Public dossier section · @ben

people

This is @ben's profile revision 1. The original date and editorial confidence below are attributed to its publisher, not independent verification.

Original credited author: Hraness

AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

Back to the full profile · Markdown version · Original document

Published text

cognition: people

scott wu, steven hao, walden yan, and the people around cognition — who they are, what they wrote, and what they claim.

the people

scott wu (ceo, scott_wu): cofounder and ceo. born in baton rouge to chinese-immigrant parents — 1996 in his own words to colossus, 1997 per wikipedia; the discrepancy is unresolved. mathcounts national champion 2011 after competing against middle-schoolers as a third-grader; ioi gold 2012/2013/2014, first overall in 2014; harvard ~two years then out, with an icpc 2016 gold along the way; codeforces legendary grandmaster peak 3350. worked at addepar as a high schooler, co-founded lunchclub (cto, 2017–2022, a16z-backed, forbes 30 under 30), and reportedly spent time at scale ai before cognition. 'i learned to program when i was nine years old, writing little programs in basic on a ti-83.' (sources: bio: b.1997, baton rouge, harvard, lunchclub cto, long q&a, bio details: coded at 12, mathcounts 2011, lunchclub 2017, ceo since nov 2023, wus 8vc venture cup problem orchestra, verbatim origin-story post (ti-83 basic, age 9), scott wu on lunchclub era + a16z $4m raise, john collison interview, verbatim: 9-person founding team, hyperscaler, tree search)
steven hao (co-founder): cofounder and cto. mit math/cs; ioi 2014 gold (6th place) after a 52nd in 2013; icpc world finals 6th with mit; a january 2015 jane street trading internship; then an early engineer at scale ai (~2018–2022, autonomy and sensor-fusion ml per speaker bios). secondary profiles also list meteor, d.e. shaw, dropbox, and quora — individually unverified. he keeps a deliberately low public profile: no known blog, no solo interviews. the quietest founder on the cap table. (sources: ioi 2013 (52nd), ioi 2014 gold (6th), co-founder, speaker bio: early scale ai engineer, employment list incl. meteor, d.e. shaw, dropbox, quora)
walden yan (co-founder): cofounder and cpo. ioi 2020 gold for the us; mit primes researcher in crypto/ml; harvard cs/econ — left for cognition, telling bloomberg he 'hasn't yet had the talk' with his parents about his status at the school. reported: a thiel fellowship, an engineering stint at anysphere (cursor) pre-cognition, co-founder of deepreason (web3 security), managing partner of inverted — all on community bios, not primary sources. he narrated the launch's upwork demo and later wrote the company's most-cited essays, 'don't build multi-agents' and its 2026 revision. (sources: compiled leadership bios, founder bios, ashlee vance launch feature, original demo video narrated by walden yan, walden yan essay, walden yan follow-up revising 2025 thesis)
russell kaplan (team): president since january 2024 — pre-launch. stanford cs bs/ms, treehacks founder, tesla autopilot senior ml scientist, founder/ceo of helia (acquired by scale ai in 2020), then scale's director of engineering and ml. he co-led the windsurf outreach with wu and announced the 2026 exec bench. some event bios style him 'co-founder & president' — a styling, not a fact pattern. (sources: president since jan 2024, co-founder & president styling, kaplan bio: helia→scale acquisition, tesla autopilot, wang recounts frantic weekend, russell kaplan podcast)
the medalist bench (team, tourist): the founding team's claimed '10 ioi gold medals' are only partially named: the three founders plus neal wu — scott's older brother, 3x ioi gold himself, founding advisor from november 2023, departed for mira murati's thinking machines lab in february 2026 — gennady korotkevich, whose codeforces 'tourist' tier was literally named for his handle when he broke 4000 while at cognition, and andrew he ('ecnerwala'). the about page adds that 21 of the initial 35 team members had previously founded a company. (sources: 10 ioi gold medals, founding aug/nov 2023 discrepancy, founding advisor nov 2023, neal wu departs cognition founding team for thinking machines, tourist, software engineer at cognition (current))
jeff wang (team): the human thread through the windsurf saga — windsurf's head of business since may 2023, interim ceo the day google took the founders, ceo through june 2026, then 'president, new enterprise' at cognition running international expansion and government work. he recounts 'the craziest 72 hours' of the deal and notes windsurf's retained engineering core is 'maybe five or six people' amid agent-driven reorgs every two or three months. windsurf's actual founders — varun mohan and douglas chen — went to google deepmind, not cognition. (sources: wang: windsurf ceo jul25–jun26 → president, new enterprise at cognition, wang interim ceo, wang interview: reorgs every 2–3 months, wang recounts frantic weekend)
the cognition team (team): the extended roster and the unsigned company voice on the blog: swyx (latent space) and investors-turned-employees christian lawless (conversion capital) and emily cohen (neo) joined around the september 2025 series c; the 2026 bench added takumi masai (cognition japan), richard spence (apac, singapore), paul grewal (chief legal and global affairs, ex-coinbase), art l. (global partnerships, ex-brex), and jared palmer (vp engineering). headcount arc: ~10 at launch, an eng team of ~15 each running ~5 devins in early 2025, ~200 by late 2025 per wikipedia, 300–400 across 21 countries per linkedin. (sources: scott wu: >$400m at $10.2b post, full dated post index used for timeline items, president since jan 2024, ~15-person eng team each using ~5 devins, founding aug/nov 2023 discrepancy, ceo since nov 2023)
the backers (team): founders fund led the first three priced rounds — peter thiel personally involved at the seed — with angels elad gil, patrick and john collison, chris re, and sarah guo. 8vc led the ~$4b round with lux co-leading; lux, general catalyst, and 8vc co-led the series d; a16z and accel led the series e — andreessen's 'proud to back him for the second time' closing a lunchclub-era loop — inside a ~30-firm syndicate that includes nvidia, also a devin customer. (sources: ashlee vance launch feature, $21m series a, ~$4b round led by 8vc, scott wu: >$400m at $10.2b post, $1b+ at $26b, do it all with devin: >$2b at $48b, a16z + accel, marc andreessen post, ~$900m run rate)

writings

2024-03-12 — introducing devin, the first ai software engineer (essay, scott, cognition blog): the launch manifesto — 'the first ai software engineer,' a sandboxed shell/editor/browser, a 13.86% swe-bench claim footnoted to a 25% unassisted subset, and a 'hire devin' cta that made the labor framing literal. source

"devin is a tireless, skilled teammate, equally ready to build alongside you or independently complete tasks for you to review." "by solving reasoning, we can unlock new possibilities in a wide range of disciplines—code is just the beginning." "we even tried giving devin real jobs on upwork and it could do those too!"

2024-03 — devin's upwork side hustle (video, walden, youtube): 'devin's upwork side hustle' — the demo video walden narrated that internet of bugs later took apart frame by frame: the wrong prompt, self-generated bugs, files that didn't exist in the repo. the artifact at the center of the demo-reality gap. source
2024-03-15 — swe-bench technical report (document, roster, cognition blog): the swe-bench technical report — methodology (570 of 2,294 issues, unassisted) plus the eval harness and devin's edits released on github. the paper trail behind the launch number. source
2024-12-10 — devin is now generally available (post, roster, cognition blog): 'devin is now generally available' — $500/month flat, no seat limits, slack-primary with an ide extension and api; the '16x faster timelines' claim and the first named customers (nubank, vesta, ramp) are company-reported. source
2025-04-03 — devin 2.0 (post, roster, cognition blog): devin 2.0 — the agent-native ide experience, interactive planning, parallel devins, and the $20 entry plan that collapsed the $500 flat price into pay-as-you-go acus. source
2025-05-05 — deepwiki (post, roster, cognition blog): deepwiki — free ai documentation for any public github repo; the code-understanding surface that grew into devin wiki and devin search. source
2025-06-12 — don't build multi-agents (essay, walden, cognition blog): the essay that popularized 'context engineering' as the discipline over prompt engineering — full-context single-threaded agents over parallel sub-agents, with the concession that the field is 'still playing with raw html & css.' source

"share context" "actions carry implicit decisions"

2025-07-14 — cognition's acquisition of windsurf (document, scott, cognition blog): the windsurf acquisition announcement, written as wu's internal all-hands memo — the deal terms for employees made legible, the 'bricklayers to architects' thesis to the nyt, and the labor-relations promise the august buyouts would be measured against. source

"100% of windsurf employees will participate financially in this deal … will have vesting cliffs waived … will receive fully accelerated vesting for their work to date." "there's only one boat and we're all in it together"

2025-09-08 — funding, growth, and the next frontier of ai coding agents (essay, scott, cognition blog): 'funding, growth, and the next frontier of ai coding agents' — the definitive metrics post: devin arr $1m→$73m in nine months, lifetime net burn under $20m, >30% combined-arr growth in seven weeks post-windsurf, <5% customer overlap. all company-reported. source

"we hunkered down in a new york apartment and built the product we always wanted for ourselves."

2025-10-29 — swe-1.5 (post, roster, cognition blog): swe-1.5 — a frontier-size in-house model at 950 tok/s via cerebras, measured on swe-bench pro. the buried lede: the company that made swe-bench famous stopped reporting it a year earlier. source

"we stopped reporting swe-bench numbers in 2024"

2025-11-14 — devin's 2025 performance review (post, roster, cognition blog): 'devin's 2025 performance review: learnings from 18 months of agents at work' — the self-evaluation format applied to the product itself, claiming deployment at 'thousands of companies.' source
2026-04-22 — multi-agents: what's actually working (essay, walden, cognition blog): 'multi-agents: what's actually working' — the revision: multiple agents may contribute intelligence to a task, but writes stay single-threaded. the 2025 absolutism narrowed by a year of shipping. source
2026-05-27 — more devins in more places (post, scott, cognition blog): 'more devins in more places' — the >$1b series d at $26b, the 'independent agent lab' positioning, and the engineer-hours framing that turns employees into 'executives' over an army of devins. source

"at cognition, 89% of code committed by our engineers is committed by devin"

2026-07-08 — the ti-83 origin post (post, scott, linkedin): the linkedin origin-story post — ti-83 basic at nine, and the claim that the end state was always 'a full operating ai software engineer,' not autocomplete. source

"i learned to program when i was nine years old, writing little programs in basic on a ti-83 calculator in baton rouge, louisiana." "the ultimate form factor of software engineering was not going to be an autocomplete or a text assistant. it was going to be a full operating ai software engineer"

2026-09-08 — do it all with devin (post, scott, cognition blog): 'do it all with devin' — the >$2b series e at $48b led by a16z and accel; andreessen's companion post repeats the 13%→90% production-code arc and notes a16z is backing wu 'for the second time.' source
2025-08 — cognition ceo scott wu on acquiring windsurf (podcast, scott, cheeky pint): john collison's cheeky pint interview — a segment literally titled 'i think we have agi'; sixth-grade math competitions with alexandr wang, the windsurf weekend, the 'moneyball-ification of everything.' source

"i think we have agi"

2025 — scott wu on the david senra show (interview, scott, david senra): the david senra episode — the nine-person founding team of mostly-repeat-founders, the hyperscaler ambition, and the founder-as-search-algorithm self-description. source

"we want to go for it all. we want to be a generational business. we want to build a hyperscaler" "it's like a tree search… that's the only thing i do in my life."

2026 — the wu tapes (interview, scott, colossus): colossus's 'the wu tapes' — the long q&a: born 1996 in his own telling, the ioi cohort that became scale, perplexity, and decagon founders, and a claimed '$445 million of revenue run rate in its first 18 months' (self-reported). source

"so that we can stop living in minecraft survival mode and start living in minecraft creative mode"

2025 — what comes after code (podcast, scott, ai & i): every's ai & i — 'cognition's ceo on what comes after code': cs fundamentals, rl for coding agents, and the argument that 'we may already be living with agi.' source
2026-07 — devin writes 95% of our code (interview, scott, sourcery): the sourcery podcast at raise summit — 'devin writes ~95% of our code' (self-reported), the single-weekend windsurf negotiation, the dmv as the next target, and the origin story traced to a mongodb error in 2023. source
2025 — inside devin (video, scott, youtube): the 'inside devin' interview — an eng team of ~15 each running ~5 devins, a quarter of prs committed by devin then with >50% expected by year-end, the 'eight pivots' admission, and the devin name origin. source
2025 — a golden age of software engineering (podcast, russell, hg orbit): russell kaplan on hg's orbit podcast — 'a golden age of software engineering': the software-abundance thesis, 'talent is everything,' and a business he describes as doubling every ~70 days (self-reported). source
2026 — the 72-hour deal, retold (video, jeff, neo show): jeff wang on the neo show — the 72-hour windsurf weekend from the inside, and the agent-era org chart: reorgs every two or three months as pm/design/qa roles collapse into 'full stack engineers… talking to agents all day.' source
2025-07 — the context-engineering notes (interview, walden, linkedin): walden's context-engineering conversations — circulated mostly as other people's notes (jason liu's linkedin summary is the canonical record) rather than a talk of his own. source

controversies

2023–2026 — when did cognition start: the founding-date drift — august 2023 (wikipedia's body, senra's notes, mungomash) versus november 2023 (wikipedia's infobox, wu's linkedin) versus 'incorporated ~january 2024' (bloomberg's launch piece) versus an outlier january 2023 fan bio. scott wu's own birth year splits 1996 (his words to colossus) versus 1997 (wikipedia). reaction: the dossier keeps both dates visible rather than picking one; the working synthesis is that work began in h2 2023 and incorporation landed ~january 2024. (sources: founding aug/nov 2023 discrepancy, ceo since nov 2023, ashlee vance launch feature, long q&a, fan bio; jan-2023 founding claim (outlier))
2024–2026 — the numbers are the company's own: the self-reported ledger — swe-bench 13.86%, '16x faster timelines,' arr $1m→$73m→$492m→~$900m, '89–95% of code written by devin,' the productivity guarantee's own estimator, swe-1.5/2 performance — every load-bearing number is company-published. steven hao's bio is reconstructed from linkedin and speaker bios; walden yan's thiel fellowship and anysphere stint rest on community directories. reaction: no external audit exists; the dossier marks each number self-reported rather than reconciling them silently. (sources: scott wu launch post, scott wu: >$400m at $10.2b post, $1b+ at $26b, ai productivity guarantee, employment list incl. meteor, d.e. shaw, dropbox, quora, compiled leadership bios)
2025-08 — the 80-hour memo: the culture memo — three weeks after promising 100% financial participation and 'one boat,' cognition laid off 30 windsurf staff and offered ~200 others nine-month buyouts conditioned on six office days and 80+ hour weeks: 'we don't believe in work-life balance—building the future of software engineering is a mission we all care so deeply about that we couldn't possibly separate the two.' reaction: wu publicly owned the posture — 'many of us literally live where we work,' 'we're proud of how we work, we understand it's not for everyone' — and bi headlined it 'i live for these moments.' critics read bait-switch; wu reads filter. (sources: original reporting on layoffs/buyouts, 30 laid off; ~200 buyouts, verbatim we dont believe in work-life balance… memo, extreme performance culture, i live for these moments)

AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

Canonical page: https://hraness.com/cognition/people

Original source occurrences

wang recounts frantic weekend · business insider · 2025-07 (month) · original ID: src-ci-bi-jeff-wang · Other public citations of this URL
wang recounts frantic weekend; options considered
ai productivity guarantee · cognition.com · 2026-06-04 (day) · original ID: src-ci-cognition-guarantee · Other public citations of this URL
ai productivity guarantee; credits up to $10m; engineer-hour estimator
$1b+ at $26b · cognition.com · 2026-05-27 (day) · original ID: src-ci-cognition-seriesd · Other public citations of this URL
$1b+ at $26b; $492m run-rate; customers; "89% of code committed by our engineers is committed by devin"; "independent agent lab"
frontier-size model · cognition.com · 2025-10-29 (day) · original ID: src-ci-cognition-swe15 · Other public citations of this URL
frontier-size model; 950 tok/s via cerebras; "stopped reporting swe-bench numbers in 2024"
definitive agreement · cognition.com · 2025-07-14 (day) · original ID: src-ci-cognition-windsurf · Other public citations of this URL
definitive agreement; $82m arr; 350+ enterprise customers; 100% participation/vesting
devin 2.0 · cognition.com · 2025-04-03 (day) · original ID: src-ci-devin2 · Other public citations of this URL
devin 2.0: agent-native ide; $20 plan; search/wiki
launch thread · hacker news · 2024-03-12 (day) · original ID: src-ci-hn-devin-launch · Other public citations of this URL
launch thread; denial/fear/economics debate
extreme performance culture · inc. · 2025-08 (month) · original ID: src-ci-inc-buyouts · Other public citations of this URL
"extreme performance culture"; "live where we work"
internet of bugs frame-by-frame debunk of upwork demo · youtube · 2024-04 (month) · original ID: src-ci-iob-debunk-video · Other public citations of this URL
internet of bugs frame-by-frame debunk of upwork demo
launch summary incl. swe-bench framing detail · itdoeswhatnow.com · 2024-03-12 (day) · original ID: src-ci-itdoeswhatnow · Other public citations of this URL
launch summary incl. swe-bench framing detail
wang: windsurf ceo jul25–jun26 → president, new enterprise at cognition · linkedin · 2026-07 (month) · original ID: src-ci-jeffwang-linkedin · Other public citations of this URL
wang: windsurf ceo jul'25–jun'26 → president, new enterprise at cognition
wang interview: reorgs every 2–3 months · youtube · 2026 (year) · original ID: src-ci-jeffwang-neoshow · Other public citations of this URL
wang interview: reorgs every 2–3 months; "windsurf… maybe five or six people now"
bricklayers to architects quote · the new york times · 2025-07-14 (day) · original ID: src-ci-nyt-cognition-windsurf · Other public citations of this URL
"bricklayers to architects" quote
arr $1m(sep24)→$73m(jun25) · techcrunch · 2025-09-08 (day) · original ID: src-ci-tc-10b · Other public citations of this URL
arr $1m(sep'24)→$73m(jun'25); net burn <$20m
$25b pre/$26b post · techcrunch · 2026-05-27 (day) · original ID: src-ci-tc-26b · Other public citations of this URL
$25b pre/$26b post; revenue $37m→$492m
30 laid off; ~200 buyouts · techcrunch · 2025-08-05 (day) · original ID: src-ci-tc-buyouts · Other public citations of this URL
30 laid off; ~200 buyouts; 9-month severance; 6-day/80-hr terms
eye-watering $500→$20 · techcrunch · 2025-04-03 (day) · original ID: src-ci-tc-devin2 · Other public citations of this URL
"eye-watering" $500→$20; acu math
marc andreessen post · a16z · 2026-09-09 (day) · original ID: src-hp-a16z-investing-cognition · Other public citations of this URL
marc andreessen post; "13%→90%+ of production code"; "back him for the second time"
every's ai & i: agi-is-here argument, rl discussion · apple podcasts · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-hp-aiandi-scott-wu · Other public citations of this URL
every's ai & i: agi-is-here argument, rl discussion
wus 8vc venture cup problem orchestra · algorithms-live.blogspot.com · 2018-02 (month) · original ID: src-hp-algorithms-live · Other public citations of this URL
wu's 8vc venture cup problem "orchestra"; bio corroboration
neal wu departs cognition founding team for thinking machines · business insider · 2026-02 (month) · original ID: src-hp-bi-neal-wu-tml · Other public citations of this URL
neal wu departs cognition founding team for thinking machines
i live for these moments · business insider · 2025-08 (month) · original ID: src-hp-bi-wu-moments · Other public citations of this URL
"i live for these moments"; wang all-hands applause anecdote
~$4b round led by 8vc · bloomberg · 2025-03-17 (day) · original ID: src-hp-bloomberg-4b · Other public citations of this URL
~$4b round led by 8vc
ashlee vance launch feature · bloomberg · 2024-03-12 (day) · original ID: src-hp-bloomberg-gold-medalist-coders · Other public citations of this URL
ashlee vance launch feature; corp ~2 months old; 10-person staff; $21m; founder roles; yan harvard color
john collison interview · cheekypint.substack.com · 2025-08 (month) · original ID: src-hp-cheekypint-scott-wu · Other public citations of this URL
john collison interview; "i think we have agi"; windsurf weekend
deal framing · cnbc · 2025-07-14 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cnbc-windsurf-acq · Other public citations of this URL
deal framing; openai ~$3b talks context
10 ioi gold medals · cognition.com · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-about · Other public citations of this URL
"10 ioi gold medals"; "21 of initial 35 had founded a company"; team employer list
full dated post index used for timeline items · cognition.com · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-blog-index · Other public citations of this URL
full dated post index used for timeline items (ga, 2.x, swe-x, partnerships, offices, acquisitions)
walden yan essay · cognition.com · 2025-06-12 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-dont-build-multi-agents · Other public citations of this URL
walden yan essay; context-engineering principles
ga at $500/mo, no seat limits, slack/ide/api · cognition.com · 2024-12-10 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-ga · Other public citations of this URL
ga at $500/mo, no seat limits, slack/ide/api
scott wu launch post · cognition.com · 2024-03-12 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-introducing-devin · Other public citations of this URL
scott wu launch post; swe-bench 13.86% claim; "tireless, skilled teammate"; early-access waitlist
walden yan follow-up revising 2025 thesis · cognition.com · 2026-04-22 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-multi-agents-working · Other public citations of this URL
walden yan follow-up revising 2025 thesis
scott wu: >$400m at $10.2b post · cognition.com · 2025-09-08 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-series-c · Other public citations of this URL
scott wu: >$400m at $10.2b post; arr $1m→$73m; <$20m lifetime burn; customer names; new hires
do it all with devin: >$2b at $48b, a16z + accel · cognition.com · 2026-09-08 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-series-e · Other public citations of this URL
"do it all with devin": >$2b at $48b, a16z + accel
methodology: 25% subset (570/2294), unassisted, github eval harness · cognition.com · 2024-03-15 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cognition-swebench-report · Other public citations of this URL
