Breaking into PE Consulting Mid-Career: The Stax Advantage with Darren Buskirk

Transcription:

Hey, we're so excited to have Darren on. I'm going to start by introducing Darren. Then I've got a series of questions. It's going to flow like a fun conversation.

Darren, we're excited that you're here.And then we will kind of, you know, go go a little bit live with some of those questions as Japheth mentioned.

So Darren Buskirk is a Managing Director at Stax, specializing in private equity and healthcare strategy. With over a decade of consulting experience, he's led 100 diligence engagements across Provider, HCIT and Payer Focus Solutions, advising investors and organizations on commercial strategy in M&A.

Before joining Stax, Darren was at McKinsey and Company, supporting its healthcare private equity practice. He began his career in private equity at American Capital and has also held consulting roles at EY-Parthenon and Deloitte. Darren holds a BS in finance from the University of Maryland and MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

Welcome Darren to Strategy Simplified and to this recording today. We're excited that you're here.

Thank you and likewise.

So I mentioned some of the history, the highlights of the history, but let's go one level deeper. Can you just tell us a little bit about your journey, right? You worked at these other top firms, private equity, McKinsey. Why Stax? Why was that the right next step of your career?

Yes, I mean, I had, I'd worked as, as you mentioned that a few very large firms and I think as I progressed in my career, I was, I was ready for something different and you know, maybe something smaller where my individual contributions would make more of an impact.

And I think for me too, you know, later in my career, I, I really realized the importance of culture and how important that is on a, you know, day in, day out basis.

And so that was really important to me too as I, you know, as I was, was having conversations with, with various employers. 

I ended up meeting our CEO, Jayson Traxler and our global practice leader, Paul Edwards through a recruiter. And, you know, I think just talking that we clicked pretty quickly.

I bought into their vision, what they were trying to do, what my role would be here within Chicago as you know, kind of an office theater, as well as what they were trying to do with healthcare and other verticals.

And you know, it was just a click and it felt right. And then as I just continued to meet other people, that sentiment carried on and it just felt really natural for me to join Stax.

I love it. Can you start us back even further? Why the heck consulting and private equity, this is a very interesting kind of combo specialty that you had. And then as we're, as we're kind of talking about that, why did each of those roles kind of, you mentioned culture being differentiated at Stax, but what about the work? What it what is a little different about what you're doing now at Stax from the other experiences as well?

Yeah, I mean, I think what's different about Stax is so I'll answer your first question first. Why consulting, why private equity? So coming out of Business School, you know, I, I'm not sure that I knew what I really wanted to do.

And I, you know, I think consulting is kind of a, an extension of Business School where you can continue to dabble in various industries, functional areas, all that good stuff. And I, you know, I think the typical plan for most people coming out of Business School is, Hey, I'm going to make it here two years. I'm going to get promoted to manager and then I'm going to go do something in corporate.

I think I might have missed the boat on that because I'm like 12, 13 years removed and I'm still here. But you know, I think that you just have to find the door there.

You just haven't found the door yet.

That's right.

So, you know, I started consulting in more of, of that generalist mold and, you know, was doing things around strategy transformation operations.

And, you know, I liked it, but I was trying to always figure out, OK, what's next? And then that was at Deloitte. And then I got recruited by Parthenon. And it was a really compelling story because it was a way for me to combine that consulting experience that I had with the private equity experience that I had before Business School.

It was like a nice meshing of the two and it just made sense. And I had always done a lot of healthcare work in the past. And, you know, I felt like at that time that I had enough reps where I felt comfortable and, and I knew I kind of wanted to pursue that path. So that's kind of what led me to where I, to where I am today.

I, you know, and I think to answer your question around how, how Stax is different from, from other firms and other consulting experiences, I think couple things. 1 is we're a very flat organization. All of our people are accessible from the top down.

Our junior people have a lot of have a seat at the table and they're expected to contribute their thoughts during internal working sessions and other interactions with the team.

It's not just, you know, source these calls for us or take notes. I, you know, I think they're genuinely contributing to the thoughts and, and, and the work that goes out to our clients.

