My recommendation (as someone who has worked and managed in both small start-ups and large companies): -- Follow your boss' lead. It's his company. He has a se

My recommendation (as someone who has worked and managed in both small start-ups and large companies): -- Follow your boss' lead. It's his company. He has a sense for how he wants to stage-manage it, and you should let him do that, as long as he is still your boss and especially if you respect him and care about his opinion. -- For anyone whom you care about, make sure that you have their contact info (if it's a small team, I presume you already know everyone's phone numbers, FB logins, Twitter handles, etc). Reach out to them next week after you know he's made the announcement and suggest getting together for a beer. If there's any mis-information, you can set the story straight. If they're like, "dude, wtf, why u just skip out?" then you can tell them that the boss asked you not to disclose it. -- if the founder is going to bad-mouth you, there's nothing to stop him from doing it the day after you leave anyway -- or he would have called the meeting today, not invited you, and sent you home at lunchtime. So stop worrying about something you can't control and roll with it.