methodology: 25% subset (570/2294), unassisted, github eval harness
long q&a · colossus.com · 2026 (year) · original ID: src-hp-colossus-wu-tapes · Other public citations of this URL
long q&a; "born in 1996"; minecraft quote; ioi teammates→founders; $445m run rate claim
ioi 2013 (52nd), ioi 2014 gold (6th) · cphof.org · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-cphof-steven-hao · Other public citations of this URL
ioi 2013 (52nd), ioi 2014 gold (6th); mit icpc
verbatim: 9-person founding team, hyperscaler, tree search · davidsenra.com · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-hp-davidsenra-scott-wu · Other public citations of this URL
verbatim: 9-person founding team, hyperscaler, tree search; notes: aug 2023 founding, scale ai stint claim
linkedin post relaying cognitions ga announcement verbatim · linkedin · 2024-12-10 (day) · original ID: src-hp-devin-ga-linkedin · Other public citations of this URL
linkedin post relaying cognition's ga announcement verbatim; "16x" claim; nubank/vesta/ramp; oss contributions
release notes confirming ga terms/date · docs.devin.ai · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-hp-docs-devin-2024 · Other public citations of this URL
release notes confirming ga terms/date
co-founder & president styling · event.foundryco.com · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-foundry-kaplan · Other public citations of this URL
"co-founder & president" styling; stanford/treehacks/fei-fei lab
scott wu on lunchclub era + a16z $4m raise · share.transistor.fm · 2019 (year) · original ID: src-hp-ftf-lunchclub · Other public citations of this URL
scott wu on lunchclub era + a16z $4m raise
speaker bio: early scale ai engineer · gne.mplify.net · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-gne-steven-hao · Other public citations of this URL
speaker bio: early scale ai engineer; mit math; ioi gold
russell kaplan podcast · hgcapital.com · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-hp-hg-kaplan · Other public citations of this URL
russell kaplan podcast; "software abundance"; doubling every ~70 days
notes on yans context-engineering conversation · linkedin · 2025-07 (month) · original ID: src-hp-jxnl-walden-notes · Other public citations of this URL
notes on yan's context-engineering conversation
founder bios · komo.ai · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-komo-leadership · Other public citations of this URL
founder bios; "late 2022 pivot from crypto" claim; yan/anysphere
software engineer at cognition (current) · linkedin · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-linkedin-korotkevich · Other public citations of this URL
software engineer at cognition (current)
president since jan 2024 · linkedin · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-linkedin-russell-kaplan · Other public citations of this URL
president since jan 2024; ex-scale ai dir eng/ml; aug 2026 exec-hires post (grewal, art l., palmer)
ceo since nov 2023 · linkedin · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-linkedin-scott-wu · Other public citations of this URL
ceo since nov 2023; lunchclub cto jun 2017–jun 2022; addepar 2014-15; headcount band 300-400
co-founder · linkedin · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-linkedin-steven-hao · Other public citations of this URL
co-founder; ex-scale ai; jane street intern
$21m series a · maginative.com · 2024-03-12 (day) · original ID: src-hp-maginative-devin-launch · Other public citations of this URL
$21m series a; collisons/elad gil/chris re; wu "deep algorithmic problem" quote
compiled leadership bios · mungomash.com · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-mungomash-leadership · Other public citations of this URL
compiled leadership bios; crypto-pivot claim; yan bio details (thiel, anysphere, deepreason)
verbatim origin-story post (ti-83 basic, age 9) · linkedin · 2026-07-08 (day) · original ID: src-hp-scottwu-linkedin-post · Other public citations of this URL
verbatim origin-story post (ti-83 basic, age 9)
~$900m run rate · siliconangle.com · 2026-09-08 (day) · original ID: src-hp-siliconangle-48b · Other public citations of this URL
~$900m run rate; 30+ firm syndicate incl. nvidia, t. rowe
devin writes 95% of our code · sourcery.vc · 2026-07 (month) · original ID: src-hp-sourcery-scott-wu · Other public citations of this URL
"devin writes 95% of our code"; $492m arr; customer names; windsurf weekend negotiation
bio details: coded at 12, mathcounts 2011, lunchclub 2017 · stripe · undated (unknown) · original ID: src-hp-stripe-scott-wu · Other public citations of this URL
bio details: coded at 12, mathcounts 2011, lunchclub 2017
employment list incl. meteor, d.e. shaw, dropbox, quora · success.ai · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-successai-hao · Other public citations of this URL
employment list incl. meteor, d.e. shaw, dropbox, quora (unverified)
kaplan bio: helia→scale acquisition, tesla autopilot · siliconvalleyinvestclub.com · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-svic-kaplan · Other public citations of this URL
kaplan bio: helia→scale acquisition, tesla autopilot
original reporting on layoffs/buyouts · the information · 2025-08 (month) · original ID: src-hp-theinformation-buyouts · Other public citations of this URL
original reporting on layoffs/buyouts
founding advisor nov 2023 · theorg.com · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-theorg-neal-wu · Other public citations of this URL
founding advisor nov 2023; ramp/google brain/facebook history
wang interim ceo · the verge · 2025-07-11 (day) · original ID: src-hp-verge-google-windsurf · Other public citations of this URL
wang interim ceo; graham moreno president; deepmind agentic coding
founding aug/nov 2023 discrepancy · wikipedia · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-wiki-cognition · Other public citations of this URL
founding aug/nov 2023 discrepancy; 10 ioi medals; neal wu/korotkevich/andrew he; 200 employees 2026
tourist · wikipedia · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-wiki-korotkevich · Other public citations of this URL
"tourist"; 4009 rating 2024-08-30; tier named for him
bio: b.1997, baton rouge, harvard, lunchclub cto · wikipedia · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-wiki-scott-wu · Other public citations of this URL
bio: b.1997, baton rouge, harvard, lunchclub cto 2017-22, ioi x3 (1st 2014), code jam 3rd, forbes 30u30
verbatim we dont believe in work-life balance… memo · winbuzzer.com · 2025-08-05 (day) · original ID: src-hp-winbuzzer-buyouts · Other public citations of this URL
verbatim "we don't believe in work-life balance…" memo
fan bio; jan-2023 founding claim (outlier) · yespress.io · 2026-09-16 (day) · original ID: src-hp-yespress-scott-wu · Other public citations of this URL
fan bio; jan-2023 founding claim (outlier); 60% ex-founders stat
~15-person eng team each using ~5 devins · youtube · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-hp-youtube-inside-devin · Other public citations of this URL
~15-person eng team each using ~5 devins; ~25% of prs by devin; 8 pivots; name origin
original demo video narrated by walden yan · youtube · 2024-03 (month) · original ID: src-hp-youtube-upwork-side-hustle · Other public citations of this URL
original demo video narrated by walden yan

