Many engineering graduates dream of securing a high-paying job in Silicon Valley. For some students, landing a lucrative internship in the United States is the first step toward building a career. But for one IIT Bombay graduate, that experience led to a very different decision.
Aman Goel, co-founder of GreyLabs AI, shared on LinkedIn how he walked away from building a career in the United States despite earning nearly Rs 7.5 lakh ($8K) a month during an internship in Silicon Valley.
In a LinkedIn post, Aman Goel recalled his journey from IIT Bombay to Palo Alto in 2016, when he joined Rubrik as a software engineering intern.
“Ten years ago, I landed in San Francisco as a 20-year-old kid from IIT Bombay, headed to Palo Alto to intern at Rubrik Inc’s Software Engineering Team,” he wrote. “I was earning $8,000 a month. It felt like a dream,” he added.
Goel said the internship exposed him to cutting-edge technology, scalable backend systems, and the fast-moving startup culture of Silicon Valley. He also credited a senior from IIT Bombay, who mentored him during the internship, for deepening his interest in databases and backend engineering.
He said the experience gave him something more important than money or a job offer. “Clarity,” he wrote.
Goel shared that after spending time in the Bay Area startup ecosystem, he realised he did not want to settle in the United States. Instead, he wanted to return to India and build his own company.
“I realized I did not want to build my life in the Bay Area. I wanted to go back to India and build something of my own,” he wrote. He added that the startup culture in Silicon Valley inspired him to take entrepreneurship seriously. “Seeing the startup energy up close lit a fire in me that has never gone out.”
What changed after internship?
After returning to India in July 2016, Goel decided to focus on entrepreneurship during the final year of his engineering degree at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Instead of concentrating only on academics, he spent time learning about business-building, product development, sales, and marketing. “My fourth year of college was not going to be just about courses. It was going to be about learning how to build a company,” he wrote.
Goel said engineering skills were never his biggest challenge. He wanted to understand how businesses grow and scale. He also shared a quote from Bill Gates that shaped his thinking over the years.
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years,” he wrote. Goel wrote that the quote felt more meaningful after looking back at his entrepreneurial journey over the last decade.
After graduating from IIT Bombay in 2017, he co-founded Cogno AI. The startup built AI-powered chatbot and WhatsApp automation tools for banks and financial companies.
The company worked with major financial institutions such as ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Aditya Birla Group, and State Bank group companies.
Goel said the startup crossed $1 million in revenue while operating without outside funding in its early phase. In 2021, cloud communication company Exotel acquired Cogno AI in a multi-million dollar deal.
After the acquisition, Goel continued to lead the business as an independent subsidiary under Exotel. During that period, the company expanded to more than 150 employees and served over 200 enterprise clients while recording strong yearly growth.
Goel later started GreyLabs AI in 2024. Currently, the startup focuses on Voice AI solutions for financial institutions. The company develops AI agents that handle customer support, telesales, loan collections, and call analytics in multiple Indian languages.
According to Goel, GreyLabs AI has raised close to Rs 100 crore from investors including Elevation Capital and Z47. The startup now employs more than 85 people and works with over 75 large banking and financial sector clients across India. “We have grown more than 3x year on year,” Goel wrote.
Who is Aman Goel?
Aman Goel is an entrepreneur and technology founder from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He studied Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay between 2013 and 2017. He secured an All India Rank of 33 in JEE Advanced and also received the Institute Academic Award at IIT Bombay, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Before entering the startup world, he interned at Rubrik in Palo Alto, California, where he worked on scalable databases and file systems.
Goel founded Cogno AI during his final year in college and later sold the company to Exotel in 2021. He now serves as co-founder and CEO of GreyLabs AI, which builds Voice AI technology for India’s financial services sector.
In his LinkedIn post, Goel encouraged interns and young professionals to pay attention to the work that genuinely excites them.
“If you are an intern somewhere right now, pay attention to what excites you and what does not. That signal is worth more than the stipend,” he wrote.