Where does Scott Wu work?

Scott Wu is Co-founder & CEO of Cognition AI.

Where did Scott Wu go to school?

Scott Wu studied at Harvard University (Economics).

What awards has Scott Wu received?

Wu won three gold medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics (2012, 2013, 2014), placing first overall in 2014. Wu won a gold medal representing Harvard at the 2016 International Collegiate Programming Contest, finishing third overall. Wu took third place in the 2021 Google Code Jam. Wu took third place in the 2017 Topcoder Open Algorithm competition. Wu reached Legendary Grandmaster status on Codeforces with a peak rating of 3350. Wu was HMMT champion in 2014.

What podcasts and interviews feature Scott Wu?

Tracked appearances include "Cognition CEO Scott Wu on Acquiring Windsurf", "Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer".

Scott Wu

Unicorn founder

Co-founder & CEO at Cognition AI

San Francisco, CA

FoundedCognition AI$26B

Find your path to Scott

35 people in our graph share verified history with Scott — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Joe LonsdaleunlockedScott: together at Addepar (2014–2015)

×11Scott: together at Addepar

Photo, via Wikimedia Commons ↗

About

Scott Wu co-founded Cognition in November 2023 and leads the lab behind Devin, the autonomous software engineer — one of the fastest companies ever to a ~$26 billion valuation, with a reported $40 billion round in talks by August 2026. A three-time IOI gold medalist who won the competition outright in 2014 and a 2011 MATHCOUNTS national champion from Baton Rouge, he coded at Addepar out of high school, dropped out of Harvard, and co-founded Lunchclub before starting Cognition with fellow olympiad medalists Steven Hao and Walden Yan. In July 2025, 72 hours after Google poached Windsurf's CEO, Cognition acquired Windsurf's product and team — waiving cliffs and accelerating vesting for every employee.

Likely emails· guessed from name + firm domain, not firm-published

Beyond investing

Founded: Wu co-founded Cognition AI in 2023, which developed Devin AI and raised $21 million from Founders Fund. Wu co-founded Lunchclub in 2017 and served as its CTO until 2022. Co-founded Cognition in November 2023 with Steven Hao and Walden Yan; the founding team collectively held around ten IOI gold medals. Co-founded Lunchclub, the AI networking startup, in 2017 and was its CTO until 2022.
Education: Studied at Harvard University Studied at Baton Rouge Magnet High School
Awards: Wu won three gold medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics (2012, 2013, 2014), placing first overall in 2014. Wu won a gold medal representing Harvard at the 2016 International Collegiate Programming Contest, finishing third overall. Wu took third place in the 2021 Google Code Jam. Wu took third place in the 2017 Topcoder Open Algorithm competition. Wu reached Legendary Grandmaster status on Codeforces with a peak rating of 3350. Wu was HMMT champion in 2014. Wu was individual champion of Mathcounts in 2011, representing Louisiana. Three-time IOI gold medalist (2012–2014), winning the competition outright in 2014; 2011 MATHCOUNTS national champion.
Hobbies: Wu is a competitive programmer.
Family: Wu has an older brother, Neal, who also has a competitive programming background and works with him at Cognition AI. Born in 1997 in Louisiana to Chinese-immigrant parents; his brother Neal, a fellow competitive-programming legend, works with him at Cognition.
More: Acquired Windsurf's product, brand, and team in July 2025, 72 hours after Google hired away its CEO — with cliffs waived and vesting accelerated for all employees.

From published sources — common ground for a warm intro.

Co-founder & CEO at Cognition AI

Intro paths

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In turn, Scott can intro founders to Cognition AI's investors below.

Cognition AI's investors · 18

137 VenturesSan Francisco 8VCAustin · $100K – $50M checks Abstract VenturesSan Francisco · $250K – $750K checks Alpha Wave GlobalMiami AntiSan Juan · $250K – $30M checks Avenir Growth CapitalNew York Bain Capital VenturesBoston · $1M – $100M checks Conversion CapitalSan Francisco · $500K – $5M checks ConvictionSan Francisco · $1M – $25M checks Firebolt Ventures Management Company, LlcPalo Alto Founders FundSan Francisco · $500K – $5M checks Kearny JacksonSan Francisco · $200K – $2M checks Khosla VenturesMenlo Park · $5K – $50M checks · since 2026 Lux CapitalNew York · $100K – $100M checks Riverbend CapitalWashington South Park CommonsSan Francisco · $1M – $10M checks Standard Crypto Swish Ventures

Co-founders at Cognition AI

Walden YanFounder

Steven HaoFounder

Experience

CognitionCo-Founder and CEOcurrent2023 — present
LunchclubCo-Founder and CTO2017 — 2022San Francisco Bay Area
AddeparSoftware Engineer2014 — 2015

Skills & more

Git3JavaScript3Java6Python3C++5MySQL2SQL2PHP1HTML1Software Engineering9Programming7Software Development3

From Scott's professional profile.

Podcasts & interviews

featuring Scott Wu

Cognition CEO Scott Wu on Acquiring Windsurf

20VC · thetwentyminutevc.com

Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer

Lenny's Podcast · lennysnewsletter.com

Frequently asked questions

Who is Scott Wu?: Scott Wu co-founded Cognition in November 2023 and leads the lab behind Devin, the autonomous software engineer — one of the fastest companies ever to a ~$26 billion valuation, with a reported $40 billion round in talks by August 2026. A three-time IOI gold medalist who won the competition outright in 2014 and a 2011 MATHCOUNTS national champion from Baton Rouge, he coded at Addepar out of high school, dropped out of Harvard, and co-founded Lunchclub before starting Cognition with fellow olympiad medalists Steven Hao and Walden Yan. In July 2025, 72 hours after Google poached Windsurf's CEO, Cognition acquired Windsurf's product and team — waiving cliffs and accelerating vesting for every employee.
Where does Scott Wu work?: Scott Wu is Co-founder & CEO of Cognition AI.
What companies did Scott Wu found?: Scott Wu founded Cognition AI.
Where did Scott Wu go to school?: Scott Wu studied at Harvard University (Economics).
What awards has Scott Wu received?: Wu won three gold medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics (2012, 2013, 2014), placing first overall in 2014. Wu won a gold medal representing Harvard at the 2016 International Collegiate Programming Contest, finishing third overall. Wu took third place in the 2021 Google Code Jam. Wu took third place in the 2017 Topcoder Open Algorithm competition. Wu reached Legendary Grandmaster status on Codeforces with a peak rating of 3350. Wu was HMMT champion in 2014.
What podcasts and interviews feature Scott Wu?: Tracked appearances include "Cognition CEO Scott Wu on Acquiring Windsurf", "Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer".