Google paid $2.4 billion for Windsurf and kept the wrong parts. 💰

They got the CEO, a handful of senior engineers, and a license to the technology. The 200+ people who actually built and maintained the product? They got nothing. Not even accelerated vesting.

Three days later, Cognition bought what was left. But here’s the interesting part: they structured it so every employee gets paid. Waived cliffs, accelerated equity, same treatment for the intern who joined last week as the architect who designed the system.

The math is revealing. Google paid $2.4 billion for maybe 20 people and some IP. Cognition probably paid a fraction of that and got 200+ engineers who know how the thing actually works.

One company bought resumes. The other bought the people who know which server to restart when everything breaks at 3am.

This keeps happening in tech acquisitions. Big company cherry-picks the founders and “key talent,” leaves everyone else behind.

Another company scoops up the remains for pennies and somehow ends up with the better deal.

The engineers Google didn’t want are the same ones who built a $100M ARR business. They’re now Cognition’s competitive advantage.

Turns out the org chart doesn’t always match where the value lives.