I also think we're, we're very collegial and we very much have a community in each of our local offices.

So you, we have in office days, generally everyone is in the office at least three days a week.

And, you know, for me, I think that's really critical for the development of our people when you're not virtual and when you're in person and, you know, the way that that plays out is someone sitting next to you can say, like, Hey, how do I do this survey?

What was the what we know? What are your, what are the best ways that, you know, you've thought about this problem or whatever else it might be?

And you don't have to schedule a zoom meeting to do that, right? You can just tap them on the shoulder.

And then I think, you know, it's also important for just, you know, the health of our culture and organization. And, you know, beyond just being in the office together, we're doing a lot outside the office.

You know, we're going to Cubs games, we're going to dinners. We just did an event a couple weeks ago where we did floral arrangements as a group.

So I think those, those, those types of things continue to happen and you know, just kind of perpetuate that collegial atmosphere.

And I think the last thing is, you know, it ties into that too, is that we don't travel a lot. And, you know, I think that that's very different from larger firms where you're on the road Monday to Thursday.

I mean, when I first started in consulting, I was, I was going to Hartford, CT every week for months on end, Monday to Thursday. And people are only in the office on Fridays, if they were at all. And it's just very different here.

I love it. Well, this, this may be a little bit belated because we've already kind of cracked this a little bit, but can you just introduce Stax, you know, as if we were on a plane settling in and I said, you know, what do you do and who do you work for?

Can you can you just give me a little bit about the the work, the value proposition for clients and how y'all are building the business right now?

Yeah. I mean, so the firm has actually been around for 30 years. Historically, we've been a founder owned and founder run business with a smaller set of loyal customers that use us consistently and you know that we had a lot of success with.

We've always been focused on the private equity sector. That hasn't really changed. What did change was in the fall of 2021, we ourselves got bought by private equity and as part of that they strategically invested in us to do you know what I consider really 2 main things.

One is to verticalize our offering. So what that means is you know myself in Healthcare is an example, we hired someone in technology and software that's a leader in the space.

We have a business services leader. We have leaders across all these different verticals now that have really deep expertise that we can go to market to with our clients.

And you know that's how they organize themselves as they organize themselves by vertical.

So you know you kind of have to be able to do that in market today. And then what else? You know, another thing that we did was we started to build out the matrix.

So if you think of one side or axis of that matrix of being the verticalization the other pieces are offering. So we also migrated to building out a value creation practice to complement our commercial due diligence practice.

And you know, what they're doing is a lot more strategic work generally still within private equity and for their portfolio companies. But you know, we're, we're also doing some work with corporates as well.

I love it. Well, let's talk a little bit about this PE focused work. You know, when I went to Bain, they said, hey, you can do this rotation through the PEG practice.

And, and I thought, oh, that sounds interesting. But honestly, I couldn't have told you exactly what it was, what we were doing, how long it was going to be, what, what the mix of work was going to be.

So I'm hoping you can kind of go one level deeper on the work, maybe by highlighting one to three kinds of projects and then the pace of them, right? 

So you know, when do you get the project? How fast does it have to happen? Are these I-banking hours? Are these consulting hours? Are they somewhere in between, right?

Just tell us a little bit about the demands and the pace of what the kind of, you know, month to month day-to-day looks like for a PE project?

Yeah. I mean, generally the sales lead times are pretty short and you know, it's probably a week  and a week and 1/2 at most for a buy side.

And then you know, for supporting a sell side transaction where we're working with investment bankers and, and management to build out a market study there. Those can be a little longer in terms of the sales cycle.

But you know, generally speaking our engagements are, are faster pace. Our clients have bid deadlines that they're working towards.

And you know, what that lends itself to is, you know, pretty quick engagement. So our typical buy side engagement, for example, is about 3 weeks in duration.

And, and for me personally, I like that fast-paced because it, you know, if it's, it's energizing to me and it also allows me to kind of hit the reset button every three weeks. So, you know, on, on any given week, I could be working on a physical therapy project and then the next week, like, you know, going super deep into electronic medical records and, and you know, on the healthcare IT side of things and no engagement is really the same.

