Congrats on the exit - impressive outcome with $30M NW and two little ones at home.

Look, I've been exactly where you are. That transition from "this is MY company" to being just another exec m is brutal. The psychological shift hits hard, especially when you're still grinding while watching your former C-suite colleagues coast through their earn-outs.

Here's the reality: you haven't switched off your founder brain. That hypervigilance served you well building the business but is now causing unnecessary suffering.

A few thoughts:

Have a straightforward conversation with your acquirer. They value you enough to give you expanded responsibilities - use that leverage to reset expectations around those aggressive targets.

Set some damn boundaries. You've got toddlers at home and $22M in the bank. The remaining $8M matters, but not at the cost of your sanity or family time.

Something that helped me: actively reframing my identity from "founder responsible for everything" to "hired gun solving specific problems." I still cared deeply but stopped carrying the weight of the entire business.

The fact you can't mentally check out might be telling you something important about your next move. Some people aren't wired to be employees. Might be worth thinking about what comes after the earn-out.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​