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This $29-billion US startup with Indian-origin co-founder has 'no shoes in office' policy
Cursor, an AI coding startup founded in 2022, is known for its no-shoes policy.
This morning, a California-based techie posted a picture of a room filled with shoes on the floor and wrote: “Funny that everyone in SF immediately knows which office this is.” He was right — fellow techies from San Francisco were able to immediately identify the place.
The comments section of the post was quickly filled with people saying it looked like the office of Cursor — an AI startup that follows a ‘no shoes in office’ policy.
The viral post
Cupertino-based developer Andre Landgraf took to X this morning to share a photo that shows several pairs of shoes scattered across a hardwood floor. “Funny that everyone in SF immediately knows which office this is,” he wrote.
“Cursor office,” wrote one person in the comments section. “Has to be Cursor,” said another. One comment simply read “CURSOR”.
What is Cursor?
Cursor is an AI-powered coding startup best known for building Cursor, a smart code editor that helps developers write, edit, and understand code faster using artificial intelligence. In November 2025, it closed a $2.3 billion funding round at a $29.3 billion post-money valuation.
Cursor was founded by Michael Truell (CEO), Aman Sanger, Sualeh Asif, and Arvid Lunnemark in 2022.
Among its four co-founders, one is of Indian-origin — Aman Sanger is one of the four Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alumni who launched Cursor around four years ago.
Cursor’s no-shoes policy
Cursor is among several US-based startups that follow a no-shoes in office policy. The policy gained wider attention in late 2025 when Ben Lang, an employee at Cursor, posted two pictures of shoes strewn all over the floor and wrote “Cursor office(s) in San Francisco”.
In another X post, Lang said he had only ever worked at startups with a no-shoes policy and wondered if other companies followed a similar dress code. He later shared a list of 25 other “no-shoes” startup offices.
Amused reactions
Meanwhile, Landgraf’s picture posted today drew amused reactions, but also some racist comments.
“Picture you can smell,” wrote one person.
“I'm from India and even we don't do this at workplaces,” another posted.
“Looks like a Hindu temple,” an X user said. (Also read: Techie fired for using AI to write code that later broke production: 'Got a Slack at 11 pm')