And you know, even being in the space for over a decade, I'm, I'm constantly learning new things every day.

I love it. Well, let's talk a little bit about just Stax and other major consulting firms because Stax we would consider Stax a boutique with more of a focus on a specific client type and a project type, not based on size necessarily, but just specialization.

So can you talk about how specialization works at Stax, how mobility works between offices or projects, how promotions work? Just talk a little bit about kind of the life cycle of a consultant and a couple of those attributes that especially might be different than some of the standard consulting firms.

Yeah. So I mean, I, I don't think specialization really is expected or occurs until our people get to the associate director level, which is, you know, kind of two, 2 levels removed from, from managing director.

And at that point, you're kind of expected to have a little bit of expertise in one or two areas. And, you know, as part of that, you're joining sales pitches and contributing from a content perspective. But I don't really think that's expected or happens much until that AD level.

We're a small firm. So it's not hard to stand out if you're a top performer, and this isn't a situation where you're going to get lost in the numbers by any stretch. We're also very much a meritocracy. So we promote people when we think they're ready, which I think is a little different compared to larger firms where it tends to be more tenure-based.

In those environments, you may see, "Well, you're doing well, but generally you're not up for promotion until two years." That doesn't really happen here. Those conversations are fluid and happen every evaluation cycle in terms of, "Is this person ready? Is this person performing at the next level?"

Let’s talk about that one in particular. I had a specific moment at Bain that I'm thinking about where it felt like they kind of slow-played some of the feedback and it felt like it was stifling my acceleration through the firm. Instead of just telling me when it was, they held it until an evaluation cycle.

So how often is an evaluation cycle? And do you have a story of somebody who kind of just blew through a few of them? Someone who came in and just progressed way faster than they would have somewhere else. Maybe this is you too, Darren. Can you give us a bit more clarity on that?

Yeah. To answer the evaluation question, we do them twice a year formally as an entire organization. Those happen in the summer and again in the winter. As part of those, that's when you're eligible for a promotion.

I was imagining a wunderkind — someone who comes in. The standard process at McKinsey would be two to three years between cycles, and this person went through two promotions in six months. When you say "faster" or "different," I don't know how radical it is, but I wondered if you could tell us the story of someone on an accelerated path. For the right people — the ones you're looking to attract — for ambitious people, that’s appealing. It would be nice to add some color to that.

Yeah. We certainly have people who elevate to the manager or senior manager role in a year, not two. Two years at a level is kind of standard as you're progressing. It may slow down as you get to MD, partner, etc. But where I’ve seen success — and an anecdote I’ll give you — is someone who has consistently performed, demonstrated intellectual curiosity, is a team player, and really starts to differentiate by anticipating what’s next. For example, "I can anticipate that the client or director is going to ask this question, so I’m going to proactively address that," rather than responding reactively. That kind of thoughtfulness is one of the bigger differentiators we see in people who tend to elevate quicker.

I love it.

Also, just for everyone's clarity, you mentioned that the associate director is two steps under managing director. I know a lot of the positions you're hiring for are manager and senior manager. How far is it from those senior manager positions?

Yeah. I’ll start at associate consultant. We go: associate consultant, consultant, senior consultant, manager, senior manager, associate director, director, and managing director.

Darren, when y’all sell, one of my missions in life is to have conforming titles at firms. Banks figured this out, and consulting firms cannot get their act together. So when you sell and you’re hanging out in the Hamptons or at your lake house, I want to get together. This is my mission — I think you can help me with this.

Yeah. I mean, I’ve been a vice president, senior manager, and director. I completely agree — there needs to be some uniformity.

Good. One of the questions that came up in our call on Tuesday was, is it OK for you to take a certain position if you were at a manager position? I said it depends on whether you managed anybody or not, right? Because even in industry, there’s this idea of being a manager as a tenure thing, not necessarily what you're actually doing.

