Where Are They Now? Chicago Booth First Year Reflections with Montgomery Miller

Business school—and Booth in particular—has been an incredible experience. Looking back, I’m amazed by how much I’ve grown and learned in such a short time. Between recruiting, classes, and the constant stream of social and professional events, it’s easy to get caught up in the pace and forget just how transformative the experience really is.

Coming from a government background, Booth provided a crash course into thinking like an operator and investor—how to evaluate businesses, analyze opportunities, and make decisions grounded in data and strategy. Some of my favorite courses included Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition with Professors Brian O’Conner and Mark Agnew, Value Creation in Small Businesses with Professors Dan Cremons and Alex Hodgkin, and Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity with Professor Erik Zwick.

Booth’s flexible curriculum allowed me to tailor my experience to fill skill gaps, specifically building a stronger foundation in finance, investing, and operating. Moreover, I was able to learn extensively from speakers brought on by Booth’s Polsky Center, Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Club (ETA), and Private Equity Club. I even had a chance to join a team for Booth’s New Venture Challenge (Solitude Labs). We placed third in the competition, and I was able to get valuable exposure to life working in an early-stage startup.

Beyond the classroom, I’ve built friendships that I know will last a lifetime and have had the chance to travel extensively, including Booth trips to Whistler and Slovenia with classmates. It’s been both challenging and deeply rewarding, and I’m incredibly grateful for the experience so far. Booth has been truly transformative.

Where did you intern over the summer? Tell us more about how you secured your internship, prepared for the job, and what the overall experience was like.

Coming to Booth, I knew I wanted to use the summer as a learning opportunity to explore several different areas of interest, including investing and business operations. I was able to find internships that allowed me to do just that—starting the summer with a 12-week private equity/ETA internship with M2O (split between operations and investing), and later, a two-week investing internship with Cerralvo Capital.

My internship with M2O was structured as a hybrid program. I spent the first month working with the firm’s investment team, evaluating potential ETA and private equity opportunities. It was my first professional experience in an investor seat and offered invaluable insight into assessing industries, conducting diligence, and structuring transactions.

Following that, I spent eight weeks in a chief-of-staff role at one of M2O’s portfolio companies, AppWrap, where I helped revamp the firm’s go-to-market and performance management processes. Taken together, my internship provided a unique opportunity to pair analytical work as an investor with hands-on operational execution inside a growing business.

To round out the summer, I spent two weeks in Mexico City working with Cerralvo Capital, where I assisted in evaluating several investments in lower-middle market businesses across Latin America and the U.S. It was also a great chance to explore new places—including Los Angeles and Mexico City—while gaining meaningful exposure to investing, operating, and ETA as a career path. 

In my second year, I’m looking forward to many of the things that made my first year at Booth so rewarding—continued learning opportunities, new experiences, and deepening friendships. Professionally, I hope to further round out my business toolkit by taking classes I haven’t yet had the chance to enroll in, such as Private Equity Lab and Commercializing Innovation, while continuing to build meaningful relationships with alumni and classmates who share my interests.

This year, I am also serving as a co-chair for both the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) Club and the Partners Club, which keeps me busy outside the classroom. In my ETA role, I help organize more than two events per week, connecting students with investors and operators across the ETA ecosystem. As Partners Club co-chairs, my wife and I help host events for students and significant others who are navigating the MBA journey together. I was also selected to participate in Booth’s ETA Fellows Program.

Outside the classroom, I plan to continue taking advantage of Booth’s many social opportunities, trips, and community events—while investing time in the relationships I’ve built over the past year. Business school goes by quickly, and if I could offer one piece of advice, it would be to make the most of every experience!