How Varun Mohan Turned Codeium into a Unicorn in Just 3.5 Years: A Story of Vision, Pivots, and Execution

n the fast-evolving world of artificial intelligence, few stories stand out as vividly as that of Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of Codeium.

In a mere three and a half years, Mohan transformed his startup into a unicorn—a privately held company valued at over $1 billion—disrupting the software development landscape with an AI-powered platform that’s now used by hundreds of thousands of developers and dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

In a recent podcast episode, Mohan shared the strategies, pivots, and philosophies that fueled Codeium’s meteoric rise.

This blog dives deep into his journey, offering lessons for aspiring founders and a glimpse into the future of AI in software development.

The Backstory: From Autonomous Vehicles to AI Ambitions

Varun Mohan’s path to founding Codeium wasn’t a straight line. After graduating from MIT, where he met his co-founder in middle school and later collaborated on projects, Mohan joined Nuro, an autonomous vehicle company.

There, he witnessed firsthand the transformative potential of deep learning.

“I realized that deep learning was going to fundamentally transform many industries and usher in brand-new applications,” - Varun Mohan.

This insight planted the seed for his entrepreneurial journey.

In 2020, Mohan and his co-founder launched Exa Function, a company focused on GPU virtualization to optimize deep learning workloads. With a lean team and no sales reps, they scaled to millions in revenue and managed over 10,000 GPUs.

But by mid-2022, a seismic shift in the AI landscape forced a rethink.

The rise of Transformer architectures— foundational to models like GPT—threatened to commoditize their infrastructure offering. “If the type of software we were providing infrastructure for was largely looking all the same, we would become a commodity,” Mohan explains.

Recognizing this, they made a bold pivot: they took their infrastructure expertise and built Codeium, an AI-driven software development tool.

The Pivot: Intellectual Honesty and Market Signals

Pivoting a company is no small feat, especially when it’s already generating revenue. Yet Mohan’s decision was rooted in a principle he holds dear: intellectual honesty. “For a startup, the most important thing is intellectual honesty,” he says.

Unlike large corporations with ample resources to weather missteps, startups can’t afford to ignore market signals. Mohan and his team saw the commoditization risk and chose to act rather than cling to their original vision.

To validate the pivot, they drew inspiration from early internet giants like Google and Amazon, opting to become an application company rather than an infrastructure provider.

They also leaned on their experience as early adopters of GitHub Copilot, seeing it as “the tip of the iceberg” for AI-augmented software engineering. Launching Codeium for free—a risky move enabled by their cost-efficient infrastructure—allowed them to acquire users rapidly and test their hypothesis.

“We knew that if we built a useful product and couldn’t acquire users, something was wrong,” Mohan notes.

The gamble paid off: enterprises soon reached out, signaling strong product-market fit.

The Strategy: Free Access, Enterprise Focus, and Sales Discipline

Codeium’s ascent to unicorn status hinged on a three-pronged strategy:

Launching for Free: By leveraging their infrastructure advantages, Codeium offered its product at no cost initially, contrasting with competitors like Copilot, which reportedly burned cash per user.

This move drove massive user adoption—hundreds of thousands of developers now use Codeium—creating a flywheel of feedback and growth.

Vertical Integration: Unlike many AI startups reliant on third-party platforms, Codeium trained its own models and controlled its stack.

This not only reduced costs but also allowed flexibility in deployment, making it appealing to enterprises with diverse tech ecosystems.

Sales Discipline: Mohan’s approach to sales was methodical, influenced by John McMahon’s playbook (popularized at MongoDB). He refused to hire sales reps until a repeatable sales process emerged organically—specifically, after 10 Fortune 500 companies proactively sought Codeium.

“If the founder can’t sell $1 of the product, it’s a bad idea to hire a sales team to sell $100,” he argues. This discipline ensured that when sales scaled, it did so sustainably.

Once enterprises engaged, Codeium shifted to capturing value through partnerships, proving ROI with metrics like 43% of committed code being AI-generated and an 18% reduction in PR cycle time at a Fortune 10 client. This tangible value cemented its enterprise appeal.

The Vision: Redefining Software Development

Codeium’s mission is ambitious: “to enable developers to dream bigger.” Mohan envisions a world where projects that once took a year can be completed in weeks.

Today, Codeium operates primarily in the IDE (Integrated Development Environment), but its roadmap spans the entire software development lifecycle—designing, reviewing, deploying, debugging, testing, and more. “Anywhere a developer does work, we want to leverage AI to reduce the time it takes,” he says.

This vision is underpinned by rapid advancements in GPU technology, which Mohan notes improves at a rate 100 times faster than traditional hardware like SSDs.

He believes this pace will fuel continuous innovation, positioning Codeium to dominate as a platform-agnostic, enterprise-grade solution—unlike competitors tied to specific ecosystems like Microsoft’s.

Lessons Learned: Humility, Speed, and Customer Pain

Mohan’s journey offers several takeaways for founders:

Humility Over Ego: “Being right is not very valuable—it’s more important to be valuable than right,” he says. This mindset allowed Codeium to pivot swiftly and adapt to market shifts.

Speed in Decision-Making: Startups must act with 60-70% of the information, not 95-100%, to stay ahead. Waiting for certainty often means missing the window of opportunity.

Solve Real Pain: Mohan emphasizes building “painkillers, not vitamins.” Codeium’s success stems from addressing tangible developer pain points, validated by enterprise adoption.

Personally, Mohan reflects weekly with his co-founder during 5-6 hour walks, questioning assumptions and identifying gaps. This ruthless honesty keeps Codeium agile, even as it scales.

The AI Landscape: More Developers, Not Fewer

Mohan’s take on AI’s future challenges conventional wisdom. While some predict AI will shrink the developer workforce, he believes the opposite:

“There will be more developers 10 years from now.” Why? Technology consumption is limitless—unlike food, where supply outstrips demand, businesses never say, “I’m done with technology.” As AI lowers the cost of knowledge work, demand for software will surge, amplifying the need for developers equipped with tools like Codeium.

The Drive: A Vision to Change the World

What fuels Mohan? A desire to be part of a vision that reshapes the world. “We could fundamentally disrupt the way technology gets built,” he says.

A former endurance athlete, he’s driven by a hatred of losing and a relentless pursuit of massive goals. For him, Codeium isn’t just a company—it’s a privilege and a shot at building a generational legacy akin to Salesforce or MongoDB.

From MIT to Unicorn Status

Varun Mohan’s journey from MIT graduate to unicorn founder is a masterclass in vision, adaptability, and execution.

By pivoting from Exa Function to Codeium, launching for free to gain traction, and scaling sales with discipline, he turned a bold idea into a billion-dollar reality.

His story underscores a timeless truth: success in startups isn’t about being right from the start—it’s about being honest, agile, and relentlessly focused on customer value.

As Codeium continues to grow, Mohan’s ambition to redefine software development promises to leave an indelible mark on the AI landscape.