Michael Truell

The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO)

Source 2162025-05-0113,365 words

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Opening
Michael Truell (00:00:00): ... our goal with Cursor is to invent a new type of programming, a very different way to build software. So a world kind of after code, I think that more and more being an engineer will start to feel like being a logic designer, and really, it will be about specifying your intent for how exactly you want everything to work. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:16): What is the most counter-intuitive thing you've learned so far about building Cursor?...

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Low-ego framing
Michael Truell (00:00:20): We definitely didn't expect to be doing any of our own model development. And at this point, every magic moment in...

Uses we/us, uncertainty, or learner framing instead of performing authority.

Accept praise cleanly
Michael Truell (00:04:30): Thank you. It's great to be here. Thank you for having me. Lenny Rachitsky (00:04:33): When we were chatting earlier, you...

Accepts praise without shrinking from it or turning it into a performance.

Low-ego framing
Michael Truell (00:49:04): Yes. For the past f...

Uses we/us, uncertainty, or learner framing instead of performing authority.

Accept praise cleanly
Lenny Rachitsky (01:10:41): Easy. Michael, thank you so much for being here. This was incredible. Michael Truell (01:10:44): It was wonderful. Thank you. Lenny...

Accepts praise without shrinking from it or turning it into a performance.

Ending
these books behind you, and I was like, "What's that over there?" It's the history of some old computer company that was influential in a lot of ways that I've never heard of. And I think that says a lot about you of, where a lot of this innovation comes from, is studying the past, and study history, and what's worked and what hasn't. Lenny Rachitsky (01:10:19): Okay. Where can folks find you online if they want to reach out and maybe apply?...

The ending hands attention back to the guest's work instead of ending on the host.