Mark Suster, the author of the blog
In his blog post What I Hate About Selling Companies, Mark Suster brings up an interesting idea about the family dynamic that accompanies the development of firms by venture capitalists. Suster, a venture capitalist, is constantly being assigned to work with a select team from his fund’s most recently acquired companies, working with the team until the time that the fund sells the company to another firm. Together, Suster and the team find ways to increase the profitability and efficiency of the company. However, as time progresses, Suster no longer considers these people workers, but instead they become his friends, his family. As Suster writes, once his fund sells off the company, he cannot help but feel a sense of remorse over their diverting paths. Little does he know, this fundamental concept has the ability to change how people and companies view business ethics and conduct as a whole. In the current state, firms are mostly interested in profits, with Suster remarking how his “job is to return money to LPs [limited partners, essentially investors].” The bottom line is all that counts, which, in the past, has caused people to act in immoral, illegal, and downright devious ways in order to fulfill their prescribed goals. Yet, by Suster’s personal connection to the company and its
Upfront Ventures, the venture capital firm where Suster works
workers, he has eliminated the impersonal aspect that is quickly becoming the norm of business. Venture capitalists have been known to buy companies and sell them off for parts, taking no regard to the workers and employees who would be left unemployed due to this process. Suster’s close relationship with these employees would make this betrayal less likely, as few people would knowingly and deliberately double-cross their friends, their family. By adding a face and a personality to the workers, he is making these employees real, and making himself empathetic to the prospect of their possible unemployment. Should all investment banks and hedge funds operate in this manner, the archetype of corporate America would quickly turn on its head, becoming a beacon for moral labor practices. In its truest form, the paradigm of hedge funds and venture capitalists will shift, no longer being regarded as the greedy bankers looking to make a quick profit, but instead an ethical profession that sees employees as more than just assets.
Suster, Mark. “What I Hate About Selling Companies.” Web log post. Both Sides of the Table. Mark Suster, 28 Sept. 2014. Web. 4 Oct. 2014.
“Both Sides of the Table.” Both Sides of the Table. Mark Suster, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.