# Mitchell Tan

![Mitchell Tan](/resources/cognition/portraits/mitchell-tan.webp)

helping Devin build Devin  
Cognition  
San Francisco Bay Area

## At Cognition

- Role: Product (Product)
- Joined: May 2026
- How they joined: Directly
- Before Cognition: Cofounder, Kondo
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Beluga; Kondo; Yale University (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-tan
- X: @mitchellwltan
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Joined Cognition to work on Devin; in his announcement he wrote verbatim: "I've joined Cognition to build Devin the AI software engineer." LinkedIn lists the role as Product, starting May 2026, with the line "I ask Devin to do things. Devin asks other Devins to do them." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_ive-joined-cognition-to-build-devin-the-activity-7477413078918385664-fnq1)
- Represented Cognition in a Pylon x Devin live walkthrough and Q&A with Franz Heller of Pylon on 2026-10-27. Pylon CEO Marty Kausas thanked Cognition "especially Walden Yan and Mitchell Tan" for building their AI-coding integration with them. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/usepylon_see-pylon-x-devin-in-action-tomorrow-in-a-activity-7520512018911703040-QUGB)
- Walden Yan wrote that "Mitchell Tan and Leo Li built something truly special with Kondo. I still meet Devin users who are impressed that we've managed to hire the Kondo team." That describes a team hire (Mitchell plus cofounder Leo Li). It was not an acquisition of Kondo, which stayed independent. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/waldenyan_its-not-easy-to-get-people-to-stop-building-activity-7477591586923634689-TeEt)
- Explained the move verbatim: "a friend introduced us to Walden Yan and the opportunity came up to go build the thing that builds the things." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_ive-joined-cognition-to-build-devin-the-activity-7477413078918385664-fnq1)
- On Cognition's culture, verbatim: "there's something special about working in a $26B company where the entire engineering team is still small enough to (barely) fit in one big meeting room for weekly stand ups." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_ive-joined-cognition-to-build-devin-the-activity-7477413078918385664-fnq1)
- His current day-to-day is customer-facing Devin adoption, in his words: "now that I'm running around SF helping startup founders get set up with Devin at my new job, I'm bumping into Kondo users all the time". (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_ive-joined-cognition-to-build-devin-the-activity-7477413078918385664-fnq1)
- Stepped back from running Kondo day-to-day in May 2026. Cofounder Michael Touchton, "who I've worked on 3 companies with in the last 5 years", took over as CEO. Kondo had thousands of paying users and over $1M ARR with no VC funding. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_after-2-exciting-years-building-kondo-i-activity-7462230539610275840-eN6v)
- Marty Kausas (Pylon) credited Mitchell Tan and Walden Yan by name for building Pylon's AI-coding launch with Cognition. (https://x.com/marty_kausas/status/2110069422320763285)
- Cofounder Leo Li (Kondo's technical cofounder) posted that he joined Cognition "with my cofounder Mitchell to build Devin". He said Kondo hit $1M ARR after 15 months of bootstrapping, and that Mitchell and Michael had pulled him away from the Hightouch acquisition of HeadsUp. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/leoyli_hey-friends-ive-joined-cognition-with-my-activity-7477630015061336064-tY6C)
- Before joining, Kondo had tested Devin and found it lacking. In his words: "We gave it some of our Linear tickets at Kondo to work on. Me and my cofounder Leo Li were unimpressed." About six months before mid-2026, AI coding let the 3-person team ship "10x faster" and clear its backlog. That before-and-after story is now his pitch for Devin. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_ive-joined-cognition-to-build-devin-the-activity-7477413078918385664-fnq1)
- Kondo (trykondo.com) is a 'Superhuman for LinkedIn' DM inbox: folders, labels, keyboard shortcuts, reminders, and CRM sync. It later added an MCP server and WhatsApp/iMessage support. It launched in September 2024 and started as a side project during Beluga. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_after-2-exciting-years-building-kondo-i-activity-7462230539610275840-eN6v)
- Cognition's main acquisition in this period was Windsurf, the agentic IDE (definitive agreement announced 2025-07-14). It included Windsurf's IP, product, trademark and brand, and its people, with $82M ARR and 350+ enterprise customers. Mitchell joined about a year later, in May 2026. (https://cognition.com/blog/windsurf)
- Michael Touchton confirmed he became CEO of both Beluga and Kondo, "two businesses I've had the joy of building alongside my cofounders and friends Mitchell Tan and Leo Li". (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaeltouchton_today-im-stepping-up-as-ceo-of-both-beluga-activity-7462235199326666753-b9MT)
- Was GTM at HeadsUp (Aug 2021 to Sep 2023), a PLG lead-conversion startup that raised $8.3M from 645 Ventures, Wing and others and was acquired by Hightouch. That is where he met cofounders Leo Li and Michael Touchton. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_after-2-exciting-years-building-kondo-i-activity-7462230539610275840-eN6v)
- On the Love at First Try podcast he described Kondo as a 3-person team (him, cofounder Leo, and engineer Anna). He said he met Leo at a B2B SaaS startup (HeadsUp), where Mitchell did customer onboarding and solutions engineering and Leo was frontend lead. (https://loveatfirsttry.io/podcast/mitchell-tan)
- Mitchell and Leo then started Beluga (beluga.team), a recruiting firm for early-stage startups that business partner Michael Touchton still runs. Mitchell was Beluga cofounder from Aug 2023 to May 2024. (https://loveatfirsttry.io/podcast/mitchell-tan)
- Built early Kondo traction by hand: he personally ran about 2,000 customer calls and won paying users by helping them sort three months of LinkedIn messages. (https://enterprisezone.cc/2000-client-calls-how-mitchell-tan-validated-kondo-by-deeply-understanding-user-problems/)
- Yale BA/MA in History ('18). His senior essay, "Spiritual Fraternities: The Transnational Networks of Ngo Dinh Diem's Personalist Revolution and the Republic of Vietnam, 1955-1963", advised by Professor Denise Ho, won the 2018 Robert D. Gries Prize. It was published in the Journal of Vietnamese Studies in 2019. (https://history.yale.edu/news/mitchell-tans-prize-winning-senior-essay-appears-journal-vietnamese-studies)
- Public headline says "helping Devin build Devin". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-tan)
- On selling an early product he wrote that his ex-boss said customers buy the vision, but "What I sell instead -- the product as it is, today." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_my-ex-boss-told-me-our-customers-dont-just-activity-7285050059946172416-E2wm)
- Before startups he did marketing/insights consulting at Quantum Consumer Solutions (Jan 2018 to Jul 2021), advising large consumer companies. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_after-2-exciting-years-building-kondo-i-activity-7462230539610275840-eN6v)
- Previous roles include Cofounder at Kondo; Cofounder at Beluga; GTM at HeadsUp; Marketing at Quantum Consumer Solutions: Insight & Design Strategy. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-tan)
- Location is San Francisco Bay Area. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-tan)

