# Sebastian Cañizares

![Sebastian Cañizares](/resources/cognition/portraits/sebastian-canizares.webp)

GTM Leadership @ Cognition  
Cognition  
New York, New York, United States

## At Cognition

- Role: Director of Sales, Enterprise (Sales/GTM)
- Joined: Aug 2024
- How they joined: With Windsurf (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/acquisitions/windsurf)
- Before Windsurf: Regional Director, Acquisition , MongoDB
- Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Codeium (Windsurf); TrendKite; MongoDB (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together)

## Identity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares
- X: @scanizaresf
- Domain: cognition.ai

## Notes
- Promoted to Director of Sales, Enterprise at Cognition in Feb 2026, tasked with 'Building and scaling Cognition's Enterprise East GTM team' and hiring Account Directors (Enterprise, Emerging Enterprise) and Account Managers. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Joined Codeium (later Windsurf) in Aug 2024 as GTM Leader and 'Built and scaled Windsurf’s Mid-Market Sales team from the ground up', roughly a year before Cognition acquired Windsurf in July 2025. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Quoted word for word on X (2026-07-13): 'Why'd you decide to keep building at Cognition post-Windsurf acquisition?' ... 'The answer is simple: Cognition is packed with incredible operators who challenge me every day.' (https://x.com/scanizaresf/status/2076473350734365181)
- LinkedIn post (2026-01-28): 'Recently moved to NYC to help build out our GTM team in the new SOHO office' and describes Cognition as 'on track to become the default enterprise coding platform'; the Austin-to-NYC move coincides with his promotion to lead Enterprise East. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scanizares_account-director-enterprise-east-activity-7422281414206971904-Cpv6)
- Stayed through Cognition's July 2025 acquisition of Windsurf, holding a GTM Leader title at Cognition (Austin, TX) from Jul 2025 before the 2026 promotion; the Windsurf to Cognition path is how he arrived at Cognition. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Codeium's sales leader Graham Moreno named him among leaders he was 'Proud to be building with A players like Lori Lipscomb, Dave Frankel, Sandeep Shah, and Sebastian Cañizares' in a Q3 2024 recap that also cited Codeium's $150M Series C. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grahammoreno_another-quarter-wrapped-in-q3-at-codeium-activity-7260305545587298306-3wZw)
- At MongoDB (Feb 2022 to Aug 2024) he was Regional Director, Acquisition, leading a North America new-business team: built it from 1 rep to 5 in FY23, grew to 7 with '#1 NA Team for NL's & NARR' in FY24, and logged '4x HT RD of the Quarter / 2x NA RD of the Quarter'. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Featured in MongoDB's 'Corporate Sales at MongoDB: Meet the Reps' (2021-12-20) as Sr. Corporate Account Executive in Austin, saying MongoDB sold him on 'The “Sales MBA”', leadership and market opportunity after he 'felt I had reached a personal sales career plateau'. (https://www.mongodb.com/company/blog/culture/corporate-sales-mongodb-meet-reps)
- Joined MongoDB in Aug 2019 as Cloud Account Executive (Atlas, supporting North, Central and South America), then Corporate AE (May 2020) and Senior AE (Aug 2021) with 144% NACV attainment and Excellence Club in FY22. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Started his career at Austin PR-analytics startup TrendKite (Jul 2017 to Jul 2019), rising from SDR (2x SDR of the Month) to Senior Account Executive; TrendKite was acquired by Cision in January 2019, so Windsurf was his second acquisition-exit experience. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Public headline says "GTM Leadership @ Cognition". (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Replied 'mama, I made it' to Cognition engineer Jared Zoneraich's 2026-09-16 post about Devin scheduling customer onsites under the company value 'Everyone is GTM', a hint that sales-side workflows he is part of are being automated by Devin. (https://x.com/imjaredz/status/2100303050334167448)
- New Cognition hires publicly thank him in their join posts (e.g., 'Huge thanks for Sebastian Cañizares, Bakari Hargrave, William McCarthy, Austin Mead and the whole team for the warm welcome'). (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nickspring_cognition-ai-activity-7509979103693975553-iSmM)
- You can find me hiring, developing, and mentoring the next generation of ambitious sales professionals at Cognition.

At Cognition we're redefining the way software is built. As the creators of the first AI Software Engineer, we're empowering developers to move faster, innovate more, and unlock their full potential through end-to-end AI agents.

