Varun Mohan, the Indian-origin co-founder and CEO of the AI startup Windsurf, has come under intense criticism from investors and the broader tech community after he left the company to join Google’s DeepMind, just days after a $3 billion acquisition deal with OpenAI reportedly collapsed.
Mohan, alongside co-founder Douglas Chen, departed Windsurf during a critical period when the company was believed to be in the final stages of being acquired by OpenAI. Instead, the two founders exited to join Google’s AI arm, DeepMind. Their departure left the remaining Windsurf team in a precarious position, with the startup scrambling over a weekend to secure an emergency acquisition deal with another AI firm, Cognition. The rescue deal was ultimately brokered under significant pressure. Jeff Wang, who has since taken over as CEO of Windsurf, described the turnaround as “crazy”.
The move by Mohan and Chen drew widespread condemnation, with some accusing the duo of abandoning their employees and walking away with financial rewards—allegedly without sharing them with the broader team.
Among the most vocal critics was renowned venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to call out Mohan directly. “Windsurf and others are really bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind and not even sharing the proceeds with their team,” Khosla wrote. “I definitely would not work with their founders next time.”
Khosla’s post was in response to comments by Scott Wu, CEO of Cognition AI, who also expressed disappointment in Mohan’s actions. “There’s an unspoken covenant that as a founder, you go down with the ship. For better or worse, it’s changed a bit over the last year and I think it’s disappointing, to be honest,” Wu remarked.
Social media erupted with backlash. One user called Mohan “a generational villain,” adding, “Crazy saga. Also, no word from him.” Another person criticised what they saw as cherry-picking: “The original Windsurf leadership team jumping ships to join Google with cherry-picked employees and leaving most of the team behind is unconscionable. Deeply unethical.”
Alex Kehr, CEO of Superlocal (recently acquired by Foursquare), also weighed in: “One of my biggest motivations to get to the finish line this year was making sure everyone on my team had a comfortable landing.”
Others echoed the same sentiment, warning that such exits could have lasting reputational consequences. “Founders cashing out while the team’s left behind isn’t just bad form, it’s long-term reputation damage,” one user wrote.
Amid the backlash, YCombinator CEO Garry Tan came to Mohan’s defence. “Varun Mohan and the team at Windsurf built something great,” Tan wrote on X. “He and his team don’t deserve to be dragged and I think in the long term their decision to sell will be vindicated. It can be irresistible to fan the flames on internet beef but in this case everyone should stand down given what really happened.”
Varun Mohan, who has Indian roots, was raised in Sunnyvale, California, by parents who migrated from India. He studied at The Harker School in San Jose and later earned both a Bachelor’s and Master of Engineering degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He co-founded Windsurf in June 2021, alongside Douglas Chen. The company rose quickly to prominence in Silicon Valley, known for developing advanced AI tools aimed at streamlining software development workflows. Under Mohan’s leadership, Windsurf was seen as a rising star in the competitive AI infrastructure landscape.