Wu: Detaching personal self-worth from startup outcomes increases founder success
Scott Wu · Inside Devin: The AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company’s code this year | Scott Wu · May 4, 2025 · at 1:27:35
Cognition co-founder and CEO Scott Wu discusses his guiding mental models and founder psychology with Lenny Rachitsky.
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“It is very important to be focused and driven and to really kind of maximize your potential. And then at the same time, it's also very important to not let your own personal emotion get tied up in your success or failure, you know? And I think especially with startups, because there's always ups and downs, honestly, even in the most successful companies ever, like it is just like, you know, it's a rocky road. There's a lot that happens and a lot that That goes down. And I think one of the things which I've, I, I've thought a lot about is that somehow it's, you know, you really want to do your best and put your, put everything you can into it and do everything you can to basically you want to put it all out on the field, you know, but at the same time you want to be okay with both wins and losses, right? And you want to be able to move on and go into the next one each time. And something, yeah, I mean, it's funny, but what I've found personally is that Obviously, it's you know, it's really important for your own emotional state and mental state to be able to do that, and we've had lots of mistakes, and, you know, I've had a lot of, you know, I had my first company, which is obviously, which was cool, but, you know, there are a lot of, like, tricky spots there, and then over the course of cognition, I mean, it's been, feels like it's been already, like, eight years compressed into, like, one year, and, you know, it's still going at that pace, but it's, somehow, it also actually makes you More successful, I think, too. You know, it's like you are just more able to give it your best and to do the things that will lead to success if you're not tying it up in your own personal worth, so.”
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