Welcome to First Block, a Notion series where founders from the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience.
In this episode, we spoke with Michael Truell, Co-founder and CEO of Cursor, an AI code editor that has gone from side project to one of the fastest-growing AI tools in the developer world in under a year.
Michael shares why they started with a solution in search of a problem, ignored conventional advice, and focused obsessively on product over everything else. From a 4-person founding team to hiring just one person every few months, their unorthodox path laid the foundation for breakout growth.
For video, transcripts, and custom Notion Cursor templates, please visit: https://ntn.so/2yr1lw
To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/9ipiek
Timestamps
00:00: Intro
02:18: The original spark and false start in mechanical engineering
05:53: The pivot moment to developer tools
06:45: The decision to fork VS Code
08:45: Building AI-native coding tools and the balance between speed and control
12:24: Cursor's explosive growth trajectory
13:41: Early mistakes and lessons learned
14:16: Hiring philosophy and building the first team
17:08: Internal tools and operational philosophy
19:01: Maintaining focus in a hyper-fast environment
20:53: Advice for founders building in the AI era
