Cognition CEO: token-spend leaderboards 'directionally correct' but flawed

Scott Wu, cofounder and CEO of Cognition, called token-spend leaderboards "directionally correct" but warned some people have "gotten carried away." He said companies should focus on ranking engineers by actual output rather than raw token usage. Cognition was founded in 2023 by Wu, Steven Hao, and Walden Yan and is best known for Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer.

The San Francisco-based company has attracted backing from investors including Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Elad Gil, and Pear VC. In May, it raised more than $1 billion at a $26 billion post-money valuation, making it one of the most valuable AI coding startups globally.

Wu acknowledged that compute is expensive but argued that if engineers can ship three times more than they would without AI, it is "clearly worth it." He added that firms should tie rewards to concrete outcomes — for example how many tickets are resolved and how much cheaper and faster a project can be.

cognition, scott wu, token-spend, leaderboards, engineer output, devin, autonomous ai, founders fund, khosla ventures, 26b valuation