Kevin O'Leary hates private equity

Kevin O’Leary says that he hates private equity – he threw out this comment on Twitter (I am enjoying his tweets). In actual fact, with Kevin's trademark honesty, he hits on the truth.
I can get Kevin’s pain.
Private equity investing ain't for most investors because most people only want to give their money out for a year, and then they want to get it back.

Private equity’s horizon is a far longer arc so there's your first hurdle.

Then investors used to public markets want to be passive investors, putting in money but nothing else. According to his Twitter tweets, Kevin wants to sit on his dock in Muskoka, sipping wine, deciding whether to BBQ ribs or not, and collecting interest on his investments.

Quite right, Kev...don't we all?
Private equity is not the usual asset class or public market vehicle you can pick up or drop overnight. It is for the long term. For investors like Kevin who likes to have his money come home to visit Daddy once in a while, private equity (with its five year investment horizon) is simply too long term.

Yes, I hear you saying that the returns on the initial lump investment will be larger than the public market returns, but private equity investors also put a great deal of effort into building the business too (not as much time for the wine sipping and BBQing). For investors who do not know how to do strategy with the company management team, or do not want to attend board meetings or pick up the phone and help sales – leave private equity alone. You will only get more burnt than Kevin O'Leary's BBQ ribs.
O’Leary’s right – private equity is hard. Funny thing though, I think Kevin would be a great private equity investor as owners would appreciate his candour, his rolodex, his big vision and his energy. Now, with all this talk about ribs, I'm going for lunch.