All too familiar a story, and the advice at the end ("know your acquirer") is pointless. Simply put, the acquirer isn't ruining your company, they are ruining their company. The contract you signed and the money you exchanged gives them that right. It is foolish to expect that you will get a big payday and will get to keep setting the company direction and calling the shots as you like indefinitely.
Here's better advice – the moment you sign the contract start counting the days left in your retention agreement and quit right after.
> the advice at the end ("know your acquirer") is pointless
Agree. It's impossible to really know your acquirer unless they are a bigger publicly traded company. Every acquirer puts their best foot forward, talks about how awesome their culture is, and how they are going to do all the things to help you grow faster. IME, it never works that way.
> the moment you sign the contract start counting the days left in your retention agreement and quit right after.
That's a bit too cynical for me. But, you do need to answer some questions, do you want to be an employee? Are you ok not being the one in charge? If you got a decent payout in the acquisition, you have a lot of freedom in the new job if you want to try to keep things going.
One other thing to note, is that many times companies can be spun back out. I know multiple founders who have had this happen.
Corollary: don't keep minority ownership. I know a company owner who sold to a PE firm but kept a minority stake and a board seat, so he actually got to watch them wreck "his" company.
Here's better advice – the moment you sign the contract start counting the days left in your retention agreement and quit right after.