Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan interview
Here is the translation of the contents in the <document> XML tags into English:
How did Windsurf quickly build a sales team and drive growth? Mohan summarized that the company had hired a sales vice president over a year ago, and now has an internal sales team of over 80 people. Behind this was some story, which was that angel investors understood the importance of enterprise sales for tech companies and provided support to Codeium.
Regarding the difficulty of selling products to Fortune 500 companies, Mohan said that even with credit card swipes, it’s difficult to achieve actual effects. He shared a story about how everyone, including the sales team and marketing team, used Windsurf to build an app after its launch. As a result, the company saved over $500,000 in SaaS product costs.
This trend may have a profound impact on certain SaaS industries, especially niche products with verticalization. With AI tools appearing, domain experts can now build their own tools as needed, rather than relying on traditional custom software companies to provide products. Previously, software companies provided products with many features, but each company might only need 10% of those features.
Windsurf has a unique standard in recruitment: they set high technical standards and require candidates to be passionate about the company’s mission and willing to work hard. Mohan candidly said that they wouldn’t describe their company as a relaxed work environment because the competition in AI is quite intense. If employees are not willing to work hard, the company might fail in the competition.
During interviews, Mohan is very concerned with candidates’ attitude towards work. If candidates say they like smart work, he will further ask questions because he thinks the company is like a large team project where each member’s performance affects the entire team’s productivity and attitude.
Regarding how to build AI products, Mohan mentioned the trade-off between long-term investment and short-term results. Although online users might be excited about weekly progress, the company internally focuses more on targets for three to nine months or even longer periods of time. He tells employees that they should aim to revolutionize their current product’s status every six to twelve months, making it look “dumb” so as to achieve product iteration and upgrade.
Finally, Mohan thinks that focusing solely on incremental improvement is not enough because it only meets basic needs, whereas the company’s success ultimately depends on efforts to innovate and disrupt.
Translation
Windsurf是如何快速建立销售团队并推动增长的？莫汉总结说到，公司在一年多前就聘请了销售副总裁，如今内部销售团队已经超过80人。背后有一些故事，是天使投资人出于对技术型公司不能靠产品驱动增长和企业销售重要性的理解，为Codeium提供了支持。此外，团队也意识到，要跟大企业合作，就必须建立强大的运作模式。
对于向财富500强企业推销产品的难点，莫汉说，即使使用信用卡刷单，也很难实现实际效果。他分享了一个故事，即在推出Windsurf后，每个人包括销售团队和市场团队，都使用Windsurf来构建应用。结果，这让公司节省了超过50万美元的SaaS产品费用。
这种趋势对某些SaaS行业可能会产生深远影响，尤其是垂直化的利基产品。随着AI工具出现，领域专家可以自己构建想要的工具，而不是依赖传统定制化软件公司提供的产品。以前软件公司提供的产品都包含很多功能，但实际上每个公司可能只需要10%的功能。这让公司可以根据自身需求快速构建软件，从而颠覆了传统定制化软件成本计算方式。
Windsurf在招聘方面有一个独特的标准：他们设置高的技术门槛，并且要求候选人对公司的使命充满热情、愿意努力工作。莫汉坦率地说，他们不会把公司描述为轻松的工作环境，因为AI领域的竞争相当激烈。如果员工不努力工作，公司可能就会在竞争中失败。
面试时，莫汉非常关注候选人对工作投入的态度，如果候选人表示自己喜欢聪明的工作，他会进一步追问。因为他认为公司就像一个大型团队项目，每个成员都不想尽力的员工不仅影响自身的生产力，还会影响整个团队的工作态度和标准。
对于如何构建AI产品，莫汉提到长期投资与短期成果之间的权衡。虽然网上的用户可能对每周发布的成果感到兴奋，但公司内部更多地是针对三到九个月甚至更长远的目标进行投资和布局的。他会告诉员工，每六到十二个月就应该颠覆现有产品的状态，让现在的产品看起来很“蠢”，这样才能实现产品的迭代升级。
最后，莫汉认为仅仅关注增量式改进是不够的，因为它只能满足一些基本需求，但公司的成功最终还是依赖于那些具有破坏性创新的努力。
Reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z0RCxDZdrE