Veronica Shay went from internal audit in Eastern Europe to product manager at a fintech startup to AVP at Aeon Group in Manhattan — with no target school, no legacy connections, and no traditional finance background.

In this episode, she breaks down how she sent 4,000- 5,000 cold emails to land her first US role, why she chose a talent-based green card over the work visa lottery, what it's really like being the only woman at every firm she's worked at, and where she sees the best opportunities in fintech, healthcare, and blockchain right now.

00:00 Trailer: Cold Emails and Grit

00:52 Intro: Meet Veronica Shay

02:26 Building a Finance Career From Scratch

06:49 Breaking Into the US With No Network

09:08 5,000 Cold Emails and 200 Calls

11:17 Do Credentials Actually Matter?

12:34 Visa Lottery vs. Talent Visa

15:52 Inside Aeon Group: Secondaries and SPACs

18:36 Early-Stage vs. Late-Stage Investing

20:57 Hottest Sectors and AI's Impact

26:15 What VC Actually Looks Like

27:40 Why Cross-Border M&A Is Hard

29:56 Product Manager to Banker

32:27 Being the Only Woman, Honestly

38:26 Resilience, Mistakes, and Becoming a Founder

43:27 Final Advice and Rapid Fire Questions

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Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

Matt Winterholler didn't take the traditional path into finance. He completed ten internships before landing his first offer, broke into banking from a non target school, and eventually left Mizuho to join a fast growing tech company willing to trade banking hours for a four-day work week.

In this episode, Matt walks Max through what corporate development actually looks like day to day, how he made the leap from Mizuho TMT to PDQ and eventually to Governor Solutions in GovTech, and why he believes his career is more luck than skill. He also breaks down the cold email mistakes that got him corrected by an MD, and what actually separates people who level up fast from those who plateau.

0:00 Intro

5:55 Inside Corporate Development

16:06 His Career Trajectory

21:19 His Take on AI

23:41 Why He Skipped the Safe Route

28:04 Landing the Governor Opportunity

30:59 What Is GovTech

33:05 Moving to the Operating Side

35:23 Trading Banking Perks for a 4 Day Week

37:21 Inside the Actual Deals

40:29 What He Wishes He'd Known

42:08 Breaking In From a Non Target School

50:56 Balancing 10 Internships

53:06 What Actually Worked Breaking In

56:41 Giving Back and Mentoring

58:19 Cold Emails and Confidence

1:01:59 What Separates Fast Growers From the Rest

1:03:21 Recap and Rapid Fire

✉️ Connect with me

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LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos about investment banking recruiting @WallStreetMastermind

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below ⬇️

#investmentbanking #corporatedevelopment #privateequity #wallstreet #financecareers #mergersandacquisitions #financerecruiting #ibanalyst

Andrew spent over 12 years at Goldman Sachs investing the firm's own balance sheet across public equities, high-yield credit, real estate, and venture capital before leaving to found 8FIGURES, an AI native investment advisor. In this episode, Max and Andrew dig into what a cross-asset mandate really looks like from the inside, how AI is transforming the tasks that used to define entry-level finance jobs, and why retail investors are getting a fundamentally different quality of advice than institutions.

They also get into Andrew's path from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow to Goldman, what it takes to climb to executive director, the discipline of tracking every personal expense for 20 years, and his take on how luck and hard work actually interact over a career. A must watch if you are breaking into finance or trying to understand where the industry is heading.

00:01:13 Intro

00:03:21 Goldman's Special Situations Group

00:06:31 Generalist vs Specialist Investors

00:09:44 Best AI Investment Plays in 2026

00:14:39 The Goldman Misconception

00:16:18 Climbing to Executive Director

00:17:40 Why He Left Goldman

00:22:26 What Is 8FIGURES

00:24:34 How 8FIGURES Stands Apart

00:32:23 AI and Entry Level Finance Jobs

00:34:31 What Students Need to Do Now

00:42:37 Breaking Into Goldman From Moscow

✉️ Connect with me

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LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

Frank Van Buren flew Black Hawk helicopters on combat missions in Beirut and Central America before walking into an investment banking associate role at Wells Fargo. What happened in between? A chance conversation on a beach in Cyprus that changed everything.

In this episode of Wall Street Diaries, Frank breaks down his full journey from the Army to 26 years on Wall Street, including 5 years in IB, 16 years in high-yield sales and trading, and a final chapter leading talent development for 1,000 emerging bankers.

He gets into what the military actually prepares you for, how to know which Wall Street role fits you, and the one trait that separates great salespeople from good ones.

