But when he graduated, he skipped residency and went to work at the VC firm Lightspeed.Two years after finishing undergrad, Galym Imanbayev headed back to Stanford's campus to begin his medical training — even though he'd already decided he probably didn't want to become a full-time practicing doctor.
For Imanbayev, who also earned an MBA from Stanford while completing med school, his training to become a doctor provided a host of transferable skills that have made him a successful VC. "I lived in these two worlds during undergrad and came to understand that when it comes to economic issues and health issues, you cannot solve one without the other," he said."That evolved my thinking about whatever I decided to do in medicine. I decided it needs to involve structural economic forces as well."
"I knew going back that investing was going to be part of my career at some point, but I didn't know when, or if, I would split my time investing versus practicing medicine," he said."I came into it thinking I would be some sort of hybrid, and Stanford was open to this outcome compared to other schools."
As he neared graduation, Imanbayev weighed his options: heading to residency and eventually practicing medicine, going directly back to VC, or trying to juggle both.