After earning nearly $1 million in a single year at Google, Yousuf Imran made a decision that surprised many. The ex-account executive walked away from one of the world's biggest technology companies, saying fears about layoffs and missing out on the AI boom pushed him to start his own business.

A former Google employee says AI equity, job security concerns, and years of side projects convinced him to leave and build his own company.

The man said that he left Google in April to launch Mangosteen Studio, an AI product lab focused on building AI-powered sales tools for account executives.