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why would anyone work in startups as early devs anymore. Tell me what is the upside? There seems to be only downsides. Startup Fails , you loose - Gets acquired - you loose What is the motivation to perform .
Not much of a story here. The guy got a better offer and he took it: > I was given an offer that would explode same day. I had to forfeit all of my vested shares earned over my 3.5+ years at Windsurf.
I must be misunderstanding what he is saying, but I can't figure out what. Once his shares have vested, they are his. What entity forced him to sell his shares for 1% of what they are worth and how could they possibly do that?
Cognition made him a lightning offer it sounds like, valid one day only. I think if I understand what he is saying he could either stick with the product and team giving up the shares, or keep the shares and try his luck getting money for them another way. I appreciate that his choice shows that he is in it for the product and the team, but also ouch.
Not much of a story here. The guy got a better offer and he took it: > I was given an offer that would explode same day. I had to forfeit all of my vested shares earned over my 3.5+ years at Windsurf.
Cognition acquired Windsurf. So how has he "joined Cognition"?
"I had a place at Google DeepMind as part of the deal." What does that mean? DeepMind doesn't have anything to do with Cognition or Windsurf, right?
Why would an offer at Google require forfeiting vested shares in Windsurf? Is that Windsurf policy or Cognition policy or Google policy?
"I was ultimately given a payout of only 1% of what my shares would have been worth at the time of the deal." So he took the payout and forfeited the shares? "In going to Cognition, I’ve chosen a different direction." Or not, he rejected the payout and kept the shares? I can't even tell what's hypothetical versus what actually happened.
I literally don't understand a single thing about this tweet. I've read all the comments here so far and my confusion seems to be shared. Can anyone who has context please help explain what's actually going on? And particularly how any company could force you to forfeit vested shares in a company?
Not much of a story here. The guy got a better offer and he took it: > I was given an offer that would explode same day. I had to forfeit all of my vested shares earned over my 3.5+ years at Windsurf.
It's still pretty shocking to have to forfeit shares that have vested.
Was this a scenario where he lost them because some sort of “cause” event occurred, like leaving to work for a competitor? I can’t imagine that would even be valid under CA law?
I’m not even sure who was forcing him to forfeit his shares…
This is one of the most confusing things I've ever read. Cognition acquired Windsurf. So how has he "joined Cognition"? "I had a place at Google DeepMind as part of the deal." What does that mean? DeepMind doesn't have anything to do with Cognition or Windsurf, right? Why would an offer at Google require forfeiting vested shares in Windsurf? Is that Windsurf policy or Cognition policy or Google policy? "I was ultimat…
Google poached windsurf employees and licensed their tech, paying out billions to upper management but apparently offering a fraction of the value of shares
This employee chose to stick with windsurf instead of moving to Google
Windsurf was then acquired by cognition for an unspecified but probably quite low amount
So this employee is now at cognition
I must be misunderstanding what he is saying, but I can't figure out what. Once his shares have vested, they are his. What entity forced him to sell his shares for 1% of what they are worth and how could they possibly do that?
Whichever entity ended up buying Windsurf, the corporation. They get to declare the exchange rate, and for what. Sometimes it's cash, sometimes it's stock, usually it's some mix of both.
I must be misunderstanding what he is saying, but I can't figure out what. Once his shares have vested, they are his. What entity forced him to sell his shares for 1% of what they are worth and how could they possibly do that?
Looks like employees were given an exploding offer to join Google and sacrifice windsurf shares at a low valuation, or stick with windsurf
If you stuck with windsurf you then joined cognition in a later acquisition
This is one of the most confusing things I've ever read. Cognition acquired Windsurf. So how has he "joined Cognition"? "I had a place at Google DeepMind as part of the deal." What does that mean? DeepMind doesn't have anything to do with Cognition or Windsurf, right? Why would an offer at Google require forfeiting vested shares in Windsurf? Is that Windsurf policy or Cognition policy or Google policy? "I was ultimat…
You have to know some of the background Google poached windsurf employees and licensed their tech, paying out billions to upper management but apparently offering a fraction of the value of shares This employee chose to stick with windsurf instead of moving to Google Windsurf was then acquired by cognition for an unspecified but probably quite low amount So this employee is now at cognition
But so did he keep the shares or take the payout? Is the 1% payout an accurate reflection of Windsurf's value after having lost so many valuable employees? And why didn't he take the Google job? Was the 1% contingent on taking the Google job? But how could it be, since Google doesn't own Windsurf/Cognition? But if it did somehow, did it have a higher paycheck to compensate? Or was it contingent on staying at Windsurf/Cognition?
This thing needs an in-depth blog post analysis. The tweet by itself isn't providing even close to the information necessary to understand what's actually going on.