Transcription
I'm Brian. I work at a career protocol as a senior instructor, and before that, I spent too many years as a GMAT, LSAT, and GRE instructor and professional. I have been working with Lakshay here in Round One this season.
Um, well actually, do you want to introduce yourself?
Yes, hi everyone! I'd like to say I am currently working with McKinsey as a senior analyst, and Brian has really helped me improve my GMAT score. I'm really excited to be interviewing with Columbia.
Okay, well, we'll pace these out, and then we'll ask a few of the questions, and then we'll sort of break out and chat about them a little bit. So, Lakshay, can you walk me through your resume, please?
Sure! I graduated in 2018 with a major in electrical engineering. I was very passionate about renewable energy at the time, but through the internships I did during college, I realized I was more inclined towards the business side of things. This is why I joined a market research firm right out of campus. I worked there for about six to eight months and then moved to McKinsey to take up a data analytics role. Currently, I'm part of the Growth Maps team, where we help retail and CPG clients identify, quantify, and then target new growth opportunities. For example, we did a menu architecture project where we helped a QSR giant decide which products to keep on their menu, how to price them, and what kind of promotions to run. On the retail side, we also help clients negotiate with different vendors and position products in their stores. So that's kind of been the centerpiece of my work so far.
Now, I've been very fortunate at McKinsey. I got the opportunity to really live the "make your own McKinsey" philosophy. I started off in the consumer shopper insights team, where I got to work across a lot of industries, including consumer tech, tourism, and retail. As I like to say, I worked on everything from newspaper to toilet paper, so that was quite exciting. Once I got an understanding of what I really like, which in my case is retail and CPG, I got the opportunity to double down on that and join the Growth Maps team, where the projects are longer, so I can drive more impact. I've been loving it! I've been with the firm for about three and a half to four years now, and I'm really excited to be here applying for my MBA.
Okay, great! Alright, Brian, tell me what you think.
I think it was a bit long, but I think you covered the career progression well.
Yeah, I didn't time that one. I'll time some of the future ones, but it was certainly about right in the sweet spot. Any shorter than that, and you risk cutting out some details that make it come alive. Any longer than that, I'm sure you would have been rambling. I thought a lot of people don't need to go to undergrad or go that far back. Just saying how you started in engineering but found an interest in business was a good detail to add some spice to what I knew about you.
Then you arrived at McKinsey, and you were currently working there. I was thinking in my head, I was trying to remember the feedback I wanted to give, right? I was kind of thinking, "Wait, tell me about your journey at McKinsey." Tell me about not just getting there and what you're doing now, but tell me a little bit about the progression. But then at the end, you circled back around and did just that. I thought that worked just fine, where you say, "Okay, this is what I'm currently doing, and then this has been my journey." I mean, in any situation, I think that's going to work just fine. You might consider trying to swap those organizationally, about your journey, and then end with a couple of recent highlights or a couple of things that you've been recently excited about.
You know, like, "I've been really excited about these two projects." You gave me a taste of that. I love the "from newspaper to toilet paper" line; that's awesome and funny, and it hits. That's really great! I hope you remember that one.
At the end, you sort of did what I'm doing right now, like, "And now I need to stop talking."
Yeah, I think that's really natural. I think in an interview setting, a lot of people are going to do that. It's always totally fine. Thinking about where you're going to land, and the landing spot you picked, like, "Oh, and here I am, and I'm really excited to be applying for an MBA," I like that as a landing because you're just passing the baton to your interviewer and setting your interviewer up to say, "Well, yeah, why do you want an MBA, and why Columbia?"
Okay, so why an MBA?
Right, so with my MBA, I basically want to make two pivots. One is from analytics to consulting, building some general strategy and management skill sets during the two years. The second is in terms of the clients that I work with. So far, the majority of my work has been with large incumbent players, and now having done a recent beverage launch from the idea stage to retail sales, I'm really interested in working with startups, both in terms of clients and the nature of work that I do. I feel an MBA is the right plug for me because I want to understand three things: one is understanding how to solve the unique challenges that new businesses face; second is the interplay between startups and VCs, like when to raise funds and what the right valuation is; and third, the fundamentals of managing and scaling companies.
