Hello, I'm Alan Morningstar.

Welcome to my corner of the internet. I'm a full-time MBA student based in New York City (which I consider to be home). I am an aspiring product manager.

As a person, my guiding principle is to be relentlessly engaged with the world. To me, this has meant constantly learning and exploring new topics in-depth with genuine interest and curiosity. When learning, I love to synthesize and structure what I have learned into simple frameworks or mental models—understanding the essential components of any given problem space as well as subtle complexities that experts in a field would consider more thoughtfully.

This site is where I share a bit about myself off the resume. I eventually hope to add more extracurriculars, thoughts, and things I've found interesting. Feel free to explore and get in touch if you'd like to connect or to grab my current resume.

About Me

I'm originally from San Luis Obispo, California—or SLO (pronounced like "slow")—a small town about halfway between LA and SF on the coast (I always tell people if you've driven South on the iconic Highway 1 segment through Big Sur, my hometown is where you popped up at the end near Hearst Castle). I didn't originally plan on going to college in my hometown, but three things drew me to Cal Poly:

  1. The financial aid package was too good to pass up (I had nearly a full-ride via grants and scholarships)
  2. Outcome-centered, highly-focused education through "learn-by-doing" on the quarter system would give me concrete skills to succeed in finance (also, all majors at Cal Poly are declared upon admission, meaning I spent all four years digging deep on finance)
  3. STEM focus and ethos of the university—my undergrad degree is a bachelor of science; Cal Poly's core curriculum is more heavily skewed towards math and science than other universities— I also just liked being around engineers who built cool things

In college, I studied finance and statistics, and had a nagging desire to work in data science to be at the nexus of tech and strategy. Throughout all four years, I worked 20-40 hours a week in food service and as a teaching assistant to afford basic expenses. Ultimately, I set my eyes on a career in finance, and went to work at PwC as a Deals Advisory Consultant in San Francisco from 2017-2020.

2017-2020 — PwC Deals Advisory

My role at clients:

  • Consultant: held workshops with pre-IPO senior management, delivered PowerPoint decks to Boards of Directors outlining key priorities, recommendations, and considerations in preparing to go public
  • Financial Analyst: built financial models for complex items like amortization and stock-based compensation, as well as divestiture allocations and go-forward model

My role within PwC:

  • Strategist / Product Marketer: supported re-branding of PwC IPO services, including (1) competitive analysis (2) account prioritization and engagement strategy and (3) development of GTM decks / web marketing
  • Improver: built tools in Alteryx, as well as internal templates used by thousands of users

In 2021 I moved to New York City. I changed groups to "Capital Markets Advisory - Equity", an elite team of only 4-5 people focused on providing investment-banking advice to pre-IPO clients. The team did not "build the book" or execute the sale of clients' shares, but was purely focused on advising on that process. Rather than taking a percentage of IPO fundraising, we were paid on a fixed-fee basis.

2021-2023 — PwC Capital Markets Advisory

My role at clients:

  • Investment Banker: performed valuation and modeling (comps, 3-statement, go-forward financial model for sell-side and earnings guidance), drafting the "box" and business section of the S-1, providing guidance on which hedge-funds to target in fundraising
  • Investment Bank Consultant: determined which banks and lawyers should run the IPO, and how much they should be paid
  • Investor Relations Consultant: drafted presentations and documents, e.g., quarterly earnings, investor days, non-deal roadshows

My role within PwC:

  • Product Manager: managed markets-focused dashboards and APIs used across the firm, led development of several key internal tools
  • FP&A Manager: led budget planning and monthly / quarterly reporting processes
  • Strategist: drove special projects (dotted-line to PwC Board of Directors)

2023-Present — The Decision to Pivot via Business School

In the summer of 2023, as the IPO market hit record lows of activity, I decided it was time to step back. I felt that I'd spent enough time in the advisor role, and knew I didn't want to be an investor. I spent my time traveling, running, visiting family, re-reading The Power Broker, and studying for the GRE and CFA Level 2 exams. In the process, I was soul-searching to figure out my next career move.

I ultimately pursued a full-time MBA at NYU Stern on full merit scholarship to build a long-term network in NYC and focus on exploring interests in product management, film business, and sustainability.