4 ms·

It's not all black and white, at least from my experience A similar thing to what you described happened at a software company where I used to work at, culture

by enlyth 3y ago

It's not all black and white, at least from my experience A similar thing to what you described happened at a software company where I used to work at, culture destroyed, many people let go. I will name and shame the PE firm - it was Hg Capital However currently, I've been at a company for a few years who is owned by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, and it's a completely different story. The culture is great and hasn't changed at all

curiousllama 3y ago
It REALLY matters what kind of PE you’re talking about. Bought by a growth equity fund? Probably fine. Bought as part of a roll up? Probably screwed. PE is like tech: similar tools, but very different firms.
- chiph 3y ago
  A previous firm I worked at was bought as part of a roll-up (market segment consolidation). If you're the firm that they're rolling all their acquisitions into, that's great & exciting. If you're one of the roll-ees, not so much. They bought us not for our technology but our customer base. They intended to convert them all to their other firm's product. Little did they know that a lot of our customers had left the other firm for us because we treated them better.. So what happened is in addition to the back office staff & sales staff being laid off, they laid off the developers & testers too (they kept a few managers for a year for continuity). I realized this when the folks they sent to town refused to go to lunch with us in an rather awkward moment.
  - SNosTrAnDbLe 3y ago
    That is funny as the exact thing happened in my startup as well (we were one of the roll-ees) We got some suits sent by the PE after the funding round.They politely said that they had other plans when we invited them for lunch.
rcoveson 3y ago
Morgan Stanley Capital Partners: The middle-market private equity platform that cares.
lisasays 3y ago
I will name and shame the PE firm - it was Hg Capital. Always appreciated and very helpful. Nothing in this comments suggest that it deserves any downvotes.

by enlyth 3y ago

curiousllama 3y ago

It REALLY matters what kind of PE you’re talking about. Bought by a growth equity fund? Probably fine. Bought as part of a roll up? Probably screwed. PE is like tech: similar tools, but very different firms.

chiph 3y ago
A previous firm I worked at was bought as part of a roll-up (market segment consolidation). If you're the firm that they're rolling all their acquisitions into, that's great & exciting. If you're one of the roll-ees, not so much. They bought us not for our technology but our customer base. They intended to convert them all to their other firm's product. Little did they know that a lot of our customers had left the other firm for us because we treated them better.. So what happened is in addition to the back office staff & sales staff being laid off, they laid off the developers & testers too (they kept a few managers for a year for continuity). I realized this when the folks they sent to town refused to go to lunch with us in an rather awkward moment.
- SNosTrAnDbLe 3y ago
  That is funny as the exact thing happened in my startup as well (we were one of the roll-ees) We got some suits sent by the PE after the funding round.They politely said that they had other plans when we invited them for lunch.

rcoveson 3y ago

Morgan Stanley Capital Partners: The middle-market private equity platform that cares.

lisasays 3y ago

I will name and shame the PE firm - it was Hg Capital. Always appreciated and very helpful. Nothing in this comments suggest that it deserves any downvotes.