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In this episode of Elements, Kristina Shen (Managing Partner at Chemistry) sits down with Russell Kaplan to trace his journey from founding companies at age 12 to launching TreeHacks, Stanford’s flagship hackathon, to working on Tesla’s Autopilot team, and ultimately co-founding Cognition.
Drawing on experience at Tesla, Helia, and Scale AI, Russell shares how those chapters shaped the creation of Cognition and the launch of Devin, the world’s first AI software engineer. He also unpacks the nearly overnight acquisition of Windsurf and the lesson it reinforced: always ask why.
Russell believes AI is pushing software engineering toward higher levels of abstraction, unlocking a new golden age for builders. He discusses the importance of relentless improvement, recruiting exceptional talent and building the company around their superpowers, and acting boldly when timing matters.
Links
Elements: A Chemistry Speaker Series
Elements is produced by Chemistry VC in partnership with Pod People.