Those are the three things that I am looking at, and I feel Columbia is the best place for me to do that, primarily because I think there are so many reasons why I want to go to Columbia, but they broadly fit into three buckets: the curriculum, the real-world learning opportunities, and the community.
First, on the curriculum, I feel the idea of not having a fixed concentration and having the flexibility to really tailor my MBA experience is appealing. For example, given my background in microeconomics and statistics, the ability to take advanced courses there and really double down on the resources and electives of the Lang Center for Entrepreneurship is very appealing to me. So far, the majority of my experience has been in market research, product pricing, and growth strategy, but now building foundational skill sets in financial modeling, digital marketing, negotiations, and operations management will really help me when I work with emerging businesses. Taking courses such as foundations of innovation and design thinking will help me push my creative thinking to translate ideas into viable products. Of course, taking some leadership courses will enhance that skill set when I think about managing teams and scaling organizational capabilities. I feel doing that at Columbia is unique because we have a lot of practitioners that come in, and it's easy for me to get the best of the best who are also very active in the startup scene within New York. I think that is one of the key advantages from a curriculum standpoint.
Second, in terms of the real-world learning opportunities, I feel the theory-to-practice approach at Columbia is great. From a startup perspective, there's the Columbia Startup Lab where I can work with startups. There are also the small business consulting programs and the ventures that my fellows will be working on, so helping them design products and services will enhance my ability to evaluate product-market fit and pre-defined business models from an entrepreneur's point of view.
On the VC front, doing in-semester VC fellowships with CPG-focused VC firms like Whirlinvest or Springdale Ventures and preparing my investment thesis with professors like Angela Lee, who are pioneers in the space, will give me the right exposure to translate my classroom learnings into hard skills and understand the mechanics of investing. Investing in social enterprises with MicroLumbia will also help me uncover the subtler nuances of the VC space. Again, being in New York, the access I have with more than 10,000 startups just in New York and the unmatched access I get to founders and VCs via speaker series, conferences, and programs like Executives in Residence is unmatched. I'm really excited to be taking this next career leap at Columbia.
Finally, on the community front, when I was researching business schools, I felt that probably all business schools are collaborative. However, as I was speaking to students and alumni at CBS, I could really see the difference. People generously helped me not just with my MBA application but also gave me helpful career advice on how I can think about pre-MBA internships and what kind of podcasts I should be following. Being an international student coming all the way from India to the U.S., having that support group is very important to me. Of course, the social backdrop of New York City, the vibrancy for a foodie and a theater buff like me, with Broadway shows and Central Park picnics, is very exciting. Lastly, I feel there are a certain number of clubs, like the public speaking group or the MCA, where I see myself leveraging my prior experiences and adding value.
Overall, looking at the full picture makes me even more excited about the two years of learning and the opportunity that I have in front of me. I'm really excited to be here and can't wait to get started.
Okay, great! Alright, how long do you think that was?
That was very long! [Laughter]
And it was! Where would you trim?
I think maybe the courses and maybe the experiential learning opportunities.
Yeah, I think some of the courses in the curriculum part could probably be cut by 75%. Just get to the heart of the flexibility of the curriculum. When you talk about your background in microeconomics, you could take advanced courses there and double down on the others. You mentioned a specific professor, Professor Singh; you may not need that kind of detail for the curriculum class because you're going to have the other details.
When you talked about Angela Lee being a pioneer and some of the other opportunities, I think those details actually pertain more to the kind of experience that you're after than just the classroom experience in this context. So if I was going to advise you to trim, I would advise trimming in that curriculum part and just say, "First of all, the curriculum and aim for 25 to 30 seconds on the curriculum description, just like the flexibility will allow me to prioritize and double down on the stuff I really want to get out of the Lang Center here and be efficient with my classroom time."
You could just, in this context, say more. I know your audience doesn't know this, but you said more in specifics about the courses and whatnot in your application, so that'll be communicated for your interviewer.
Yeah, getting to the juice. Because then you said your second thing, and I was like, "Oh, I thought you were just doing that." Oops! Okay, yeah, but now you're going to do resources.
