• Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I don’t think this is as dramatic as a lot of you are saying it is. It works or it doesn’t. This is what VC should do

    • dantheclamman@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 days ago

      Have you ever used a chatbot for technical support? It’s infuriating. Yet the industry is barreling in that direction before the tech is ready, customers be damned. This is not what VC should do.

      • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Have you ever had to use an indifferent college student that barely speaks English for technical support

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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      3 days ago

      Then you need to look into how private equity works.

      They buy mature companies, often with borrowed capital, and then place the debt on the purchased company. They essentially make companies take on a massive loan to buy themselves from themselves, except the private equity firm ends up the owner.

      The company then goes into overdrive trying to pay off the debt, while the firm makes changes intended to make the company “more efficient”. All while paying themselves “consulting fees” and “bonuses” for stepping in and “helping” the company do better.

      This usually means mass layoffs, dumping assets, paycuts, restructuring…

      Best case scenario, the company was already failing, and now it fails faster.

      Worst case… The company was doing perfectly fine, making a sustainable living for its employees. And then it gets purchased by a private equity firm.

      Suddenly everything is on fire. Not a single penny can go unpiched, workplace comfort unsacrificed, or employee unoverworked. And that that is the new norm, is the good ending.

      Private equity makes money by killing the golden goose, and then finding another. And then another. And then another.

      • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I don’t know much about private equity. So I appreciate the explanation. But that all just sounds like modern business to me. It’s a product of who we are and what we allow.

        • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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          2 days ago

          thats whats happening to red lobster, SEARS was done by scummy parasitic ceo of sears, toysrus,kmart?,etc

        • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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          2 days ago

          What do you mean “but”?

          This doesn’t produce anything. It removes jobs instead of creating them. And by the end there is one less company in the system.

          I wrote in response to you saying this is what they “should” be doing. That it would either work, or not.

          But this is working sustainable businesses being butchered for their value on the meat market, rather than operated long term.

          It most certainly isn’t what they “should” be doing.

          If this is the best way to make money, the rich will continue to do it instead of starting new companies. That is not going to have pleasant long-term effects on the world.