Total tangent. So we can keep going back to talking about Stax. But anyhow, I think our real focus here is going to shift to mid-career professionals. This is a lot of the conversation — the light that I think you can bring here — just around why somebody should come to Stax maybe from another consulting role or from an industry role, and why that mid-moment in your career is vital and why Stax is the right place to make that move.

So what are a couple of reasons — two or three — why Stax is an attractive option for a mid-career professional specifically?

Yes. I mentioned the meritocracy piece is big, and it allows for rapid mobility if you are a top performer. A very obvious one too is that you get a chance here to participate in building something. We're smaller but in a rapid growth phase, and to me, that's pretty exciting. We get to mold what the organization looks like.

For me personally, I've had a hand in recruiting and how we think about recruiting, how we think about project economics, and how we should be considering one project over another. There’s really anything you can think of — talent, office culture, the financial side of how we account for our P&L — there’s an opportunity for you to mold and participate in that. At larger organizations, those things are already rigid and set in stone.

The other thing I’d mention is that, as we alluded to earlier, you get to constantly explore different industries. If you're in that mid-career stage, like I was, where you don’t know what you want to do next or what industry you want to play in, you're going to get 15–20 reps across industries in a given year. That’s a ton of exposure in a very condensed timeline.

I love it.

I know the goal isn’t for people to leave Stax, but does it change where you might go after having an experience like the ones you're offering?

Yeah. I mean, we put people into private equity roles and also into strategy roles. For example, I had coffee today with one of our former employees who went to a PE-owned chain of veterinary clinics. He's now owning the P&L of 20 to 30 different vet boxes. It was great to hear how he's been able to meld that strategy experience he got here with now owning a P&L elsewhere.

So I think it’s really an accelerator for people — even if they don’t want to stay in consulting long-term.

I love it.

Well, let’s just talk a little bit about who fits — degrees, experience, brand name, no brand name, skills people are bringing. Tell us a little bit about what parameters make for a successful hire for y’all.

I don’t think there are any gating degree requirements. You don’t need to have an MBA, for example, to come in at the mid-level. What is important is that piece I talked about earlier — that you're intellectually curious and constantly questioning the state of whatever we’re looking at or what you heard on a call.

It’s also good for someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment and feeds off of that energy. And the third element is that you’ve got to be a team player. Everything we do is in teams, and you're always part of a team. If you’re collaborative, it’s going to be that much easier for you.

I love it.

OK, let’s talk about who’s not a great fit. I’m sure we’ve been in those interviews where somebody self-describes in one way, but you can kind of see maybe they’re not, or they ask a question and you think, “That was not the right question because you didn’t get the culture.” What qualities or work styles don’t align? Either people you didn’t hire, or people you did and maybe regretted it?

I don’t have specific anecdotes, per se, but I think there are some common themes. If you want to be in a predictable role — say, you work in accounting at a corporation and can look out over the next year and pretty much guess what your day-to-day is going to look like — and if you value that predictability and stability, this probably isn’t going to be a good fit. We’re constantly hitting refresh and looking at something new.

We also don’t do a lot of long-term projects. So it can be hard to forge deep relationships with clients when we’re not on site with them for six months of the year. We’re hybrid, and we’re often moving quickly from one project to the next.

Also, those who don’t like working in ambiguous situations — where you have to figure things out and put some thought into it versus following a structured approach — may struggle here

I love it.

Let’s put you in “cool uncle” mode — give some advice to the folks listening. We know that Stax is growing quickly. We know you're actively hiring — there are links in the show notes — but let’s advise people. What do top candidates do in the networking process? Do they network zero, some, too much? And what are a couple of key do’s and don’ts for the application process specifically?

Yeah. I think it’s really important to research the company you're interviewing with. You don’t have to recite the company’s history, but if you know the broad strokes about the industries we serve and our offerings, it shows genuine interest. If you come in guessing, that’s obvious.

On the networking side, when you’re talking to someone — especially early on — it’s always good to ask, “Who else should I talk to?” For example, “Who would be a good person for me to talk to about value creation or software?” That handoff builds your network and creates a support system when it comes time for offer decisions.

