I was laid off by Google, afterward asked to arrive back. I gave up a 6-figure pay and unvested inventory to bet on my startup.

This as-told-to composition is according to a conversation alongside Rob Waters, a erstwhile Google employee who was laid off final November. The 42-year-old cofounded Kanawai AI and lives in San Francisco. The following has been edited for dimension and clarity.

In November 2025, I was on a escape to Los Angeles to encounter alongside a client whenever my laptop display abruptly went black.

My laptop rebooted, but whenever I tried to log rear in, it didn't work. Then I felt my individual phone buzz. I had an email from Google HR saying I'd been impacted by a layoff and my function was no longer necessary. I had no notice. My admission was cut off immediately.

I had to email the client I was flying to encounter from my individual document and cancel our meeting. The timing felt akin item out of a movie — akin I couldn't create it up.

I'd spent nearly six years at Google. Working there had been a aspiration of mine, and by the end, I was foremost the data analytics and AI revenue expert squad for Google Public Sector.

Now, suddenly, it was over.

I had a chance to come back to Google

I landed in Los Angeles about 12:30 in the morning. Before going to sleep, I checked my phone and saw an email from my director environment up a call for 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.

That meant getting up about 5:30 a.m. on the West Coast. I got concerning two hours of sleep.

During the meeting, I was informed concerning a stance on a new squad Google was creating, and I was encouraged to use formerly the beginning became available.

In first December, Google offered me the function alongside a six-figure salary. Accepting the recommendation would have meant returning to the financial safety I'd had at Google and allowing my inventory to continue vesting. I estimated that turning it downward meant strolling distant from concerning six figures of equity. I additionally had my spouse and son to think about, which made the decision harder.

But the way my period at Google had ended changed how I felt concerning going back.

I'd grown disappointed alongside several of the bureaucracy inside the company and how the reorganization was being handled. I'd additionally been operating incredibly difficult and dedicating myself to the job. After putting so much into my work, I felt akin all I had to display for it was getting laid off.

Starting my own business had been a goal of quarry for a lengthy time, but strolling distant from a comfortable company job had continually been difficult. The layoff ripped the Band-Aid off. I could return to Google and restart the sequence of a elevated pay and equity vesting, or I could see this as my chance to eventually prosecute my startup dreams. I looked at it as now or never.

Ultimately, I decided not to obtain the offer. It was period to bet on myself.

I moved throughout the nation to bet on my startup

I didn't commencement actively evolving my startup until January, following my ties alongside Google had ended. I wanted to evade any possible lawful issues.

A few months later, a erstwhile coworker of quarry remaining Google, and we began operating together on a endeavor idea that became Kanawai AI. We're construction an AI scheme of record, anywhere one phase provides AI visibility, governance, and safety chiefly for business and endeavor customers.

For the archetypal six months of 2026, I traveled regularly between my residence in Virginia and California. Being in California gave me greater admission to another founders, builders, venture capital, and the startup ecosystem. Eventually, I decided to relocate to assistance accelerate the business.

On July 1, I moved throughout the nation to San Francisco.

I remaining rearward nearly all of my belongings. I arrived in San Francisco alongside two suitcases and a case of device equipment. Finding a location wasn't easy. Because I had no earnings and was living off my savings, I didn't meet requirements for several apartments. But I eventually signed a lease on a two-bedroom apartment.

Earlier this month, concerning two months following I archetypal moved, my spouse and son joined me in San Francisco. The move — and putting my Virginia home up for transaction — was part of betting on myself and the company.

You have to be a small bit misguided as a startup founder

Going from making six figures at Google to zero as an entrepreneur was a extremely difficult pill to swallow. Since leaving Google, I have been living off my funds and haven't taken a salary.

The gag is that you have to be a small bit misguided as a startup founder. But I saw my circumstance as now-or-never. I'm not the stereotypical 22-year-old Stanford founder, but I have years of cognition operating alongside AI and data, including in challenging environments. I accept that cognition can assistance me now.

We're motionless in the first stages of the business, but we're already onboarding clients to our platform, partnering alongside bigger innovation vendors, and starting our pre-seed lift in San Francisco.

My biggest career advice for another tech professionals is to never get too comfortable. Being uncomfortable can average following a certification, a promotion, changing companies, or making a drastic occupation pivot. Only you cognize what that next uncomfortable move is.

I'd lengthy dreamed of doing two things: working at Google and starting my own company. I got to expend nearly six years living out the archetypal dream. Now I'm betting on the second.

Nothing is guaranteed, particularly in Silicon Valley. But getting the chance to prosecute the two of my biggest dreams is what makes this all value it.

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