Austin Rosenthal, BBA ’00, pursued a lucrative career in finance for 20 years, first working on Wall Street as an investment banker, then helping to redesign European retirement systems alongside a Nobel Prize-winning economist while living overseas in London. He attributes much of this success to the educational opportunities he received at the McCombs Business School,  retaining as much as he could from his intermediate accounting courses. Then in 2021, Austin left the world of finance to start his own media company, Social Musings LLC, whose mission is to entertain, inspire and help others achieve more fulfillment in their life. We reached out to Austin to learn more about his entrepreneurial career shift, his time at McCombs, and the advice he would give to new graduates and fellow alumni who hope to make similar moves in their careers.

Please talk about your experience as a student here at McCombs. Why you came here, groups you were involved with, favorite class/teacher, etc.

I am originally from Dallas and chose UT-Austin to pursue a career in the music business as a psychology major.  After a few internships in music during my freshman year, I made the decision that business had a higher correlation between hard work and success. I was able to transfer into the business school, eventually choosing finance as my major and joining the University Finance Association.

I love learning, and I could tell that my professors were passionate about the subjects they taught.  My favorite professors were Doug Devidal in Accounting, Regina Hughes in Finance, August Petersen in Real Estate Finance, and Mark Baker in Business Law.

Furthermore, the career center at McCombs played a vital role in helping me not only obtain my first internship in finance but also then prepare me for my grueling Wall Street interview schedule.

How did your educational experience change you or prepare you for your career?

I can honestly say that my time at McCombs and achieving a 4.0 overall GPA at UT-Austin was THE most important factor in the success of my career. When I arrived in Austin, I was an average student who had a vague idea of what he wanted in life. By the time I graduated, I was an exceptional student who was about to launch a successful career on Wall Street.

When I first arrived on Wall Street, my training class was 90% comprised of Ivy League graduates.  However, the fact I knew financial accounting at an intimate level (thank you Professor Devidal and Intermediate Accounting, the hardest class I have ever taken) instantly put me ahead of my peers who only had liberal arts degrees. Considering much of a junior investment banker’s responsibilities include the ability to project a company’s financial statements in Excel, I was at a distinct advantage right away. This head start led me to being named the top-ranked IB Analyst in my first-year class and my career was off to the races.

What are some notable aspects of your education has stuck with you over the years?

You might laugh but the ability to pore through an annual report and really analyze the footnotes has served me well in my career time and time again. While working with a Nobel Prize-winning economist and another world-renowned pension finance professor on Wall Street, the two of them would consistently be amazed at my ability to find and analyze the pension footnote of major corporations.

However, it was not just the finance and accounting courses that benefited my career.  I held several stints in corporate marketing departments and also managed people for the majority of the time in my career.  The marketing and management classes I took at UT helped me in those areas.

Please provide a brief summary of your career path since graduating.

The summer before my senior year at McCombs I worked as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst at JPMorgan in New York and was awarded a full-time position at the end of the summer. Upon graduation, I spent three and a half years as a junior investment banker at JPMorgan then joined some ex-JPMorgan senior investment bankers and the Nobel Prize-winning economist at a start-up investment bank.

I ended up running the London office and creating one of continental Europe’s first American-style 401k plans. Afterwards, I was the Director of Innovation at Lincoln Financial Group in Philadelphia, really serving as a venture capitalist for external and internal investments at the firm. I spent the final eleven years of my finance career back here in Austin at Dimensional Fund Advisors, one of the top mutual fund firms in the world and one with deep academic ties.

Please talk about your current line of work, what inspired it, and what keeps you going.

One year ago, I decided to start my own media company, Social Musings LLC, whose mission is to entertain, inspire and help others achieve more fulfillment in their life.  While I loved my finance career, especially during my time on Wall Street, the pandemic really opened my eyes to the fact that life is short and that I need to do something I truly love.  After a lot of soul-searching during COVID, I found that I experience joy when I am creating content, performing my creations and helping others, and I was able to create my own dream job that combined all of these things.

I also have a large following on LinkedIn, many of whom message me asking for advice, and I try to spend a few hours a week mentoring college students and new professionals interested in careers in finance, business and/or entrepreneurship.

Being an Austin, Texas-based entrepreneur is incredibly rewarding.  Here in Austin we are surrounded by some of the most intelligent, creative, and fun people in the world, and I am always amazed at the different career paths others have chosen.

What are you most proud of in your career so far?

My 4.0 at UT, working on Wall Street with a Nobel Prize winner and then starting my own company are my proudest accomplishments.

Has your career played out the way you expected? If not, what caused the shift?

ABSOLUTELY NOT. Yes, my goal as a finance major was to work on Wall Street as an investment banker, and I did that.  However, I remember the two groups at JPMorgan I had ZERO interest in at the time were insurance and technology. As my career progressed, I ended up being a pension expert, working at an insurance company and then starting my own digital media company. Go figure.

My career path should be a prime example of setting an intention and working hard but also retaining flexibility. You never know where your career will lead, but a diverse set of opportunities will arise if you are open to them.

What advice can you give to new BBA graduates?

You already are in the upper echelon by way of your McCombs education.  However, you should be very intentional in the management of your career path.  Maintain a regular, scheduled dialogue with your manager and peers.  Search out and cultivate a diverse set of mentors who can help you.  Work hard but be flexible and never close yourself off to opportunity.

How have you personally benefitted from being a part of the alumni network? Are there any alumni you still keep in touch with, or work with?

When I arrived on Wall Street, I was shocked at how many Longhorns had ended up in investment banking. In fact, one of my Managing Directors was a Longhorn. I remember searching out the Texas Exes in New York City and watching the TX-OU games at a bar in Manhattan along with my fellow alumni.

I still am close to many of my former finance classmates at McCombs, and I am blessed to be able to live in Austin, Texas, where I can drive 15 minutes and be on campus to attend a lecture, tour the Ransom Center or root for the Longhorns at a sporting event.

What are your goals for the future, career-wise, in your personal life, and/or in relation to McCombs?

My New Year’s Resolution for 2022 was to level up at everything I do: my writing on the Social Musings by Austin website, my music, and my Apple Podcast. I feel like I have been successful thus far in achieving my goal, and I am in negotiations with a media outlet out of Hollywood to join them as a content creator for their platform, so I feel like the sky is the limit.  As I have written on my website, I feel like there has never been a better time to be both a digital creator and entrepreneur.

Additionally, I would be honored to give back to the McCombs community in any variety of ways.

Any other community involvement, volunteering, hobbies, or tidbits you’d like to share?

I love supporting arts and culture here in Austin, and I am an avid reader and philosopher. Maybe someday I will go back to UT and get a second degree.