Perplexity just hit $500M in revenue. $100M to $500M with only 34% headcount growth. That means the product scaled 5x while the team barely moved. In any prior era of tech, 5x revenue required roughly 3-4x headcount. Perplexity did it at 1.3x. This is the math that rewrites how startups get valued. Revenue per employee at Perplexity is approaching territory that only algorithmic trading firms and app stores have ever touched. The reason is structural: the AI model IS the workforce. Every query…