Latest news with #JeffWang
Business Insider
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
New Windsurf CEO Jeff Wang recounts a frantic weekend of dealmaking to save the startup: 'I was on the verge of tears'
In the ultra-competitive world of artificial intelligence, dealmaking sometimes must be a frantic, around-the-clock affair. The recent deal between AI startup Windsurf and Cognition, which took place over a single weekend sprint, was no exception. To sum it up: The industry's most successful AI startup, OpenAI, was initially set to acquire Windsurf, which makes an AI coding assistant, in a $3 billion deal. But the deal fell through, and Google swooped in to hire away its CEO and some of its top executives. That left the company's remaining executives scrambling to figure out what to do next and to break the news to the company's 250 employees, who were anticipating a windfall from the OpenAI deal. "It was my job to explain to the company our path forward," Windsurf's new CEO, Jeff Wang, wrote in a post on X. Wang was formerly the company's head of business. He had planned to discuss the options — fundraising from VCs, selling the company to someone else, distributing remaining cash, or just keeping it going. "The mood was very bleak," Wang wrote. "Some people were upset about financial outcomes or colleagues leaving, while others were worried about the future. A few were in tears." Later that day, a ray of light emerged. Wang said Cognition cofounder Scott Wu, and its president, Russell Kaplan, reached out. They wanted what was left of Windsurf. Cognition makes the AI coding agent Devin, which it calls "the first AI software engineer." It is valued at $4 billion, coming off a $120 million funding round in March, according to PitchBook. Wang saw the melding of the company's products as a potential win-win. "Devin would benefit from a foreground synchronous agent, while we needed a remote asynchronous agent," he wrote. Added to that, he was excited about both companies sharing talent. The dealmaking kicked off immediately. They brought in lawyers and spent all weekend hashing it out. In just over 24 hours, they had signed a letter of intent, the first step. A key part of the deal was prioritizing Windsurf employees — ensuring payouts, waiving cliffs, and accelerating equity vesting, Wang said. Lawyers pored over the deal all day Sunday, and by Monday morning, it was finalized. One lawyer called the deal "one of the fastest" they had ever seen, Wang wrote. When the deal was at last announced to Windsurf's employees Monday morning, Wang said they celebrated. "The applause from our people seemed to last forever, and I was on the verge of tears myself," Wang said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Windsurf CEO opens up about ‘very bleak' mood before Cognition deal
Days after AI coding startup Windsurf announced that it's being acquired by Cognition, Windsurf startup Jeff Wang took to X to offer more details about the drama and uncertainty around the deal. Windsurf was previously reported to be in acquisition talks with OpenAI, but that deal fell apart, with Google DeepMind instead hiring the startup's CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some of its top researchers. Google would reportedly license Windsurf's technology as part of the $2.4 billion deal — but not take an equity stake in the company. This looked like the latest in the trend of 'reverse acquihires,' in which large tech companies seek to avoid antitrust scrutiny by hiring key startup team members and licensing their technology, rather than acquiring startups outright. But what happens to the startups and the employees who get left behind? As we discussed on the latest episode of Equity, one startup founder compared the departing Windsurf executives to a captain abandoning his crew aboard a sinking ship. Wang, who had been Windsurf's head of business, became the company's interim CEO after Mohan's departure. In his post on X, he offered some sympathy to Mohan and Chen, who he described as ' great founders' in a situation that 'must have been difficult for them as well.' Still, Wang recounted an all-hands meeting on Friday, June 11, where most team members were expecting to hear about the OpenAI acquisition. Instead, he had to share the news about the Google deal and resulting departures. 'The mood was very bleak,' Wang said. 'Some people were upset about financial outcomes or colleagues leaving, while others were worried about the future. A few were in tears, and the Q&A had been understandably hostile.' In Wang's view, although the company 'had lost some great people and taken a serious blow to morale,' it still had 'all of our IP, product, and strong talent including an excellent [go-to-market] machine.' So Windsurf could still try to raise more money, sell, or just keep going. That evening, however, Wang heard from Cognition executives Scott Wu and Russell Kaplan, and he said Windsurf leadership 'took the Cognition approach very seriously from the start and launched right into negotiations.' In his telling, what followed was a frantic weekend of discussions with Cognition, while considering inbound interest from other potential acquirers and meeting with Windsurf's remaining engineers to convince them not to leave. (And as all that was happening, 'the timeline was exploding with memes and commentary.') The two companies were a good fit, Wang argued, in part because of complementary teams. 'While they had overinvested in engineering, they had frankly underinvested in GTM and Marketing, and our teams in those functions are nothing short of world class,' he said. 'On the other hand, we now were missing a Core Engineering team, and there's no better group of AI engineers than the lineup Cognition has assembled.' Plus, Wang said he and Wu (pictured together above) were aligned on the need to 'take care of all Windsurf employees.' 'That resulted in a key part of the deal: structuring it to give a payout to every employee, to waive all cliffs, and to accelerate all vesting for Windsurf equity,' he said. The acquisition agreement was apparently signed at 9:30am on Monday morning, announced to the team shortly afterwards at another all-hands, then announced to the public shortly after that. In an interview with Bloomberg, Wang described that Friday all-hands as 'probably the worst day of 250 people's lives,' followed Monday by 'probably the best day.'
