Leland+ for Investment Banking

How to Make IB Technicals Stick [8/11/2026] (Recording)

Many candidates spend hours reading technical guides but struggle to answer questions when the wording changes or the pressure increases. The problem is often not effort. It is the way they are studying. In this session, we'll cover how to begin preparing for investment banking technical interviews in a way that builds real understanding and recall. We'll discuss what to study first, how the major topics fit together, and how to move from passively reading answers to delivering them clearly out loud. You'll leave with a practical technical-preparation system that you can continue using throughout recruiting. You'll learn how to: - Study technical concepts in the right order - Build a foundation in accounting, valuation, M&A, and LBOs - Replace passive memorization with active recall - Practice answering questions clearly and under pressure - Diagnose gaps instead of repeatedly rereading guides - Create a realistic technical study plan for recruiting

Perfecting Technical Delivery

By mid-January, technical knowledge is a commodity. You and your peers all know the finance. What differentiates candidates at this stage is delivery. Interviews are a structured verbal game with specific mechanics and unwritten rules, and success depends on more than having the right answer. In this session, we’ll decode how interviews are actually evaluated and show you how framing, structure, and communication style signal executive presence and confidence. Moving beyond technical correctness, we’ll focus on the tactics that help strong candidates stand out—how to organize responses for clarity, avoid common delivery pitfalls, and communicate at a level that resonates with senior interviewers. Led by experienced interview coaches who have helped candidates secure offers at top firms, this session will give you practical, immediately applicable tools to turn solid preparation into an offer-winning performance.

Own Your IB Story Before Someone Asks [7/28/2026] (Recording)

Before recruiting begins, you need to be able to explain who you are, why investment banking makes sense for you, and how your experiences fit together. In this session, we'll work through the core pieces of your recruiting package: your resume, your positioning, your "walk me through your resume" response, and your answer to "Why investment banking?" We'll discuss how to translate non-finance experience into a credible banking narrative and avoid the generic answers bankers hear from every candidate. You'll leave with a framework for building a clear, convincing story that you can deliver naturally in coffee chats and interviews. You'll learn how to: - Position your background for investment banking - Structure a strong "walk me through your resume" response - Develop a credible and specific answer to "Why IB?" - Connect your experiences into one coherent narrative - Identify weaknesses in your resume and positioning before recruiting begins

How Candidates Get Cut Early in IB Recruiting [8/4/2026] (Recording)

Investment banking recruiting starts well before the formal interview. Information sessions, outreach emails, coffee chats, and follow-ups may feel informal, but bankers are already evaluating whether they want to move you forward. In this session, we'll break down what happens when recruiting begins and explain the unwritten rules candidates are expected to understand. We'll cover information sessions, coffee chats, outreach, follow-ups, and the small mistakes that can quietly remove candidates from consideration. You'll leave knowing what to expect, how to navigate the early stages of recruiting, and how to make a strong impression without sounding rehearsed or transactional. You'll learn how to: - Understand the recruiting process once school begins - Approach information sessions and bank presentations - Write effective outreach and follow-up messages - Prepare for and lead strong coffee chats - Recognize what bankers are evaluating during informal interactions - Avoid the mistakes that get candidates cut before interviews

Why Banking, Why This Firm, Why This Group [9/1/2026] (Recording)

