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