Tech layoffs: Former Google employees come together to launch startup

Young professionals following their passion and leaving well paying jobs to turn innovative ideas into reality, is the usual narrative spun around startup stories. But for more than three lakh tech employees fired by firms including Meta, Cisco and Microsoft, entrepreneurship is more about survival than passion amidst a hiring freeze. This has probably pushed ex-Google employee Henry Kirk, and six colleagues laid off along with him, to start their own firm.

The startup born out of a group chat created for moral support, will be helping out others like the former Google employees, by helping startups secure funds. Kirk, who was laid off in January, will be providing design tools and research services for companies, along with his team with experience from Google. They haven't finalised a name, but Kirk has set end of March as a deadline for launching the startup.

After working at Google for eight years, Kirk was shocked and dejected after the company simply shut him out of his email and the system. His is just one more tale such as that of a recruiter who was fired by Google while he was still interviewing another candidate. The layoffs are still affecting Google's global workforce, and its major investor Christopher Hohn has called for 1.5 lakh people to be fired.