# Nathan Wangliao

![Nathan Wangliao](/resources/cognition/portraits/nathan-wangliao.webp)

![Nathan Wangliao 2](/resources/cognition/portraits/nathan-wangliao.webp)

Head of Business Operations APAC at Cognition (Devin, Windsurf); cofounder of Havana (acquired by Cognition)  
Cognition  
Singapore

## At Cognition

- Role: Building (Engineering)
- Joined: Apr 2023
- How they joined: With Havana (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/acquisitions/havana)
- Before Havana: Head of GTM, HeadsUp (acquired by Hightouch)
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: HeadsUp (acquired by Hightouch); McKinsey & Company (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanwangliao
- X: @nathanwangliao
- GitHub: https://github.com/wlyinan
- Website: https://www.nathanwangliao.com/
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Joined Cognition in Feb 2026 when Havana was acquired; LinkedIn lists his role as 'Building' at Cognition, and press identifies him as Head of Business Operations for APAC, based in Singapore. (https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/singapores-ai-productivity-gap-actually-230000175.html)
- Announced the acquisition on LinkedIn: "Incredibly excited to share that Havana has joined Cognition!" and "Working at Cognition on our APAC presence lets us continue to do all of these things, at a bigger scale." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathanwangliao_incredibly-excited-to-share-that-havana-has-activity-7445044281775562752-pfUn)
- On Cognition culture (verbatim): "What I didn't expect at Cognition was how genuinely kind people are. It's the kind of team where someone will stay late to help me debug a problem that's not even theirs to fix." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathanwangliao_incredibly-excited-to-share-that-havana-has-activity-7445044281775562752-pfUn)
- On Cognition growth (verbatim): "It's staggering that a company of Cognition's scale is growing faster than Havana and most early-stage startups I know of." (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathanwangliao_incredibly-excited-to-share-that-havana-has-activity-7445044281775562752-pfUn)
- Havana (tryhavana.com) built AI agents for schools - an AI student recruiter for university recruitment and enrollment teams; Nathan was CEO & Co-founder Apr 2023-Feb 2026 and the only non-technical founder. (https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-consultant-startup-founder-unlearn-habits-skills-havana-nathan-wangliao-2026-1)
- Wrote an Aug 2026 op-ed as Cognition APAC BizOps head arguing "Faster code does not automatically create faster software delivery" and "Managers are no longer supervising only people. They are supervising a system that combines human and AI execution." -. (https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/singapores-ai-productivity-gap-actually-230000175.html)
- Cognition opened its APAC headquarters in Singapore in May 2026 (launch attended by Singapore officials, reposted by Nathan) - the regional base his BizOps role supports. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kiat-how-tan-59933736_aiforgood-digitaleconomy-smartnationsg-ugcPost-7460671673986433024-E_n7)
- Recruited for Havana by pitching his cofounder's olympiad background (verbatim): "Great essay. But the only way out is to build. If you want to work at a Bay Area standard company based out of Singapore, we’re hiring!

