Employees are leaving Amazon, Google, and Twitter for crypto startups

• According to recruiters, this is largely due to people’s desire to work on the most fascinating aspects of technology. For the time being, that is crypto and Web3.

• Fletcher compared the present talent surge to what occurred when on-demand companies such as Uber and Lyft became popular in the early 2010s, causing their own wave of job switching.

• “Developers enjoy new things – they prefer new, shiny goods,” said Vivek Ravisankar, CEO of developer recruiting firm HackerRank.

While that may still be the case for many prospective tech employees, another region is challenging Silicon Valley’s dominance as the trendiest place to be: Asia.Web3.

Getting a job at Uber or Twitter was like striking gold just a few years ago. Executives and developers are leaving Google, Meta, Amazon, and other companies.

Developers’ temptation toward crypto is increasing

“We are undoubtedly seeing some of Silicon Valley’s best and brightest, or tech, transfer over to crypto,” says Scott Fletcher, whose business Intersection Growth Partners has invested in crypto.

We don’t know much about Web3, the predicted future edition of the internet, except that it will, in theory, function on the blockchain rather than centralized websites owned by companies like Google or Amazon.

But, as vague as it is, it remains tempting to many of Big Tech’s top executives.

In January, the former CMO of Meta’s digital wallet project, Novi, joined the blockchain-focused payments business Circle; the former GM of Amazon’s AWS Edge Services is now CTO of Gemini, and OpenSea has hired Lyft’s former CFO and Uber’s former director of corporate development.

Then there’s Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s former SVP of policy and communications, who departed for a crypto VC firm, and YouTube’s former director of gaming, who went to Polygon Studios, which caters to Web3 developers.

Why are people switching

As cryptocurrency and other decentralized tech ventures push their way to the forefront of the industry, eight tech recruiters told Insider that they’re seeing a significant trend of high-profile executives and developers leaving established firms for cryptocurrency and other decentralized tech ventures.

Recruiters stated this is especially true in the development community.

According to recruiters, this is largely due to people’s desire to work on the most fascinating aspects of technology. For the time being, that is crypto and Web3. With a paucity of engineers focusing on the space, taking the risk and getting in early will almost certainly pay off.

Fletcher compared the present talent surge to what occurred when on-demand companies such as Uber and Lyft became popular in the early 2010s, causing their own wave of job switching.

“Developers enjoy new things – they prefer new, shiny goods,” said Vivek Ravisankar, CEO of developer recruiting firm HackerRank.

There are also philosophical distinctions between working for an old-guard computer corporation and a futuristic startup that empowers individuals. Not to mention that the big names have been around for decades, giving them plenty of opportunities to develop long-standing reputations, both good and negative.

ALSO READ: Michael Novogratz is bullish on Ethereum and NFT

Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.

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