IIT Bombay Alumnus Reveals Why He Left $8,000-A-Month Silicon Valley Internship; Internet Calls It 'Kidney Touching Story'

A now-viral post by an IIT Bombay Alumnus has triggered a widespread debate online after he recalled how he walked away from a high-paying career in Silicon Valley to chase his entrepreneurial ambitions in India.

Aman Goel, cofounder of GreyLabs AI, reflected on his journey from earning $8000 a month in the US to building startups back home, sparking a larger debate online.

Sharing his story on X, the IIT Bombay alumnus recalled arriving in San Francisco nearly a decade ago as a 20-year-old student for a software engineering internship at Rubrik. According to Goel, the opportunity initially felt like a dream come true.

“Ten years ago, I landed in San Francisco as a 20 year old kid from IIT Bombay, headed to Palo Alto to intern at Rubrik’s Software

Engineering Team. I was earning $8,000 a month. It felt like a dream,” he wrote.

Goel said the internship exposed him to a thriving engineering culture and cutting-edge product development. He credited a senior from IIT Bombay for mentoring him and deepening his interest in databases and scalable backend systems. He also noted that he was among Rubrik’s early interns in 2016, years before the company eventually went public.

However, despite the opportunity and promising future in the Bay Area, Goel said the experience gave him something more important than financial success, clarity about where he wanted to build his future.

“But here is what that internship really gave me: Clarity. I realized I did not want to build my life in the Bay Area. I wanted to go back to India and build something of my own,” he shared.

After returning to India in July 2016, Goel said he devoted his final year in college to understanding entrepreneurship beyond engineering. He focused on learning about product strategy, sales, marketing and business building, which he described as becoming his “obsession.”

Referencing a quote by Bill Gates — “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years” — Goel said the line resonated deeply with him after experiencing his own entrepreneurial journey.

He further reflected on cofounding Cogno AI, scaling it past $1 million in revenue, seeing it acquired, and later starting again with GreyLabs AI. According to his post, the company has now raised close to Rs 100 crore from investors including z47 and Elevation Capital, employs more than 85 people and works with over 75 large BFSI clients across India.

Goel concluded his post by encouraging interns and young professionals to pay attention to what genuinely excites them instead of focusing only on salaries or stipends.

The post quickly gained traction online, prompting a flood of reactions from users.

One user joked, “$8,000 a month at 20 is not an internship, that is a pre-IPO adoption scheme. Rubrik lanyard, San Francisco and IIT Bombay senior mentor. Full package for becoming a man before your brain finishes its firmware update 🫡”

Another user wrote, “@amangoeliitb has always been my inspiration. From reading your blogs on blogspot to reading your answers on quora to following you on X & LinkedIn. Been working in corporate world for over a year, now I’m also looking to start something of my own. Let’s see how things pans out.”

A third user questioned his decision to leave the US startup ecosystem, commenting, “What prompted you to come back to Bombay? You could have just stayed there and build a startup. The opportunity, investment and most of all the startup culture is a lot better than India’s as far as I know. Though I could be wrong.”

Others praised the risks involved in entrepreneurship. “Courage is what it takes. to leave comfort and become entrepreneur. it’s never easy. your journey is inspiring from IIT to what you’re today. congratulations!” one comment read.

Ten years ago, I landed in San Francisco as a 20-year-old kid from IIT Bombay, headed to Palo Alto to intern at @rubrikInc‘s Software Engineering Team.

I was earning $8,000 a month. It felt like a dream.

My mentor was an @CSE_IITBombay senior, who made me fall in love with… pic.twitter.com/EjphbHWNs9

— Aman Goel (@amangoeliitb) May 9, 2026

Not everyone was impressed, however. One user bluntly remarked, “I see the word – AI and I stop reading this!”

Another emotional response read, “Feeling proud for you brother …You chose to come back to your mothers who both need you …more than that countless bright young minds who can’t afford to go abroad to get the exposure you had.I hope and pray we don’t disappoint you as Indians.”