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Windsurf former CEO Mohan, made a villain in the startup world
Windsurf, in spite of Mohan and Chen's abrupt exit, managed to secure a last-minute acquisition by another AI firm, Cognition.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Wed, 23, Jul 2025
- 02:27 EDT
- 23
Varun Mohan / X/@Varun Mohan
Former Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan's recent move to Google has drawn sharp reactions from the social media community.
The Indian-origin CEO, Mohan and Windsurf co-founder Douglas Chen moved to Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence division after a reported tug-of-war with OpenAI, which was hoping to acquire Windsurf.The move came as a shock to not just the general public but also to the insiders of Windsurf. Windsurf's new CEO, Jeff Wang, described the whole ordeal as "crazy".
Windsurf, in spite of Mohan and Chen's abrupt exit, managed to secure a last-minute acquisition by another AI firm, Cognition.
ALSO READ: Google hires Windsurf CEO and researchers to advance AI ambitions
Cognition's CEO Scott Wu also bashed Mohan and Chen and said, "There's an unspoken covenant that as a founder, you go down with the ship. For better or worse, it's changed a bit over the last year and I think it's disappointing, to be honest."
“There's an unspoken covenant that as a founder, you go down with the ship.
— Harry Stebbings (@HarryStebbings) July 18, 2025
For better or worse, it's changed a bit over the last year and I think it's disappointing, to be honest.”
Enough said. This show is everything and more on:
- What really happened behind the scenes
-… pic.twitter.com/qaY7MVwgIy
Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla described Mohan and Chen's move as "bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind"
Talking about Mohan and Chen, Khosla added, "I definitely would not work with their founders next time."
So true. Windsurf and others are really bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind and not even sharing the proceeds with their team. I definitely would not work with their founders next time. https://t.co/SBjxB4Pqgs
— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) July 19, 2025
Wang, the new Windsurf CEO described the whole scenario in detail, on X. Describing what happened, Wang said, "To put it mildly, the past week at Windsurf has been crazy."
Taking a more neutral stance, he came to the defence of the founders and said, "I just want to say that Varun and Douglas were great founders and this company meant a lot to them, and it should be acknowledged that this whole situation must have been difficult for them as well."
He also provided clarity about what went down and narrated that after an all-hands meeting where employees expected an OpenAI acquisition but were informed of Mohan and Chen's exit, Windsurf faced uncertainty. It received an unexpected merger offer from Cognition on the same day and after rapid negotiations, Cognition acquired Windsurf in a record-time deal, ensuring payouts and accelerated vesting for all employees.
To put it mildly, the past week at Windsurf has been crazy. There have been a lot of different rumors and reports, so I want to share a transparent account of how it actually went down.
— Jeff Wang (@jeffwsurf) July 19, 2025
Before I start, I just want to say that Varun and Douglas were great founders and this…
The internet was largely against Mohan with a twitter user going as far as describing him as a "generational villain."
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