Natalia Kovalenko

I started in M&A at Morgan Stanley and left for strategic finance rather than private equity. At Deliveroo I rebuilt the forward-looking subscription model. Then I crossed to the other side of the table, into early-stage VC at Triple Point - and then chose to come back to operating. I'm now Strategic Finance Lead at Plum, a UK fintech, where I run strategic finance, fundraising and investor relations. So I haven't just made one exit. I've made the move, tried the alternative, and come back deliberately - which means I can tell you what these paths actually feel like from the inside rather than how they look from a recruiter's deck. I've also been on the hiring side, running the process for a strategic finance hire on my own team, so I know what moves a candidate through a process versus what analysts assume matters. I work with analysts and associates who know they don't want the PE conveyor belt but can't picture what the alternative looks like in practice. How to position an M&A background for strategic finance, VC or an operating role. What those jobs actually involve day to day. How to answer "why are you leaving banking" without sounding lost. And when to move, versus when to wait. I write about all of this at Off Track By Design, without the highlight reel.