Comment by giraffe_lady
3 hours ago
> Hard-working founders should be able to cash out
Why? Operating a successful business should be remunerative on its own, or else it's not successful. Owners who don't want to do it anymore can let it become worker owned. If they don't want it, it can dissolve. What else do you need? The very concept that the end of a successful business is a big payday for its creator is itself the poison here. There is no end just another workday, success is ongoing not final. This is natural and correct.
When my parents started farming they had about a half dozen large loans for the base farm, land, equipment, buildings and an operating loan to purchase seeds and other inputs in the spring.
When they retired they didn't have any money in the bank besides the proceeds from their final harvest, but all their loans were paid off. That's where the profits went -- paying off the loans.
The farm was their retirement savings. They sold it off for high six figures, and that's what funded their frugal but comfortable retirement.
The neighbor's son bought the farm; I hope he's pretty much paid off the loan he took out to buy it.
But that's how it is supposed to be. You "just" need to have a system that incentives banks and small entrepreneurs to take on that risk, and makes it not a good investment for PE.
What makes that system rare is that there's a buyer who knows the business available. The new owner needs to understand the industry and convince the bank that they know how to run it as a successful business. PE do their homework on the business before they buy it and don't have to convince the bank that they know what they are talking about. The neighbors son isn't usually an expert on the your business.
I generally agree, but this point of view shifts the blame from one big, evil, soulless PE firm to thousands of small shops owners that just wants to "retire comfortably". It's not easy to sell because one can easily sees oneself as that small owner, but not as a big evil PE.
It's the same with gentrified zones: yes there are some dark patterns going on as well, but mainly is previous, smaller owners that want to make big bucks by selling to someone with money from outside rather than someone local like themselves for less money.
Sorry you're right, I should have been more careful with the phrasing there. The structures, risks, and incentives that make business owners believe and act like this are real, and that's the poison I was pointing at.
I'm not trying to put all of the blame on individuals responding to the pressures being applied to them. But neither am I accepting their abdication of the responsibility to act with honor and courage in the face of those pressures.
I think you're right to zoom in on that point.
My guess is owner-operator selflessness is a key ingredient in a lot of beloved small businesses. I don't know for certain that the winning personality for getting a business off the ground on all the bad days is the same one that raises rates proportionally with their success.
So it becomes all-or-nothing. It's my friends and neighbors when I'm working, when I sell-out it's purely business. No in-between.
I agree. It's a major problem that people who are usually, not always, already very well off decide to do a final "fuck you I got mine" and sell their business to a company they damn well know is going to strip it for all it's worth.