Why I Walked Away From My Google Job to Build an AI Startup

Doshi’s pivot began with a side project: the "0 to 1" podcast, co-founded with a fellow Big Tech engineer to explore the career trajectories of industry leaders. The show quickly gained traction, surpassing 100,000 YouTube views and facilitating connections with executives from Amazon and Microsoft. This platform did more than expand her network; it provided the distribution channel necessary for her startup, an outcome-based AI marketplace designed to help companies source candidates and generate leads.

While the prestige and financial security of a Google paycheck offered comfort, Doshi felt constrained by the scale of a massive corporate machine. She sought the agility to make rapid decisions and direct impact—a desire intensified by the current surge in accessible AI development tools. Although her new venture remains pre-revenue and requires a significant pay cut, she views the move as a calculated necessity. For Doshi, the risk of stagnation behind a desk outweighed the instability of building a company from the ground up.