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  • Professor Andrea M. Armani, University of Southern California
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  • Professor Stefan Witte, Delft University of Technology

Continue Appoints Chad Metcalf as CEO to Accelerate Enterprise Adoption of Open-Source AI Code Assistants

Co-founder Ty Dunn transitions to Chief Product Officer as the company enters its next phase of growth and product innovation.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 20, 2025 (EZ Newswire) -- Continue, the open-source AI code assistant platform backed by Heavybit and Y Combinator, today announced the appointment of Chad Metcalf as Chief Executive Officer. Metcalf, an open-source and infrastructure veteran with leadership roles at Docker, Cloudera, and Puppet, will lead the company into its next chapter focused on enterprise readiness and AI-native development. Co-founder Ty Dunn will step into the role of Chief Product Officer, where he will focus on product vision, developer experience, and community growth.

“Bringing on Chad isn’t just a leadership change—it’s a reflection of where we are in our journey and where we’re going,” said Ty Dunn, Continue Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer. “Over the past year, I’ve come to see that my best contribution to Continue—and to our users—is to double down on what I love: building great products and helping developers thrive. Chad brings the depth, clarity, and enterprise experience we need to scale without compromising our values.” 

The AI code assistance market has exploded over the last two years, driven by the increasing demand for tools that enhance developer productivity and streamline software development processes both for companies and individual developers. The adoption of AI coding assistants is also transforming the software development workforce. According to Gartner, by 2028, 75% of enterprise software engineers will utilize AI code assistants, a significant increase from less than 10% in early 2023.

“Continue is building something fundamentally different,” said Chad Metcalf, CEO of Continue. “We believe the future of software development is open, modular, and deeply developer-centric. While others are locking users into closed, opaque tooling, Continue gives teams the freedom to choose their models, customize their workflows, and own their data. In the fullness of time, that’s what will win and why I’ve been a big believer in this business since the beginning.”

Metcalf’s track record spans the full arc of open-source and developer platforms—from early engineering at Cloudera and sales engineering at Puppet to multiple GTM roles at Docker. His appointment signals Continue’s readiness to scale beyond being a beloved devtool to a mission-critical platform for enterprises navigating the complex world of AI-assisted development.

“Continue has been in great hands with Ty, and I’m in awe of the product and community he’s built,” said Jesse Robbins, General Partner at Heavybit and co-founder of Chef. “As we head into this next chapter, Chad is the ideal person to lead. His instincts, integrity, and deep understanding of developer platforms are exactly what’s needed to help Continue meet this pivotal moment.”

Continue’s open architecture supports any AI model and integrates across the full software development lifecycle, allowing organizations to build domain-specific assistants that align with their internal workflows. With over 26,000 GitHub stars, a thriving open-source community, and growing enterprise traction, Continue is quickly becoming the developer-first alternative to monolithic, closed AI coding assistants.

“This new configuration—Chad leading why we matter to customers, me leading what we build, and my co-founder Nate Sesti leading how we build—positions us to move faster and with greater clarity,” said Dunn. 

About Continue

Continue enables developers to create, share, and use custom AI code assistants. Our open-source IDE extensions fit into your existing workflows, while letting you leverage our vibrant hub of models, context, and tools. With hundreds of thousands of users, Continue is loved by developers worldwide at organizations ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 companies. Continue is backed by Heavybit, Y Combinator, and angels, including Julien Chaumond (co-founder of Hugging Face), Lisha Li (founder of Rosebud AI), and Florian Leibert (co-founder of Mesosphere). The company was founded in 2023 and is based in San Francisco.

Media Contact

Kara Silverman
kara@variousand.com
###

SOURCE: Continue

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