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I wouldn't say "vastly", at least not now. It is probably easier if you come from a "target" background ( went to a prestigious school, graduated MBA, worked 10

by cellis 12y ago

I wouldn't say "vastly", at least not now. It is probably easier if you come from a "target" background ( went to a prestigious school, graduated MBA, worked 100-120 hr weeks as an analyst... ). But for the average joe off the street? Tech is "vastly" easier to become a millionaire. That is to say, you have zero chance of becoming a millionaire in finance without the required background, but as someone with, say, an English degree you can start a startup, get it to a series A round and presto, you're a millionaire on paper. Get it to a B round, and you're a millionaire for real.

ig1 12y ago
You're vastly overestimating how easy it is to raise a series A - the majority of YC companies don't make it to series A. The chances of an inexperienced non-tech founder raising a series A are small; there are hundreds if not thousands of such founders who try and fail for everyone who succeeds. Investment banking is also far from homogenous, the requirements for being in sales at a mid-tier commodity fund in Chicago are vastly different from being in M&A at Goldman in New York. You can be pretty far down the pecking ladder in banking and still easily bank $1m+.
- cellis 12y ago
  There is no need to reiterate how difficult it is to build a successful startup. My point was that even after controlling for this difficulty, for the average developer it's going to be "easier" to make $1mm by starting their own startup. The vast majority of finance professionals with target backgrounds won't break 200k in income per year. There are outliers in every profession and sure there are some hotshot salespeople and quants that make 1mm+/yr, but: when I look closely, and from talking with friends who work at namebrand banks and PE groups, it seems they're no more prevalent in finance than successful startup founders are in tech (i'd still like to see hard data on this because there are so many ways to compensate people and most have no incentive to report this, in both industries). Now on to compensation: comparing apples to oranges, a Goldman Sachs VP's total compensation is about 240k, or roughly what a senior software engineer at Google makes. If I were a brilliant developer, I would rather work at Google and make the same amount than going through the meat grinder than is your IB to become a GS VP.

by cellis 12y ago

ig1 12y ago

You're vastly overestimating how easy it is to raise a series A - the majority of YC companies don't make it to series A. The chances of an inexperienced non-tech founder raising a series A are small; there are hundreds if not thousands of such founders who try and fail for everyone who succeeds. Investment banking is also far from homogenous, the requirements for being in sales at a mid-tier commodity fund in Chicago are vastly different from being in M&A at Goldman in New York. You can be pretty far down the pecking ladder in banking and still easily bank $1m+.

cellis 12y ago
There is no need to reiterate how difficult it is to build a successful startup. My point was that even after controlling for this difficulty, for the average developer it's going to be "easier" to make $1mm by starting their own startup. The vast majority of finance professionals with target backgrounds won't break 200k in income per year. There are outliers in every profession and sure there are some hotshot salespeople and quants that make 1mm+/yr, but: when I look closely, and from talking with friends who work at namebrand banks and PE groups, it seems they're no more prevalent in finance than successful startup founders are in tech (i'd still like to see hard data on this because there are so many ways to compensate people and most have no incentive to report this, in both industries). Now on to compensation: comparing apples to oranges, a Goldman Sachs VP's total compensation is about 240k, or roughly what a senior software engineer at Google makes. If I were a brilliant developer, I would rather work at Google and make the same amount than going through the meat grinder than is your IB to become a GS VP.