Every deal starts as a blank deck and a data room full of unanswered questions. On the TMT team, I help turn that into a story investors can act on — teasers, IMs, and pitch materials built on CCA and CTA analyses that hold up under scrutiny. The other half of the job is less glamorous: long-lists, market research, and data rooms that have to be right before anyone else sees them.

The other side of the table from where I usually sit — not building the case for a deal, but deciding whether someone else's case holds up. I helped the investment team stress-test fund strategies and portfolio companies before committee ever saw them, then wrote the memos and DD reports that made the argument one way or the other. It's where I learned what real conviction looks like when actual capital is on the line.

Started this on evenings and weekends, alongside a full-time analyst role — sourcing manufacturers, building the brand from nothing, and figuring out sales channels by trial and error. What began as a side project became something a global spirits brand wanted to put its name next to: a partnership with Bruichladdich, part of Rémy Cointreau. Still running it.

National statistics are only as good as the data underneath them — and someone has to catch it when a bank's reporting doesn't add up. That was my job in the securities holdings statistics department: chasing down discrepancies with the institutions that filed them, and building Python, Excel, and Power BI tools so the next validation cycle would be faster than the last.

Where it started. Seven rotations through the machinery of a central bank — FX markets one semester, banking supervision the next, then credit analysis, securities statistics, vault operations. Less a single job than a crash course in how money actually moves through a system, department by department.