Cognition CEO Scott Wu on Building Devin, the AI Software Engineer, and the Future of Coding

At a pub over Guinness, Cognition's CEO discusses his journey from math Olympiad prodigy to creating AI that handles 30-40% of enterprise code merges.

From Math Olympiads to AI Entrepreneurship

Scott Wu traces his path from Baton Rouge to founding Cognition:

Early math dominance: Competed in national math competitions by 3rd grade after early failures fueled his drive
Unconventional education: Left high school early to work at Addepar alongside future founders like Scale AI's Alexandr Wang
IOI legacy: Won 3 gold medals in the International Olympiad in Informatics before dropping out of Harvard

The Devin Revolution: Beyond Copilot

Cognition's flagship product operates fundamentally differently from traditional coding assistants:

Asynchronous workflow: Engineers delegate tasks via Slack/Jira ("@Devin, buy whiteboards") rather than co-editing code
Enterprise adoption: Processes 30-40% of pull requests at clients like Goldman Sachs and Citi
Real-world problem solving: Handles tedious tasks like dependency upgrades and Kubernetes fixes

"Devin uniquely focuses on the messiness of real-world software engineering - not just syntax, but migrations, debugging, and workflow integration."

The Economics of AI Agents

Wu sees profound shifts in how AI will interact with business infrastructure:

Current Model	Agent-Driven Future
Per-seat SaaS pricing	Usage-based billing (compute/task)
Manual e-commerce	Delegated purchasing (e.g., "Order whiteboards")
Bot-blocking protocols	Reputation-attributed agent access

The Windsurf Acquisition: A 72-Hour Drama

Cognition's lightning-fast acquisition exemplified startup agility:

Friday: Team learns of Google's Windsurf deal via Twitter
Saturday: Cold outreach to Windsurf leadership, handshake deal
Sunday: All-night legal negotiations
Monday 9 AM: Deal signed, team addressed, announcement filmed

The Future of Software Engineering

Wu predicts fundamental shifts in developer workflows within 2-4 years:

Decline of direct coding: Engineers will architect systems through natural language vs. writing code
Democratization explosion: More software engineers, not fewer, as barriers to creation lower
New hiring benchmarks: Cognition evaluates candidates by having them build an AI agent in 8 hours

"We'll stop using code as the main interface. Making architectural decisions won't require looking at implementation details - just like we don't read assembly today."

The Math Prodigy's Edge

Wu's competition background shapes Cognition's culture:

Problem-solving frameworks: Approaches AI development like complex math proofs
Team composition: 21 of 35 early team members were former founders
Real-time computation: Still demonstrates mental math prowess (e.g., calculating 6843 from random cards)

id: 01990aa622a07071999bd3151224e212

popular textlized insights

Is China Heading Toward a "Lost Decades" Scenario? Deflation, Property Crisis, and Consumer Gloom