> Newer companies like AirBNB and Uber went public at what could be their max market cap valuation of billions so investors wont' get much of a chance to make money from these companies.
Almost all of these companies were massively overvalued by the time they IPO'd. I for one am glad that regular people were not allowed to invest in Theranos or WeWork. Looser restrictions on investing would create even more dodgy company's whose primary goal is to scam retail investors, like what we've seen NFTs.
> Vet clinics, medial practices, engineering firms, etc all use to to thrive on being 20 person shops are now routinely being bought up by PE firms
IMO, this is a symptom and not a cause. Vet clinics and medical practices would be terrible investments if it were sufficiently easy to start new vet clinics and medical practices. Likewise, housing would be a terrible investment if it were sufficiently easy to build more housing.
It's not terribly hard to start a clinic, but it just makes sense to consolidate, and it doesn't make much sense for anyone who's not a vet to start one (because of the relative pricing power of vets). But it's not bad for vets to be able to exit to PE after they have established the clinic.
And after consolidation PE can make better deals with vendors (from pharma to insurance networks to maintenance).
(Of course exorbitant rise in vet costs shows there's room for more vet clinics, but it's mostly a side-effect of a lot of rich people spending a lot on their pets.)
Almost all of these companies were massively overvalued by the time they IPO'd. I for one am glad that regular people were not allowed to invest in Theranos or WeWork. Looser restrictions on investing would create even more dodgy company's whose primary goal is to scam retail investors, like what we've seen NFTs.
> Vet clinics, medial practices, engineering firms, etc all use to to thrive on being 20 person shops are now routinely being bought up by PE firms
IMO, this is a symptom and not a cause. Vet clinics and medical practices would be terrible investments if it were sufficiently easy to start new vet clinics and medical practices. Likewise, housing would be a terrible investment if it were sufficiently easy to build more housing.