The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO)
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What is the origin story of Cursor and how did it get started?
Our goal with Cursor is to invent a new type of programming, a very different way to build software. So a world kind of after code, I think that more and more being an engineer will start to feel like being a logic designer. And really it will be about specifying your intent for how exactly you want everything to work.
What is the most counterintuitive thing you've learned so far about?
building cursor. We definitely didn't expect to be doing any of our own model development. And at this point, every magic moment in cursor involves a custom model in some way. What's something that you wish you knew before you got into this role? Many
people you hear hired too fast. I think we actually hired too slow to begin with. You guys went from zero dollars to a hundred million ARR in a year and a half, which is historic. Was there an inflection point where things just started to really take off?
The growth has been fairly just consistent on an exponential. An exponential to begin with feels fairly slow and the numbers are really low and it didn't really feel off to the races to begin with. What do you think
is the secret to your success? I think it's
been
Today, my guest is Michael Trule. Michael is co-founder and CEO of AnySphere, the company behind Cursor. If you've been living under a rock and haven't heard of Cursor, it is the leading AI code editor and is at the very forefront of changing how engineers and product teams build software. It's also one of the fastest growing products of all time, hitting 100 million ARR just 20 months after launching, and then 300 million ARR. Are just two years since launch. Michael's been working on AI for 10 years. He studied computer science and math at MIT, did AI research at MIT and Google, and is a student of tech and business history. As you'll soon see, Michael thinks deeply about where things are heading and what the future of building software looks like.
We chat about the origin story of Cursor, his prediction of what happens after code, his biggest counterintuitive lessons from building Cursor. Where he sees things going for software engineers and so much more. Michael does not do many podcasts. The only other podcast he's ever done is Lex Friedman. So it was a true honor to have Michael on. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe and follow it in your favorite podcasting app or YouTube.
What does “life after code” look like and how will programming evolve?
Also, if you become an annual subscriber of my newsletter, you get it a year free of perplexity, linear, superhuman notion, and granola. Check it out at lenny's newsletter.com and click bundle. With that, I bring you Michael Trule. This episode is brought to you by EPO. EPO is a next generation A B testing and feature management platform built by alums of Airbnb and Snowflake for modern growth teams. Companies like Twitch, Miro, ClickUp, and DraftKings rely on Epo to power their experiments. Experimentation is increasingly essential for driving growth and for understanding the performance of new features. And Epo helps you increase experimentation. Velocity while unlocking rigorous deep analysis in a way that no other commercial tool does.
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That's geteppo.com. dot com slash lenny. This episode is brought to you by Vanta. When it comes to ensuring your company has top-notch security practices, things get complicated fast.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the origin story of Cursor and how did it get started?
0:00–2:00
2
What does “life after code” look like and how will programming evolve?
2:00–5:45
3
Why did Cursor decide to build its own custom AI models?
5:45–9:25
4
What were the key moments that triggered Cursor’s rapid growth to $300 M ARR?
9:25–12:40
5
What counter‑intuitive lessons did the team learn while building an AI‑powered IDE?
12:40–16:00
6
How does “taste” become a critical skill for engineers in the AI era?
16:00–19:17
7
What hiring and team‑building strategies helped Cursor stay focused and scale?
19:17–22:43
8
What practical tips should new users follow to get the most out of Cursor?
22:43–1:11:09
Speakers
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