a16z Podcast | Michael Truell: How Cursor Builds at the Speed of AI

Date: November 10, 2025
Guest: Michael Truell, CEO of Cursor
Host/Interviewer: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z Podcast Team)

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the meteoric rise of Cursor, the AI-powered developer tool that has grown to become a major player in software engineering. Host(s) from a16z and CEO Michael Truell discuss Cursor’s origins, their philosophy of product focus over hype, how the company deals with unprecedented scale, rigor in hiring and talent strategy, lessons from rapid M&A activity, and the philosophical challenge of building disruption with software that's also subject to disruption.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cursor’s Origin Story and Early Focus

Timestamp: 01:56 – 05:31

• Cursor’s founding stemmed from two main inspirations: the realization that practical, useful AI products (notably GitHub Copilot) were finally possible, and the “scaling laws” that suggested models would continue to improve even without tons of new ideas.
• The initial plan wasn’t always to build coding tools. The founders tried first in 3D mechanical engineering, but quickly realized their lack of domain expertise and the difficulty in getting AI models to work for CAD use cases.
  • “It was a bad idea. The founder-market fit was horrible… I wish in the six, seven months we were working on that, we had just gone and been interns at a company to really learn the space.” – Michael Truell [03:47]
• Pivoted to programming, where their own experience gave them the edge for intuition and product sense.

2. Why Focus > Hype in Early AI Product Success

Timestamp: 04:43 – 09:13

• Early competitors took a “science fiction” approach: trying to make generalist “agent” software engineers, building their own models, rewriting editors, etc.
• Cursor deliberately stayed narrowly focused, improving on the VS Code Copilot experience and building quickly for real users.
  • “We just tried to get something out as fast as possible… The commitment device for us was actually the monthly investor update, which probably no one read at the time.” – Michael Truell [06:46]
• Cursor didn’t broaden to support every platform right away, choosing instead to “own the surface” (the code editor) and serve it exceptionally well.
  • “People just thought it was very weird to do an editor... They said you can't get people to switch their code editor... Which we knew was wrong because we had switched to VS code because of Copilot.” – Michael Truell [08:30]

3. Living and Surviving Extreme Scale

Timestamp: 09:13 – 14:55

• Cursor scaled at a breakneck pace, beating cloud providers’ capacity and quickly accounting for a high double-digit percent of major API providers’ revenue.
  • “I don't think the API providers really knew what to make of us... These four 20-somethings and their thing now comprises a really high double-digit percent of their API revenue.” – Michael Truell [12:01]
• Faced both technical and relational challenges:
  • Building complex systems (e.g., file syncing, AI search within Cursor)
  • Stressed cloud infrastructure (large Kubernetes clusters, database scaling, failures)
  • Strategic sourcing of API tokens from multiple providers (“hunting all the sonnet tokens in the world”) to maintain resilience.
  • “We got very good at hunting out all the sonnet tokens that exist in the world.” – Michael Truell [12:42]
• Remained multi-cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, Vercel, PlanetScale) for redundancy, performance, and leveraging best-in-class providers for each subsystem.

4. Deliberate Expansion: From Single Product to AI Suite

Timestamp: 14:55 – 16:54

• While the company is still highly disciplined about focus, Truell acknowledges the future demands a multi-product suite (“the AI coding bundle”).
• The core remains the editor, but newer features (like Bugbot, CLI, collaborative tools) are deliberately selected to synergize and cross-sell rather than dilute attention.
  • “I do think we're going to need to be a multi-product company going into the future. I think there’s a big multi-product opportunity in our space... We want to be for many of our customers, the AI coding provider for them.” – Michael Truell [15:27]

5. Recruiting and Talent: The ‘Infamous Two-Day Work Trial’

Timestamp: 17:00 – 20:44

• Cursor’s rigorous hiring process includes a two-day in-person project trial, even now at >200 people. Candidates are given real, ambiguous tasks to solve on either the engineering or design teams (and, initially, even sales).
  • “Everyone who gets hired on the ENG team and the design team spends two days in office and they work on a project. And it's very free form… Here's a desk, here's a laptop, here's three projects you could work on… Just go do it.” – Michael Truell [18:02]
• This trial serves three purposes:
  1. Pure technical signal: Can they ship autonomously in a real codebase?
  2. Product & culture: Do they fit the tight, product-focused environment? Are they fun to be around?
  3. Mutual fit: Candidates see the full company/reality before accepting, leading to high offer acceptance rates.

