Why I worked in Big Tech and then a startup before launching my own

It didn’t work out, but I learned an important lesson about myself. I realized I loved how founders get to wear so many hats. You’re not just an engineer or a product designer, you’re also a content creator, a lawyer, and an accountant.

That has driven every other career decision I’ve made in my professional career.

Step 1: Get a job with Meta

I’m a risk-averse person, and starting a business straight out of college didn’t seem like an option. So I started to prepare myself to be a founder and gather experiences that would help further.

Right from the start, I was sure I wanted to work building consumer products. When it came time to look for jobs, I only applied to Meta and Google, companies well known for developing tabletop products.

I interned with Meta and landed a full-time role with the company after graduating in 2018. The offer was a huge deal for me and I remember calling my parents at home to share the news right away.

My family knew that my long-term goal was to work for myself, and they worried that the years would pass and that I would never leave Big Tech and its comforts.

At Meta, I’ve been careful to select projects that allow me to become a jack of all trades. I was taking projects where I could work in many different areas, instead of specializing in computer vision or machine learning, for example. I gained a reputation as an engineer who could get things out the door – whether it was by learning the technology myself or by bringing other engineers together for the project.

Step 2: Get out of the Meta to see how startups work

After four years at Meta, I understood that large companies have a way of pigeonholing their employees into one role, and I felt that my learning had stagnated.

I left Meta in 2022 and moved to ticket platform StubHub, a smaller company. I also had an engineering role there, but was tasked with cross-functional roles such as product management and data analytics. I learned how startups need to iterate quickly and work with limited resources. It gave me my first experience of leading a team, which I really enjoyed.

In addition to acquiring technical skills, I was also saving up to eventually start my own company. After work, I took online courses to learn accounting and finance and spent time with my brothers, who have backgrounds in management and venture capital.

Step 3: Moving to India

Living in the US, launching a startup in Silicon Valley seemed like an obvious choice, but I was more excited about the business prospects in India. Internet adoption has skyrocketed since I left in 2014; the size of the population made it a hotbed for a technological consumer product; and government initiatives such as an instant payments system and the push towards greater adoption of technology have made doing business much easier. I knew that if I were to start my own business, it would be for the Indian market.

I finally called it quits last year after my fiancée proposed. We knew we wanted to settle in India and our wedding next year became a deadline to get started. I decided I would go back first and quit my StubHub job and moved back in January of this year.

My friends made bets on whether I would ever leave the US or a salaried job, and I managed to shock them and raise some money when I announced my decision to quit.

I left behind $580,000 in total compensation at the company.

Since then, I’ve brought in a co-founder, a high school friend who also moved from the US a few years ago. We are working on launching a consumer tech product in the next few months.

I love going back, especially because it means being close to my family and culture again. There are also challenges — I had to get used to driving on the busy roads of India.

Even though I’m glad to be back in India, I definitely think the US is my second home now. I visited my fiancée in New York this summer and felt a little sad as I boarded a plane back to India. It’s a weird situation because I’ve always felt angry every time I’ve gotten on a plane to the US over the years.

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