Swap the word banking for consulting. If your answer still holds, you have not answered the question. That is the test, and most answers fail it. Fast paced, smart people, steep learning curve. All true, all interchangeable, all heard forty times this month by the person across the table. Three questions, scored separately, proved three different ways. Why banking is proved by your past. Why this firm is proved by your conversations. Why this group is proved at desk level, by someone who actually sits on it. One structure underneath all three. Claim, reason, evidence, impact. Sixty seconds. The evidence slot is the one that decides the answer, and it is the only slot you cannot write at your desk. That is why this session sits here in the run and not at the start. You do not walk into the chats with these answers. You walk out with them. What we'll cover: - The swap test and the name swap test, and how to run both on the answer you already have - Claim, reason, evidence, impact, and why evidence is the only slot with lead time - Where firm evidence comes from: named conversations, one deal known properly, platform, direct experience - Coverage versus product, and why a group answer that never names an industry is not an answer - How the bar moves at a bulge bracket versus an elite boutique versus a regional office - The failure that costs the most, which is being specific enough to be interesting and thin enough to collapse on the follow up Want to solidify your whys and be done with them? I run a popular 90-minute session where we go deep and construct a strong, personal story. Book a free 15-minute intro to learn more. Part 5 of Coffee Chat Ready, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

Your Investment Banking Resume [8/18/2026] (Recording)

A banker reads your resume in about ten seconds. The format is solved. One page, three sections, one line per bullet, strongest first. Most people know some version of that and still spend weeks iterating, because they are trying to be completely understood on the page. That is the most common mistake and it is the one people refuse to fix. Your resume is a conversation starter and a first impression, not a full account of you. We will go through the whole page. What each section is for, how to rank what goes inside it, and the bullet formula that makes a line worth reading. Then the words to cut, starting with the ones nobody says out loud in an interview. What we'll cover: - Why ten seconds decides the format, and what that rules out - The three sections, what belongs in each, and which one should be longest - The bullet formula: strong verb, specific work, scale, result - Resume-ese and what to say instead, including why "reported" beats "researched" - Putting a number in every bullet, and how to round it - The most common mistake, which is over-explaining Want to solidify your resume and be done with it? Send it over and I will pass back a full rewrite, at a discount for anyone here. Book a free 15-minute intro to learn more. Part 1 of Coffee Chat Ready, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

IB Technicals 6: LBOs and Market Questions [10/1/2026] (Recording)

LBOs come last because they need everything before them, and the paper LBO is the question that proves it. An LBO is buying a rental property with a huge mortgage. Minimal equity down, the tenant's rent services the debt, sell the building later. Once that clicks, the mechanics follow: how much debt a business can carry, what a sponsor is, the three levers of return, and the lookup table that turns a multiple of money into an IRR. Two times in five years is about fifteen percent. Three times is about twenty-five. Then we do a paper LBO out loud, the way you would in the room. The last block of the series is the payoff. Where markets are right now, pitch me a stock, and tell me about a deal you have been following. One structure for each, and how a company, a deal, and a trend become one answer. What we'll cover: - What an LBO is, who the sponsor is, and what the goal of the deal actually is - The three levers of return, and why multiple expansion is the one you do not get credit for - IRR versus multiple of money, and the lookup table to memorize - The paper LBO, worked out loud - Why a strategic buyer can often pay more than a financial sponsor - Where are markets right now, pitch me a stock, and the deal you have been following Want the whole run checked in one sitting? I run a 90-minute mock interview, a full simulation and then rapid-fire technicals on whatever broke. Book a free 15-minute intro to see if it is a good fit. Part 6 of IB Technicals, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each night covers how the concept works and, more importantly, how to actually answer the questions on it, with the stories and details behind them. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

IB Technicals 3: Enterprise Value and Valuation [9/22/2026] (Recording)

Enterprise value is what you write the check for when you buy the whole business. Equity value is the slice that belongs to shareholders. Every valuation question runs through the bridge between the two. This session builds that vocabulary first: why you add debt and subtract cash, what diluted shares are, and which price tag pairs with which earnings line. Then the three ways bankers get to a number. Trading comps, which price a business the way a house gets priced, against what similar ones are selling for. Precedent transactions, which do the same with deals that actually closed, control premium included. And the DCF, which values the cash flows directly and gets its own night. What we'll cover: - What enterprise value is, why you add debt and subtract cash, and the Morgan Stanley superday question that tests whether you understand it - Equity value, diluted shares, and the treasury stock method - What a multiple is, and the pairing rule: above the interest line it is enterprise value, below it equity value - The three valuation methods and how they rank - How to pick a comp set, and the apple farm in the orange farm's peer group - Precedent transactions, and what a football field is Want to be done guessing at valuation questions? I run a 90-minute mock interview, a full simulation and then rapid-fire technicals on whatever broke. Book a free 15-minute intro to see if it is a good fit. Part 3 of IB Technicals, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each night covers how the concept works and, more importantly, how to actually answer the questions on it, with the stories and details behind them. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

