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Key Takeaways Yousuf Imran, 41, earned $986,000 this year working as an account executive at Google.
He still left the company because he was drawn to the “life-changing money” that AI startups offered.
Imran left Google in April to launch his own AI sales tools startup.
For Yousuf Imran, the grass was greener outside of Google.
The 41-year-old Google account executive earned $986,000 in 2026, mainly from sales commissions that layered on top of a $170,000 base salary. Despite making nearly $1 million at Google, he was drawn to the “life-changing money” that AI startups were offering their employees.
“Google pays very well, but the equity packages at OpenAI and Anthropic are in a different universe,” Imran, a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, said in a recent interview with Business Insider.
He was also disillusioned with Google because the tech giant laid off some of his coworkers over the past few years — and he wondered if he would be next. Since early 2023, Google has eliminated tens of thousands of jobs globally after rapid pandemic hiring.
So, in April, Imran took the plunge and quit Google to launch an AI sales tools startup.
His move away from Google highlights how the tech giant has lost some of its edge in the AI boom, per Business Insider. Google’s generous compensation packages and perks drew a fair share of interest over the years. According to employer branding firm Universum, Google was the most appealing employer for business students for over a decade, from 2009 to 2022, before losing the top spot to Apple.
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