I love it. On the “don’t” side — one of my good friends, Keith Bevins at Bain, put in a recent hiring post: “Please don’t reach out and ask us for 15 minutes to talk about the role. The job is pretty clearly defined.” I loved that he said that. It’s probably our fault for encouraging people to do that over time. Where do you fall — team yes, team no? Should people reach out, or should they just apply?

If I had to pick, I’d say network — but network strategically. It’s not a “boil the ocean” exercise. When you ask, “Who else should I talk to?” have a genuine reason for that connection — not just checking a box. It’s important, and it sets you up for success during interviews and the offer decision process. But I wouldn’t overdo it.

Love it.

Let’s talk about interviews for mid-career professionals. What should candidates expect — case interviews, digital assessments?

Generally, there are a couple of behavioral interviews — “Tell us about your experience,” “Why are you interested in Stax?” — things like that. There’s generally a case study, which might be Excel-based or a high-level market sizing study, depending on the level. Once you move through that process, it all leads to the final decision point.

Great. And if you could advise anyone in that mid-career mode, what’s one piece of advice you wish you had when you were considering a career pivot? Something you're glad you did, or something you wish you had done?

I would say, don’t lose sight of the fact that while they’re interviewing you, you should also be interviewing them. I talked earlier about culture — in business school, I always asked, “How’s your culture?” but I didn’t really know what I was asking. I just knew I was supposed to ask it.

Now, culture is paramount. So get a feel for the people and working styles. Ask yourself: is this an environment where it seems like I can thrive? It shouldn't be a one-way street — it should be a fit in both directions.

I love it.

Let’s pause now and go to some questions. Japheth, you’ve got some pre-submitted ones, and we’ll take live ones from the audience too. Today’s also Opening Day, Darren, so while we’re waiting for the questions to heat up — what’s your most memorable sports moment?

Yeah, that’s an easy one. I'm an Eagles fan and I’ve been lucky enough to go to both Super Bowls they won. I was in New Orleans for the most recent one, and in 2018, I saw them win their first one in Minnesota. That easily tops the list.

I love it. Are you from near Philly — how did you become an Eagles fan?

Yeah, my dad was born in Philadelphia. We lived outside the city until I was in elementary school. It was kind of ingrained in me — you’re an Eagles fan, and you’re a Phillies fan.

OK, second most important question — Chicago pizza or New York pizza? Explain.

For me, probably Chicago. I’m not a native Chicagoan, so I’m not super biased. But I actually like thin Chicago pizza — not the deep dish, which gets all the publicity. I’d lean Chicago.

Wait — thin Chicago pizza? You’re going to have to explain this.

Yeah, it's what you might call Tavern style — thin, round, cut into squares. One of the under-the-radar spots here is Pequod’s. If you're a local, it’s famous. I'm not a big Giordano’s or Lou Malnati’s fan. I like the thinner crust.

So really, you’re saying New York pizza… but in Chicago?

Sure, you can say that.

Let’s get into the audience questions. Japheth, can you launch a couple Darren’s way?

Yeah, let’s rock and roll.

All right, we’ll just start with some questions related to kind of the life and culture at Stax. So for a new hire, what do the first 30, 60, 90 days look like at the company? What type of work, projects, etc. are you going to be staffed on and the results?

Yeah, I mean, I think so from day one, you're given two things. One is a mentor who is, you know, kind of responsible for your coaching, your professional development. They're the ones that represent you at performance review meetings, etc.

And then you're also given a buddy who is generally someone at your level, but they may have been here for a year or two. And the idea of that person is that, you know, they can be a safe space where you go and ask your questions that maybe you wouldn't ask your mentor.

So I think what we try to do is provide a lot of support very early on. As far as what your first project looks like, it's, you know, you're going to be attached to one of our teams. Generally, it's more of a shadowing role — this is what the role looks like, this is the expectation of what this role looks like. And you might be supporting a work stream or a work stream leader, but you're not necessarily owning it.