Coffee Chats: A Primer [8/25/2026] (Recording)

A coffee chat is a fifteen to thirty minute conversation with a banker. Casual in tone, evaluative in function. Treat it as an interview no matter how it was framed. That is the part people get wrong in both directions. Some show up stiff and over-rehearsed. Others hear "coffee" and show up with nothing. What is actually happening is simpler. First rounds go to candidates someone inside is pushing, and that push starts on this call. You are on it to do four things. Collect intelligence you will reuse later, turn the banker into an ally, form your own read on the group, and leave with the name of the next person to talk to. What we'll cover: - What a coffee chat is for, and the four things you are there to do - Why the first five minutes carry more weight than the rest - Tuning your questions to an analyst versus a VP or an MD - The two kinds of questions that land badly, and what to ask instead - What kills a call, including the topics to stay off - Ending on the ask, and how one chat becomes the next two Want to walk into these calls actually ready? Check out my Coffee Chat Ready package. Book a free 15-minute intro to see if it is a good fit. Part 3 of Coffee Chat Ready, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

Tell Me About Yourself [8/27/2026] (Recording)

It is the one answer in the entire interview you can build completely before you walk in. The interviewer is asking for a story. The resume already lists what you did. What it cannot show is why those lines sit next to each other. The structure is HERO. Setup, challenge, turning point, resolution, future path. Sixty to ninety seconds, then stop. The turning point has to be an actual event, a class, a person, a job, because a named source is checkable and a vague one is not. Two things people get wrong in the other direction. If the prompt is literally walk me through your resume, that answer is chronological and it tracks the page in front of them, so do not force a story arc onto it. And do not answer why banking inside this one. Those are scored separately. Land the arc, name the target, stop talking. What we'll cover: - The five HERO slots in order, and what belongs in each - Why the turning point has to be an event and not a feeling - The four things being graded: structure, character, sourcing, delivery - What changes when the prompt is walk me through your resume instead - Why answering why banking inside this one costs you both answers - How to drill it: slots on paper, page away, say it out loud, record it Want to solidify your tell me about yourself and be done with it? I run a popular 90-minute session where we go deep and construct a strong, personal story. Book a free 15-minute intro to learn more. Part 4 of Coffee Chat Ready, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

How to Get the Coffee Chat [8/20/2026] (Recording)

Nobody replies. That is the whole problem, and it is usually fixable. This is the outreach primer. Before you send anything, look at what the banker sees when your request lands. A LinkedIn with no photo and no school reads as someone there is no reason to take seriously, and the request gets declined. No resume in the thread and they may not bother taking the chance on you. Then the email itself. Who you are, one specific reason you want this person, three windows, resume attached. Under five sentences. The windows have rules people break constantly, and breaking one of them costs you the contact. What we'll cover: - Which channel to use first, and why the school or club pipeline beats a cold email - What a banker sees before deciding whether to take your call - The five sentence email, and the one specific reason that has to be in it - The rules for offering times, including the one that burns the contact - When to follow up, and the line between persistence and pestering - The referral email, and why it is the easiest one you will ever send Have a tricky networking situation? Book a free 15-minute intro and we will talk it through. Part 2 of Coffee Chat Ready, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

The Deal Discussion Playbook [8/10/2026] (Recording)

After this session, you will know how to navigate compensation conversations, respond to exploding offers, and push back on deal terms without jeopardizing an offer. This playbook covers the specific moments in the negotiation process where candidates most commonly leave money on the table or signal the wrong things to a hiring team. Attending live means you can bring your actual situation, whether you have a competing offer, a timeline conflict, or a number that feels off, and get a direct read on how to handle it. A recording cannot replicate that exchange. The coach works inside these conversations regularly and will share the patterns and language that move outcomes in the right direction.

