By Jacob Zinkula
Publication Date: 2026-10-11 11:00:00
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Junead Khan, a 25-year-old entrepreneur in Seattle. He worked at Microsoft before resigning last year to focus on his startup, Treasury. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I had a really good experience at Microsoft when I first joined full-time in 2023.
It was my first job out of college, and I joined right in the middle of the AI boom. I was involved in the rollout of data centers across the world. It was a great opportunity.
Then Microsoft experienced some service outages, and by early 2025, I saw a greater emphasis on security and service stability. It felt like shipping things got slower. That started to take some of the fun out of the job for me.
At the same time, I was watching new AI coding tools emerge. I wanted to experiment with them and get access to them faster. I was making very good money at Microsoft: I earned more than $200,000 in 2024, including stock and…
