Junior BD Onboarding¶
Overview¶
How first-year sourcing and BD professionals should structure their first 90 days on the job — practical advice for accelerating the learning curve when entering a firm without prior investing experience.
Key Perspectives¶
- Ryan Murphy frames the first 90 days as a rep-collection exercise: "Try to get as many reps as possible in situations that aren't super consequential." He recommends sitting in on calls across all of the firm's investment verticals — at Norwest that spans growth products and services, enterprise, and healthcare — and looking for adjacencies between them. The goal isn't to contribute but to "be a fly on the wall" and "build my own archetype as an investor." (Ep. 22)
Themes¶
Cross-vertical exposure¶
Ryan deliberately sits in on calls outside his core growth products and services focus. He looks for pattern recognition: "What are the adjacencies? Like if healthcare is talking about something, what's the adjacency in growth products and services?"
The sponge mindset¶
See Sponge Mindset for the underlying framework. Ryan's approach: enter every room with humility, assess what each colleague does well, and actively try to replicate those skills.
Finding patient mentors¶
Ryan emphasizes identifying a few people willing to answer basic questions without judgment — "the questions you might feel embarrassed to ask other people."
Building personal credibility via team credibility¶
Junior professionals lack personal track records. Ryan's solution: "hype up" the credibility of senior team members on calls, positioning yourself as the gateway to them rather than claiming authority you don't yet have.
Related Concepts¶
- Sponge Mindset — Ryan's operating framework for the first 90 days
- Consistency of Personality — The long-term habit that compounds over many reps
Episode Coverage¶
| Episode | Guest | Angle |
|---|---|---|
| Ep. 22 | Ryan Murphy | First 90 days advice from a first-year sourcing associate |