Google engineer gave up a path to a green card and a US job for his own venture in Europe

The 27-year-old Gregor Konzett joined Google in 2022 and worked as a software engineer on the Google Pixel Audio team. Initially hired in London, he managed to transfer to the company’s Mountain View headquarters after just one year. «I grew up in a small village in Austria and always dreamed of living in Silicon Valley. As a kid fascinated by technology, I wanted to be where innovation happens,» Konzett said.

Working in Silicon Valley provided him with rapid professional growth opportunities. He gained access to key engineering teams, participated in product decisions, and, according to him, learned more in his first few months at headquarters than in the previous two years. However, after about a year, he felt professionally stagnant. Another limitation was his work visa, which prevented him from pursuing his own projects outside of Google.

Konzett made the decision to leave when a friend suggested applying to a startup accelerator in London. After being accepted into a program that started just a month later, he had to choose between a stable job and entrepreneurship. «The hardest part was that it was objectively an excellent job. Leaving meant giving up the path to a US green card,» Konzett says.

Despite the challenging job market, Konzett decided to take the risk. «I’m young, I have a financial cushion from working at Google, and I don’t have a mortgage or a family to support. This is the best time to take a risk.» According to him, staying with the company solely for immigration status would have meant freezing his own development.

The programmer is now working on Vestry.ai, a startup focused on solving observability issues in complex hardware systems. After completing the accelerator program, the team plans to raise investment and return to California.