Your Ideal Investment Banking Prep Service
I spend most of my time on Mergers & Inquisitions giving advice and writing about how you can best position yourself to break into investment banking (and private equity… and soon other finance jobs).
This week, I want to take a break from that and instead solicit feedback from my readers.
As I’ve hinted at several times, I have big plans in store and want to make Mergers & Inquisitions the #1 online resource for investment banking and related fields.
When I finish up in a few weeks and suddenly have an extra 80 hours per week of free time on my hands, I’ll have plenty of time to take the site to the next level (my apologies for sounding like an infomercial).
I’ve listed below 3 options I’m considering, as well as the pros, cons and potential pricing for each.
Feel free to reply either via email or through the survey below. My goal is to help the greatest number of people out there get into investment banking, so feedback would be much appreciated.
Option #1: Downloadable Product(s), Similar To (But Better Than) Wall Street Prep
Very simply: offer products similar to Wall Street Prep, but better. 
Rather than covering only financial modeling, I would go beyond that and cover topics such as interviewing and resumes and show specific examples of how I would improve/”bankify” resumes and provide transcripts of interviews and suggested ways to respond and craft your “story.”
Topics such as buyside interviews would also be covered, and I would go into far more detail than I did even in my 3,000 word guide to private equity interviews.
In short: more relevant content that encompasses a wider skill set than what you see in other products. And since it would be written by an industry insider (me), the information itself would be more honest and realistic than what you’d find anywhere else (just like this site :).
Pros: You download it once and have it forever. The information is all in one place and you can refer to everything easily.
Cons: It’s not interactive and you can’t ask me questions. You also don’t get to watch how resumes are actually reviewed, how interviews work and don’t work in real life, and how to build models from scratch and discuss them in interviews. Also, you may not want to read hundreds of pages of text.
Pricing: Likely on par with Wall Street Prep, though I may offer the option to buy certain modules separately.
Option #2: Phone Consulting / Mock Interviews
I’ve already provided this to a few readers (contact me if you’re interested), and the idea is pretty simple - we set up either a one-time or recurring weekly “lesson” where I either answer your questions, go through a specific topic or conduct mock interviews and then critique your performance.
This would be more similar to the Analyst Exchange than Wall Street Prep; unlike existing services, I would cover all topics rather than only financial modeling and would leave it up to the student to decide the “curriculum” (with some guidance from me, of course).
Pros: You get one-on-one attention and can ask exactly the questions you’re most in need of understanding. I can also show you exactly what to do in terms of building models and learning accounting/finance.
Cons: This would be limited to only a few readers - I just wouldn’t have time for 50 students, at least not without hiring staff. It would also be quite expensive due to the one-on-one nature.
Pricing: On par with Analyst Exchange, but you have the option to buy as much or as little time as you need, so there’s significantly more flexibility.
Option #3: Online Training Courses With Multimedia Content And Access To Me
I hate to be biased here, but this is the option I’m most excited about. It’s a blend of the first 2 ideas, and as far as I can tell nothing like this currently exists in the world of finance.
Rather than having static content in the form of a PDF or Word file, the content would be presented in multimedia format - videos, sound clips, and interactive presentations.
I would upload video walkthroughs of me showing how to build models from scratch, show real interviews and explain why people do well or poorly, and even upload videos of me going through resumes with my own commentary included.
There would be forums where students could leave comments and ask me questions directly, as well as resources for download (beyond just Excel models, also sample case studies, sample resume templates, etc.).
I would update these courses on a monthly basis and add new content periodically as well. I would start off with some introductory courses on the basics of investment banking, positioning yourself, resumes, interviews and modeling and then move on to more advanced topics such as interviewing for buyside jobs, how M&A/equity/debt deals actually work and advanced modeling.
Pros: I could reach a large number of people with this and you would get almost the same level of attention as one-on-one tutoring at a much lower price point. I’ve also found that people learn best by watching and doing rather than reading, so I think this would be more effective in conveying the material as well.
Cons: While you could download portions of the course, the videos and tutorials and such would only be available if you’re paying for access.
Pricing: Pricing would be on a monthly basis. Using it for a few months would be cheaper than Wall Street Prep and using it for over a year would start approaching Analyst Exchange costs.
The Survey
I’ve created a brief survey below with a few questions on what you would like to see. All responses are completely anonymous. Feel free to send me your thoughts via email or in the comments here as well - thanks!
One final note - these options are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I might offer all 3 products/services or some combination thereof, but would like to get a sense of what you are most interested in.
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The third option is the best idea with some elements of the first two incorporated as well for a supplemental fee. In the long term, it would be really cool if you could develop a kind of developmental headhunter service, where you would charge people something to develop their skills and bring them up to speed on the latest valuation methods and then help candidates to find matches with the various firms out there — at this point the firms could pay your fee.
It’s a good way to diversify your cash flow, as well as make money at all stages of the candidate’s development. There’s a lot of room to improve upon the headhunter industry and I think this model would represent a huge step forward. Just a thought.
Thanks for the feedback - I really like the developmental headhunter idea as well. These services are definitely targeted at the job seeker rather than the firms themselves and that would be a good way to diversify.
I’ll definitely approach headhunters with this idea once my plans are further developed - thanks again.
Hello,
I agree with A. It allows individuals of different means to gain access your knowledge and learn without costing them more than they can afford.
Thanks for the feedback - seems like most people like option #3, so I will implement some form of it over the next month or 2.
So is it going to be Option 3? When can we expect to see some interview videos and will they be available as part of a package or individually?
Yes, with option #2 to be offered more formally as well.
At least initially everything will not be available separately; you pay one monthly fee and get access to me to ask any questions privately, all the content and all new content I create.
Coming within the next month…