One of the most important and innovative players in the tech industry, Windsurf, this week announced its takeover by Cognition. This is no small change for the company to make—especially during a period of such uncertainty. Jeff Wang, Windsurf’s chief of business, recently took over as the interim CEO following Varun Mohan’s exit. He provided effective insights to set the emotional landscape during interim period before the deal was done.
The acquisition agreement was signed at 9:30 AM on Monday morning. A few months later, Windsurf leadership told the team about the acquisition. The announcement became official soon after. It sparked the revolutionary, do-it-yourself mood that has taken over Windsurf lately.
Just recently, Wang elaborated on X (formerly Twitter) about the vibe at Windsurf before the acquisition. He painted the picture as “pretty bleak. He said the company is focused on transparency, especially after losing its own chapter of such conversations with OpenAI to the Public Benefit Corporation. This blow further contributed to an atmosphere of insecurity that coursed through the organization.
“Probably the worst day of 250 people’s lives.” – Jeff Wang
Wang went on to emphasize that Windsurf has recently lost critical leadership like those aforementioned Mohan and co-founder Douglas Chen to Google DeepMind. The non-profit definitely still has valuable IP, incredible talent, and a powerful go-to-market strategy to protect. He explained that the company had, at times, over-rotated on investing in engineering. At the same time, it had massively underinvested in marketing and go-to-market strategies.
“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.” – Jeff Wang
The transition to Cognition seems to have been approached with all due reverence by Windsurf’s upper command. Wang said when executives Scott Wu and Russell Kaplan called him, it necessitated immediate discussions with Cognition. The proactive, third-way approach taken by Windsurf’s leadership is an example of their commitment to sailing through rough waters.
While many have welcomed the acquisition as opening exciting new possibilities, it is viewed as a double-edged sword. Stalwart design and production team at Cognition makes great new opportunities to collaborate and share tools and resources. Celebrating this new progress highlights the tremendous loss of visionary leadership and talent that nurtured Windsurf’s distinct spirit and identity.
“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.” – Jeff Wang
Windsurf has faced tremendous obstacles in recent weeks. The loss of top executives and researchers has been a crushing blow to morale. Wang remains optimistic about the future. He recognized, though, that this was a tough situation for both Mohan and Chen, while thanking both of them for leaving as “great founders.”
The Cognition acquisition is an important inflection point for Windsurf. The firm faces the prospects of an exhilarating new chapter. It will play to all of its notable strengths and fit perfectly into Cognition’s deep, rich, creative ecosystem. It’s clear the next few months will be critical as Windsurf charts its course ahead under this new ownership.
