Where founders go
when they leave.

Most founders from 2018 or later are still running the company they started. Go one batch year older and most have moved on. It takes about 8 years for half of a class to leave.

Almost nobody quits in year one. Ten years out, about a third are left. Twenty years out, almost none. Every batch slides down the same curve.

After an acquihire, 70% of founders join the buyer. Half of them are gone within 24 months, right as the standard two-year vest clears. They stay exactly as long as the paperwork makes them.

A full acquisition works the other way. Only 38% of founders join, but the ones who do stay a median of 37 months, more than a year longer.

A year after a shutdown, 20.5% of founders have already started something new. A year after an acquisition, only 11.4% have. Most of the rest are still vesting at the buyer.

Founders whose companies died either go again quickly or not at all. Acquired founders start slow and keep founding well past the two-year mark, once the vest stops holding them.