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Man leaves Meta to start his own company, now offering ₹17 crore job to…
This strategy has already borne fruit with another former Meta scientist joining as Chief AI Officer.
Shawn Shen, a 28-year-old Cambridge-educated PhD graduate and former Meta research scientist, has made headlines after leaving his role at the tech giant to co-found Memories.ai, a startup focused on building artificial intelligence that can see and remember visual data. In an interview with Business Insider, Shen revealed that his company is now offering compensation packages worth up to $2 million (approximately ₹17 crore) to lure top AI researchers away from Big Tech players like Meta, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and xAI. Backed by Samsung and other investors, Memories.ai has already raised an $8 million seed round, making it one of the most closely watched new players in the AI space.
From Meta to Memories.ai
Before launching his own venture, Shen worked at Meta, where he was part of the company’s ambitious AI research teams. However, with Meta recently restructuring its artificial intelligence operations under the newly created Meta Superintelligence Labs, several researchers have reportedly become frustrated with the constant re-organisations. Shen says that culture played a role in his decision to branch out.
According to him, Meta’s lucrative salaries have intensified Silicon Valley’s talent war, with nine-figure offers circulating in the industry. Yet, despite the lucrative opportunities, he felt that building a company dedicated to advancing AI’s ability to understand video data was a more rewarding long-term bet.
Why offer ₹17 crore jobs?
When asked why Memories.ai is offering such generous packages, Shen credited Meta itself for setting a precedent. “When I heard about their compensation packages, I was shocked - but it shows that AI researchers at the frontier of technology are really worth this amount of money,” he told Business Insider.
Memories.ai aims to recruit between three to five new hires in the next six months and as many as ten more within the following year. Shen explained that top talent will be treated as founding members rather than employees, with flexible options between cash and equity.
Hiring strategy and fundraising confidence
Despite offering what appears to be a staggering salary, Shen insists the startup’s financial runway will not be threatened. By offering equity, Memories.ai reduces its cash burn, while still providing the possibility of huge returns for recruits. Shen is confident that as long as the company continues to attract world-class AI talent, raising more capital will not be a challenge.
This strategy has already borne fruit, with Chi-Hao Wu, another former Meta scientist, joining as Chief AI Officer. Shen revealed that they are also in discussions with researchers from Google DeepMind and Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Learning from Meta, building for the future
Shen acknowledged that his years at Meta helped shape his approach to leadership and innovation. Meta’s “bottom-up” structure, where ideas are openly shared across teams, allowed him to collaborate with a diverse range of brilliant researchers. “I made an effort to meet three to four of them every week to talk about our hobbies and future goals,” he said.
But ultimately, Shen left because he wanted to build something transformational himself. By offering industry-leading compensation and the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of AI research, Memories.ai hopes to attract some of the brightest minds in the field, even if it means taking them away from tech giants like Meta, Google, and Microsoft.