## Experience
- Product at Cognition - San Francisco Bay Area (May 2026 - Present): I ask Devin to do things. Devin asks other Devins to do them. 

Some day a Devin will ask me why I'm needed at this company.
- Cofounder at Kondo - Los Angeles Metropolitan Area (Jun 2024 - May 2026): Built Superhuman for LinkedIn so your DM inbox sparks joy again. 

PS. have you seen Marie?
- Cofounder at Beluga (Aug 2023 - May 2024): Helped small startups find top engineers…by sending lots of LI DMs. Had less trouble keeping track of them thanks to v0 of Kondo. 

The whale still swims on, just without me.
- GTM at HeadsUp (Aug 2021 - Sep 2023): Sent a ton of LI DMs to prospects and had trouble keeping track of them. Maybe if I was more on top of stuff we would have made more money 🤔

HeadsUp helped product-led growth companies nurture and convert leads; raised $8.3M from 645 Ventures, Wing, Firstminute, Character, and execs at Miro, Drift, Algolia, etc. Was acquired by Hightouch.
- Marketing at Quantum Consumer Solutions: Insight & Design Strategy (Jan 2018 - Jul 2021): Gave advice to bigggg cos on how to sell their stuff

## Education
- Yale University - BA/MA, History - (Jan 2014 - Jan 2018): read a lot of books and wrote a lot of words (some are linked below)
- Singapore Management University - Data Analytics - (Jan 2020 - Jan 2020): made a bunch of graphs

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-tan
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_ive-joined-cognition-to-build-devin-the-activity-7477413078918385664-fnq1
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_after-2-exciting-years-building-kondo-i-activity-7462230539610275840-eN6v
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/waldenyan_its-not-easy-to-get-people-to-stop-building-activity-7477591586923634689-TeEt
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/usepylon_see-pylon-x-devin-in-action-tomorrow-in-a-activity-7520512018911703040-QUGB
- https://x.com/marty_kausas/status/2110069422320763285
- https://loveatfirsttry.io/podcast/mitchell-tan
- https://cognition.com/blog/windsurf
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mitchell-tan_my-ex-boss-told-me-our-customers-dont-just-activity-7285050059946172416-E2wm
- https://enterprisezone.cc/2000-client-calls-how-mitchell-tan-validated-kondo-by-deeply-understanding-user-problems/
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/leoyli_hey-friends-ive-joined-cognition-with-my-activity-7477630015061336064-tY6C
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaeltouchton_today-im-stepping-up-as-ceo-of-both-beluga-activity-7462235199326666753-b9MT
- https://history.yale.edu/news/mitchell-tans-prize-winning-senior-essay-appears-journal-vietnamese-studies
- https://adamgtm.com/brand/kondo/
- https://x.com/mitchellwltan
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-tan?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAABDj5EcBwKiS94Mkyb9vx3d7s3fKTNmAIqg
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeltouchton?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAS2QsYBrYPzrOYoCbYDAepM2AKkbPVvFrY


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