I left my $250,000 Meta job to coach startup founders. I work fewer hours, have less stress, and still make a good living.

Jason Shen.

Courtesy of Jason Shen Jason Shen left Meta in 2023 and began building his executive-coaching business, Refactor Labs.

After roles at Etsy and Meta, Shen began coaching startup founders full-time in 2024.

He now works fewer hours and prioritizes family, fitness, and writing a book.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jason Shen , the 40-year-old founder of Refactor Labs based in Brooklyn.

It has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm the founder and CEO of Refactor Labs, an executive coach, and a cofounder conflict expert.

I spent two years at Etsy as a product manager, working on the seller-facing mobile app.

After being laid off in a round of mass layoffs, I did contract product work for an early-stage B2B SaaS startup and completed the TED Residency, an ideas incubator, where I gave a TED Talk on the future of hiring.

I founded Headlight, a tech hiring platform, in November 2017 with a former Etsy teammate.

In 2019, we did a hard pivot into voice AI products for gaming, renaming the company Midgame.

In July 2020, Midgame was acquired by Facebook, now Meta.

I worked as a product leader at Meta for almost three years and voluntarily left the company in June 2023 to take a sabbatical before focusing on growing my company.

I had started coaching founders on the side while at Meta, but didn't seriously spin up my business until January 2024.