So on the audience end, those two are so similar. I think you want to say first the curriculum, just having the flexibility, boom, be done with it, and then, "Okay, let's talk about real-world resources, and then let's talk about the community."
Yeah, that would probably get you in the pocket. That was about five and a half minutes where it was.
Yeah, so if you're looking to trim, I mean, we always say, "What about three minutes for some of these questions?" But my philosophy is this is kind of two, right? Why MBA, why Columbia? So technically, I asked you a double question, and so it should be longer, in my opinion, because of that structure. It's one of the most important. I mean, "Walk me through your resume" is incredibly important to get your interviewer just acclimated to your professionalism and your background. But as a representative of this community, considering whether they want to support you in your attempt to join that community, I think if you're going to go long, going along and telling them all the amazing things you're going to do at Columbia is probably the place to do that.
So don't get self-conscious about it. I would be more concerned if you gave a six-minute answer to "Walk me through your resume" than I would be to this double question. I think if you cut the curriculum part to be super brief and just get to the heart of what attracts you about the curriculum with no specifics, and save your specifics for the real-world resources or the experiential learning, as you called it, and then a little bit about the community, because that's your personal experience. Also, that's something anybody can come in and talk about the curriculum.
I think the part about the, you know, I want your audience to still be engaged when you get to your personal experience with the community when you're like, "They were so supportive, and that's really important to me." You know, traveling from overseas, I'm going to need that. I thought those were really great points, and you just want to make sure that your listener is still really with you to hear those parts of it.
Your overall presentation and vibe are still getting like, I know that you've been practicing, and I can tell, and I'm really appreciating that. As an interviewer in this mode, I can tell that you are prepared, that you have worked for this, and you've thought about it. You're still making it come to life. You are not robotic; you're still appearing very warm and human. I don't know if your smiles and things are rehearsed or if those are well-timed. I don't know how much of a theater buff you are, but it doesn't matter; it's coming across really well. I think your whole vibe is coming across as prepared but also sort of warm and spontaneous.
So take that for whatever it is. Don't change anything; do that exactly like that, except trim that curriculum part. That would be my advice there.
Okay, well, let's hop back in, and I want to jump back in right where you just ended, and I want to say, what excites you about startups? Why startups?
Yeah, so I recently did a beverage launch where we were working with a global coffee drink, and their in-store sales had to pivot to bottled beverages because, with the pandemic, people stopped going in-store. It was an interesting project because we were essentially working with very limited resources, and beverages as a category is very competitive. I think we did a couple of innovative things. From the very onset, we followed a very lean approach, incorporating customer feedback in the formulation iterations to really understand what is the mix that we want to land at—something low sugar that meets consumer demand at the moment.
Also, in terms of testing out the price, we looked at how customers were reacting to different price points before actually launching the product at scale. One unique thing we did was leverage their existing data to triangulate customer hotspots so that we could ship the product directly to them from our bottling facility. I think that gave us a unique edge over other traditional retail-only players.
So, you know, the thrill of taking something from the idea stage to actually seeing it on retail shelves was very exciting. We did the launch, and it was successful. We did it in the next two big coffee markets, the UK and Japan. When you're creating jobs at the height of a global recession when people are losing jobs, I think that taking something this far really inspired me to work with startups. Also, the Indian ecosystem at this time is really buzzing. We have more than 100 unicorns, and we've seen Forex growth in terms of the capital that's flowing into the country and the startups. So this is where I want to be.
Okay, alright, so tell me, react to your answer there.
I think my pace was a little bit all over the place at the beginning because I was in my mind thinking, "Where should I start with?" It wasn't a planned question, so that was something. But also, you know, towards the end, I think I did not give the answer the structure that I had prepared. I think giving it the structure that, you know, these were the challenges, the three challenges, and these are the two or three things that we did would have helped. Maybe I should have segued into long-term and short-term goals, but I don't know.
Yeah, I think so. For that question, I thought the early part of your response was more tailored to, like, "Tell me about a time you solved a problem for someone," or "Tell me about a time." It was more tailored to that sort of behavioral style where you're going to tell one specific story about it. From the interviewer's perspective, I was just really trying to ask a follow-up question about your motivations that I think were more related to your goals.