And then I think beyond that in terms of what expectations are for the first 90 days, I don't think it's anything crazy. We just kind of want you to act as a sponge and take it all in and be set up such that when you are given responsibility and ownership of a piece of a project, you know you're ready to deliver.

I love it. Be a sponge. Great. Great advice. Great career advice for sure.

Great. Great advice. Great career advice for sure.

Amazing.

All right, next up — beyond the PE focus, how does Stax invest in professional development?

And the specific question is referencing managers — to help them remain at the forefront of industry trends and deliver cutting-edge insights to clients.

Yeah. I mean, I think the most relevant part of that is, to be on the cutting edge and to understand industry trends and all that stuff — that’s going to come organically through project work, right?

And especially as a manager, where you're getting reps across different industries — and a lot of reps — you're just going to get that on its own.

Beyond that, our managers and senior managers tend to work on a lot of thought pieces and white papers that go out into the space. And there are researchers that are part of that. That’s secondary — and it can be primary in nature too.

So that’s another avenue. And then beyond that, as it relates to professional development, we offer a series of learning opportunities.

So at the manager level, it might be a class on how to present better, or a class on project economics and how you monitor them, or team makeup and how to develop the junior people that are on your team — things like that.

I love that.

Thanks for the color on that question.

All right, next: What do you see as the most critical differentiator between Stax and other top-tier private equity consulting firms today? You’ve talked about the smaller size and the culture, etc. Is there anything you want to add to that?

No, I mean, I think it’s really that. It’s the scale, the ability to make an impact at the individual level, and to build something.

And I think because we’re small enough, there’s not a lot of red tape or politics in our organization and how it operates. So to me, those are all pluses.

Jamie, I’ll add one from the chat if that’s all right.

So Darren, we know that the opportunities right now are in Chicago, Boston, and New York — the manager and senior manager roles that y’all posted. Can you talk a little about your offices? Are some of these roles location-agnostic? How should people understand the differences between the offices?

They’re pretty similar. We’re doing the same type of work across offices, and we staff teams cross-office. I have a team right now with people in Chicago, Boston, and I think one in New York. So the work isn’t different.

What might be different is size and feel. We started and grew up in Boston — that’s our biggest office. Chicago is second. I think we have about 30 full-time employees here. And then New York is our smaller office — probably 15 to 20 people now. So the work is very similar.

I think in terms of feel and size, it can be a little different across offices.

Awesome.

Back to you, Jay.

Beautiful.

All right, moving on to a couple of questions around whether specific backgrounds fit in with Stax.

The first is: Do you need to have a private equity background or PE-specific experience to be considered for a role with Stax?

Yeah, I don’t think you necessarily have to. There’s no prescribed formula where you need to have private equity experience or have done 20 or 25 commercial due diligences.

I think it’s more about whether you can connect your prior experience to what we do here in a meaningful way — whether it's a compelling story for us.

So, no, I don’t think that means you must have had private equity or commercial diligence experience. But maybe you worked in corporate development at another organization and did a lot of M&A — that’s a great fit for us.

It’s not one-to-one. You don’t have to come from exactly what we do. But it sure doesn’t hurt to have M&A, PE, or B2B consulting experience — any of that definitely helps.

Darren, you’re the poster child, right? PE experience, consulting experience, and some healthcare background — you had it all.

Yeah, I think that was just kind of a block of happenstance. But yeah, that’s how the cookie crumbled there.

No, no — that’s fine.

Jason, I just want to add one more question from the chat — it’s about consulting experience vs. other corporate functions. Darren, you mentioned corporate development and dealmaking — what about other internal corporate roles, like in life sciences or healthcare commercial roles?

Yeah, so life sciences is a great example.

I think if you have specialization — if you can talk about the pharma ecosystem and have experience with things like CROs, CDMOs — those deep-dive topics and that kind of technical expertise really stand out as part of the evaluation process.

And that’s a great example for life sciences. I think other people who have more general strategy or general management experience can also translate that to what we’re doing. Even in commercial due diligence, there’s a lot of strategy involved — even though we're generally looking at the same areas and probing on similar topics.

