The deadpool of acquired companies runs very, very deep.

While it might not necessarily be true of 50%+ of companies that are acquired go into the deadpool, it's common enough that an acquisition of a company's product that you use should cause you at least to make sure you have some sort of strategy to deal with a potential deadpool situation. Maybe it's not a guaranteed probability, but it is indeed very likely.

Sure. Agree completely. However it's worth noting that the customer-centric view, while valid, is rarely a good one. Companies are acquired b/c they are about to go out of business, because the IP is good, because the team is good, because the customer list is good, etc. Pissing off early customers is often the cost of growing the thing to its fullest potential.

This gets said a lot, but it's not internally consistent. If you are forced to piss off the people who love you, perhaps you shouldn't call it "growing". Call it "a pivot". You're taking a flyer for the _possibility_ of future growth.