Why An Indian-Origin Engineer Left A Rs 2.89 Crore Meta Job To Build An AI Startup
Prakshal Jain has walked away from a $300,000 annual salary at Meta to launch his own venture. After a tenure of three and a half years where he helped launch Facebook and Instagram on Meta Quest, Jain is shifting his focus to Mitosis Labs. He spent seven months in stealth mode developing this new startup alongside co-founder Alex Morris.
His decision stems from a change in how he approaches technology. Jain observed that his reliance on traditional apps and dashboards decreased as he began using AI assistants for his daily tasks. This transition convinced him that the future of digital interaction lies in intelligent agents that simplify workflows rather than requiring users to navigate complex interfaces.
To test this hypothesis, Jain built a personal AI agent trained on his own data. He reports that this system reduced his iPhone screen time by 78% in just three weeks. This result serves as the core motivation for his work at Mitosis Labs. He argues that many companies currently fail to reach the full potential of AI because they prioritize surface-level interface design over the actual intelligence layer.
The startup has already produced three initial tools: Mitosis Cortex, Yappy, and UFA & Wikipedia. As Jain prepares to showcase these technologies, he remains vocal about the necessity of prioritizing user privacy and data ownership. His move highlights a broader trend among senior engineers who are trading corporate security for the chance to build AI systems from the ground up.
This shift reflects a clear trend in the industry. Experienced developers are increasingly betting on their ability to solve specific productivity bottlenecks through autonomous agents. Whether this focus on reducing screen time and app reliance will reshape how we interact with our devices remains a question for the market to answer, but Jain is clearly moving ahead with his vision.