From Code to Capital: A Conversation with Malcolm Barclay ’24 on Software and Investment Banking
Written on March 22nd , 2026 by Naser
Photo credit: Malcolm Barclay.
This post is part of a spotlight series highlighting the work of exceptional students and alumni. The series aims to facilitate knowledge sharing on topics such as internships, jobs, entrepreneurship, and graduate school.
Today, I have the pleasure of talking to Malcolm Barclay ‘24 about his experience as an Investment Banking Analyst at Houlihan Lokey.
Naser: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m Malcolm Barclay, a Colby ’24 graduate from Marblehead, MA, currently living in New York City. At Colby, I majored in Economics with a concentration in Financial Markets and I minored in Computer Science. Outside of work I like to ski, play pickup soccer and basketball, and check out new neighborhoods, restaurants, and bars around NYC.
Naser: Can you tell us about your work as an Investment Banking Analyst at Houlihan Lokey? What does a typical day look like for you?
I’ll first provide some context of how my job is related to CS since it’s a little more removed from coding than most Colby CS graduate jobs. Houlihan Lokey is an investment bank that has many different groups which specialize in different industries (technology vs consumer vs healthcare, etc.) and deal types (raising capital, debt, acquisitions, etc.). I’m in the Software M&A (mergers & acquisitions) group where we help founders sell their software businesses to private equity firms or larger technology companies. We get paid a % of the transaction size, only upon completion of the deal, so our job is to get the client the biggest valuation possible. This job requires accounting knowledge and valuation skills, but outside of that, it’s very software focused. The main workflows we provide for the sale process are 1) a 100-slide(ish) PowerPoint on the company (everything from in-depth product slides, to customer-level data, to detailed market analysis) 2) an extensive financial model projecting each line item in the company’s financial statement out 3-5 years based on different assumptions related to product, sales, market trends, etc. 3) we introduce them to and manage conversations with potential buyers. To build these materials, we get access to all of the client’s data, from codebase to customer-level files, to projected salaries, you name it. We meet with the client’s management team constantly to educate ourselves on the business and build the most accurate materials, while also making sure we show them in the best light (at the end of the day these materials are part of one large sales motion). For example, we will have 3-hour calls with the CTO and usually some technology consultants like Crosslake, to understand concepts like tech debt, platform consolidation, product limitations, and other areas where a basis of software knowledge is very useful. Lastly, this job is also very tied to the public and private markets, so concepts like AI disruption in software, how well public software companies are doing, etc. is all relevant as well (on the side I also work on research reports on these things which we publish on our website, ex: my most recent report on AI in Vertical Software: https://hl.com/insights/ai-in-vertical-software-market-updates/). What I love about this job is I am usually working on 3 deals (and 2 pitches) at once so instead of writing code for one company, I get to learn about 5 companies at once and help founders sell their companies, which is one of the biggest days of their lives! Banking requires notoriously grueling hours, so these are the things that keep me going. A typical day for me involves sitting in on calls with the management team, working in PowerPoint and Excel, and joking around with the other analysts!
Naser: What technologies do you use? And what technologies/languages do you recommend learning today?
I never realized how much I’d use my Colby CS knowledge in Excel, but you should see some of the giant Nested IFs we write! We also use different toolkits in Excel to run multi-factor regressions, sort messy customer data (which sometimes requires SQL), run retention analysis and cohort analysis, etc. Outside of that, the only other time I see actual code is when we need to understand the source code, run penetration tests, and receive materials from the CTO. In these cases, I’ve seen many different languages, and I’m not actually writing the code myself, but instead I’m learning about the technical limitations of the product that we need to be aware of in case a potential buyer asks about it. We also use 3 major AI tools (a lot and with no shame!): ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
Naser: How did your academic studies at Colby prepare you for your current job? And what specific courses did you found most helpful?
I honestly use my CS minor just as much, if not more than, my Economics major in my day-to-day as explained above. Specifically, I think CS 231: Data Structures and Algorithms and CS251: Data Analysis and Visualization were the two CS classes that really gave me a good foundation for the skills I use daily. I also found Accounting very helpful, but what was most valuable about my Colby education was “learning how to learn.” I think liberal arts forces us to quickly pick up new materials and subjects, which is very useful when trying to learn about these software companies in such great detail over a very short period of time.
Naser: Can you tell us about the job search and interview process? And how did you prepare for them?
I applied to ~50 investment banking internships for my junior summer, landed one in San Francisco where I was doing similar work for FT Partners but I was focused on payments / financial technology companies (versus general software which is what I cover now). I accepted a full-time offer with FT Partners in NYC, where I worked for a year, before switching to Houlihan Lokey last summer. For these interviews, it’s a lot of technical questions around accounting, valuation, and software metrics like ARR, Net Revenue Retention, LTV/CAC, etc.
Naser: What tips would you give students interested in joining a company like Houlihan Lokey as Investment Banking Analyst in the future?
My biggest tip is to cast a wide net when applying to investment banking internships, at the end of the day it’s a numbers game and once you get your foot in the door somewhere, you can always transfer to a different bank, industry group, etc. I think comfort with accounting and valuation principles is key for getting any of these jobs, but true intellectual curiosity about the industry you cover goes a long way.
Naser: What’s your favorite memory from Colby?
I have some amazing memories of skiing with friends at Sugarloaf on bluebird Saturdays, outdoor parties on Runnals Hill and behind Heights, and studying abroad in London.
Naser: What do you like most about CS at Colby?
I really liked my teachers, shoutout Dr. Al Madi, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Doore, and Dr. Yi, who were always available to provide the support I needed outside of class hours made me feel like no question could be dumb. As a department, I really like how accepting, and even encouraging, they are of students who want to learn CS as a secondary to their core focus area. I think CS can be an intimidating field to get started in, so this goes a long way and is increasingly beneficial as more fields require CS skills.