6. M&A as a Talent and Product Lever in Early-Stage AI Startups

Timestamp: 21:13 – 24:05

• Contrary to traditional advice (“startups shouldn’t buy startups”), Cursor aggressively uses acqui-hires and tuck-in acquisitions to bring on top talent and supplement product.
  • “In our case, it's been consistent with an approach of do anything possible to get the most talented people.” – Michael Truell [21:34]
• Notable example: Acquiring Super Maven (founded by a Copilot and OpenAI veteran), a strategic fit on both technical and human levels, showing how relationship-driven M&A has net positive compounding effects.

7. The Ouroboros Question: Disrupting with Disruptible Software

Timestamp: 24:08 – 26:20

• Truell reflects on the philosophical nature of building disruptive AI tools in a world where AI will continuously transform the very foundation they are built upon.
  • “Despite the headlines, despite how much demand there is in this market and how much software has changed for the last few years … It's so far away from being automated 100%... There's a really long, messy middle.” – Michael Truell [25:07]
  • Cursor’s approach is to stay nimble, accept that the business model and product must constantly reinvent to stay ahead, and aim to “build the iPod and then the iPhone moments” in software development itself.

Notable Quotes

• On product focus:
  “We just tried to get something out as fast as possible and start to get some momentum... The monthly investor update was the commitment device for us.” – Michael Truell [06:46]
• On the myth that developers don’t switch editors:
  “People said you can't get people to switch their code editor…Which we knew was wrong because we had switched to VS code because of Copilot.” – Michael Truell [08:30]
• On handling unprecedented scale:
  “Turns out these tokens, these API tokens, you can get them for the same model for many providers ... We got very good at hunting out all the sonnet tokens that exist in the world.” – Michael Truell [12:42]
• On hiring rigor:
  “Everyone who gets hired spends two days in office and works on a project. It gives us a lot of signal on the raw technical skills needed… The other thing it does for us is also functioning as a culture interview.” – Michael Truell [18:02]
• On startup M&A:
  “It’s been consistent with an approach of do anything possible to get the most talented people… if there’s the right fit with the right set of founders, we’d love to join up with them.” – Michael Truell [21:34]
• On the ‘Ouroboros’ paradox:
  “It's a challenge. It's one of the nice things about the physics of the space, too, because I think it's one of the things that makes it pretty tricky for Microsoft to really compete in a big way.” – Michael Truell [26:12]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction and Cursor’s Product Philosophy: 00:36 – 05:31
• Deliberate Focus vs. Sci-Fi Hype: 04:43 – 09:13
• Scaling Pains and Platform Limitations: 09:13 – 14:55
• Multi-Product and Strategic Roadmap: 14:55 – 16:54
• Recruiting, Hiring Process, and Team Building: 17:00 – 20:44
• M&A and Growth Strategy: 21:13 – 24:05
• The Challenge of Disrupting with Disruptible Software (Ouroboros): 24:08 – 26:20

Memorable Moments

• The “Cursor’s down” anecdote: A user tracked down the office and held up an iPad to the window as a protest when the service momentarily went down due to scaling issues. [09:13]
• The aggressive, borderline “headhunting” approach to recruiting top talent, including literally flying across the world and staging meetings to court unwilling candidates. [21:34]
• The “two day work trial” not only survived but became folklore at Cursor, setting them apart in recruiting even amid rapid scaling. [18:02]

Takeaways

Cursor’s story is a playbook for AI-native startups breaking conventional wisdom:

• Prioritize fast iteration and real value over far-future AI hype.
• Own your core workflow’s “surface” and expand from strength.
• Plan to outgrow your infrastructure—and your partners.
• Use unconventional but effective recruiting/assessment methods for world-class hires.
• Don’t be afraid to use M&A as a strategic and cultural advantage.
• Embrace the paradox of building the disruptor that could one day disrupt itself.

Cursor’s willingness to question tech startup dogma, paired with executional rigor, is a central reason for its rapid—and resilient—success.