Over the past few years, my inbox has pinged every so often with a DM from a strategy consultant asking how to pivot into tech / startups. That every so often has rapidly accelerated with the advent of AI, as has the opportunity cost of staying put (more so if you're early career).

The time is now and it's not too late. Building is getting easier, but distribution and execution aren't. Startups increasingly win or lose based on talent — and the skills you've built in consulting (bringing structure to ambiguity, executing with grit, maintaining a very high bar for quality of work) matter more than you think.

If you're considering a move and could do with some guidance, here is what I usually share.

Where to find startups

Network: One of the best things about consulting is the people you'll get to work with. When looking to move on from Bain, I had conversations with former teammates, managers and loose connections who were doing interesting work, and were generous with their time.

VC Portfolios: Most VCs maintain job boards with filters for industry, company size and location. Following firms like Sequoia, Index, Redpoint, GV and A16Z is a good way to stay across funding rounds, which usually signals growth and upcoming hiring.

FWIW, I was hired at Stripe by a former Bainee. Four years later I found Attio through a former Stripe colleague. Warm intros are ideal, but cold outreach can work too (as long as you're clear about what you bring).

How to choose a startup

My own criteria were:

  • Series A or earlier
  • Fewer than 50 people
  • HQ in London - so I could work closely with the founding team.
  • A market I understood well - I spent four years in Stripe's go-to-market org using legacy GTM software every day. Attio is rebuilding that category from scratch.
  • People I would be excited to work with every day - completely non-negotiable.

I spoke to 20+ companies before joining Attio. Being very deliberate meant it took a lot of time. The topic of candidate market fit is also something people have found helpful to read about when choosing what's next.

How to choose a role

Broad 'Strategy' roles don't really exist in early-stage startups. Everyone is executing and everyone is expected to think strategically.

I've found being a generalist in a startup environment highly beneficial, likely because I am in a very cross functional role (Business Operations). Startups are ambiguous and the consulting 'toolkit' of bringing structure to ambiguity is valuable. Working with an extreme amount of grit and high resilience is also valued. Consulting is a great training ground for learning how to work both hard and smart.

Roles that I've seen former consulting colleagues excel in:



BizOps or Chief of Staff

Both are broad and usually shaped around business needs rather than fixed scopes. At Attio, BizOps has included pricing (pre-PMM), partnerships, people operations, our grad program, and hiring processes - all cross-functional and high-context. The scope shifts based on what's most critical—which is part of what makes the role interesting but also hard to define. To understand the type of work you might do for a BizOps role, it's worth asking what the current gaps are in the company.

Chief of Staff can be valuable if scoped well but in some cases it leans heavily toward EA work. One good piece of advice (from Helena Horsburgh): ask who manages the exec team's calendars today. If the answer is 'no one', that's a sign you might do more admin than strategic projects.

Consulting friends in these types of roles: Arjun at Bumble, Lucy at Adfin, Alice at Flutter


Operations

Ops at an early-stage company can mean a variety of things, and it's worth noting the difference between 'Ops ops' (legal, payroll, supplier onboarding, compliance) vs Revenue Operations (commercially focused - things like lead scoring, reporting, segmentation, target setting and sales process design).

Revenue Operations has shifted significantly with GTM Engineering emerging as a discipline (I'll write about this separately). The line between ops and engineering is blurring—building tools, automating workflows, designing systems that power commercial decisions. Worth exploring if you're analytical and want to get closer to the code.

Operations is the work that doesn't show up in launch tweets but determines whether a company actually functions. It's not always the most visible work, but you learn how businesses are built from the ground up (and a lot about how the world works). It can also set you up for opportunities like COO in the longer term. Worth noting there are many types of COO. If considering a Strategy & Operations role, it's worth understanding exactly what the Operations part means.

Consulting friends who have followed this path: Oscar at Sourceful, Josh at Runna, Tahseen at Anterior


Go-to-Market (Sales/Customer Success/Business Development)

Sales and Customer Success roles are consistently in demand. In B2B SaaS, they're often highly strategic (especially in enterprise) and very well-compensated if you perform. You'll be close to the customer and close to revenue. In conversations I've had, these roles are less considered by folks currently in consulting but offer super interesting career paths.

If you're strong on strategy, market positioning, or sales process design, that matters more than it used to. Building is getting easier—AI is compressing product cycles. What's not getting easier is distribution, positioning, and execution. Companies increasingly win or lose on GTM, not just product quality.

Consulting friends who have followed this path: Stephane at Enode, Jack at Legora, Saif at Whoop (who is now a founder), Priya at Zen


Strategic Finance / Finance & Strategy

Strategic Finance roles in startups are a strong fit for ex-consultants who enjoy analytical problem solving and want to be close to decision making. These roles go beyond traditional FP&A and are focused on financial planning and modelling, resource and capital allocation (including headcount), pricing strategy, scenario planning and supporting major commercial decisions. It can be highly cross-functional and often is set up as being the Business Partner for department leads. This is the role I was lucky to land post Bain (thanks to Conor who hired me at Stripe, who is now leading Finance & Strategy at Anthropic).


Product

Harder to break into directly unless you have a technical background or strong domain context. The more realistic path: join in a generalist role, prove you understand the product and customer deeply, then make the case to transition. One path: join the right company, prove value quickly, and pivot across. (Lola is a great example of this who started her career at McKinsey and pivoted to Product)


Emerging: Forward Deployed Engineer

One role that's grown in relevance over the last 12 months is the Forward Deployed Engineer. Palantir really put this role on the map—hiring super smart people to configure and implement their platform for specific customer needs. Companies like Sierra, Decagon and OpenAI are now also hiring for this. The role is great for ex-consultants who have strong customer skills, can navigate ambiguity, and are interested in the technical side of things. You work at the intersection of product, engineering and go-to-market.

Resources

A few resources I usually send people:

The skills built in consulting—structured thinking, communication, resilience, and context switching—are highly transferable. But what will set you apart isn't just the consulting toolkit. It's the willingness to own outcomes without a playbook, to execute rather than recommend, and to work with the kind of grit early-stage companies demand.

Building is getting faster, but distribution, positioning, and execution aren't. The companies winning right now aren't just shipping—they're moving decisively and hiring people who can drive outcomes in ambiguity. That's where ex-consultants can be exceptional.

If you're considering making the leap, I hope this was helpful \o/