There are things like growth opportunities — for example, if we were to acquire this business, what are five avenues we could explore? Having a strategic background definitely lends itself well to that part of the work.

Makes sense.

OK, let's take another question.

And by the way, folks — this is open Q&A time. The chat is open, so please drop in your questions and we’ll answer as many as we can.

All right, next question is about advanced degree candidates. Do you hire them?

I’m going to assume the answer is something like, “Yeah, it depends.”

So maybe going a little deeper — for someone with a non-MBA advanced degree, how can they make themselves relevant to roles at Stax?

How can they make sure their resume highlights the most relevant experience and skills for PE?

Yeah, I think if you're a non-traditional candidate but there’s a story there, the best path — honestly — is to lean into the networking piece. Try to connect with people who are already here and may have similar backgrounds or interests.

Then build that support system so that we get to the point where we’re saying, “Yeah, we’re really interested in this person, and we want to interview them further.”

Amazing.

All right, the next question we’ve handled throughout the call, so we’ll skip it and move to this one about AI.

How do you envision the role of AI and automation in PE consulting over the next couple of years — particularly for operational due diligence and portfolio value creation?

Yeah. I’d like to think our work is still pretty bespoke in terms of what we’re doing from a commercial due diligence perspective.

I don’t think AI is ever going to replace us as consultants. Rather, I think we’ll use AI to supplement our processes.

So for example, we use AI now when we're doing our primary research interviews. We'll take a recording of those, load it into a ChatGPT-like application, and then it creates a catalog so we can search for keywords, phrases, or quotes that we need.

That alleviates a lot of time and effort for our associates, who used to have to control-F or scour through notes. It just makes our processes more efficient.

It's one way we’re starting to use AI. I still think it's in its infancy in terms of how it's going to fully impact us, but yeah — that's one example.

Absolutely amazing. I appreciate that color there.

OK, all right — we’re through the pre-submitted questions, so we’re going to go exclusively to the chat for the next few minutes.

We'll start with a good question from Jason:

“I have a lot of divisive and sales experience in life sciences/healthcare tech and want to transition into consulting. Can someone work on cases but also contribute to bringing in new business?”

Yeah, I mean, we would love that. We’re constantly looking for new clients and new opportunities.

As I mentioned earlier, once you get to the manager level and above, I don’t think there are formal sales expectations. But to the extent that you can contribute to the sales process, that’s a big value-add.

If you can strengthen our chance to win, or broaden the range of opportunities we’re exposed to in the market — those are all positives.

Absolutely.

Seth is asking:

“Do you have any goals, or can you share any goals, around headcount — specifically for manager, senior manager, and post- or pre-MBA positions?”

Well, that’s a tough one. I don’t know if I know the answer off the top of my head.

No worries — we can follow up and get folks an answer if the Stax recruiting team is able to.

Darren, what I’m hearing is that the firm is small, so you all really need a great fit. You’re not just looking for warm bodies — you’re looking for people who can help build the organization. But we’re not talking hundreds of hires — more like a handful, right?

Yeah, exactly. I didn’t want to be beholden to specific numbers if I put them out there. But we’re constantly looking for good people.

That might mean there isn’t an active job posting, but if we think you're a great fit and would add value to the practice, we’ll absolutely consider you. We’re often sold out and don’t always have the capacity, so to the extent that we find strong fits, we’re always open to hiring — within reason, of course.

Hey Jay, can I weigh in a little bit here?

We’re getting a good number of questions in the chat. It’s not that I don’t love them — I just want to make sure you all get this.

Darren, feel free to jump in if you agree — but I think a lot of people are asking, “Is this good experience?” or “Would this background work at Stax?”

I want to flip that perspective. You should come in with the confidence that you have something to bring.

Darren’s here today to share what they’re doing and what they’re looking for — but part of being in a firm the size of Stax, with fast-paced projects, is sales.

You’ve got to think about what’s great about your experience, why it matters, and how you’re going to be a great fit to help build the firm — not just asking, “Am I the right fit?”