Structured research records

scott wu · cognition-people

Original location · source-5fb2bf54df65511ef3cb · source-3bccba5235030d2eeaf8 · source-e97bb8576dea54a54db6 · source-27df3738f6d00e1d02e3 · source-48398d29051c4bf10461 · source-19b4f0a68129d790e352 · source-186fd2bc3323248c68af · source-5fce4b8ef712af0647a8 · source-68c63b32f520266d191a

Original structured fields

{
  "handle": "scott_wu",
  "id": "scott",
  "name": "scott wu",
  "note": "cofounder and ceo. born in baton rouge to chinese-immigrant parents — 1996 in his own words to colossus, 1997 per wikipedia; the discrepancy is unresolved. mathcounts national champion 2011 after competing against middle-schoolers as a third-grader; ioi gold 2012/2013/2014, first overall in 2014; harvard ~two years then out, with an icpc 2016 gold along the way; codeforces legendary grandmaster peak 3350. worked at addepar as a high schooler, co-founded lunchclub (cto, 2017–2022, a16z-backed, forbes 30 under 30), and reportedly spent time at scale ai before cognition. 'i learned to program when i was nine years old, writing little programs in basic on a ti-83.'",
  "role": "ceo",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-wiki-scott-wu",
    "src-hp-colossus-wu-tapes",
    "src-hp-stripe-scott-wu",
    "src-hp-linkedin-scott-wu",
    "src-hp-algorithms-live",
    "src-hp-scottwu-linkedin-post",
    "src-hp-ftf-lunchclub",
    "src-hp-cheekypint-scott-wu",
    "src-hp-davidsenra-scott-wu"
  ]
}

steven hao · cognition-people

Original location · source-07335e09bbb2f6c071c6 · source-07c2b74e81bccd2e6f11 · source-028bbee91d886a6742ac · source-ccff3919be8205010942

Original structured fields

{
  "handle": null,
  "id": "steven",
  "name": "steven hao",
  "note": "cofounder and cto. mit math/cs; ioi 2014 gold (6th place) after a 52nd in 2013; icpc world finals 6th with mit; a january 2015 jane street trading internship; then an early engineer at scale ai (~2018–2022, autonomy and sensor-fusion ml per speaker bios). secondary profiles also list meteor, d.e. shaw, dropbox, and quora — individually unverified. he keeps a deliberately low public profile: no known blog, no solo interviews. the quietest founder on the cap table.",
  "role": "co-founder",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cphof-steven-hao",
    "src-hp-linkedin-steven-hao",
    "src-hp-gne-steven-hao",
    "src-hp-successai-hao"
  ]
}

walden yan · cognition-people

Original location · source-733413d214aab0e38317 · source-90250a5891eed4c4c720 · source-856d19dba756f2e40d2a · source-3f9b5e2e5fe1effd917b · source-987d0d5a21212ce0395c · source-4e2cb449c692ee4cbb77

Original structured fields

{
  "handle": null,
  "id": "walden",
  "name": "walden yan",
  "note": "cofounder and cpo. ioi 2020 gold for the us; mit primes researcher in crypto/ml; harvard cs/econ — left for cognition, telling bloomberg he 'hasn't yet had the talk' with his parents about his status at the school. reported: a thiel fellowship, an engineering stint at anysphere (cursor) pre-cognition, co-founder of deepreason (web3 security), managing partner of inverted — all on community bios, not primary sources. he narrated the launch's upwork demo and later wrote the company's most-cited essays, 'don't build multi-agents' and its 2026 revision.",
  "role": "co-founder",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-mungomash-leadership",
    "src-hp-komo-leadership",
    "src-hp-bloomberg-gold-medalist-coders",
    "src-hp-youtube-upwork-side-hustle",
    "src-hp-cognition-dont-build-multi-agents",
    "src-hp-cognition-multi-agents-working"
  ]
}

russell kaplan · cognition-people

Original location · source-ba5d50b0e6617b99f04a · source-302dc9f3c659bf5022bb · source-74b3caf8cee3b1a4465e · source-5ffa5cb5e269c7b9b6f3 · source-14780015e4d0a0a2d73f

Original structured fields

{
  "handle": null,
  "id": "russell",
  "name": "russell kaplan",
  "note": "president since january 2024 — pre-launch. stanford cs bs/ms, treehacks founder, tesla autopilot senior ml scientist, founder/ceo of helia (acquired by scale ai in 2020), then scale's director of engineering and ml. he co-led the windsurf outreach with wu and announced the 2026 exec bench. some event bios style him 'co-founder & president' — a styling, not a fact pattern.",
  "role": "team",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-linkedin-russell-kaplan",
    "src-hp-foundry-kaplan",
    "src-hp-svic-kaplan",
    "src-ci-bi-jeff-wang",
    "src-hp-hg-kaplan"
  ]
}

the medalist bench · cognition-people

Original location · source-65985e052981a5d543ad · source-ec99b53bf820b506edaf · source-1c3063938962adee47ea · source-09c4d0f714366dc52e1e · source-4c1abcb2f1fbfef43bba · source-81288194e1a67ce371c1

Original structured fields

{
  "handle": "tourist",
  "id": "medalists",
  "name": "the medalist bench",
  "note": "the founding team's claimed '10 ioi gold medals' are only partially named: the three founders plus neal wu — scott's older brother, 3x ioi gold himself, founding advisor from november 2023, departed for mira murati's thinking machines lab in february 2026 — gennady korotkevich, whose codeforces 'tourist' tier was literally named for his handle when he broke 4000 while at cognition, and andrew he ('ecnerwala'). the about page adds that 21 of the initial 35 team members had previously founded a company.",
  "role": "team",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-about",
    "src-hp-wiki-cognition",
    "src-hp-theorg-neal-wu",
    "src-hp-bi-neal-wu-tml",
    "src-hp-wiki-korotkevich",
    "src-hp-linkedin-korotkevich"
  ]
}

jeff wang · cognition-people

Original location · source-6edfb2aa6971940560ad · source-9b45dc2e448e4d0024d4 · source-539b0a8b7ff9f2726ed3 · source-5ffa5cb5e269c7b9b6f3

Original structured fields

{
  "handle": null,
  "id": "jeff",
  "name": "jeff wang",
  "note": "the human thread through the windsurf saga — windsurf's head of business since may 2023, interim ceo the day google took the founders, ceo through june 2026, then 'president, new enterprise' at cognition running international expansion and government work. he recounts 'the craziest 72 hours' of the deal and notes windsurf's retained engineering core is 'maybe five or six people' amid agent-driven reorgs every two or three months. windsurf's actual founders — varun mohan and douglas chen — went to google deepmind, not cognition.",
  "role": "team",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-ci-jeffwang-linkedin",
    "src-hp-verge-google-windsurf",
    "src-ci-jeffwang-neoshow",
    "src-ci-bi-jeff-wang"
  ]
}

the cognition team · cognition-people

Original location · source-b7087effef173dc76e8b · source-be8b6d835324fdeb5dd0 · source-ba5d50b0e6617b99f04a · source-313c48bbede52f94aca9 · source-ec99b53bf820b506edaf · source-27df3738f6d00e1d02e3

Original structured fields

{
  "handle": null,
  "id": "roster",
  "name": "the cognition team",
  "note": "the extended roster and the unsigned company voice on the blog: swyx (latent space) and investors-turned-employees christian lawless (conversion capital) and emily cohen (neo) joined around the september 2025 series c; the 2026 bench added takumi masai (cognition japan), richard spence (apac, singapore), paul grewal (chief legal and global affairs, ex-coinbase), art l. (global partnerships, ex-brex), and jared palmer (vp engineering). headcount arc: ~10 at launch, an eng team of ~15 each running ~5 devins in early 2025, ~200 by late 2025 per wikipedia, 300–400 across 21 countries per linkedin.",
  "role": "team",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-series-c",
    "src-hp-cognition-blog-index",
    "src-hp-linkedin-russell-kaplan",
    "src-hp-youtube-inside-devin",
    "src-hp-wiki-cognition",
    "src-hp-linkedin-scott-wu"
  ]
}

the backers · cognition-people

Original location · source-856d19dba756f2e40d2a · source-79ec5e9da0b75457f0c9 · source-13052235e3b892362447 · source-b7087effef173dc76e8b · source-13738d4bb34d0d5cbe3a · source-95135452e691b698deda · source-b8f72565df019e81396b · source-4f98393f4bb2863a8436