I think getting to that area probably would have been a more connecting kind of direction to go. I got a bit lost in the specifics of repricing this product, and until you told me, you know, 30 seconds in or 40 seconds in, you were like, "Seeing this idea come to life on the shelves there and having this kind of impact during the pandemic or challenging circumstances was exciting to you."
I think for a question like that, like "Why startups?" is really getting to your goals. Like, what is it about this that's drawing you? So I think you can sort of cut straight to these are, you know, you've had a few opportunities to work with, you know, while your bulk of your experience has been with incumbent players and large organizations. You've had some opportunities to get a flavor, right? Like this was an example of that, of ideating and going from idea to this and having that impact.
That's a unique set of challenges that excites you. Then I think getting into, yes, the Indian ecosystem is buzzing, and I like the sort of abbreviated version of that that you sort of gave for this context. That and that it's what you want to be a part of. You know, you said, "This is what I want to be," but I want to know more about why. Why do you want to be there? What's driving you? What's exciting you about India's startup ecosystem?
For that question, rather than taking the sort of behavioral, "Here's a story that relates to it," for that kind of follow-up question, it really is just about what you're interested in and what excites you about those particular challenges that they have and how that relates to your excitement about your long-term vision for what you want to do.
Then, you know, you have a choice there. You can just give me the sneak preview of that and kind of pass the baton back to me as the interviewer, giving me the chance to say, "Oh, tell me more about your goals," or "Tell me more about your long-term goals," or "Tell me more about that long-term vision." Or, you know, they're giving you, by saying, "Why startups?" when you've just expressed, like, "This is your motivation for getting an MBA is to learn more about how to accelerate them or help them function." They're giving you the lead to just answer the goals question straight away, right?
In a way, you could be like, "Well, I'm just really excited about startups. I love those unique challenges. I love ideating and, you know, whatever, going through all the technical stuff that you love doing, the kind of data and information that you have, and you love the impact that startups have on people." This is something I know about you, right? That you've had the opportunity to mention some of the projects, like the pickle project or the solar startup, and just summarize them—not tell deep stories about them—but say, "Actually, I've had the opportunity to be involved with some startups, some small-scale startups, and I love entrepreneurs. I love entrepreneurship. I love the impact that it can have on communities."
Then that's your perfect segue into your long-term goal of returning to help sort of spread that buzz of innovation that's happening around.
Yeah, I think what you did isn't wrong, and you did it. That was very concise. See, that was just over two minutes, you know? I would just say, you know, for that question, more personal because it's just about you and your motivations. Just like, why does this appeal to you? What do you love about it?
Does that resonate with you? Are you thinking?
Yeah, I mean, at least in my head, I did pass the baton to you and tried to keep that shot to see if you wanted to get to goals, but yeah.
Yeah, no, you totally did, and you said, "This is, I mean, you did, you left it on a cliffhanger." You know, and like, "Okay, so we've got a hundred unicorns, the ecosystem is buzzing, and this is where I want to be." I mean, you did, and then I'm like, "Well, tell me more about where you want to be."
So that you certainly did that. I think it was really just the beginning diving straight into that specific story without the context of just like, "These are the problems that excite me," or "This is the impact that I love seeing."
I felt like we were just directly into the details of this particular story without context. So maybe it's even just telling me a bit about this is why you're going to tell me that story up front.
It makes sense. It really wasn't, yeah, I mean, this is all nitpicky. None of this is like catastrophic, "Oh my God!" It was totally great.
So now that you have really piqued my interest here, what are your goals, long-term and short-term?
Yeah, so in the long term, I want to return to India. I think one big problem in the startup ecosystem right now is that the tier two and three cities, the smaller cities, account for 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flows to these smaller cities. I want to help bridge this gap by joining a VC office, an incubator like the Google Startup School, or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's the kind of long-term impact I want to have.
I feel for doing that, working in startup consulting—so all these big consulting houses have their startup-focused arms, like McKinsey has the Fuel practice, BCG has its Digital Ventures, and so on and so forth. Working in startup consulting for about three to four years, really getting that hands-on experience of working with startups, especially in the U.S., where the market I believe is more developed, will prepare me for my long-term goals. I feel the MBA from Columbia is kind of the key for me to unlock that journey.
