Quarter Life Crisis

“I would like to accept your offer, and I’m looking forward to working with you and becoming a valuable member of the team.” [Wait for positive response.] I am committed to working with you, and since you are my future boss, I have [some] minor issues I wanted to make you aware of. I don’t know if you’re able to make changes in these areas, but I’d surely appreciate your looking into the possibility. Would it be possible to _____________________?”

“I am still very interested in working with you and for your company, however, at this point I am not able to accept the offer for the following reasons:________________________. If you were able to _____________________, I would gladly accept the position immediately. Are you in a position to help?”

Source: Job Offer Tutorial - Quint Careers 

hey guys, as you all know, i just graduated this past month.  I have been shopping my services around and have some options. Now, I need some career advice and where I should focus given my goals.

First of all here are a few of my goals:
Top 10 MBA in 2-3 years
Entrepreneur (at some point)
Venture Capitalist (at some point)

Summary of whats been goin on:
I have been interviewing with a medical device that culminated in an all day interview-a-thon last monday in San Jose.  This company is a top 10 device company and the market leader in their segment.

Today, they extended me an offer for a Quality Assurance Representative (QAR) position. This is a brand new position they just created that acts as the liason between the regulatory affairs division and the operations division ,primarily quality/manufacturing, of the company. Those of you familiar with the medical device/biotech industry know that is it highly regulated by the FDA and ISO (europe) and the Regulatory Affairs department is responsible for making sure all the manufacturing standards are documented/standardized and compliant with FDA regulation and policies, among other things.  The role of the QAR is to bridge the gap between the regulatory department and the production floor and to make sure everything is compliant and such…  This is a brand new position they put together and wanted someone with a well rounded background of technical (to understand processes), interpersonal (for communicating compliance, etc.) and savvy to fill that gap.

Other observations about the company:
Many of the managers are very young.  They seem to promote on performance and not seniority.
It’s a ~4B company growing revenues at 20% for something like 6 years in a row.
The division I interviewed is pretty autonomous and has flexibility of a small company.
They seem to encourage moving to different positions within the company, i.e. engineer to business planner, quality to sales, operations to marketing, etc. I spoke to several people there that have done just that..

My thoughts:I want to go to a top 10 MBA. I want to be an entrepreneur/investor in the long term. I know that any experience is relevant to me at this point. Coporate experience is something I definately want and need.  But is this the right experience that will get me to those goals?  I know the QAR position isn’t exactly the most relevant, but it would get me into the door of a market leader that is still growing..  I know that once i go there, it is going to be a 3-4 year investment of time (1-2 in the QAR then move onto sales/markering for another 1-2).

Even at that point, would that be enough to go to a top MBA? 

Alternative1:
Right now in SD, I’ve got an offer from the non-profit i’ve been interning at for the past year.  They are looking to hire me almost full time and have given me an offer as well to be a Program Manager of some type. My main responsibility will be managing our portfolio of technologies and working with the entrepreneurs in residence to make sure everything is on track with deadlines and such.  It would be an extension of what I’ve been doing for the past year.  However, the pay wouldn’t come close to going into industry. However, this would be a pretty visible position and is something that would give me big responsibilities right off the bat.
If i were to stay here, I have also negotiated with my boss that she allow me to continue working the Tech Coast Angels in san diego. they are the biggest group of angel investors in the US who once a month meet with 4-5 companies looking to raise capital.  I would be working with these investors to provide research and due diligence.  At the same time, I’d be be networking with these guys and the entreprenuers I meet opening myself to more opportunities.
Another thing that popped up from the Tech Coast Angels job are gigs as an independent consultant. Since I’ve been hanging around these old angels, they have hired me for some of their side projects to help them work on business plans, market research ….. I see this as a good opportunity for me to potentially get in a startup with some entrepreneurs that have a successful track record…
The luxury of being in SD is that I have already formed a pretty solid network and would have access to many things other people my age don’t.  However, the pay wouldn’t be as good but it would be a very “entrepreneurial” and flexible lifestyle.
Would this be a better path?