TechCrunch
4 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Windsurf CEO opens up about ‘very bleak' mood before Cognition deal
Days after AI coding startup Windsurf announced that it's being acquired by Cognition, Windsurf startup Jeff Wang took to X to offer more details about the drama and uncertainty around the deal. Windsurf was previously reported to be in acquisition talks with OpenAI, but that deal fell apart, with Google DeepMind instead hiring the startup's CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some of its top researchers. Google would reportedly license Windsurf's technology as part of the $2.4 billion deal — but not take an equity stake in the company. This looked like the latest in the trend of 'reverse acquihires,' in which large tech companies seek to avoid antitrust scrutiny by hiring key startup team members and licensing their technology, rather than acquiring startups outright. But what happens to the startups and the employees who get left behind? As we discussed on the latest episode of Equity, one startup founder compared the departing Windsurf executives to a captain abandoning his crew aboard a sinking ship. Wang, who had been Windsurf's head of business, became the company's interim CEO after Mohan's departure. In his post on X, he offered some sympathy to Mohan and Chen, who he described as ' great founders' in a situation that 'must have been difficult for them as well.' Still, Wang recounted an all-hands meeting on Friday, June 11, where most team members were expecting to hear about the OpenAI acquisition. Instead, he had to share the news about the Google deal and resulting departures. 'The mood was very bleak,' Wang said. 'Some people were upset about financial outcomes or colleagues leaving, while others were worried about the future. A few were in tears, and the Q&A had been understandably hostile.' Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW In Wang's view, although the company 'had lost some great people and taken a serious blow to morale,' it still had 'all of our IP, product, and strong talent including an excellent [go-to-market] machine.' So Windsurf could still try to raise more money, sell, or just keep going. That evening, however, Wang heard from Cognition executives Scott Wu and Russell Kaplan, and he said Windsurf leadership 'took the Cognition approach very seriously from the start and launched right into negotiations.' In his telling, what followed was a frantic weekend of discussions with Cognition, while considering inbound interest from other potential acquirers and meeting with Windsurf's remaining engineers to convince them not to leave. (And as all that was happening, 'the timeline was exploding with memes and commentary.') The two companies were a good fit, Wang argued, in part because of complementary teams. 'While they had overinvested in engineering, they had frankly underinvested in GTM and Marketing, and our teams in those functions are nothing short of world class,' he said. 'On the other hand, we now were missing a Core Engineering team, and there's no better group of AI engineers than the lineup Cognition has assembled.' Plus, Wang said he and Wu (pictured together above) were aligned on the need to 'take care of all Windsurf employees.' 'That resulted in a key part of the deal: structuring it to give a payout to every employee, to waive all cliffs, and to accelerate all vesting for Windsurf equity,' he said. The acquisition agreement was apparently signed at 9:30am on Monday morning, announced to the team shortly afterwards at another all-hands, then announced to the public shortly after that. In an interview with Bloomberg, Wang described that Friday all-hands as 'probably the worst day of 250 people's lives,' followed Monday by 'probably the best day.'
Bloomberg
15-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Cognition AI Buys Windsurf After Google Licensing Deal
Windsurf CEO Jeff Wang says the company's deal with Cognition AI was a great outcome for employees. Wang joins Cognition CEO Scott Wu speaking with Ed Ludlow on 'Bloomberg Tech.' (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cognition AI to acquire Windsurf
Cognition AI, a San Francisco-based AI company, has signed an agreement to acquire Windsurf, an AI code generation company, for an undisclosed price. The transaction covers Windsurf's intellectual property, product line, brand, and business operations. It also includes the California-based company's engineering, product, and go-to-market teams. According to Cognition AI, Windsurf brings $82m in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and a customer base of more than 350 enterprises, along with hundreds of thousands of daily active users. Windsurf's enterprise ARR, which comes through its integrated development environment (IDE) platform, is claimed to have been doubling quarter-on-quarter. The company will continue to operate as before in the immediate term. Over the coming months, Cognition AI plans to integrate Windsurf's IDE platform and technology into its own products, including its autonomous software engineering agent, Devin. Windsurf interim CEO Jeff Wang, in an email to employees, wrote: 'Among all the teams in the AI space, Cognition was literally the one we have respected the most, and they are a perfect fit to bring Windsurf to the next phase.' Cognition AI expects that combining Devin's existing adoption with Windsurf's IDE platform and go-to-market infrastructure will enable it to scale faster in enterprise software engineering. The acquisition follows a separate licensing deal that was reported recently between Google and Windsurf. This agreement, reportedly worth $2.4bn, does not involve ownership, and allows Google to use specific Windsurf technologies to advance its AI coding initiatives. Windsurf's former CEO Varun Mohan and co-founder Douglas Chen have joined Google's DeepMind division to work on agentic coding projects, including the Gemini programme. Jeff Wang remains interim CEO at Windsurf, with Graham Moreno as president. Most of the company's workforce will stay, focusing on enterprise customers. Windsurf was valued at $1.25bn a year ago, according to PitchBook. The company has raised $243m from investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks, and General Catalyst. In June 2025, reports surfaced that Windsurf had held acquisition talks with OpenAI, which could have valued the company at $3bn. A month prior to that, Windsurf had launched the SWE-1 family of AI models aimed at expanding software engineering automation beyond code generation, thereby positioning itself in frontier model development for software-related tasks. "Cognition AI to acquire Windsurf" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