So yes.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I could have mentioned a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have maybe talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn. There's certainly a lot of activity happening in New York within retail and CPG, the space where I'm interested. So doing that for three to four years and then making that transition, I think one added advantage of returning back to McKinsey and joining the Fuel practice is that I'll get to work with investors on conducting due diligence, sizing potential markets, and benchmarking companies, benchmarking startups.
I feel that will give me real exposure to startups, help me network, and stay up to date with the latest trends. Yes, I feel Columbia is kind of the missing piece that will help me unlock this journey.
Okay, alright, tell me about this one.
I think I wanted to mention a plan B for the short-term goals, and I could have talked a little bit more about what I will do in my short term to kind of learn and prepare myself for the long term. So I think those are two or three things in my mind.
Yeah, I don't think it's certainly not required that you give a plan B here because, I mean, it makes perfect sense. You already have an analyst role in McKinsey, and you want to go into consulting to learn something specific. I wouldn't say you need to give a plan B in this context. That was very short; you know, that was a minute and 15 seconds or something.
So that was definitely your shortest response yet, and I think if you're going to go longer, longer about why consulting and what it is about how you're going to go from the skill set that you have and what you're going to add to it as a consultant that's going to prepare you to return to India and play this role.
I mean, you could talk more about your long-term goal as well, but I think for the thrust of this particular question, sketching out the idea of, okay, you want to play a role as a bridge from VC fund flow going to these larger cities than you would have diverted into these smaller cities, but there's quite a lot of action and a lot of opportunities being missed.
I think also, you know, if you're going to express anything more about the long term, I think for you it's really just about expressing your excitement about how there are more about this buzz. You know, that there's this wave of innovation, there's going to be a zillion people online in India soon, that the conditions are ripe for an explosion of innovation, and that's just really exciting to you.
You want to be part of that, and the role that you want to play in that is sort of diverting some of the infrastructure to where more of the action is. I think if you're going to say anything more, it's just that sort of aspect of it.
Then get into more of, yeah, why the short term. You know, it's great that you mentioned there are two major consultancies that have these startup arms now. What is it that you're going to do there before going back that's going to prepare you?
I mean, you know the answer to that. Just I think giving your interview more of like, "Yeah, I really want to see a lot of relate. I want to see both sides of your relationship. I want to get a chance to see some successes and some failures in the ecosystem and see how to build a network, build a reputation, you know, all these sorts of things that go into what you're going to accomplish there."
You had like, you know, another minute that you could spend talking about why consulting is the next best step.
Do you want to try it again?
Let's do a replay. I think I wanted for this mock to just really kind of charge through it and charge through the questions, just kind of one by one. But let's do one replay just for fun.
So, speaking of that, tell me a little bit more about your goals, long-term and short-term.
So, in the long term, as I mentioned, the startup ecosystem is really buzzing in India. With the government's Make in India initiative and increasing digitization, I think there's a lot of activity that's bound to happen, much like any other developing economy. The first leg of growth was driven by startups in logistics and e-commerce, but now as the ecosystem matures, we're bound to see more innovation that happens, and I feel that is where I want to be.
I think one big problem that I've identified is that the smaller tier two and tier three cities account for more than 50% of the active startups, yet less than 10% of the VC fund flow is currently in that direction. So I want to, in the long term, bridge this gap and help small-town entrepreneurs really have that kind of support around them to accelerate growth and innovation within the country by joining a VC firm or an incubator like Google Startup School or a government role with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. So that's where I want to go in the long term.
I feel a good stepping stone for me is working in startup consulting for three to four years. All these big consulting houses, like McKinsey, have their data-focused arm called Fuel, and BCG has it called Digital Ventures. I feel working there for three to four years would really help me make that transition. Working hands-on with founders will help me get some operational experience that I don't have currently, you know, executing strategies and closing market gaps. That will strengthen what I've learned through experiential learning in college but really do that in a proper risk environment, which was risk-free during college.
So having that real-world exposure, especially in a market like the U.S., which is much more developed as a startup ecosystem, I feel there are a lot of best practices that I can learn