IB Technicals 2: Cash Flow and the Cost of Capital [9/15/2026] (Recording)

Accounting is transaction language. One number changes, and the question is whether you can walk it through all three statements. The version that works in the room is short. Jump to pre-tax income, tax-effect it, land on net income, add back what is not cash, and finish on a balance sheet that balances. Once that walk is automatic, the harder versions stop being new questions: depreciation, a purchase with cash, a sale on credit, working capital going up while the income statement looks fine. The second half of the night is the cost of money, because valuation cannot start without it. Time value, what a discount rate is, why debt is cheaper than equity and why a company still does not fund itself entirely with debt, and what beta is doing inside the cost of equity. What we'll cover: - The $10 of depreciation walk, and the pre-tax income shortcut that keeps it short - Why depreciation gets added back, and the tax shield underneath it - Buying a car with cash, and selling $100 of product on credit - What working capital is, and why an increase consumes cash - EBITDA to unlevered free cash flow, and why EBITDA is not cash - Time value of money, cost of debt versus cost of equity, and why you unlever and relever beta Want to know how you hold up when the question changes shape? I run a 90-minute mock interview, a full simulation and then rapid-fire technicals on whatever broke. Book a free 15-minute intro to see if it is a good fit. Part 2 of IB Technicals, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each night covers how the concept works and, more importantly, how to actually answer the questions on it, with the stories and details behind them. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

IB Technicals 5: M&A and Accretion Dilution [9/29/2026] (Recording)

M&A applies valuation to a live decision: why a company buys another, what it pays, and what the deal does to the buyer. Building is slow and buying is fast. The catch is that the buyer pays a premium, usually twenty to forty percent over where the target already trades, so the deal has to create more value than the market already priced in. Synergies are the argument for that, and cost synergies are the only ones bankers count on. The question that carries the most interview volume in this block is accretion and dilution, and it comes down to one comparison: the earnings you are buying against the cost of the financing you used to buy them. Then the mechanics underneath, starting with goodwill, which appears the moment you pay more than book value. What we'll cover: - Why companies acquire, and why synergies have to exceed the premium - Cost synergies versus revenue synergies, and why bankers only count on one of them - Cash, debt, or stock: which is most accretive, and why - The P/E arbitrage rule, and the earnings yield trick that answers it in your head - Goodwill, and what happens when you write up assets for book but not for tax - The sell-side process, and selling to a sponsor versus a strategic Want to be done with the M&A block? I run a 90-minute mock interview, a full simulation and then rapid-fire technicals on whatever broke. Book a free 15-minute intro to see if it is a good fit. Part 5 of IB Technicals, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each night covers how the concept works and, more importantly, how to actually answer the questions on it, with the stories and details behind them. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

Preparing now for IB Summer Recruiting

IB summer recruiting moves quickly, and the strongest candidates are the ones who prepare with intention well before applications open. The groundwork you lay now can dramatically shape your outcomes later. In this session, we’ll cover how to sharpen your technical skills, craft a resume that stands out, network strategically, and understand what banks are truly looking for in summer analysts. If you want to enter recruiting season focused, confident, and ready to compete at the highest level, this is where it starts.

How to Stand Out in IB Recruiting

Investment banking recruiting is intensely competitive, and standing out requires more than strong grades and technical skills. This session breaks down how banks actually evaluate candidates, what differentiates top applicants, and how to position your background to signal readiness from day one. You’ll learn how to refine your resume, tell a compelling story, network strategically, and avoid common mistakes that quietly hurt your chances.