Alternative2:
Go corporate in another industry.  I’ve started thinking about management consulting.  What I’ve been doing should be somewhat relevant?  Doing research to devise business development strategies and what not?

Maybe i should try to spend 2-3 years at a top management consulting firm to get that corp exp and a faster track to a top MBA?

Alternative3:
Do sales for in the biotech/pharma industry. I have some sales interviews lined up.  Sales is a good place to get some bsuiness savvy and sales skills relevant to all the entrepreneurial endeavors that may be coming in the future.
Any thoughts, opinions would be very helpful.

Happy Holidays! 

China Investment, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, will acquire as much as 9.9 percent of Morgan Stanley, making it the company’s second-largest shareholder after Boston-based State Street Corp.

This adds Morgan Stanley to the list of banks turning to foreign wealth for cash infusions.

when to raise VC
seth posted this on December 17, 2007

A bunch of folks often ask about the fund raising process that meebo went through. I talked about it a long while ago in a series of three blog posts here, here and here. I thought it might be worthwhile to revisit one particular topic that I get asked about pretty frequently these days: when to raise venture capital.

The idea of starting a company’s pretty exciting. You have a vision, you begin to talk to people about it and form a solid team of folks to execute on the idea, and you begin work on the actual product. Of course, without money in the bank funding people’s salaries, an office, a copier and fax machine, etc, it seems pretty tough to actually get going. The result’s that more often than not, people wonder how to attract the attention of VCs when they’re just starting to build their product. My simple answer:

Don’t.

Folks are fond of saying that VCs have so much money they need to invest that they’re just giving money away. This really isn’t what’s going on. It’s true that VCs have pretty sizable amounts of cash to invest in promising startups, but the result is that they’re very careful with their time. They want to believe that your company is really exciting, can become a big business, and that it’s therefore something they’d like to spend their time on.

There are lots of ways they think about this. One part is of course the idea itself, but another big part is the team behind the project. Has the team worked on other startups in the past? Do the team members seem likeable? Do friends of friends know them and vouch for them? Have they worked in related fields in the past, and been successful in those positions?

Another piece of the puzzle that can help a whole lot is validation of the product in the market. In other words, has the team released a product that users are adopting in sizable chunks? If the answer’s yes, then the VC has two major points of potential risk taken away: 1) the team is capable of developing and delivering a product to market and, 2) users are interested in the product!

The benefits to you, the entrepreneur, of waiting until your product is launched and gaining traffic are also pretty significant. Instead of spending a lot of time trying to convince VCs that users really want your idea, you can just show the VCs your traffic numbers. You’ll have more natural interest from VCs in your product, and as such you’ll find meetings get scheduled more quickly and the whole fund raising process will be shortened by months! You’ll also likely end up with a higher valuation and better terms on the deal to boot. You’ll also avoid some pitfalls of raising VC money too early. What if you raised money into an idea, launched the product, and discovered users didn’t actually want it? Not only do you have to convince your team that it’s time to move on to a different idea, but now you have investors whom you have to convince too. Yikes!

Net: it’s basically all upside to wait until after you’ve released your product and see user adoption before seeking your first round of venture funding.

Seth

From: MEEBO 

I just spent an entire day in San Jose.  I had 11 consecutive interviews that went from  9-4:30. To say the least it was quite a marathon. To make things even more difficult, I had interviews with 4 different departments, making it very hard to prepare before hand.  Of the 11, 7 were primarily informational where I dictated the direction of the interview with my own questions. The remaining four were the behavioral type interviews that we just all love to death.  I had 2 or 3 consecutive behavioral interviews where they asked essentially the same questions!  Very tedious indeed, but good practice none the less.   Here’s some of the questions they asked me again and again.

Talk about a time when you had to give an unpopular opinion.

Talk about a time when you had to resolve a conflict.

What type of qualities does a leader have?

