[MarkusAllen]

Releasing an almost-3,000-page expose on private equity this week.

It's hard to argue against those who say private equity ruins everything. It's astonishing. And massively depressing.

You can download for free when you search the 'net for Founderstowne.

[packeted]

I'm looking forward to reading your book! Part of my expose of PE in the veterinary business can be found at https://www.privateequityvet.org

[MarkusAllen]

Wish I had your knowledge before writing...

Pages in my book related to how private-equity screwed over the vet industry: 250. 442. 1001.

I think people will be blown away that the company that makes M&Ms owns a ton of vets.

[Imustaskforhelp]

Wait so are you doing the journalistic action? I can't wait for this to drop. Please give me more details if possible.

Massive respects to your journalism, I have a lot of questions regarding this tho, namely how long did it take you to build this expose and where are you gonna drop it because I searched net for Founderstowne but I didn't find anything special, are they the VC fund you are gonna expose?

[MarkusAllen]

Can I post a direct link here... don't want to be accused of spam?

I expose just about everyone as a "roman a clef" (a work of "fiction":>).

I'm 58 years old. Entrepreneurial builder. Disgusted by VC/PE. Been writing this book since 1987.

[FloorEgg]

After my first startup failed (didn't get PM fit) I got a bit obsessed with how to do good market research for innovation. Discovery interviews, JTBD, etc.

During my journey I took a beat and pointed my new skills at VCs. I interviewed a few dozen VCs trying to understand what they were trying to get done and what mattered to them, but with a bit of a bias trying to gauge whether they wanted to better predict market demand of their portfolio or prospective investments' products.

What I learned shocked me a bit. The sense I got was that they didn't really care about market demand or building a strong business, they mostly cared if the founder could sell the company up to food chain (series a, b, c etc).

Roughly speaking: "I don't care what value my portfolio companies create, I care about marking up my book so I can increase my take".

I don't know how much this had to do with ZIRP, but it really soured me to the VC industry. I've been committed to bootstrapping my companies ever since.

[CamelCaseName]

Sure, why not, share your work!

Also, the two links in your profile do not work

[MarkusAllen]

Just updated. Thanks for the heads up.

[MarkusAllen]

The direct link is: https://www.Founderstowne.com

[defrost]

It's not a peak HN submit time, that said: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46572285

[MarkusAllen]

I see an empty post.

[defrost]

It's been submitted and will remain empty of comments until a HN user comments.

I see a post with 13 points (upvotes / positive reactions) and [flagged] (meaning the title alone upset a few people given there's been no time to read the content yet).

As with all HN submissions, YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary

[like_any_other]

Please name names when you do.

[MarkusAllen]

I name names. (Mostly.)

When I get sued (and I will), I'll employ "roman a clef" and slightly fictionalize the names.

By the way, VCs are not exactly any better than PE firms.

I've tried to reach out Marc Andreesen to see if he can 100% pivot to building instead of extracting. I'm encouraged by his latest fund.

[fc417fc802]

Just a heads up. Oftentimes legally speaking a facade will only work if you haven't yet been found at fault.

And even if you know for a fact that you aren't at fault, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and all that. The legal process isn't exactly cheap.