Breaking Into Finance

We're back with another strong mock interview! Joel is a student at Vienna University student at Vienna University (Austria) recruiting for investment banking after management consulting and photography internships. If you are interested in schedule a mock interview, email me at craig@breakingintofinancepodcast.com with a short note and a copy of your resume.

Our first mock interview episode! Alexandra is a student at UPenn recruiting for investment banking and private equity roles after interning in private credit at a blue chip firm. If you are interested in schedule a mock interview, email me at craig@breakingintofinancepodcast.com with a short note and a copy of your resume.

This episode is all about cold outreach. Who to target, what to say, how to say it, when to follow up and why overlapping affinity groups can be so powerful when it comes to effective out-of-market interviews. We use a specific example of a cold email I sent to illustrate best practices for cold outreach.

On this episode we're talking about growth equity investing with Mike Hinckley, Founder of Growth Equity Interview Guide and former investor and operator at AirBnB, General Atlantic and Deutsche Bank. We touch a number of topics including recruiting for that 2nd job after getting the Analyst job, the growth equity space, and how growth equity investors think about valuation. We also get the un...

Blaise, Olivia and Craig discuss the role of the Fed, and both the "how" and "why" central banks do what they do. We also talk about the biggest cause of the 2022 bear market, and the implications of what central bank policy decisions mean for Wall Street and valuations.

Building on our earlier Venture Capital Primer episode, Blaise is back to discuss some strategies and tips for breaking into venture, optimal entry points for launching a career in VC, and how to stand out in the interview process (or create your own process!)

In this episode I sit down with Rodrigo Castellanos, VC & Growth Equity investor at StepStone, to talk about his path into finance, and MBA and then to growth equity & venture investing. Rodrigo breaks down how late-stage venture and growth investors think about valuation and make investment decisions. Learn about how and why privately owned startups that are unprofitable today can still m...

Ever wonder what the differences are between investment banking, venture capital, private equity and hedge funds? In the final part of a 3-Part series, we're talking about the hedge fund industry and how it differs from VC and PE. In the second half of the episode we wrap up our discussion by talking about the social impact of each industry. This is an especially important part of the conversa...

Ever wonder what the differences are between investment banking, venture capital, private equity and hedge funds? In Part 2 of a 3-Part series, we're talking about the private equity industry and how it differs from VC and Hedge Funds. Topics include a quick history of Private Equity (it's evolved a lot since the 1980s!), attributes that make for a successful investor and an introduction t...

Ever wonder what the differences are between investment banking, venture capital, private equity and hedge funds? Over the next two weeks we'll talk about each industry and how they differ from what another. In this episode, we'll talking about venture capital, the attributes that make for a successful investor and the financial metrics you'll need to become an expert VC investor.

In this bonus episode, we wanted to publish a quick but important question that Blaise had on how an acquisition or merger can create value. This episode gives a short intro to synergies and some different ways that two businesses combining can (sometimes but not always) generate greater profits than the sum of the parts.

This episode covers a cousin of the Accretion/dilution analysis: present value of future stock price (which you might sometimes see abbreviated as PV of FSP). This PV analysis of a company's future stock price can be helpful if a public company is determining whether to make an acquisition or investment that is dilutive in year 1 but might lead to higher earnings and/or earnings per share in t...

This episode covers the accretion / dilution analysis, which is a tool that public companies and investment banks use to help evaluate potential acquisitions. Blaise, Olivia and Craig discuss several accretion / dilution examples to demonstrate how the source of funding (cash vs. equity vs. debt) can impact meaningfully impact whether a deal is accretive or dilutive.

This episodes builds on the valuation ratio content from the last episode, and uses the example of Cava's recent IPO to illustrate the importance of using several different ratios to try to triangulate valuation.

What is a P/E ratio and why does it differ by company? How do you value companies with low or negative earnings? Olivia and Craig use the example of comparing a gas station to a software business to discuss why and how analysts use different ratios to compare the valuations of similar companies. This is the foundation of valuing a company based on how their financial ratios compare to other compar...

How big is a Ford Motor Company? By "market cap" (aka market capitalization aka equity value) it's ~$47 billion, but that measure of size doesn't take into account their debt! In fact, Ford's enterprise value is well over $100 billion. In this episode, we tackle the difference between equity value and enterprise value, and why enterprise value if market cap is quoted so much...

As we ramp up our valuation skills, this Q&A session helps orient listens around both the most important metrics for valuing assets, as well as which (different!) historical metrics are the best predictors of value

In this episode, Olivia, Blaise and Craig do a deeper dive on the components of a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. In the second half of the video, we review a sample interview question that investment banking applicants are often asked during interviews. This is a continuation from Episode 19, where we introduce the concept of the DCF model and how to calculate a company's Weighted Average C...

In this episode we discuss Spotify's Q2 2023 earnings report. We break down the nitty gritty on how to use a company's financial statements to go one level deeper than the news headlines and understand what's actually going on at the business. Link to video with screenshare: https://youtu.be/24b0wyA1bq4 Link to Spotify investor presentation: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1639...

All our hard work is about to start paying off! Now that we've talked in detail about companies and their financials, we're ready to talk about valuation. In the first of several valuation-focused episodes, we introduce the concept of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model, and the what/when/why/how of discounting future money. To do this, we do a deep dive on calculating a company's cos...

A short current events piece drawing on reporting from Matt Levine at Bloomberg. We break down the ramifications of rising rates for highly levered companies (companies with a lot of debt relative to their EBITDA). This is a concrete example of how understanding the impact of debt on profitability is an important concept for young analysts.

On this episode Craig and Olivia answer your questions on topics that we've covered thus far. We cover a variety of topics including why the balance sheet needs to balance, how to calculate retained earnings, converting EBITDA to net income, key income statement metrics and how net working capital affects cash flow projections.

How did the US Government make a $6 billion accounting error with real life and death consequences? In the episode we give a helpful reminder that seemingly written-in-stone dollar figures can often be subject to caveats and interpretation.

In this episode, we build on last episode's discussion of working capital components. We work through a few examples to illustrate the impact of working capital on a business and discuss what real-world activities might lead to changes in working capital. We also talk about relationships between real-world business strategy issues like how poor inventory management can manifest in high balance...

In this episode we introduce the concept of working capital, it's components, and why it is an hugely important component of financial modeling and forecasting. Link to video version, which includes a short powerpoint presentation that lays out various definitions and terms: https://youtu.be/IsJCoYomtrs