March 28, 2024

You’re the Boss Blog: Can a Banker Think Like an Entrepreneur?

She Owns It

Portraits of women entrepreneurs.

In a just-published New York Times article, I write about Jolyne Caruso, a Wall Street veteran who founded the Alberleen Group, a company that applies the incubator concept — ubiquitous in the world of tech start-ups — to investment banking. The Alberleen Group provides seasoned investment bankers with the infrastructure and working capital to start their own firms. In exchange, it takes a revenue share.

Ms. Caruso got the idea for her venture after observing that many bankers — and their clients — were disillusioned with the big banks. New regulations, altered compensation models, and (for clients) the potential for conflicts of interest contribute to the “misery factor,” she said. But for bankers looking to strike out on their own, the costs of starting a boutique investment bank can be prohibitively high and the connections needed to fund deals can be elusive. The Alberleen Group offers help with both. Every member of the incubator’s advisory board, which includes E. Stanley O’Neal, the former chief executive of Merrill Lynch, is also an investor in the company.

The incubator’s success will depend, in part, on its ability to field teams of bankers who think — and operate — like entrepreneurs despite having spent careers at the much larger institutions that have long dominated the industry. “The jury is still out on us,” Ms. Caruso said.

But she added that it’s clear that the old model is no longer viable for many clients and bankers — which could make investment banking incubators as plentiful as their technology counterparts.

You can follow Adriana Gardella on Twitter.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/can-a-banker-think-like-an-entrepreneur/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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