Leaving a high-paying job is often seen as a founder's leap of faith. Leaving one of the world's most coveted AI roles is an entirely different story.
That's exactly what Rishabh Agrawal has done.
After building his career at Google Brain, DeepMind, and most recently Meta, the AI researcher has reportedly walked away from a compensation package worth over $1 million annually to build his own AI startup.
From the outside, it seems like a difficult decision to justify. Meta offers world class research, access to cutting edge artificial intelligence, and the resources to work on problems at a global scale.
So why leave?
“For many founders, there comes a point where the opportunity to build something of your own becomes more valuable than building for someone else.”
Rishabh Agrawal's move reflects a larger shift in the AI startup ecosystem. Increasingly, some of the brightest engineers are choosing entrepreneurship over established tech giants. The belief is simple: the next breakthrough in artificial intelligence may not come from the biggest company, but from a small, focused team willing to challenge conventional thinking.
It's also an encouraging moment for the Indian startup ecosystem. As AI continues to reshape industries, more Indian founders are stepping forward to build globally relevant products instead of simply contributing to global companies.
Sometimes the biggest risk isn't leaving a prestigious company.
It's choosing to believe you can build something bigger.
Whether Rishabh Agrawal's venture becomes the next major AI company remains to be seen.
But his decision already highlights something important about AI entrepreneurship.
The startup may still be in its early days.
The founder story has already begun.