What do you do with golden handcuffs?

Question

Ok gang, high quality problem time for Friday afternoonI spent >12 years building a company with 2 other co-founders and a lot of investor moneyWe just wrapped up a year long process of getting acquired for unicorn $$$I have a two year earn out that is heavily backend weighted, eg about 75% of my total compensation will be in the last year.The money is "guaranteed" but I am responsible for showing up, driving the company integration, etcHere's the rub - I just got finished with my first month of DD, lawyers, compliance meetings, etc.It's clear that the next two years of my life are going to be captive to corporate bull@#!t, bizarre power grabs, etc - all the stuff I've spent my life avoiding like the plague by being an entrepreneurIntegration to the acquirer meant "fitting a square peg into a round hole"I went into this with open eyes, but it is exhausting and demoralizingI am grateful for the opportunity, I am also old, tired, and ready for a break not two more years of toeing the line :)What have others done in similar situations?

JSeymourATL · Accepted Answer

> It's clear that the next two years of my life are going to be captive to corporate bull@#!t, bizarre power grabs, etc…
There’s a process of letting go—-
Stop accepting 2/3rds of your current meeting invites immediately.
Of course, available for high-level consultation, on an as-needed basis.
Direct your focus and energy on to projects that interest you.
If you haven’t already done so, start identifying and mentoring individuals who might replace you in the business. Shift your responsibilities/workload to them now.
Think of yourself as a consigliere, whispering advice in their ears.
Assuming you’ve got good people, in 12 months reduce your time commitment to 1-2 days a week.
Then quietly disappear. Good luck!

PragmaticPulp · Answer

It's only two years. Buckle down and give a good-faith effort to do it right.Be careful about becoming adversarial with the acquirer. I watched one acquired founder lose a lot of money by actively fighting against the new parent company and not really doing his job (e.g. avoided meetings, fomented discontent in his teams, secretly encouraged his team to leave). Any negative comments you make in public or private can be used against you, so refrain from saying anything bad about the parent company in any context, no matter how tempting.

airbreather · Answer

90% of life is just turning up for many people, dog it a bit, be a little less reactive, let go and you might possibly find no adverse outcomes occur.You want to be doing the new owners a favour by tapering off into transition, if anyone says anything just tell them that, it would be no lie.

plasma · Answer

Are you able to hire team members at your new gig to help you do the integration etc?Consider taking a few weeks off too and recharge.

pg_1234 · Answer

Back off - do not be emotionally involved - do the minimum required to get the payout - then take the money and walk away.If you can, hire someone to do the job you don't want ... if you care, pay them well.

What do you do with golden handcuffs?

90% of life is just turning up for many people, dog it a bit, be a little less reactive, let go and you might possibly find no adverse outcomes occur.
You want to be doing the new owners a favour by tapering off into transition, if anyone says anything just tell them that, it would be no lie.

Are you able to hire team members at your new gig to help you do the integration etc?
Consider taking a few weeks off too and recharge.

Back off - do not be emotionally involved - do the minimum required to get the payout - then take the money and walk away.
If you can, hire someone to do the job you don't want ... if you care, pay them well.