Varun Mohan’s Insights from Windsurf’s Acquisition: What Founders Get Wrong AI

arun Mohan, CEO and Co-Founder of Windsurf, the leading AI-native IDE with over a million users and powering more than 50% of committed software across thousands of companies, recently shared his insights on AI, entrepreneurship, and the delicate balance of innovation in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.

In a candid conversation, Mohan unpacked the myths and realities of being "in love" with your ideas, the importance of speed in pivoting, and how Windsurf is shaping the future of software development.

Below, we dive into his perspective, highlighting key quotes and lessons for founders, developers, and enterprises alike.

The Myth of Falling in Love with Your Idea

One of the most striking themes from Mohan’s discussion is the tension between passion and pragmatism in entrepreneurship. Conventional wisdom often glorifies the relentless pursuit of a single idea, but Mohan challenges this notion with a more nuanced perspective.

“Never be too in love with your ideas.”

Mohan argues that founders must hold two seemingly contradictory mindsets: irrational optimism to fuel their drive and uncompromising realism to stay grounded.

“It requires these two almost counter beliefs in your head: irrational optimism because if you don’t have any optimism at all, you won’t do anything... and uncompromising realism.

Every single day you need to be asking, ‘Do we have a reason to exist?’ And if the answer is not really, you need to change your mind really fast and reorient the entire company.”

This duality is critical in the fast-paced world of startups, where clinging to a failing idea can spell disaster. Mohan reflects on Windsurf’s own journey, admitting that the company pivoted multiple times—most notably from GPU virtualization to a code AI company. He wishes they had acted on market signals sooner.

“I still beat myself over the head on why we did not pivot from the GPU virtualization to the code AI company three months earlier. We had the signals, but we waited until the companies we were working with were starting to go belly up.”

This lesson underscores a key takeaway for founders: speed in recognizing and acting on market shifts is as important as the initial idea itself. Waiting too long, even by a few months, can mean missing critical opportunities.

The Power of Being First (and Learning Fast)

In an era where the “time to clone” a product is shorter than ever, Mohan emphasizes the strategic advantage of being first to market—not for the sake of bragging rights, but for the learning it enables.

“Being first does two things. It’s a signal of how you’re running the company... Companies that are first to a new paradigm are willing to disrupt themselves. And second, it allows you to learn faster.”

Being first means you encounter the market’s feedback loops sooner, uncovering pitfalls and opportunities that competitors might miss. For Windsurf, this meant iterating on early beta products, like a code review tool that initially fell short but informed a more successful release later.

“We shipped a beta version of a code review product last year... We tried a bunch of things internally, and none of them felt quite right. A couple of weeks ago, we shipped a code review product that feels much better and is providing a lot more value because of all the failed attempts we made last year.”

This iterative approach, grounded in learning from failures, allowed Windsurf to refine its offerings and stay ahead in the competitive code AI space. Mohan also highlights the compounding advantage of early market entry:

“If you’re first, you get to learn from the market faster, and that means you’re first to the next idea too.”

Windsurf’s Mission: Empowering Developers and Beyond

Windsurf’s core focus is making engineers 10x more productive, but an unexpected outcome has been its appeal to non-developers. Mohan shared a remarkable example of a non-technical team member using Windsurf to build internal tools, saving the company over $500,000 in sales tool costs.

“We have someone who’s a non-developer who leads partnerships that has used our product and built apps to replace over $500,000 of sales tool spend internally.”

This highlights a broader opportunity: AI-native tools like Windsurf are democratizing software development, enabling non-technical users to create bespoke solutions. However, Mohan is clear that Windsurf’s primary focus remains on developers working with large codebases, with non-developer use cases as a valuable byproduct.

“We are focused on making engineers 10x better, and a consequence of that is enabling the normal person to be an engineer.”

This focus drives Windsurf’s product development, which prioritizes ruthless experimentation. Mohan admits that over 50% of their internal projects fail, but this failure rate is a feature, not a bug.

“The one thing that works pays for the hundreds of things that fail... I would like to fail even more.”

The Enterprise Edge and the Future of AI

With over 50% of Windsurf’s usage coming from enterprise clients, Mohan sheds light on what large organizations value in AI-driven tools. Enterprises, particularly those with legacy systems like Java, prioritize reliability, scalability, and integration with existing workflows. Windsurf’s ability to operate over large codebases and process hundreds of billions of tokens daily sets it apart.

“A couple of weeks ago, we shipped a model comparable to frontier models at the agentic workload. It’s faster, cheaper, and capable of operating over a large codebase... It processes hundreds of billions of tokens of code a day.”

Looking ahead, Mohan is optimistic about the exponential pace of AI improvement. He predicts significant advancements in AI agents’ capabilities within months, particularly in their ability to interact with internal systems at scale.

“In six months, what is capable of these models is going to be very different... People underestimate the speed at which these things improve.”

Advice for Founders: Focus, Speed, and Problem-Solving

Mohan’s advice to founders is rooted in focus and agility. He believes startups succeed not by doing many things well, but by excelling at one thing.

“Companies don’t succeed because they do many things well. They succeed because they do one thing really well... Ruthless focus is the only thing that matters.”

This focus extends to pivoting decisively when an idea isn’t working. Mohan advocates for “going cold turkey” on old ideas to fully commit to new ones, even if it means tough conversations with investors and customers.

“If you can go cold turkey and make your organization completely work on the new thing, you’re more likely to succeed.”

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Mohan emphasizes problem-solving as a core skill, rooted in computer science principles.

“Computer science is just the study of problem-solving... Can you break apart a problem into its distinct pieces and execute on them?”

The Silicon Valley Advantage

Mohan also touches on the resurgence of Silicon Valley’s collaborative spirit, emphasizing the “unfair advantage” of in-person teams. The ability to rally a team instantly accelerates decision-making and pivoting, critical in a fast-moving industry.

“It’s an unfair advantage on speed... You should be able to pivot extremely fast and marshal everyone at the company as quickly as possible.”

Looking Ahead

Varun Mohan’s journey with Windsurf offers a masterclass in balancing optimism with realism, learning from failure, and staying laser-focused on what matters. As AI continues to reshape software development, Windsurf is poised to lead by empowering developers and unlocking new possibilities for enterprises and non-technical users alike.

For founders, Mohan’s message is clear: don’t fall too in love with your idea...