IB Technicals 4: The DCF [9/24/2026] (Recording)

Walk me through a DCF is one of the most repeated questions in a banking interview, and the four step answer takes about sixty seconds. Delivering it is half the work. The other half is the follow-ups, because that is where the interviewer finds out whether you understand it or memorized it. Why free cash flow and not net income. Why WACC and not the cost of equity. Why the terminal value is sixty to eighty percent of the answer. What happens to the whole thing when interest rates rise. We build it from the pieces the first three sessions put down. Project unlevered free cash flow, calculate a terminal value two ways, discount at WACC, bridge from enterprise value to a share price. Then the follow-ups banks actually ask, including the two that sound like accounting questions and are really DCF questions. What we'll cover: - The four step walkthrough, and where to slow down on purpose - Why you discount free cash flow and not earnings, and the formula from EBIT - WACC, and why unlevered cash flows have to be discounted at a blended rate - Terminal value both ways, why it drives most of the answer, and why growth can never exceed WACC - When a DCF is the wrong tool - D&A goes up by $10, and interest rates rise. What happens to your valuation? Want to run this in front of someone before it counts? I run a 90-minute mock interview, a full simulation and then rapid-fire technicals on whatever broke. Book a free 15-minute intro to see if it is a good fit. Part 4 of IB Technicals, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each night covers how the concept works and, more importantly, how to actually answer the questions on it, with the stories and details behind them. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

How to Capitalize on a Coffee Chat [9/3/2026] (Recording)

Most people send a thank you note and never speak to that person again. The note was never the point. First rounds go to candidates someone inside is pushing, and one conversation almost never does that on its own. Most of the people I know who ended up at JP Morgan ran more than twenty of these. So the work is in what happens after. Write down what stuck the moment you hang up, because it fades faster than you think and the thank you note needs one specific detail in it. Then the ask, which is the last two minutes of the call and the entire reason the next two chats exist. Then the check in, which most people skip, and which is why they are not on anyone's radar in January. The other thing you are collecting is your own answers. The line you use in a February interview is usually something a banker volunteered in September, and you only have it if you wrote it down. What we'll cover: - What to write down the moment the call ends, and why the note needs one specific detail - The thank you email inside twenty four hours, and what actually earns a reply - Ending on the ask, and how to get the introduction made over email instead of just a name - The referral email, and why it is the easiest one you will ever send - Checking in later with something worth sending, and how to still be on a radar in January - How many chats per firm is normal, and why boutiques are different Want to get more out of the chats you are already having? Book a free 15-minute intro and we will talk through your networking situation. Part 6 of Coffee Chat Ready, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.

IB Technicals 1: Accounting and the Three Statements [9/10/2026] (Recording)

Accounting is where investment banking technicals start, and it is the block everything else is built on. If you cannot trace a line item through the three statements, valuation stays abstract, M&A math floats free of its meaning, and LBO mechanics never click. So this session is the foundation: what each statement does, how they connect, and how to walk a change through all three out loud without losing the thread. This series is the foundational run. Six sessions that build the fundamental intuition, in the order the concepts should be learned. Each night covers how the concept works and, more importantly, how to actually answer the questions on it: the real questions banks ask, on screen, answered the way I would in the room, with the stories and details behind them. What we'll cover: - What an investment bank actually does, and the money basics the statements assume: stocks, bonds, and who gets paid first in a bankruptcy - What each statement is for, and the three lines that connect them - The order to walk them in, and why opening on the balance sheet falls apart - The pre-tax income shortcut, and why you say those words out loud instead of EBT - Why net income is not cash - A customer pays $100 upfront for a product you deliver next year. Walk me through the three statements. Want to find out where your technicals actually stand? I run a 90-minute mock interview, a full simulation and then rapid-fire technicals on whatever broke. Book a free 15-minute intro to see if it is a good fit. Part 1 of IB Technicals, a six part run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each one stands alone, so jump in anywhere. I'm the founder of OFFERGOBLIN and ex-Centerview tech.