The earnout cliff nobody warns you about

The earnout cliff nobody warns you about

Word is the founder of a beloved managed-WP brand is approaching the end of a three-year earnout, and the culture that made the host worth paying for is walking out the door with them.

Here's the mechanism: earnouts lock founders in just long enough to hit acquisition targets. Once that cliff passes, the original engineers and support leads who carried the brand's reputation tend to leave within two quarters. The acquirer keeps the logo, loses the soul.

Unconfirmed timing, but a source close to the deal puts the cliff inside this year.

Watch this: track the host's engineering blog. When the bylines you trusted go quiet, the drift has begun.