I got laid off and used my severance money to launch a startup. Here's why it felt like less of a gamble than pursuing an MBA.

Tech Insider : Business, Sports, Technology
Sam Perry headshot
Sam Perry, 40, was laid off in 2022.

Courtesy of Sam Perry

After 3 years of forcing myself to love venture capital, I quit and became a silent disco DJ in Bali

Tech Insider : Business
Nic Huzz composite
Nic Huzz started his career at a VC firm in Australia.

Nic Huzz

AI's first wave was about cutting costs. The second wave is about building things we've never seen.

Tech Insider : Technology, Business
People watch a surfer riding a wave in Praia do Norte, Nazare, Portugal
People watch a surfer riding a wave in Praia do Norte, Nazare, Portugal.

PEDRO NUNES/REUTERS

Dario Amodei says Anthropic struggles to balance 'incredible commercial pressure' with its 'safety stuff'

Tech Insider : Business, Technology, Environment
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

A Gen Zer drained her savings building a startup. A 6-figure job at Meta helped her start over — then she quit.

Tech Insider : Technology, Business, Economy
Alyson Isaacs
Alyson Isaacs

Alyson Isaacs

OpenClaw's creator is heading to OpenAI. He says it could've been a 'huge company,' but building one didn't excite him.

Tech Insider : Technology, Business
OpenClaw
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger is joining the company.

Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

We left Amazon to build a startup. A 5-day RTO mandate and the AI moment pushed us to act.

Tech Insider : Business, Environment
Joe Luchs (left), Nicole Landis Ferragonio (right)
Joe Luchs (left) and Nicole Landis Ferragonio (right) resigned from Amazon last year to build a startup together.

Joe Luchs (left), Nicole Landis Ferragonio (right)

This cybersecurity CEO says we're in an AI bubble. These are the 3 things he looks for when investing in a startup.

Tech Insider : Business
Shlomo Kramer
Shlomo Kramer said he believes we're in an AI bubble.

Photoset

These Y Combinator founders raised $10 million to get corporate America into vibe coding. Read their pitch deck.

Tech Insider : Technology, Business
Vybe cofounders Quang Hoang and Fabien Devos with their arms around one another, standing in front of a brick wall.
Vybe cofounders Quang Hoang and Fabien Devos.

Vybe

I helped Mark Zuckerberg start Facebook and now I'm the CEO of Philo. Here's a day in my life in San Francisco balancing work and kids.

Tech Insider : Technology, Business, Travel
Andrew McCollum

Jason Henry for BI

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andrew McCollum, the 42-year-old CEO of Philo, based in San Francisco. It's been edited for length and clarity.

Subscribe to Entrepreneurship