I quit Meta to build an AI startup. Giving up a Big Tech salary was tough — here's how I prepared financially.

• Jason White left his job at Meta to build an AI finance startup called Bear Financial.
• White's decision stemmed from a desire to address financial planning needs using AI.
• He advises others to secure their finances and make sure they have support before pursuing startup ventures.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jason White, a 46-year-old startup founder in the San Jose area. Business Insider has verified his former employment with documentation. His words have been edited for length and clarity.

I've spent half of my 20 years in the tech industry working at Google and Meta. These companies allowed me to work on some amazing projects, but I've now resigned from them both.

I joined Google in 2016 as a tech lead in the Gmail division and transitioned to the Google Search team in 2020. By 2024, I realized I wanted to lean more heavily into AI. I didn't feel my position at Google would give me the opportunity to do that, so I opened myself up to other opportunities.

When a Meta recruiter reached out about an AI machine learning engineer role, I decided to pursue it and eventually received an offer. I left Google in July 2024 and started at Meta a month later.

I had a positive experience at Meta. I worked with great people in a high-resource environment and learned a lot. I was also able to lean into AI as I'd hoped, focusing fully on AI products.

However, halfway through 2025, I started thinking about resigning to build a startup — specifically, a venture that would use AI to help the typical household with their finances.

I struggled with the decision of whether to resign from Meta

Whether to resign from Meta was a complex decision.

The startup was something I was growing increasingly passionate about. I know what financial pressure feels like — I had been a low-paid graduate student trying to provide for a newborn.

Many people don't have access to great financial planning and management tools to help improve their financial situations. While I was still figuring out what the business would look like, I felt there was an opportunity to help people, and that was very motivating for me.

I connected with a potential cofounder — a friend of a friend — and we spent a lot of time talking through the opportunity. That helped me grow more comfortable with the idea of leaving Meta, but there were still a lot of other factors to consider.

It's hard to leave a world-class team with people you like — not to mention a reliable source of income.

I made sure my family would be prepared to lose my income

I know some people start businesses on the side while keeping their full-time jobs, but I couldn't do that because I was already juggling two demanding roles as a Meta employee and a parent.

My other concern was legal. I would've had to disclose any outside business to Meta, and there could've been non-compete issues — especially since my business idea was related to AI, like my role at Meta.

I wanted to make sure my family had enough savings to cover at least one year of our current expenses without touching our retirement accounts. My wife works, but I wanted a cushion in case she lost her job. I figured that would give me at least one year to build the business, and, if things went really badly, enough time afterward to find a job.

We already were in a good place savings-wise, so we were still able to take vacations, hire tutors for our kids, and order DoorDash. I had about six months before resigning to make some minor adjustments, including cutting back on 401(k) contributions and putting more money into liquid savings accounts.

This financial planning process for my family really helped crystallize the direction I wanted to go with the startup. In September 2025, I resigned from Meta.

When I shared the news with my colleagues, the response was a mix of surprise, support, and a large amount of jealousy. A lot of people want to leave and start their own thing, but for various reasons they can't or won't — whether it's because of their visa status, financial constraints, or broader fear.

I'm now focused on my business, Bear Financial. My cofounder and I are planning to publicly launch in the second half of this year. We may seek external funding, but for now, we're bootstrapping the business, so I've tracked our spending very carefully.

My advice for people in a similar situation

I have a few pieces of advice for people considering leaving their jobs to start their own business. First, get your finances in order. Second, make sure anyone who depends on you, like your family, is supportive of the decision — I was fortunate to have a supportive partner who knew that I felt limited working in Big Tech.

Third, choose an idea you deeply believe in. With a startup, you have to be the one to bring the energy, the enthusiasm, the vision — and to carry others into it.

Address your knowledge gaps. Startup founders often need to be generalists, which means having a basic understanding of a lot of areas.

I'd also suggest envisioning the worst-case outcome and asking yourself whether you'd be OK with it. I thought about what it would look like one year later if my business failed. I believe I'd still value everything I learned over those 12 months.

If I eventually decide to pursue a corporate position again, I have faith that I'd be able to find something — even though it's hard to predict what the job market will look like.

I'm happy with the direction of my startup so far

There are, however, a lot of potential barriers to success: we have to navigate a moving target on regulations, we need to figure out ways to convince potential customers to give us a try, and there are super well-resourced companies that could become direct competitors.

At the end of the day, I want to take the swing.