[ivanbalepin]

it still takes time to spec out, build and sell to a comparable size user base, even with 10 people. And you're not guaranteed the same results if you just try to clone all of that. If the price is right, why not take the shortcut.

[goopthink]

Is $3 billion the right price? That might be what Windsurf is being valued at (cue the “selling to willing buyers at currently fair market prices” meme), but that’s like saying “it would cost OpenAI more than $3b to staff from zero, build a competitor, and acquire a comparable volume of paying users” … and that feels like an insane statement given the implications therein?

Especially given that Windsurf (and I think Cursor too) is a VSCode fork and OpenAI is cozy enough with Microsoft? It’s not even a zero to one build.

[ivanbalepin]

if they are optimizing for cost, which they are obviously not, then of course it would take them less to build. If they are optimizing for time, and the actual aforementioned "vibe code" step may not even be the most time-consuming part, then yes, it may be the right price.