‘You're just one piece’: Indian-origin techie on quitting Google to co-found podcast

Aashna Doshi, a 23-year-old Indian-origin software engineer, has left Google a little over a year after joining the company to build her own AI startup. In a post on Instagram, she said the fear of spending years wondering “what if?” outweighed the security of staying in a prestigious corporate job.

For Doshi, a job at Google had been a milestone she had worked hard to reach. But she wrote that, in the end, the bigger risk was not taking the chance to build something of her own.

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Doshi’s path to Google involved a series of bold decisions. While studying at Georgia Tech, she received a full-time offer from the company before graduation. The role, however, was based in California, while she wanted to be in New York City. Instead of accepting the offer straight away, she declined it, despite a difficult tech jobs market for fresh graduates at the time.

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That decision later paid off when she secured another role at Google that allowed her to work from New York. Even after getting the job she wanted, Doshi found herself increasingly interested in building things outside her day job.

Alongside her work as a software engineer, she had co-founded a podcast. What began as a side project gradually introduced her to a different kind of work, including creating content, having conversations, building a community and exploring ideas beyond engineering.

As artificial intelligence began reshaping industries, Doshi saw an opening to build something herself. She wrote that she wanted to create something she could fully own and shape, rather than contribute to a small part of a much larger machine. In May, she left Google to work full-time on Bounty, an AI-powered startup she is building with her podcast co-founder.

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The platform helps businesses complete tasks such as recruitment, outreach and lead generation through a results-based model. The move has also brought financial uncertainty, with Bounty still in its early stages and yet to generate revenue. Even so, Doshi said she has no regrets and believes staying where she was while continuing to wonder what might have happened would have been the bigger risk.

Social Media reactions

One user wrote, "sounds so interesting, loveee this!! All the best for your new chapter!!"

Another user appreciates her decision, "Congratulations and all the best mam"

Third user wrote, "This is so cool! All the best"