What type of management style do you work well under?

What are your short term goals?

How would you reduce the costs of this product?

Talk about a time when you had to lead a group/project.

Why is your graduate school GPA so much higher than your undergrad GPA?

What was the most difficult course you took?

What type of position are you looking for?

What are your strengths?

What are your weaknesses?

Sales is pretty fascinating stuff…. Pay attention to the bolded part. You don’t have to be a Slick Willy to be a good sales guy.

Q: What is the most common mistake in relationship building?
A: Trying to be too friendly too quickly - and thereby seeming like a phony just trying to make a sale. Hold back on the friendliness and increase your level of curiosity. Be interested in the customer as a person and in the customer’s motivations. (Earl)

Q: How can I have a good customer relationship if I don’t have much in common with the customer?
A: It’s sometimes easier to have a great relationship with somebody who’s different because it’s easier to be curious about that person’s life, the way that person thinks, the way that person works. Talking with somebody who is similar can be predictable and boring. (Jerry)

Q: How can I cover for the fact that I’m new to the job and don’t know much about the product?
A: You can’t. The only thing worse than ignorance is the illusion of knowledge. If you start a relationship by lying, the relationship is doomed, because the lie will sooner or later (probably sooner) quickly become obvious. (Jerry)

Q: How can I build good customer relationships when I’m not very outgoing?
A: The outgoing “people person,” would often talk rather than listen. When it comes to relationship building, it’s actually better if you’re a bit introverted because your ability to sense your own emotions helps you better understand, and care for the concerns, of your customer. (Jerry)

Q: How can I move gracefully into information gathering?
A: Don’t push the process forward too quickly, but instead let it evolve naturally out of the conversation. First ask permission to ask them further questions. For example: “Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions so that I can understand your situation better and figure out if there’s any way that I can help you?” (Earl)

Q: How do you introduce a solution without going into “sales mode”?
A: Don’t see yourself as a hero who swoops in and solves the customer’s problem. Let the customer be the hero by positioning your solution from the customer’s benefit and viewpoint. Don’t ask: “what would it mean to you if we could solve that problem?” Instead, ask: “What would it mean to you if you could solve that problem?” (Earl)

Source: BNET

I am officially done with grad school at UCSD.  I wouldn’t say I learned too much about engineering, but I did make the most out of it I feel.  Now, onto other things.

Reverse mortgage in a nutshell:
Instead of the borrower making payments to the lender, the lender makes a payment or payments to the borrower. The borrower keeps control of the house and doesn’t have to repay the money as long as he or she lives there. When the homeowner dies or moves out, the loan is typically paid off by selling the house, and any money left over goes to the homeowner or the homeowner’s estate.

With the growing class of aging baby-boomers, the demand for reverse mortgages is booming. This could revitalize the business of structuring, or repackaging mortgages and other loans.  This could offset, though not completely, the decline of “normal” mortgages to repackage. Reverse mortgages currently represent < 1% of the overall U.S. home loan market at ~ $10 trillion.  The number of federally backed rev mortgages grew 41% the fiscal year ending Sept 30.

In the past, the reverse-mortgage market has been constrained by having one main buyer, Fannie Mae. But a half-dozen investment banks, including units of Lehman Bros. and Bank of America, have started buying reverse mortgages in the past few years, with plans eventually to package and sell them.

Short summary by former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan.

“If it had not been triggered by the mispricing of securitized subprime mortgages, it would have been produced by eruptions in some other market. History has not dealt kindly with protracted periods of low risk premiums.”

“The current credit crisis will come to an end when the overhang of inventories of newly built homes is largely liquidated, and home price deflation comes to an end. That will stabilize the now-uncertain value of the home equity that acts as a buffer for all home mortgages, but most importantly for those held as collateral for residential mortgage-backed securities. Very large losses will, no doubt, be taken as a consequence of the crisis. But after a period of protracted adjustment, the U.S. economy, and the world economy more generally, will be able to get back to business.”