Original structured fields

{
  "handle": null,
  "id": "backers",
  "name": "the backers",
  "note": "founders fund led the first three priced rounds — peter thiel personally involved at the seed — with angels elad gil, patrick and john collison, chris re, and sarah guo. 8vc led the ~$4b round with lux co-leading; lux, general catalyst, and 8vc co-led the series d; a16z and accel led the series e — andreessen's 'proud to back him for the second time' closing a lunchclub-era loop — inside a ~30-firm syndicate that includes nvidia, also a devin customer.",
  "role": "team",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-bloomberg-gold-medalist-coders",
    "src-hp-maginative-devin-launch",
    "src-hp-bloomberg-4b",
    "src-hp-cognition-series-c",
    "src-ci-cognition-seriesd",
    "src-hp-cognition-series-e",
    "src-hp-a16z-investing-cognition",
    "src-hp-siliconangle-48b"
  ]
}

agents as coworkers · cognition-themes
Original location
Original structured fields
```
{
  "text": "agents as coworkers"
}
```
competitive programming · cognition-themes
Original location
Original structured fields
```
{
  "text": "competitive programming"
}
```
context engineering · cognition-themes
Original location
Original structured fields
```
{
  "text": "context engineering"
}
```
independence · cognition-themes
Original location
Original structured fields
```
{
  "text": "independence"
}
```
intensity culture · cognition-themes
Original location
Original structured fields
```
{
  "text": "intensity culture"
}
```
labor-shaped pricing · cognition-themes
Original location
Original structured fields
```
{
  "text": "labor-shaped pricing"
}
```
software abundance · cognition-themes
Original location
Original structured fields
```
{
  "text": "software abundance"
}
```
the demo-reality gap · cognition-themes
Original location
Original structured fields
```
{
  "text": "the demo-reality gap"
}
```

introducing devin, the first ai software engineer · cognition-writings · 2024-03-12 (day)

Original location · source-6e942345a86c25645e9c · source-8290fb12466c81f73c29 · source-d5b08cd2618df929f130

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2024-03-12",
  "id": "wrt-introducing-devin",
  "kind": "essay",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-cognition-introducing-devin",
      "text": "devin is a tireless, skilled teammate, equally ready to build alongside you or independently complete tasks for you to review."
    },
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-cognition-introducing-devin",
      "text": "by solving reasoning, we can unlock new possibilities in a wide range of disciplines—code is just the beginning."
    },
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-cognition-introducing-devin",
      "text": "we even tried giving devin real jobs on upwork and it could do those too!"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-introducing-devin",
    "src-ci-itdoeswhatnow",
    "src-ci-hn-devin-launch"
  ],
  "summary": "the launch manifesto — 'the first ai software engineer,' a sandboxed shell/editor/browser, a 13.86% swe-bench claim footnoted to a 25% unassisted subset, and a 'hire devin' cta that made the labor framing literal.",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers",
    "labor-shaped pricing",
    "the demo-reality gap"
  ],
  "title": "introducing devin, the first ai software engineer",
  "traction": "viral launch tweet; hn front page the same day",
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/introducing-devin",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

devin's upwork side hustle · cognition-writings · 2024-03 (month)

Original location · source-3f9b5e2e5fe1effd917b · source-9c73def88cad94cf7359

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2024-03",
  "id": "wrt-upwork-demo",
  "kind": "video",
  "person": "walden",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-youtube-upwork-side-hustle",
    "src-ci-iob-debunk-video"
  ],
  "summary": "'devin's upwork side hustle' — the demo video walden narrated that internet of bugs later took apart frame by frame: the wrong prompt, self-generated bugs, files that didn't exist in the repo. the artifact at the center of the demo-reality gap.",
  "themes": [
    "the demo-reality gap"
  ],
  "title": "devin's upwork side hustle",
  "traction": "debunked on the hn front page, april 2024",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTS2Hz96HYQ",
  "venue": "youtube"
}

swe-bench technical report · cognition-writings · 2024-03-15 (day)

Original location · source-311698cb5ff6e5f797d3

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2024-03-15",
  "id": "wrt-swebench-report",
  "kind": "document",
  "person": "roster",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-swebench-report"
  ],
  "summary": "the swe-bench technical report — methodology (570 of 2,294 issues, unassisted) plus the eval harness and devin's edits released on github. the paper trail behind the launch number.",
  "themes": [
    "the demo-reality gap"
  ],
  "title": "swe-bench technical report",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/swe-bench-technical-report",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

devin is now generally available · cognition-writings · 2024-12-10 (day)

Original location · source-4e8db391c43558299229 · source-9612ec30cc1639e427ac · source-813b90af68d9e496e03a

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2024-12-10",
  "id": "wrt-devin-ga",
  "kind": "post",
  "person": "roster",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-ga",
    "src-hp-devin-ga-linkedin",
    "src-hp-docs-devin-2024"
  ],
  "summary": "'devin is now generally available' — $500/month flat, no seat limits, slack-primary with an ide extension and api; the '16x faster timelines' claim and the first named customers (nubank, vesta, ramp) are company-reported.",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers",
    "labor-shaped pricing"
  ],
  "title": "devin is now generally available",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/devin-generally-available",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

devin 2.0 · cognition-writings · 2025-04-03 (day)

Original location · source-6ed7f91387a09ff56fbd · source-ec3eefd6ab83a301d269

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-04-03",
  "id": "wrt-devin-2",
  "kind": "post",
  "person": "roster",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-ci-devin2",
    "src-ci-tc-devin2"
  ],
  "summary": "devin 2.0 — the agent-native ide experience, interactive planning, parallel devins, and the $20 entry plan that collapsed the $500 flat price into pay-as-you-go acus.",
  "themes": [
    "labor-shaped pricing",
    "agents as coworkers"
  ],
  "title": "devin 2.0",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/devin-2",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

deepwiki · cognition-writings · 2025-05-05 (day)

Original location · source-be8b6d835324fdeb5dd0

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-05-05",
  "id": "wrt-deepwiki",
  "kind": "post",
  "person": "roster",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-blog-index"
  ],
  "summary": "deepwiki — free ai documentation for any public github repo; the code-understanding surface that grew into devin wiki and devin search.",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers"
  ],
  "title": "deepwiki",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

don't build multi-agents · cognition-writings · 2025-06-12 (day)

Original location · source-987d0d5a21212ce0395c · source-600d5c1f97ecf2cb35d3

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-06-12",
  "id": "wrt-dont-build-multi-agents",
  "kind": "essay",
  "person": "walden",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-cognition-dont-build-multi-agents",
      "text": "share context"
    },
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-cognition-dont-build-multi-agents",
      "text": "actions carry implicit decisions"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-dont-build-multi-agents",
    "src-hp-jxnl-walden-notes"
  ],
  "summary": "the essay that popularized 'context engineering' as the discipline over prompt engineering — full-context single-threaded agents over parallel sub-agents, with the concession that the field is 'still playing with raw html & css.'",
  "themes": [
    "context engineering"
  ],
  "title": "don't build multi-agents",
  "traction": "the most-cited cognition essay; jason liu's notes circulated the talk version",
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/dont-build-multi-agents",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

cognition's acquisition of windsurf · cognition-writings · 2025-07-14 (day)

Original location · source-78d977173627564acd40 · source-e64ae4e91a2682bf66e4 · source-26a7cea1e948dbb4ed42

