Would You Recommend This Field To Others? 

After years of experience — and a firsthand understanding of the ins and outs of your industry — would you recommend this field to others?

It’s an interesting field, but also very challenging. Any field that deals with trying to make money will be up against huge competition from other companies that have huge resources, thousands of doctorate degrees, and infinite budgets. It’s tough to try and carve out a space for yourself. It boils down to always researching, finding new directions, and keeping your ears open for the new opportunities that are available. As business founder, I’ve had to perform in many capacities in this field — math, strategy, development, research, accounting, legal. Some of the roles, like the actual trading, are high pressure and some of the other roles are more of a typical nine-to-five. There’s no question that if someone is interested in the hedge-fund field, there’s a lot of room to get involved. But it’s definitely not the place for everyone.

—Boruch Dvinsky, founder and CEO at Elaris Technologies and managing partner at Concentus Partners

It’s a field that lets me roll up my sleeves and help lots of different people with lots of different challenges. It’s intellectually challenging, stimulating, and very rewarding to see people who you helped succeed. You literally watch them go from having an idea to running a fully functional, thriving business.

—Yonatan Frankel, start-up consultant and founder of Nucleus