many as 2008. At America's top business schools, the starting salary for the MBA is almost as good as in the financial and it industries, which is sometimes higher.

Of course, it's no use talking trends, and in my years of experience with startups, there are ways to help the PSF smart people who are willing to try startups:

men and women collocation, work is not tired: The general couple two people, one continues to engage in PSF work, the other to start a business to disperse the family face cash flow risk. Even if the entrepreneurial side has been not making money, continue to stay in the psf of the side of one months tens of thousands of yuan income also enough two people spend it; leave a letter to the boss heartfelt: Talk with the boss, pretending to start a business is just your spare tire, "organization" is true love, entrepreneurial failure can also come back to ask the boss to take shelter; feel the world outside. : When doing the project, try to choose two or three-line city project or implementation (strategic landing) project. If you don't have a choice at work, you can go out for a vacation and broaden your horizons to see what kind of market and customer support your project. No investigation has no say: Occasionally also do mystery customer, even if not buy also can window shopping or make a cold call to ask, these people in the university when young, must have done similar student project. Get to know the first-line entrepreneur: At the beginning of the current more talk with the industry, perhaps they were fooled into the occupation do not start from scratch

Therefore, the PSF of the small partners also gradually have some successful entrepreneurial cases, most of them use the one I said above or a few experience:

, the Pantry's best wing, a favorite of the white-collar workers in Shanghai, was made by McKinsey's alumni, and the only Chinese team strikingly of YC was made by Morgan friends; yesterday and a jingwei friend of the dinner, heard a 89-Year-old boy's story. He was the first person to realize financial freedom. At that time to give up a VC investment manager work, transferred to the Jingwei cast a company from the bottom to do, one months to take 5, 6,000 of the wages, then spent two years to do pioneering company vp--he joined the company called Mo Mo. A pancake fruit shop in central Hong Kong is called an old Gold pancake (Huang Taigi, Hong Kong edition), a Juno from Soc Gen.

But even so, PSF smart people come to the start-up company or to prepare a lot of cultural shock, from a suit to a short sleeve T-shirt, need not just take off a few layers of clothes, but grilled a few layers of skin. If you are interested, you can also read an article written by an experienced author: "How quitting my corporate job for my startup dream f*cked me Life Up" by Ali Mese.

If you read it carefully, ask, "Are you Ready?" ”