Depends on what you mean by consulting. Accenture, deloite and friends have little to do with startups. Culturally, they may be a step backwards. You will lear

Depends on what you mean by consulting. Accenture, deloite and friends have little to do with startups. Culturally, they may be a step backwards. You will learn a thing or two about enterprise sales at a place like that, however. If you mean freelancing or small company consulting, then yes, you'll learn a lot of practical skills that will be directly applicable to a startup. In a broader sense, working anywhere will help you with a future startup - some jobs will just be more useful than others. High end consulting, banking, and the like are way down on the utility list.