I shouldn’t generalize, but when I see a management consultant leaving their position and immediately starting a new startup, I get concerned.
- Consultants usually don’t have direct industry experience. They might have thoroughly analyzed an industry, but they haven’t gotten their hands dirty and lived in it
- Because they don’t have a specialty industry vertical, when their first idea hits the wall, they tend to start from scratch and see everything again. I’ve seen a former consultant founder who started in smart POS/payment, and when the initial idea didn’t pan out, started looking into self driving trucks. They’re looking for a market void using quadrants analysis, but to me it looks like they don’t have a solid basis and therefore are looking everywhere
- Usually they don’t have the skill sets most needed in early stage startups, like coding, UX design, or growth hacking. They sure can create beautiful decks, but no early stage investor I know decide to invest based on decks
My recommendation is, try to get a job at a high-growth startup and learn from good founders and management team by working side by side with them.
Or, if there’s an industry you’re passionate about, go into that industry, learn the shit out of it, and then stay in there for a long time. Another great thing about that approach is you’ll likely meet ambitous and forward-thinking people who have a ton of industry experience but is frustrated by the slow advancement, who would be perfect cofounders.
One founder built a unicorn company in smart chip design. The founder is a former consultant. He was fascinated with the semiconductor industry for some reason and was fixated in creating a better solution, partnered with an industry expert, and built a unicorn company in short few years.