

What happens when your startup is acquired? - ddodge
http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2011/09/acquisition-success-depends-on-founders.html
Success depends on founders and acquirers sharing vision and control
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byoung2
_Most acquisition failures can be tied directly to the founders leaving too
soon._

I think that it often works in reverse: the acquisition fails, _causing_ the
founders to leave too soon. I don't doubt that some founders see the $$$ and
can't wait to leave, but there are lots of founders who genuinely want to
thrive at the new company. Sometimes the acquired startup doesn't get the
attention or resources it needs to successfully integrate into the new
company, or maybe it gets put on a back burner. That may cause a founder to
want to leave.

~~~
ddodge
Exactly, it does work both ways. It would be interesting to know the
details/motivations on why Ev Williams (Blogger), Dennis Crowley (Dodgeball)
and Max Levchin (Slide) left Google. Yet, Andy Rubin (Android) and Chad Hurley
(YouTube) stayed on and were very successful. Same parent company, different
results.

~~~
byoung2
According to Crowley:

 _It’s no real secret that Google wasn’t supporting dodgeball the way we
expected. The whole experience was incredibly frustrating for us – especially
as we couldn’t convince them that dodgeball was worth engineering resources,
leaving us to watch as other startups got to innovate in the mobile + social
space. And while it was a tough decision (and really disappointing) to walk
away from dodgeball, I’m actually looking forward to getting to work on other
projects again._

(<http://gigaom.com/2007/04/15/dodgeball-founder-quits-google/>)

At a brief glance, it appears that when you get a lot of autonomy and
resources (YouTube and Android), you want to stay. When you feel like Google
is ignoring you, you want to leave. That's the way it looks to me.

