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Front Page/Tech & AI/Factory CEO just accused his VC board advisor of spying for Cognition
Tech & AIvia TechCrunch
30 September 2026 at 20:39•3 min read
Factory CEO just accused his VC board advisor of spying for Cognition
Factory CEO just accused his VC board advisor of spying.
High-resolution curated imagery via TechCrunch wire syndication.
Executive Takeaways • Key Intelligence
▪Strategic intelligence desk confirms key developments surrounding VC Chris Degnan and former board advisor to Factory AI has t.
▪International stakeholders analyze: Last day to demo your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders is on Oct 2.
▪Multilateral policy, financial liquidity, and regulatory frameworks face direct realignments.
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In an authoritative intelligence dispatch verified through TechCrunch, significant international developments have emerged regarding Factory CEO just accused his VC board advisor of spying for Cognition. Observers across key diplomatic, corporate, and policy corridors are actively parsing the immediate impact, as corroborated by verified wire filings.
VC Chris Degnan and former board advisor to Factory AI has taken a job as chief revenue officer for Cognition. Last day to demo your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. m. PT. REGISTER HERE.
Matan Grinberg, co-founder and CEO of the AI coding startup Factory, said in a post on X on Wednesday that he fired VC Chris Degnan from role as a board advisor. Grinberg alleges that Degnan shared confidential information with Factory’s biggest competitor, Cognition.
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Two hours later, Degnan announced on both X and LinkedIn that he has joined Cognition as its chief revenue officer. Degnan was Snowflake’s first sales hire and later spent 11 years as the data company’s chief revenue officer. He has spent the last five months as a partner with RPT Partners, a Newport Beach, California-based investor in Factory.
Degnan’s LinkedIn account also says he is a go-to-market advisor to startups for the much bigger venture firm Iconiq, a role that dates back to October of last year. Three-old, San Francisco-based Factory is an agentic coding startup whose AI agents can carry out programming tasks largely on their own.
The company raised $200 million at a $5 billion valuation this month from Blackstone, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners and others. Its customers include Nvidia, Blackstone, Royal Bank of Canada, Palo Alto Networks, Adobe, and T-Mobile as customers. Grinberg said he sees Cognition, maker of the Devin coding agent, as his biggest competitor, he said.
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Cognition raised another $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation earlier this month, and counts Mercedes-Benz, NASA, Goldman Sachs, and Citi as customers. Grinberg said on X that Degnan had earlier admitted to having a “casual” conversation with a Cognition executive but had assured Grinberg that he had no interest in working for the competitor.
” On Monday, however, Degnan apparently disclosed that he had actually been in ongoing talks with Cognition. The underlying catalysts behind these events trace back to evolving structural dynamics across the Tech & AI landscape.
Over recent quarters, multilateral authorities and market participants have navigated mounting volatility, heightening the urgency of coordinated responses and policy alignment. Senior analysts and industry stakeholders underscore that strategic transparency remains paramount.
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As institutional delegations evaluate risk models and operational contingencies, secondary dispatches indicate that further compliance directives and consultative reviews will be initiated in the coming cycle. Broader economic and regulatory ramifications are projected to ripple across interconnected regional ecosystems.
Market analysts note that supply chains, capital allocations, and policy frameworks must swiftly assimilate these verified updates to insulate against systemic bottlenecks.
The Global Post's editorial desk will continue rigorous monitoring of this developing story, with periodic updates provided as official statements and primary documentation are released by relevant governing bodies.
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