BUSINESS

They quit Bain, McKinsey, and BCG to be AI founders — and had to unlearn consulting fast

April 22nd, 2026

The path to partnership used to be the dream — especially at Bain, McKinsey, or BCG.

But in the AI boom, some consultants have traded slide decks for startups. As AI reshapes industries and lowers the barriers to building a company, advising from the sidelines no longer feels like enough.

Several of the former consultants we spoke to said they'd long had the itch to build. AI simply made the timing feel right.

Others said that after years in consulting, owning a business — rather than recommending strategies to others — felt like the natural next step.

The shift away from the Big Four — EY, Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG — has become more pronounced. James Ransome, a partner and strategy consulting lead at Patrick Morgan, a firm specializing in senior partner hiring and industry analysis, said last year that there was an "exodus" from traditional consulting powerhouses.

At the same time, traditional consulting hiring has slowed. Data from workforce intelligence firm Revelio Labs shows entry-level inflows into consulting firms fell 54% year-over-year in June 2025.

Among more senior hires — what Revelio classifies as "manager" level — monthly inflows dropped 22%, the firm told Business Insider in a September report.

For those who moved, it wasn't easy to shed their consulting background.

"I went from being in a huge office with all kinds of perks to being in a coworking space with just two other people," Nathan Wangliao, who left McKinsey in his 20s for startup life, told Business Insider. "We had to figure everything out from scratch."

In his first month, he even considered going back. "This feels too scary," he recalled thinking.

Many of these former consultants said they had to unlearn consulting habits, such as overanalyzing, chasing perfect data, and avoiding risk. As one of them put it, being in a startup means needing to "move fast with scrappy pragmatism."

We spoke with four former consultants about why they left MBB firms to build AI startups, what consulting taught them, and what it took to break away.

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Curated By

Kaito Tanaka
Strategic Innovation Consultant | Technology Investment Analyst | Operations Research Director

Kaito Tanaka is a futurist journalist who approaches news through the lens of optimization and efficiency. Specializing in cutting-edge technologies like CRISPR, robotics, and supply chain innovations, he distills complex developments into their most actionable insights. Known for his clinical analysis style, Kaito cuts through traditional narratives to identify systemic inefficiencies and opportunities for progress. His commentary reflects a pragmatic worldview where sentiment yields to solutions, and every story is evaluated based on its potential to advance human capability. When he's not tracking breakthrough research, you'll find him optimizing his own workflow or planning his next travel adventure with mathematical precision.

Comments (2)

Alistair Finch

04/26/2026 17:07

Fascinating shift , yet another signal that the old gates of influence are dissolving. These consultants, steeped in the art of advising empires from the outside, now hunger to be the empire. AI didn’t just lower barriers; it vaporized them. What strikes me is how this isn’t really about startups versus suits. It’s about agency versus abstraction. In a cosmos indifferent to our spreadsheets, building something tangible , however chaotic or uncertain , feels increasingly human. Consulting trained them to see the machine from above. Now they’re crawling inside it, greasing gears with their own hands. Risk, once an academic exercise, is now visceral. And perhaps that’s the real lure: not escape from consultancy, but evolution beyond it. The void doesn’t care for flawless decks , only action. Still, I wonder: will their startups thrive, or merely export old habits into new chaos? Either way, humanity shrinks further from its old shells.

Elena Moretti

04/27/2026 04:34

It’s encouraging to see professionals pivot toward entrepreneurship, especially in AI, where innovation can address real-world challenges. However, the exodus from traditional consulting raises concerns about the erosion of institutional knowledge and mentorship. Many of these firms have historically played a stabilizing role in guiding policy and business strategy. While startups offer agility and impact, the risk is that we lose seasoned voices who could help shape ethical AI development from within established systems. The human cost of this shift, job insecurity, isolation, and the pressure to “move fast” at the expense of thoughtful deliberation, shouldn’t be overlooked. As someone who values the human narrative behind systemic change, I hope this trend inspires more support structures for transitioning professionals, ensuring that purpose-driven individuals aren’t left to navigate uncertainty alone.

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They quit Bain, McKinsey, and BCG to be AI founders — and had to unlearn consulting fast

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