- X bio reads 'Devin pilled'; the account @scanizaresf was created 2025-02-22 and mostly amplifies Cognition news (e.g., $1B annualized run-rate, Sept 2026). (https://x.com/scanizaresf)
- Previous roles include Regional Director, Acquisition  at MongoDB; Senior Account Executive at MongoDB; Account Executive, Corporate at MongoDB; Account Executive, Cloud at MongoDB; Senior Account Executive at TrendKite; Account Executive at TrendKite; Associate Account Executive at TrendKite; Sr. Sales Development Representative at TrendKite. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Education history includes Bachelor of Arts, Economics, Wesleyan University; Liberal Arts & Science Academy. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Interned at NBC Sports (NBCUniversal) Jan to May 2017 and as a marketing intern at Austin agency Fake Crow in summer 2015. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)
- Location is New York, New York, United States. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares)

## Experience
- Director of Sales, Enterprise at Cognition - New York, New York, United States (Feb 2026 - Present): Building and scaling Cognition's Enterprise East GTM team

Hiring for:
- Account Director, Enterprise
- Account Director, Emerging Enterprise
- Account Manager, Enterprise

DM me if you're a top-performing enterprise seller looking to build something special
- GTM Leader at Cognition - Austin, TX (Jul 2025 - Present): Cognition acquired Windsurf July 2025
- GTM Leader at Windsurf - Austin, TX (Aug 2024 - Present): Built and scaled Windsurf’s Mid-Market Sales team from the ground up

Acquired by Cognition July 2025
- Regional Director, Acquisition at MongoDB - Austin, TX (Feb 2022 - Aug 2024): Led a team of sellers focusing strictly on New Business Acquisition in North America 

FY '25 - 2 rep promotions / Q1 - 248% / Q2 - 105% 
FY '24 - 3 rep promotions / Grew team to 7 / #1 NA Team for NL's & NARR / #2 WW Team for NL's & NARR
FY '23 - Built team from 1 rep to 5 / Countless lessons learned

4x HT RD of the Quarter / 2x NA RD of the Quarter
- Senior Account Executive at MongoDB - Austin, Texas, United States (Aug 2021 - Jan 2022): As an Account Executive at MongoDB, I owned a hybrid sales model of acquiring net new business, growing an account base, selling professional services, and handling renewals. In addition to the closing role, I mentored other Account Executives, led group/team trainings, and developed skill sets that enabled me to become a sales leader.

FY '21: 113% NACV attainment / 225% New Logo attainment / Excellence Club 
FY '22: 144% NACV attainment / 160% New Logo attainment / Excellence Club

Logos I'm most proud of: 
- MURAL 
- Box
- Storyblocks
- Account Executive, Corporate at MongoDB - Austin, Texas, United States (May 2020 - Jul 2021)
- Account Executive, Cloud at MongoDB - Austin, Texas Area (Aug 2019 - Apr 2020): Enabling companies and users to help them achieve their strategic initiatives within MongoDB Atlas. 

Supporting North, Central, and South America
- Senior Account Executive at TrendKite - Austin, Texas Area (Feb 2019 - Jul 2019): As an Account Executive at TrendKite*, I owned an end-to-end inside sales cycle from prospecting to close. Additionally, I set and executed product demos on a daily basis, trained/mentored other team members, and exclusively focused on bringing in new logos. 

Logos I'm Most Proud of:
- StockX 
- JConnelly 
- Chapman University
- Global Lyme Alliance 
- William Paterson University

*Aquired by Cision in January 2019
- Account Executive at TrendKite - Austin, Texas Area (Oct 2018 - Jan 2019)
- Associate Account Executive at TrendKite - Austin, Texas Area (Jun 2018 - Sep 2018)
- Sr. Sales Development Representative at TrendKite - Austin, Texas Area (Feb 2018 - May 2018): 2x SDR of the Month (October 2017, March 2018)
- Sales Development Representative at TrendKite - Austin, Texas (Jul 2017 - Jan 2018)
- NBC Sports Intern at NBCUniversal Media, LLC - Stamford, CT (Jan 2017 - May 2017)
- Marketing Intern at Fake Crow - Los Angeles, California (Jun 2015 - Aug 2015)

## Education
- Wesleyan University - Bachelor of Arts, Economics - (Jan 2013 - Jan 2017)
- Liberal Arts & Science Academy

## Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/scanizares
- https://x.com/scanizaresf
- https://x.com/imjaredz/status/2100303050334167448
- https://www.mongodb.com/company/blog/culture/corporate-sales-mongodb-meet-reps
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grahammoreno_another-quarter-wrapped-in-q3-at-codeium-activity-7260305545587298306-3wZw
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rudymgarza_life-update-my-time-with-windsurf-cognition-activity-7423066117344141313-i1w3
- https://athletics.wesleyan.edu/sports/football/roster/sebastian-canizares-fernandez/2837
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/cognition-ai-labs/posts
- https://x.com/scanizaresf/status/2076473350734365181
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scanizares_account-director-enterprise-east-activity-7422281414206971904-Cpv6
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nickspring_cognition-ai-activity-7509979103693975553-iSmM


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