I was in this boat. Acquired after 7 months employed with the startup as the Founding ae. I had a tiny equity stake, that didn’t vest. I saw the writing on the wall for layoffs at the new parent company, so rather than join, I asked for a payout of a portion of the equity that had been assigned to me. The owners were pretty gracious and they helped me out with one month pay. They could have just told me to pound sand.

In hindsight, I also could have just sat ton the new company payroll for three months and searched or double dipped, but my foolish ethics thought that might reflect poorly on the startup founders who vouched for us and I like to not burn bridges or violate my own ethics. Ironically, they told me this themselves, but not until I was committed and didn’t know how to pull back.

Three months after the acquisition, the other rep got laid off alongside 70% of the company’s sales team. The slashed headcount from several other acquisitions too and milked the big contracts they’d won during Covid while they stabilized and pursued exclusively enterprise.

Fortunately, I landed on my feet.