In this episode of the ScholarAI Founders Pod, the founders dive into one of the most controversial collapses in recent SF startup history: the failed $3B acquisition of Windsurf by OpenAI. What went wrong? Who got left behind? And why are top engineers calling it “morally bankrupt”?

They break down the shift in power between founders, early engineers, and big tech suitors—especially as Cognition Labs swoops in to salvage scraps while Google walks away with the crown jewels. From the broader future of AI dev tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex) to what Cluey’s “cheat on everything” ethos says about the next generation of tech, this episode is part exposé, part forecast.

Also: toothpaste thefts in SF, why building with Claude Code feels like vibe coding, and the new playbook where startups win with storytelling—not just software.

(0:00) Intro - Welcome to San Francisco

(3:36) Windsurf Acquisition Collapse

(10:52) Shakeups in the IDE meta

(17:41) Labor v Capital: Silicon Valley Power Dynamics

(19:45) Claude Code on the Come-up

(26:10) Cluely's New Playbook

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Is Cluely a Meme or the Future of Startups? - Ep 58