00:00 Trailer

03:30 From Black Hawks to Wall Street

10:08 What the Army Teaches You

13:38 Real Advice for Vets Breaking Into IB

21:40 Why He Stayed in High Yield 16 Years

26:01 A Day on a High Yield Desk

31:54 The Trade That Dropped 100% in a Day

38:08 Good vs Great in Sales

42:44 Why He Left Revenue After 21 Years

50:23 Rapid Fire: Habits, Values and Luck

✉️ Connect with me

Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/3dv9ff3b

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

AI isn’t replacing analysts. But it is separating the ones who adapt from the ones who don’t.

Brandon Hightower is the co-founder of Axom Partners, the boutique M&A firm Forbes called Big Tech’s go-to dealmaker for AI acquisitions. In 2.5 years they’ve closed 15+ deals representing $5B in transaction value advising names like OpenAI, Salesforce, and Meta.

In this episode, we get into what Big Tech is actually buying in the AI arms race, what it takes to build an investment bank from scratch, and the traits that separate the top analysts from the other 598.

0:00 Intro

01:20 What Big Tech is really buying

40:26 From banking to founding his own firm

57:40 What it takes to stand out in banking

✉️ Connect with me

Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/3dv9ff3b

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

Scott McDermott went from PwC in Ireland to CFO of a global AI company, with stops at Netgear for 14 years, the Arlo Technologies IPO at $1B+ on the NYSE, Fitbit’s European finance build, and interim CFO at Cornerstone OnDemand overseeing 170 people.

In this episode, he breaks down what AI is actually doing to finance jobs right now, why taking risks in your 20s is the move most people regret skipping, and how pattern recognition from 2008 helped him pull every dollar out of Silicon Valley Bank the morning it collapsed.

0:00 Intro

1:16 Is AI Ruining Finance?

21:25 Scott's Finance Journey

36:44 Choosing Your Next Career Move

✉️ Connect with me

Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/3dv9ff3b

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

Nick started at Goldman Sachs TMT in San Francisco, spent 6 years at Francisco Partners rising from associate to VP, and now co-manages S20 Capital, a late stage tech secondaries fund.

In this episode, we get into what it actually takes to break into and climb in private equity, why he skipped business school, the mindset shift from associate to VP, and what running your own fund really looks like day to day.

We also dig into his take on AI and what it means for software investing, PE hiring, and whether the junior analyst role is already under threat.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

00:02:26 Francisco Partners

00:24:40 Entrepreneurship at S20

00:48:57 State of tech investing in the age of AI

01:07:55 Breaking into Goldman Sachs

✉️ Connect with me

Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/3dv9ff3b

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

AI isn't new. The concepts behind it go back to the 1960s. So why is everything changing right now?

Asif Moosani has been inside this world longer than most. From coding at IBM to banking at Lazard to investing in AI startups at Google's Gradient Ventures, and now running strategy at Sona, an AI native workforce management startup.

In this episode, we get into what actually triggered the boom, what it means for finance careers specifically, and why the workers most affected aren't the ones everyone is talking about.

00:00 Intro

02:29 The $1B Market Nobody Wanted

11:02 Is AI Actually Different This Time?

20:06 The History of AI Nobody Teaches You

33:15 What AI Actually Does to Finance Careers

✉️ Connect with me

Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/3dv9ff3b

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos about investment banking recruiting @WallStreetMastermind

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below ⬇️

Eric majored in exercise science and planned to go into medicine. When that didn't work out, he applied to every rotational business program he could find and got screened out of all of them because of his major. A friend's tip about consulting changed everything.

In this episode, Erick breaks down how VCs evaluate founders before writing a check, why AI is already handling junior analyst work at his firm, and what the SaaS collapse means for anyone trying to break into finance right now.

If you're a student trying to break into venture, an aspiring founder looking for funding, or just trying to figure out where finance careers are headed, this one is for you.

00:00 Intro

02:33 Why VC the Most Interesting Path

31:30 AI & SaaS Prediction

52:09 Why Consulting and not Finance?

01:22:09 Going Back to School, Is It Worth It?

✉️ Connect with me

Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/3dv9ff3b

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos about investment banking recruiting @WallStreetMastermind

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below ⬇️

Most investment bankers follow the same script: 2 years of banking → PE → MBA → repeat. Emma Jacobsen didn't.

After landing a spot in Bank of America's elite tech IB group, she walked away from PE to join Nuro, one of the most ambitious autonomous vehicle companies in the world. Now in Strategic Finance, she's sitting in on CEO meetings, building investor narratives, and watching a $126B industry reshape itself in real time

Whether you're recruiting for IB, eyeing a non-traditional exit, or just want to understand where AI and finance intersect, this one is for you.

✉️ Connect with me

Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/3dv9ff3b

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mrxd9fvu

Book a call ☎️ https://tinyurl.com/2rvxtjmn

Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos about investment banking recruiting @WallStreetMastermind

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below ⬇️