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-07-14",
  "id": "wrt-windsurf-memo",
  "kind": "document",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-ci-cognition-windsurf",
      "text": "100% of windsurf employees will participate financially in this deal … will have vesting cliffs waived … will receive fully accelerated vesting for their work to date."
    },
    {
      "sourceId": "src-ci-cognition-windsurf",
      "text": "there's only one boat and we're all in it together"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-ci-cognition-windsurf",
    "src-hp-cnbc-windsurf-acq",
    "src-ci-nyt-cognition-windsurf"
  ],
  "summary": "the windsurf acquisition announcement, written as wu's internal all-hands memo — the deal terms for employees made legible, the 'bricklayers to architects' thesis to the nyt, and the labor-relations promise the august buyouts would be measured against.",
  "themes": [
    "independence",
    "intensity culture"
  ],
  "title": "cognition's acquisition of windsurf",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/windsurf",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

funding, growth, and the next frontier of ai coding agents · cognition-writings · 2025-09-08 (day)

Original location · source-b7087effef173dc76e8b · source-0b3472bc3f628c8aa0ae

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-09-08",
  "id": "wrt-series-c",
  "kind": "essay",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-cognition-series-c",
      "text": "we hunkered down in a new york apartment and built the product we always wanted for ourselves."
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-series-c",
    "src-ci-tc-10b"
  ],
  "summary": "'funding, growth, and the next frontier of ai coding agents' — the definitive metrics post: devin arr $1m→$73m in nine months, lifetime net burn under $20m, >30% combined-arr growth in seven weeks post-windsurf, <5% customer overlap. all company-reported.",
  "themes": [
    "independence",
    "software abundance"
  ],
  "title": "funding, growth, and the next frontier of ai coding agents",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/funding-growth-and-the-next-frontier-of-ai-coding-agents",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

swe-1.5 · cognition-writings · 2025-10-29 (day)

Original location · source-240e34ef228fba7e2f85

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-10-29",
  "id": "wrt-swe-15",
  "kind": "post",
  "person": "roster",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-ci-cognition-swe15",
      "text": "we stopped reporting swe-bench numbers in 2024"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-ci-cognition-swe15"
  ],
  "summary": "swe-1.5 — a frontier-size in-house model at 950 tok/s via cerebras, measured on swe-bench pro. the buried lede: the company that made swe-bench famous stopped reporting it a year earlier.",
  "themes": [
    "independence",
    "the demo-reality gap"
  ],
  "title": "swe-1.5",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/swe-1-5",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

devin's 2025 performance review · cognition-writings · 2025-11-14 (day)

Original location · source-be8b6d835324fdeb5dd0

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-11-14",
  "id": "wrt-perf-review",
  "kind": "post",
  "person": "roster",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-blog-index"
  ],
  "summary": "'devin's 2025 performance review: learnings from 18 months of agents at work' — the self-evaluation format applied to the product itself, claiming deployment at 'thousands of companies.'",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers"
  ],
  "title": "devin's 2025 performance review",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

multi-agents: what's actually working · cognition-writings · 2026-04-22 (day)

Original location · source-4e2cb449c692ee4cbb77

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026-04-22",
  "id": "wrt-multi-agents-2",
  "kind": "essay",
  "person": "walden",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-multi-agents-working"
  ],
  "summary": "'multi-agents: what's actually working' — the revision: multiple agents may contribute intelligence to a task, but writes stay single-threaded. the 2025 absolutism narrowed by a year of shipping.",
  "themes": [
    "context engineering"
  ],
  "title": "multi-agents: what's actually working",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/multi-agents-working",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

more devins in more places · cognition-writings · 2026-05-27 (day)

Original location · source-13738d4bb34d0d5cbe3a · source-adf9dc361b3f4abf827e

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026-05-27",
  "id": "wrt-series-d",
  "kind": "post",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-ci-cognition-seriesd",
      "text": "at cognition, 89% of code committed by our engineers is committed by devin"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-ci-cognition-seriesd",
    "src-ci-tc-26b"
  ],
  "summary": "'more devins in more places' — the >$1b series d at $26b, the 'independent agent lab' positioning, and the engineer-hours framing that turns employees into 'executives' over an army of devins.",
  "themes": [
    "independence",
    "agents as coworkers",
    "labor-shaped pricing"
  ],
  "title": "more devins in more places",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/series-d",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

the ti-83 origin post · cognition-writings · 2026-07-08 (day)

Original location · source-19b4f0a68129d790e352

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026-07-08",
  "id": "wrt-origin-post",
  "kind": "post",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-scottwu-linkedin-post",
      "text": "i learned to program when i was nine years old, writing little programs in basic on a ti-83 calculator in baton rouge, louisiana."
    },
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-scottwu-linkedin-post",
      "text": "the ultimate form factor of software engineering was not going to be an autocomplete or a text assistant. it was going to be a full operating ai software engineer"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-scottwu-linkedin-post"
  ],
  "summary": "the linkedin origin-story post — ti-83 basic at nine, and the claim that the end state was always 'a full operating ai software engineer,' not autocomplete.",
  "themes": [
    "competitive programming",
    "agents as coworkers"
  ],
  "title": "the ti-83 origin post",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scott-wu-8b94ab96_i-learned-to-program-when-i-was-nine-years-activity-7480660748705157120-EBoW",
  "venue": "linkedin"
}

do it all with devin · cognition-writings · 2026-09-08 (day)

Original location · source-95135452e691b698deda · source-b8f72565df019e81396b

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026-09-08",
  "id": "wrt-series-e",
  "kind": "post",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-series-e",
    "src-hp-a16z-investing-cognition"
  ],
  "summary": "'do it all with devin' — the >$2b series e at $48b led by a16z and accel; andreessen's companion post repeats the 13%→90% production-code arc and notes a16z is backing wu 'for the second time.'",
  "themes": [
    "independence",
    "software abundance"
  ],
  "title": "do it all with devin",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cognition.com/blog/series-e",
  "venue": "cognition blog"
}

cognition ceo scott wu on acquiring windsurf · cognition-writings · 2025-08 (month)

Original location · source-5fce4b8ef712af0647a8

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-08",
  "id": "wrt-cheeky-pint",
  "kind": "podcast",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-cheekypint-scott-wu",
      "text": "i think we have agi"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cheekypint-scott-wu"
  ],
  "summary": "john collison's cheeky pint interview — a segment literally titled 'i think we have agi'; sixth-grade math competitions with alexandr wang, the windsurf weekend, the 'moneyball-ification of everything.'",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers",
    "competitive programming"
  ],
  "title": "cognition ceo scott wu on acquiring windsurf",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/cognition-ceo-scott-wu-on-acquiring",
  "venue": "cheeky pint"
}

scott wu on the david senra show · cognition-writings · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-68c63b32f520266d191a

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025",
  "id": "wrt-senra",
  "kind": "interview",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-davidsenra-scott-wu",
      "text": "we want to go for it all. we want to be a generational business. we want to build a hyperscaler"
    },
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-davidsenra-scott-wu",
      "text": "it's like a tree search… that's the only thing i do in my life."
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-davidsenra-scott-wu"
  ],
  "summary": "the david senra episode — the nine-person founding team of mostly-repeat-founders, the hyperscaler ambition, and the founder-as-search-algorithm self-description.",
  "themes": [
    "independence",
    "intensity culture"
  ],
  "title": "scott wu on the david senra show",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/scott-wu",
  "venue": "david senra"
}

the wu tapes · cognition-writings · 2026 (year)