P.S. my cofounder is absolutely cracked. 3x IOI silver medals, built self-driving cars in SF. I just bring the jokes." (https://x.com/nathanwangliao/status/1963845834618941620)
- Head of GTM at HeadsUp (headsup.ai), a Singapore AI startup, Mar 2021-Apr 2023 as founding GTM hire; HeadsUp was acquired by Hightouch (YC S19). His site says he led Product Marketing and BizOps there. (https://www.nathanwangliao.com/about/)
- Promoted Devin on X: "Another benchmark from @greptile that shows that Devin writes code with fewer critical bugs. The team is cooking https://t.co/1UjUE2JDN8" (https://x.com/nathanwangliao/status/2055516554037796899, https://t.co/1UjUE2JDN8)
- McKinsey & Company consultant in London Aug 2018-Mar 2021; joined in the UK after university, moved back to Singapore during COVID and left. His first manager was a former UK doctor doing healthcare work, and a favorite boss was an ex-US Marine. (https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-consultant-startup-founder-unlearn-habits-skills-havana-nathan-wangliao-2026-1)
- Leaving HeadsUp (verbatim): "I joined HeadsUp because I wanted to start a company one day. Clearly HeadsUp hasn't managed to put me off - so I'll be exploring a few startup ideas." He launched Havana that month. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathanwangliao_after-2-amazing-years-my-headsup-adventure-activity-7049454294135148545-WDUb)
- Founded Hack Cambridge (2015-2016), Cambridge's student hackathon, which spawned Hackers at Cambridge; he skipped class for two months to cold-call sponsors and raised enough to fly attendees in from the US. (https://www.nathanwangliao.com/about/)
- Public headline says "Building Cognition". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanwangliao)
- Retweets Cognition launches (SWE-1.7 model, the $1B raise at $26B valuation, Windsurf 2.0 and Devin Security reposts on LinkedIn). (https://x.com/nathanwangliao/status/2074889265700646980)
- Told Business Insider he told his HeadsUp founder in the first month "Maybe I should just go back to McKinsey because this feels too scary", working from a coworking space with just two other people. (https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-consultant-startup-founder-unlearn-habits-skills-havana-nathan-wangliao-2026-1)
- Lessons from consulting (verbatim, BI): "In a startup, when you're trying to make decisions, you'll never have enough data. You just have to have the guts to do one thing. If it doesn't work, go and do the second thing." (https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-consultant-startup-founder-unlearn-habits-skills-havana-nathan-wangliao-2026-1)
- Grace Kong, Havana's first hire beyond the two founders (a law student), described Nathan and Zhan Xiong as great operators who said 'thank you for your hard work' at the end of every working day. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grace-kong-32a968218_so-havana-got-acquired-by-cognition-i-activity-7445831501553922048-wdWb)
- Was an early intern at the company of teacher Lee Yu Jin (yjsoon), who taught Zhan Xiong; yjsoon publicly congratulated both on the Cognition acquisition. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yjsoon_one-thing-they-dont-tell-teachers-enough-activity-7445298098500968448-tDc-)
- Previous roles include CEO & Co-founder at Havana; Head of GTM at HeadsUp (acquired by Hightouch); Consultant at McKinsey & Company; Founder at Hack Cambridge; Vehicle Technician at Singapore Army. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanwangliao)
- GitHub account wlyinan has 2 public repos (CSS) and bio 'Building headsup.ai. Previously @hackersatcambridge'. (https://github.com/wlyinan)
- Zhan Xiong Chin later served on the IOI 2020 and IOI 2021 (Singapore) committees and teamed with Johnny Ho and Raymond Kang at IPSC 2016. (https://ipsc.ksp.sk/2016/teams)
- Served as a Vehicle Technician in the Singapore Army (2012-2014), fixing trucks and jeeps, during National Service. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanwangliao)
- Location is United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanwangliao)
- Interests per his site: philosophy, Chinese history and politics, mountaineering, Singaporean food and British comedy; he reads, climbs and writes. (https://www.nathanwangliao.com/about/)

## Experience
- Building at Cognition (Feb 2026 - Present)
- CEO & Co-founder at Havana (Apr 2023 - Feb 2026): AI agents for schools. Acquired by Cognition.
- Head of GTM at HeadsUp (acquired by Hightouch) (Mar 2021 - Apr 2023): Founding GTM hire. Acquired by Hightouch (YC S19).
- Consultant at McKinsey & Company - London, England, United Kingdom (Aug 2018 - Mar 2021)
- Founder at Hack Cambridge - Cambridge, England, United Kingdom (Aug 2015 - Aug 2016): Founded Cambridge's student hackathon. Skipped class for 2 months to cold-call sponsors. We ended up with so much money we flew attendees in from the US.
- Vehicle Technician at Singapore Army - Singapore (Jan 2012 - Jan 2014): Fixing trucks and jeeps.

## Education
- University of Cambridge - BA Hons, Law

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanwangliao
- https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/singapores-ai-productivity-gap-actually-230000175.html
- https://x.com/nathanwangliao
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanwangliao?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAALqMxIB3z7bHptkVKuEFwf4_Rh5Z3Vy4oU
- https://stats.ioinformatics.org/people/2615
- https://www.nathanwangliao.com/about/
- https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-consultant-startup-founder-unlearn-habits-skills-havana-nathan-wangliao-2026-1
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grace-kong-32a968218_so-havana-got-acquired-by-cognition-i-activity-7445831501553922048-wdWb
- https://ipsc.ksp.sk/2016/teams
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yjsoon_one-thing-they-dont-tell-teachers-enough-activity-7445298098500968448-tDc-
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathanwangliao_after-2-amazing-years-my-headsup-adventure-activity-7049454294135148545-WDUb
- https://icpc.global/community/history/brochures/world-finals-2017-brochure.pdf
- https://cphof.org/profile/icpc:Zhan%20Xiong%20Chin
- https://github.com/wlyinan
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiat-how-tan-59933736?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAeGKYUBz1WchuJC0KmXWi7Utl6NJYf5Azo
- https://noisg.comp.nus.edu.sg/noi/noiElevenResults.php
- https://www.nathanwangliao.com/posts/
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathanwangliao_incredibly-excited-to-share-that-havana-has-activity-7445044281775562752-pfUn
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kiat-how-tan-59933736_aiforgood-digitaleconomy-smartnationsg-ugcPost-7460671673986433024-E_n7
- https://x.com/nathanwangliao/status/1963845834618941620
- https://x.com/nathanwangliao/status/2055516554037796899
- https://t.co/1UjUE2JDN8
- https://x.com/nathanwangliao/status/1969818471187030302
- https://x.com/nathanwangliao/status/2074889265700646980


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