Related, does anyone think that founders believe the “rosy pictures promised to everyone”? Like you said, there’s a ton of reasons for founders to want to sell, even ignoring the existence of investors who would obviously like a payout. Founders should known better than anyone exactly what they’re agreeing to with an acquisition, but that doesn’t remove the personal benefit.
More generally, I never really hear stories of founders stopping their work at a company that isn’t after an acquisition or IPO. The alternative is the founder going “I am retiring and leaving this person in charge, but maintain my ownership of the company and will be taking 20% of the future profit in exchange for my 10 years building up this company.” Maybe it happens and we just never hear about it, but without some alternative for founders to cash out at the end it’s not surprising that selling the company off is what happens.
More generally, I never really hear stories of founders stopping their work at a company that isn’t after an acquisition or IPO. The alternative is the founder going “I am retiring and leaving this person in charge, but maintain my ownership of the company and will be taking 20% of the future profit in exchange for my 10 years building up this company.” Maybe it happens and we just never hear about it, but without some alternative for founders to cash out at the end it’s not surprising that selling the company off is what happens.