Buyers treat it as key-person risk and price it directly. M&A advisers who write about founder dependency commonly describe discounts in the range of 30% to 50% against comparable businesses, alongside longer required transition periods, a larger share of the price moved into earnouts, and tighter non-compete terms. The logic is that a buyer is purchasing future cash flows, and if those cash flows require a person who is being paid to leave, the risk transfers entirely to the buyer. The same structure also caps what the business can achieve while the owner still holds it.