Private Equity Exec Mark Patterson Gets Super Candid About His Best and Worst Deals

After 40 years on Wall Street you rack up some wins and some losses. In an interview with Skiddy von Stade, CEO of finance career site OneWire, Mark Patterson - co-founder of distressed debt private equity firm MatlinPatterson - is candid about both.

It's a rare thing.

MatlinPatterson started as the Global Distressed Securities Group at Credit Suisse in 1994. In 2002 the firm was spun out.

Patterson explains, "[Our firm] was independently spun out with a letter to all the LPs allowing them to walk away from the fund if they didn't want to stay. Six million out of 2.2 billion chose to walk…Everybody stayed."

They stayed for the good - like taking 1-800 Flowers public - and the bad. It is his insight into that latter that makes Patterson's interview especially worth a watch.

For example, there was the time MatlinPatterson started invested in an automotive parts company from 2002 to 2004.

"You think tha GM and Ford and Chrysler are going to be fair to you as a couple hundred million or a billion dollar supplier, you're an idiot," said Patterson. "They're going to bully you. They're going to crush you. Compassion is not what led them to be giant companies and anybody weak got crushed."

That's real talk.

Watch the full interview above and see the complete Open Door series on YouTube.