Ever notice how the narrative around exits only tells half the story? Here's what actually happens: a founder negotiates a deal with a staggered payout structure—some cash upfront, the rest vesting over multiple years. Sounds decent on paper. But then the new ownership goes aggressive with leverage, piling debt onto the balance sheet to juice returns. A lawsuit hits. Suddenly they're filing for bankruptcy to shield themselves from liability. The founder? Yeah, they still walk away with something from that initial payment, but nowhere close to what they'd have kept if they'd stayed the course and scaled organically. The profitable path. The one that doesn't make headlines. Media loves covering the exit announcement—the valuation, the prestige. Nobody's writing about the guy who should've stayed independent and kept building. That's the quiet story most miss.