Building a magical AI code editor used by over 1 million developers in four months: The untold story of Windsurf | Varun Mohan (co-founder & CEO)

Listen to this episode from Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career on Spotify. Varun Mohan is the co-founder and CEO of Windsurf (formerly Codeium), an AI-powered development environment (IDE) that has been used by over 1 million developers in just four months and has quickly emerged as a leader in transforming how developers build software. Prior to finding success with Windsurf, the company pivoted twice—first from GPU virtualization infrastructure to an IDE plugin, and then to their own standalone IDE.In this conversation, you'll learn:Why Windsurf walked away from a profitable GPU infrastructure business and bet the company on helping engineers codeThe surprising UI discovery that tripled adoption rates overnightThe secret behind Windsurf's B2B enterprise plan, and why they invested early in an 80-person sales team despite conventional startup wisdomHow non-technical staff at Windsurf built their own custom tools instead of purchasing SaaS products, saving them over $500k in software costsWhy Varun believes 90% of code will be AI-generated, but engineering jobs will actually increaseHow training on millions of incomplete code samples gives Windsurf an edge, and creates a moat long-termWhy agency is the most undervalued and important skill in the AI era—Transcript:https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-untold-story-of-windsurf-varun-mohan—Brought to you by:⁠Brex⁠—The banking solution for startups⁠Productboard⁠—Make products that matter⁠Coda⁠—The all-in-one collaborative workspace—Where to find Varun Mohan:• X: https://x.com/_mohansolo• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/varunkmohan/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Varun’s background(03:38) The origin story of Windsurf(04:46) Pivots and challenges faced(06:01) Building and scaling Windsurf(16:31) The future of engineering and AI(22:23) Hiring philosophy and company culture(34:39) Sales strategy and market position(39:09) JetBrains vs. VS Code: extensibility and enterprise adoption(40:46) Live demo: building an Airbnb for dogs with Windsurf(42:32) Tips for using Windsurf effectively(46:01) AI’s role in code modification and review(48:40) Empowering non-developers to build custom software(53:29) The future of AI in software development(01:00:10) Windsurf’s unique team structure and product strategy(01:06:25) The importance of continuous innovation(01:10:22) Final thoughts and advice for aspiring developers—Referenced:• Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/• VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/• JetBrains: https://www.jetbrains.com/• Eclipse: https://eclipseide.org/• Visual Studio: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/• Vim: https://www.vim.org/• Emacs: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/• Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-uri-levine• IntelliJ: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/• Julia: https://julialang.org/• Parallel computing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computing• Douglas Chen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaspchen/• Carlos Delatorre on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cadelatorre/• MongoDB: https://www.mongodb.com/• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/• GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot• Llama: https://www.llama.com/• Mistral: https://mistral.ai/...References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-untold-story-of-windsurf-varun-mohan—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.