# Michael Dong

twenty six year cicada  
Cognition  
San Francisco, California, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Member of Technical Staff (Engineering)
- Joined: Jul 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Independent Studies, Apartment

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/i-am-so-good-at-computer-science
- GitHub: https://github.com/azuline
- Website: https://sunsetglow.net
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Co-founded Operator (initially named Dot Product) in 2024 alongside Maksim Stepanenko and Usman Masood; Times of Central Asia pictures the three together and describes Operator as an AI-agent platform for voice and messaging channels whose first product was a customer-support voice agent. (https://timesca.com/maksim-stepanenkos-path-from-kyrgyzstan-to-silicon-valley/)
- Operator raised $6 million from investors including Index Ventures, Lachy Groom and Conviction before OpenAI acquired it; Dong's LinkedIn lists the role as 'Co-Founder at Operator (acq. OpenAI)' from Jul 2024 to May 2025. The company Dong co-founded was bought by OpenAI, not by Cognition. (https://timesca.com/maksim-stepanenkos-path-from-kyrgyzstan-to-silicon-valley/)
- Operator co-founder Usman Masood was previously VP of Engineering at Pipe, where Dong was Staff Software Engineer (2021-2023). (https://timesca.com/maksim-stepanenkos-path-from-kyrgyzstan-to-silicon-valley/)
- Public headline says "twenty six year cicada". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/i-am-so-good-at-computer-science)
- Personal homepage sunsetglow.net says: "I was formerly a Staff Engineer at Pipe and cofounder of Operator." (https://sunsetglow.net)
- Wrote the longform essay 'Exposition of Frontend Build Systems' on his site. (https://sunsetglow.net/posts/frontend-build-systems.html)
- i like theology, history, and classics with focus on tiantai and huayan buddhism.
generalist software engineer. academic interests in databases and peer-to-peer systems; this comes from the profile summary and preserves the person's own positioning. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/i-am-so-good-at-computer-science)
- Most-starred open source project is pixiv-api (131 stars), a documented, tested Python wrapper around Pixiv's App API; the homepage highlights Rose, a music management system (azuline/rose), which lists devin-ai-integration[bot] as a contributor. (https://github.com/azuline)
- Previous roles include Independent Studies at Apartment; Technical Advisor at CFO Advisors; Co-Founder at Operator (acq. OpenAI); Independent Studies at Basement; Staff Software Engineer at Pipe. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/i-am-so-good-at-computer-science)
- Education history includes Computer Science, University of Maryland; WSET 3, WSET. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/i-am-so-good-at-computer-science)
- Location is San Francisco, California, United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/i-am-so-good-at-computer-science)

## Experience
- Member of Technical Staff at Cognition - San Francisco, California, United States (Jul 2026 - Present)
- Independent Studies at Apartment - San Francisco, California, United States (May 2025 - Jul 2026)
- Technical Advisor at CFO Advisors - San Francisco, California, United States (May 2025 - Jun 2026)
- Co-Founder at Operator (acq. OpenAI) - San Francisco, California, United States (Jul 2024 - May 2025)
- Independent Studies at Basement - New Jersey, United States (Sep 2023 - Jul 2024)
- Staff Software Engineer at Pipe - New Jersey, United States (Jan 2021 - Sep 2023): intern to staff any% ranked

## Education
- University of Maryland - Computer Science - (Aug 2019 - Dec 2021)
- WSET - WSET 3 - (Sep 2025 - Oct 2025)

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/i-am-so-good-at-computer-science
- https://timesca.com/maksim-stepanenkos-path-from-kyrgyzstan-to-silicon-valley/
- https://sunsetglow.net
- https://api.github.com/users/azuline/repos?per_page=100&sort=updated
- https://api.github.com/users/azuline
- https://cognition.com/
- https://sunsetglow.net/posts/frontend-build-systems.html
- https://github.com/azuline


Researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-04. Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people/michael-dong · Everyone at Cognition: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people