- Nithin Hassan moved from California to Bengaluru in 2023 to launch his startup.
- Hassan left a high-paying job at Meta to address urban greenery issues in India.
- He enjoys building solutions that are close to home for him.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nithin Hassan, who moved from California to Bengaluru, India, in 2023 to launch his startup. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his employment history.
I grew up in and around Bengaluru, India, in the late 1990s and 2000s.
I moved to the US in 2006 for a master’s in computer science. After graduating, I worked at AT&T, Cisco, Amazon, and Microsoft for the next 13 years. In 2021, I switched to Meta, where I helped build data centers for the company.
I got married in 2013, and my wife also worked in Big Tech in the US. We really enjoyed life in the Bay Area — we had bought our own house and had a strong friend circle I saw as my family outside India. We also had two daughters, who are now six and two.