‘People are feeling the real impacts’: influencers are targeting private equity with satire and rage

‘A lot of people were being affected by this rampant rise in costs and wanted to know what was behind it. As it happens, private equity has changed a lot of industry landscapes.’ Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Johnny Hilbrant Partridge kept getting stuck next to the same kind of finance guy at weddings – the one bragging about his family’s full-time nanny and lavish vacations while name-dropping elite club memberships and private schools.

To Partridge, a former fitness instructor, their shameless knack for self-promotion felt ripe for comedy. Using a filter that puts an exaggerated sneer on his face, Partridge donned a puffer vest and created “The PE Guy”, a caricature of the men who work in the private equity industry.