In this interview, Harry Stebbings interviews Varun Mohan, CEO of Windsurf, about the challenges and strategies in building a successful startup. Varun discusses the importance of being open to pivoting from initial ideas, as his company did with GPU virtualization, and balancing irrational optimism with uncompromising realism. He emphasizes the need for speed and continuous innovation, even at the cost of cannibalizing existing revenue streams, and the value of being first to market to learn faster. Varun shares insights on product development, the role of AI in software engineering, and the future of the industry, including the potential convergence of tools for developers and non-developers. He also touches on the importance of focus, the limitations of remote work, and the evolving nature of moats in a world of rapid technological change.