Original location · source-3bccba5235030d2eeaf8

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026",
  "id": "wrt-wu-tapes",
  "kind": "interview",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "sourceId": "src-hp-colossus-wu-tapes",
      "text": "so that we can stop living in minecraft survival mode and start living in minecraft creative mode"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-colossus-wu-tapes"
  ],
  "summary": "colossus's 'the wu tapes' — the long q&a: born 1996 in his own telling, the ioi cohort that became scale, perplexity, and decagon founders, and a claimed '$445 million of revenue run rate in its first 18 months' (self-reported).",
  "themes": [
    "competitive programming",
    "software abundance"
  ],
  "title": "the wu tapes",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://colossus.com/article/scott-wu-tapes-cognition/",
  "venue": "colossus"
}

what comes after code · cognition-writings · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-23045dafe3dfe1442813

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025",
  "id": "wrt-ai-and-i",
  "kind": "podcast",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-aiandi-scott-wu"
  ],
  "summary": "every's ai & i — 'cognition's ceo on what comes after code': cs fundamentals, rl for coding agents, and the argument that 'we may already be living with agi.'",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers",
    "software abundance"
  ],
  "title": "what comes after code",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cognitions-ceo-on-what-comes-after-code/id1719789201?i=1000728258296",
  "venue": "ai & i"
}

devin writes 95% of our code · cognition-writings · 2026-07 (month)

Original location · source-d4e99535d45cddb121c8

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026-07",
  "id": "wrt-sourcery",
  "kind": "interview",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-sourcery-scott-wu"
  ],
  "summary": "the sourcery podcast at raise summit — 'devin writes ~95% of our code' (self-reported), the single-weekend windsurf negotiation, the dmv as the next target, and the origin story traced to a mongodb error in 2023.",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers",
    "intensity culture"
  ],
  "title": "devin writes 95% of our code",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.sourcery.vc/p/breaking-devin-writes-95-of-our-code",
  "venue": "sourcery"
}

inside devin · cognition-writings · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-313c48bbede52f94aca9

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025",
  "id": "wrt-inside-devin",
  "kind": "video",
  "person": "scott",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-youtube-inside-devin"
  ],
  "summary": "the 'inside devin' interview — an eng team of ~15 each running ~5 devins, a quarter of prs committed by devin then with >50% expected by year-end, the 'eight pivots' admission, and the devin name origin.",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers",
    "the demo-reality gap"
  ],
  "title": "inside devin",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI0ZNhA0rvE",
  "venue": "youtube"
}

a golden age of software engineering · cognition-writings · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-14780015e4d0a0a2d73f

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025",
  "id": "wrt-hg-kaplan",
  "kind": "podcast",
  "person": "russell",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-hg-kaplan"
  ],
  "summary": "russell kaplan on hg's orbit podcast — 'a golden age of software engineering': the software-abundance thesis, 'talent is everything,' and a business he describes as doubling every ~70 days (self-reported).",
  "themes": [
    "software abundance",
    "agents as coworkers"
  ],
  "title": "a golden age of software engineering",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://hgcapital.com/insights/orbit-podcast/a-golden-age-of-software-engineering",
  "venue": "hg orbit"
}

the 72-hour deal, retold · cognition-writings · 2026 (year)

Original location · source-539b0a8b7ff9f2726ed3

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026",
  "id": "wrt-neoshow",
  "kind": "video",
  "person": "jeff",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-ci-jeffwang-neoshow"
  ],
  "summary": "jeff wang on the neo show — the 72-hour windsurf weekend from the inside, and the agent-era org chart: reorgs every two or three months as pm/design/qa roles collapse into 'full stack engineers… talking to agents all day.'",
  "themes": [
    "agents as coworkers",
    "intensity culture"
  ],
  "title": "the 72-hour deal, retold",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNQLawiYhQE",
  "venue": "neo show"
}

the context-engineering notes · cognition-writings · 2025-07 (month)

Original location · source-600d5c1f97ecf2cb35d3

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-07",
  "id": "wrt-walden-context",
  "kind": "interview",
  "person": "walden",
  "quotes": [],
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-jxnl-walden-notes"
  ],
  "summary": "walden's context-engineering conversations — circulated mostly as other people's notes (jason liu's linkedin summary is the canonical record) rather than a talk of his own.",
  "themes": [
    "context engineering"
  ],
  "title": "the context-engineering notes",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jxnlco_notes-on-context-engineering-w-walden-yan-activity-7351256030409879553-9d5b",
  "venue": "linkedin"
}

when did cognition start · people-controversies · 2023–2026 (approximate)

Original location · source-ec99b53bf820b506edaf · source-27df3738f6d00e1d02e3 · source-856d19dba756f2e40d2a · source-3bccba5235030d2eeaf8 · source-b3da9f244aa9584c0c08

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2023–2026",
  "detail": "the founding-date drift — august 2023 (wikipedia's body, senra's notes, mungomash) versus november 2023 (wikipedia's infobox, wu's linkedin) versus 'incorporated ~january 2024' (bloomberg's launch piece) versus an outlier january 2023 fan bio. scott wu's own birth year splits 1996 (his words to colossus) versus 1997 (wikipedia).",
  "id": "cty-founding-date",
  "reaction": "the dossier keeps both dates visible rather than picking one; the working synthesis is that work began in h2 2023 and incorporation landed ~january 2024.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-wiki-cognition",
    "src-hp-linkedin-scott-wu",
    "src-hp-bloomberg-gold-medalist-coders",
    "src-hp-colossus-wu-tapes",
    "src-hp-yespress-scott-wu"
  ],
  "title": "when did cognition start"
}

the numbers are the company's own · people-controversies · 2024–2026 (approximate)

Original location · source-6e942345a86c25645e9c · source-b7087effef173dc76e8b · source-13738d4bb34d0d5cbe3a · source-d97a59e0a36eb57e28ad · source-ccff3919be8205010942 · source-733413d214aab0e38317

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2024–2026",
  "detail": "the self-reported ledger — swe-bench 13.86%, '16x faster timelines,' arr $1m→$73m→$492m→~$900m, '89–95% of code written by devin,' the productivity guarantee's own estimator, swe-1.5/2 performance — every load-bearing number is company-published. steven hao's bio is reconstructed from linkedin and speaker bios; walden yan's thiel fellowship and anysphere stint rest on community directories.",
  "id": "cty-self-reported",
  "reaction": "no external audit exists; the dossier marks each number self-reported rather than reconciling them silently.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-cognition-introducing-devin",
    "src-hp-cognition-series-c",
    "src-ci-cognition-seriesd",
    "src-ci-cognition-guarantee",
    "src-hp-successai-hao",
    "src-hp-mungomash-leadership"
  ],
  "title": "the numbers are the company's own"
}

the 80-hour memo · people-controversies · 2025-08 (month)

Original location · source-db14b6d0bdbd4eb3563f · source-518f69036b8c025b88ac · source-3778209ce50dc248dab4 · source-a5fc5101966f49dbb30f · source-cbd5ed55b3766d46dfb9

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-08",
  "detail": "the culture memo — three weeks after promising 100% financial participation and 'one boat,' cognition laid off 30 windsurf staff and offered ~200 others nine-month buyouts conditioned on six office days and 80+ hour weeks: 'we don't believe in work-life balance—building the future of software engineering is a mission we all care so deeply about that we couldn't possibly separate the two.'",
  "id": "cty-culture-memo",
  "reaction": "wu publicly owned the posture — 'many of us literally live where we work,' 'we're proud of how we work, we understand it's not for everyone' — and bi headlined it 'i live for these moments.' critics read bait-switch; wu reads filter.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-hp-theinformation-buyouts",
    "src-ci-tc-buyouts",
    "src-hp-winbuzzer-buyouts",
    "src-ci-inc-buyouts",
    "src-hp-bi-wu-moments"
  ],
  "title": "the 80-hour memo"
}