Do not keep silent until after a deal is done, because by then, it will too late to change it. Start talking to the founders now (they will be the ones negotia

Do not keep silent until after a deal is done, because by then, it will too late to change it. Start talking to the founders now (they will be the ones negotiating). Communicate your "preferences" early. For all you know, they might be telling potential acquirers that "the entire engineering team is committed to seeing this product through at its new home, so no problem signing up everyone for another 4 years again". If that's not ok with you, they need to know now.