Something is quietly shifting in Silicon Valley. Founders are making big moves behind closed doors, and not everyone on the team is getting invited.
Over the past two years, a new style of dealmaking has taken root. Tech giants are no longer acquiring entire startups. Instead, they are paying massive sums for the people at the top while leaving the rest of the company behind. The result is a growing divide inside companies where a few walk away with everything and the rest are left wondering what just happened.
The most recent example is Windsurf, a fast growing AI startup that was reportedly in talks to be acquired by OpenAI for three billion dollars. The deal never happened. Instead, Google stepped in and bought out the CEO and several top engineers. The remaining employees were folded into a different startup called Cognition. Just like that, the team was split in two.
This kind of move is not rare anymore. It is becoming the playbook.
The Deal Looks Different Now
Big Tech companies are no longer waiting around for long regulatory processes. They do not need to. Instead of buying companies outright, they strike faster deals that license technology or hire away elite talent. These transactions do not require public announcements or board approvals. They just happen. And when they do, many employees are left in the dark until after the ink is dry.
That shift is creating a new category of startup employee. People who build for years expecting a big payoff only to discover they were never part of the deal in the first place.
According to Steve Brotman, managing partner at Alpha Partners, employees need to start asking harder questions before joining a startup.
“After what happened with Windsurf, it is more important than ever to understand who really controls what,” Brotman said. “You do not want to work nonstop just to find out your options are worthless or your exit was already capped.”
He recommends asking about company ownership, cash runway, board composition and whether the business is being set up for long term growth or a quick flip.
Founders Hold All the Power
There is a hard truth that many startup employees ignore. The founder controls everything. How you get paid. How your stock vests. Whether you get a chance to cash out if a deal happens.
Deedy Das, an investor at Menlo Ventures, said that is the first thing people need to understand.
“Founders are the ones who decide whether or not you benefit from a deal,” Das said. “And you do not always find out what they decided until it is already done.”
That is why some experts think candidates should treat job interviews more like investor meetings. Ask around. Do some real due diligence. Find out how the founder has treated people before.
Hari Raghavan, cofounder of Autograph, put it bluntly. “Try to figure out if this is the kind of person who is going to take care of you or not.”
He even suggests that founders start signing written pledges to protect employees during exits. “Most good founders already try to do right by their team. But putting it in writing would make that commitment clear from the start.”
Your Offer Letter Is Not Enough
As the definition of an exit keeps changing, employees need to start reading the fine print. Vesting terms. Acceleration clauses. What happens if only part of the team gets hired.
Jake Saper, general partner at Emergence Capital, said these are the kinds of details that shaped what happened at Windsurf and other recent deals. They are the details that will shape the next ones too.
He also encourages job seekers to ask founders directly about how they are thinking about the future. Do they want to build an independent company? Are they open to licensing the tech? Would they take a deal that only benefits a few people at the top?
“The way a founder answers those questions tells you everything,” Saper said. “You are not just joining a team. You are signing up for someone else’s plan.”
The New Normal
In 2024, Microsoft brought in the founder and top talent from Inflection AI. In June, Meta paid fourteen billion dollars for a minority stake in Scale AI and hired its founder to run a new AI division. A few weeks later, Scale laid off 200 workers. Those moves were not mergers. They were targeted extractions. And they are becoming the norm.
The smartest engineers in the industry are starting to understand this. The question is whether everyone else will catch up in time.
Because this is not just about startups anymore. It is about who gets rewarded and who gets replaced. It is about power. And if you do not know who has it, chances are it is not you.