I get the heart behind the question — you don’t want to waste time networking or applying if it’s not going to go anywhere. But sometimes we take too humble of an approach, when in factit’s your job to tell your story — to explain how intellectually curious you are, how hard-working you are, and the analytical capabilities you bring to the table.

If you’re the right fit from that perspective, Stax will find the place for you.

Darren, am I on the right track there?

Because I think we could spend 10 minutes going back and forth with “yes” or “no” answers — but I think almost everything is probably a yes, depending on how you position it.

I think that’s great advice. And I wouldn’t want to advocate for a shotgun approach, but if you’re looking at a role you’re interested in — and this is broader than just Stax — I’d recommend thinking about your elevator pitch. If you had two minutes to pitch yourself, what would you say?

If you can tell a compelling story and have something to offer, then maybe it’s a good fit. If you don’t know what that answer is — or need someone else to tell you — then that’s a harder sell, I think.

Yeah, I love it, Jay.

I know there are a couple of other questions like that, but I just wanted to blanket this for everyone asking “Am I a fit — yes or no?”

If you don’t know the answer to that, it’s part of why we did this call — to hear and extrapolate from the things Darren shared about what they’re looking for, characteristics-wise.

Are you curious? Do you like fast-paced projects? Are you willing to learn anything? Do you work well in teams? Do you have analytical capabilities?

A lot of this isn’t just what’s on your resume — it’s what you’re going to do with the experience you already have.

It’s good stuff.

Cool — we’ve got a direct question to me that I thought was a good one.

Darren, earlier in the conversation, you mentioned that you met with — I believe it was Jayson, the CEO — and were drawn to the vision and what Stax is building. Can you elaborate a bit more on that? What specifically stood out to you?

Yeah. I think what he described really aligned with what I had talked about earlier — the things I liked about the company.

It was his vision for creating a flat organization, for building community at the local office level, and for making Stax an employer of choice — a place people want to work, where they enjoy coming in every day, and where we’re delivering great work to clients.

It’s not that complex of a formula, but executing on it can be difficult. And for me, coming in not exactly at the ground level, but still early enough to help reinforce and shape that vision — that’s what really compelled me.

Amazing.

All right, important question…

This one is from me — really, really important.

I'll be in Chicago next week along with Jenny Rae. You mentioned Pequod's as a pizza spot. Is that the spot, or are there any other places we definitely need to check out for some thin-slice Chicago pizza?

It is — it’s the local secret. Pequod’s is great, so I would recommend that for sure. That’s in Lincoln Park.

Then there's another place on the South Side called Vito & Nick’s. That’s also that kind of tavern, thin-crust style that I really like.

So those are my two favorites in Chicago.

I love it, I love it.

Darren, can I close out the call with a great question I got privately in the chat?

Should people reach out to you, or someone else internally, if they’re interested in opportunities? What’s your advice for the best next step for folks who’ve self-qualified and said, “Yeah, I think this is what I’m looking for”?

Yeah. I think the best way to start that process is to reach out to our recruiting team and introduce yourself that way. That’s what they’re doing day in and day out — making sure people don’t get lost in the shuffle.

I think that’s the best way to formalize your candidacy. So, generally speaking, that’s probably the best first step.

Amazing.

We’ll make sure we include the relevant links and emails when we share the recording with everyone.

Cool.

All right, Jenny Rae?

Well, I think we can land the plane.

Awesome.

Thank you so much, Darren, for coming on. Stax is an incredibly impressive firm. We’re so excited to share a little more under the hood about what’s happening.

Your experience is fascinating. I grew up west of Philly too — in Lancaster, PA. But we were kind of in between the Baltimore teams and the Philly teams. I spent a lot of time watching the Orioles — I’m old enough that Cal Ripken was still playing when I was growing up.

But anyhow — it’s fun to connect and hear your background. And now I’m going to have to try the pizza.

So, other than the great things about Stax, I feel like we got a lot out of this time together. Thank you so much.

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