Considering an unorthodox exit from IB

I’m coming up on my 1 year mark in banking and have been considering going to work at my uncle’s company for a year or two to help prep it for sale. I’m already getting burned out in IB, saved up a nice chunk of change, and don’t exactly know what I want to do next, so my main goals are getting some operating experience and giving myself a break from working in finance for a bit.

It’s a standard LMM company (<$20MM EV if I had to guess) run by an owner who’s good at sales & knows the industry really well, but needs help when it comes to finance and the back office side of things. Obviously I don’t have a ton of experience, but I think I could help by building a model & budget for the company, help with launching or integrating needed IT / ERP systems, searching for add on targets, prepping internal data in advance of going out to market, etc. 

I sit in an industry group working with MM companies in the same space, and my uncle’s company has gotten inbound interest as an add-on from a couple sponsors my bank has worked with in the past. Given this, I think there’s potential for a real sell side process and I believe I could provide some value.

Does this sound like a stupid idea? I haven’t thought into it a ton, but it still sounds preferable to grinding out another 2 years in Banking / PE once my analyst stint is done.



 

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