But isn't that the issue? The energy tends to come from the founders so how do you reliably transition away from the founders, whether it is without full company integration or not?
Regardless of whether you get acquired or not, if you build a company that won't persist without your individual presence, the process is still incomplete. (And what you really have is a vehicle for your individual talent.) Any company that's supposed to last more than a few years must be build so that it can handle key people leaving, because that's what people always do in the long term, one way or the other.
This reminds me of some quoted wisdom I heard back in the 80's about management styles and Star Trek: the difference between Picard and Kirk is that when Picard was away or taken over by an alien or what have you, the bridge crew could cope with the situation, while Kirk's absence meant that the Enterprise was utterly helpless.
If your team can't fight Romulans when you're down on the planet, you've failed as a manager, was the moral of the story.
I have to agree with hartror. If the founders leave then what are you left with? It sounds great in theory that a team can keep the motivation and innovation coming but ultimately that's the job of the founders - and founders aren't easily replaced.
Could it possibly be that some of the employees are special people? There is no magic bullet. If the right people are in a position where the can succeed, they will. If you don't have the right people, it doesn't matter what scheme you employee, it won't work.
That is my point doki. The OP I replied to, said that once the founder left - not even a good team would be able to survive.
However, Reddit had some innovative founders, who came up with a new concept, then got acquired and eventually the founders left. However, due to its great team (and passionate community) it has continued to grow and become something amazing.
Therefore neither getting acquired or the founders leaving caused a negative effect.
"If the founders leave then what are you left with?"
By this logic, the maximum life of any company is about 40 years.
Walmart and ExxonMobil are two examples of companies that became gargantuan long after their founders had left. In fact, of the Fortune 5000, I would bet the majority no longer employ their founders.
Also, the issue isn't that the founders leave; it's that the energy does. Founders are always going to leave.