Y Combinator Startup Podcast Michael Truell: Building Cursor at 23, Taking on GitHub Copilot, and Advice to Engineering Students
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Sep 3, 2025 
Michael Truell, the 25-year-old co-founder of Cursor, dives into the exciting world of AI coding. He shares valuable lessons learned from failed ventures and stresses the enduring importance of programming. Truell explains how Cursor is boldly challenging GitHub Copilot with its innovative approach. He also elaborates on the journey of developing Cursor, including feedback-driven improvements and rapid user growth, highlighting the transformative potential of AI in software development.
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How Programming Started
- Michael Truell learned programming by building simple mobile games after teaching himself Objective-C over winter break.
- That early persistence led him to buy books, keep learning, and ship mobile apps despite peers dropping out.
Teen Robot Experiments
- As a teen Michael and a friend built small robots and implemented tiny neural networks for microcontrollers.
- They taught robots tasks with few noisy samples and built a ping-pong–playing arm and a line-following robot.
Early CAD Co‑Pilot Attempt
- In 2021–2022 the founders tried multiple AI projects, including a CAD co‑pilot that required scraping diverse CAD file formats.
- They spent months on data and infra to convert fragmented CAD files and prototype integrations into existing CAD apps.
