Founders should not have to choose between elite financial advice and an advisor who understands what it means to build a company.
That belief is at the center of Embarc Advisors.
Embarc Advisors was founded with two goals: To bring the caliber of strategic transaction advice associated with firms like McKinsey and Goldman Sachs to startups and middle-market companies and to build an advisory firm where talented people genuinely enjoy their work.
Both goals came directly from founder Jay Jung’s experience as an entrepreneur, an advisor, an investment banker, and the son of a founder whose company experienced both the upside and the downside of a market cycle.
Bringing Institutional-Quality Advice to Startups and Middle Market Businesses
Large companies have long had access to sophisticated strategic and financial advice. They can hire leading consulting firms to help shape their growth plans and global investment banks to manage complex transactions.
Most founder-led businesses do not have the same access.
This is especially true for startups and middle-market companies. Their decisions may be just as consequential, but they are often served by advisors who focus narrowly on a transaction, lack operating context, or apply a process designed for much larger companies.
Embarc Advisors was created to close that gap.
Jay saw the problem from several perspectives.
Early in his career, he co-founded a network security startup shortly after the dot-com bust. The company raised capital from SoftBank and other venture investors, but ultimately shut down a few years later.
The experience was difficult, but formative. Jay learned firsthand that founders make critical decisions with imperfect information, limited resources, and enormous personal responsibility. He also saw how much the quality and timing of financial advice can affect the range of possible outcomes.
He later joined McKinsey & Company, where he developed a foundation in management, strategy, growth, and corporate finance. The work taught him how to evaluate a business beyond its immediate financial results. He learned to consider its competitive position, operating model, growth opportunities, and long-term strategic choices.
But strategy was only one part of the equation.
At Goldman Sachs, Jay gained the transaction execution experience that is essential when a company raises capital, makes an acquisition, or prepares for a sale. He worked on more than $50 billion of transactions across technology, industrials, and natural resources.
McKinsey provided the strategic lens. Goldman provided the execution discipline.
After leaving Goldman, Jay founded Embarc Advisors to work with bootstrapped and venture-backed entrepreneurs. These companies often faced sophisticated financial decisions without access to the level of advice available to larger corporations. There was a meaningful opportunity to help.
A Personal Reason for Building Embarc
The motivation was not only professional.
Jay’s father began his career as an academic before becoming a biotechnology entrepreneur. He built his company through the biotech boom and later experienced the consequences when the market turned.
Jay sometimes jokes that if Embarc had existed to advise his father, his own life might look very different today.
There is humor in the comment, but also a serious point.
For founders, financial decisions are rarely abstract. The outcome of a financing, acquisition, or sale can shape the future of the company, its employees, and the founder’s family. A strong outcome can create opportunities for decades. A poorly managed process can leave significant value unrealized.
Embarc exists to help founders approach those moments with better information, stronger preparation, and an advisor whose interests are aligned with theirs.
The objective is not simply to complete a transaction. It is to help founders make sound decisions and achieve the best outcome available to them.
Building a Different Kind of Advisory Firm
Embarc’s second goal is internal but equally important: to create a corporate finance advisory firm where people enjoy their work.
The idea began with a simple conversation.
Years ago, Jay’s wife finished a call with colleagues at the large technology company where she worked. Jay jokingly asked whether everyone on her team actually enjoyed their jobs.
“Of course,” she replied. “Why else would we be doing it?”
Many investment bankers would answer that question differently.
Traditional investment banking can offer exceptional training and exposure, but the industry is also known for long hours, repetitive work, and persistent frustration among junior team members. Jay believed it was possible to preserve the rigor of the profession without accepting every part of its traditional culture.
Embarc was designed to be differentiated not only in how it serves clients, but also in how it operates as a workplace.
That means building around four principles.
Exceptional Colleagues
The quality of an advisory firm begins with its people. Embarc looks for team members who are thoughtful, capable, collaborative, and committed to doing excellent work.
Strong colleagues improve the client experience, but they also make the work itself more rewarding.
Engaging, Intellectually Stimulating Work
Advisory work should require judgment, curiosity, and problem-solving.
Embarc actively looks for ways to reduce unnecessary repetition and give team members meaningful exposure to clients, strategic questions, and important decisions. The goal is not to eliminate demanding work. It is to make sure that effort is directed toward work that matters.
Continuous Learning and Career Development
The best professionals continue to develop throughout their careers.
Embarc is committed to helping team members deepen their technical skills, strengthen their judgment, take on greater responsibility, and build careers with long-term value.
A Better Approach to Work-Life Balance
Corporate finance will always involve deadlines, high expectations, and periods of intense work. Embarc does not pretend otherwise.
But demanding work does not need to be managed carelessly.
The firm aims to improve on the traditional investment banking model through better planning, thoughtful staffing, clear communication, and respect for life outside of work.
The Standard Embarc Is Working Toward
Neither part of Embarc’s mission is easy.
Delivering institutional-quality advice to founder-led businesses requires experience, discipline, and a willingness to understand each company on its own terms.
Building a firm where people enjoy their work requires just as much attention. Culture is not created through statements alone. It is shaped by the people a firm hires, the projects it accepts, the standards it sets, and the decisions its leaders make every day.
Embarc continues to pursue both goals because they reinforce each other: Talented, engaged professionals do better work. Founders who receive better advice are more prepared to navigate the decisions that can shape their companies, their employees, and their futures.
