An Organization Powered By Speed

A Fascinating Profile of Cursor

One of my favorite startups in this new AI era is Anysphere. Annysphere is most known as the creator of Cursor, which is the AI-powered coding editor.

If you haven't used Cursor, you can think of it as an LLM coding assistant. You can work with it to scope out new app ideas, write brand new code, have it explain coding concepts, and more.

I've been a Cursor user for some time now. While it sometimes gets lumped in with other "vibe coding" assistants like Lovable or Replit, Cursor is different. It's not simply a VS Code fork (as some people argue). Rather, it's an AI-first development ecosystem that makes it significantly easier for newly technical people like me to build real products.

But putting aside the technical specifics of the product, I'm fascinated with how well (and fast) the Cursor team executes. It feels like every time I look at Cursor, there is an alert telling me to restart because of some update from the Cursor team.

Simply put, they are producing at an extremely high level. And for that reason, I was excited to read this in-depth profile of the company from Colossus.

There were several things that stuck out to me.

First is the workplace culture. Cursor emphasizes in-person work with as few organized meetings as possible. It's a far cry from the "remote first" bias that many tech companies had immediately after the pandemic.

Then, there is their unconventional recruiting process. Instead of posting job openings and waiting for qualified applicants to apply, the Cursor team sources candidates themselves. Once they identify promising candidates, they flood them with attention. If the candidate is interested in joining Cursor, they will start the following Monday.

And then there is their obsession with their work and the product. An internal company document stated that Cursor may be "the highest in the world in terms of the average number of hours using the company's main product per employee per week." That desire to personally see a feature exist is surprisingly less common at startups than one may think.

But ultimately, the thing that sticks out to me is speed. It is speed from hiring to developing the product itself. Cursor isn't unique in that regard, but it seems like the company is getting even faster as it grows. Typically, the opposite happens.

This emphasis on speed is something that I'm trying to replicate in my daily work. While it isn't easy, I've found that speed can correct many issues. In fact, it can be more costly to deliberate and get the right answer than to make a decision and quickly iterate—even if that first decision was wrong.

In any event, I encourage you to take a look at the article. It's a great read! Let me know what you think.

Prompt of the Week

Here's another introspective prompt for this week.

"From what you know about me, what soft skills do I need to develop or improve upon to reach my career goals? Alternatively, what strengths or unfair advantages do I have that I need to strengthen even more to reach those goals? Be specific."