Why a Microsoft Engineer Left $200K for a Solo AI Bet
A former Microsoft engineer resigned from a $200K role to build AI finance tool Treasury solo, funding it from savings and growing a social following to 30k.
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Junead Khan resigned from Microsoft last August, after roughly two years at the company, to build an AI startup called Treasury by himself. The 25-year-old former engineer documented the decision in a first-person essay for Business Insider.
The move cost him a 2024 compensation package that exceeded $200,000 in salary and stock bonuses. Khan said he waited for some of his stock to vest and until the sign-on bonus repayment window closed before resigning. He is now living off the savings he accumulated while at Microsoft. Treasury, which he describes as an "AI money coach," has generated more than $6,000 in revenue from paying customers. Khan does not pay himself a salary from the business.
The $200,000 Exit
Khan joined Microsoft full-time in 2023 straight out of the University of North Carolina. He was involved in the rollout of data centers during the early AI boom. By early 2025, he said the company's greater emphasis on security and service stability slowed shipping and "started to take some of the fun out of the job."
New AI coding tools were emerging. Khan said he wanted to experiment with them faster than his day job allowed. He applied to startup accelerators, including Y Combinator. He decided he did not want to wait for an acceptance to give himself permission to leave. Instead, he treated his Microsoft earnings as "my own seed funding."
The Solo AI Margin
Khan is Treasury's only employee. He builds the product himself, using Claude Code and Codex to code faster. He argued in the essay that a few years ago he might have needed a cofounder to build the product. AI tools made a solo build feasible without venture funding or a technical partner.
The financial calculus is clear. Khan forgoes a $200,000 annual salary plus equity in exchange for 100% ownership of a business that has so far produced $6,000 in revenue. The business keeps its revenue. Khan covers his living expenses from pre-Microsoft savings. The bet, as Khan described it, rests on AI collapsing the cost of software development. A single engineer can ship a product that once required a team.
Khan said the product targets a specific gap. He felt existing financial tools were not working well for him when managing money in the UK and the US. Treasury is designed as an AI-powered alternative for people who cannot afford a traditional financial advisor.
Demand and the Next Catalyst
Khan's distribution strategy relies entirely on organic social media, he wrote. He started documenting his build on TikTok and Instagram. He had fewer than 500 followers on TikTok a year ago. Today he has about 9,000 there, and roughly 30,000 across platforms including LinkedIn and X.
"Part of the calculation was practical," Khan wrote. "If I wasn't going to raise venture funding and spend money on paid advertising, I needed to find another way to help people discover the product."
The audience serves as both a demand channel for Treasury and a career bet. "Even if Treasury didn't succeed, I thought documenting my journey could put me in a better position if I decide to look for another job one day," he wrote.
Treasury has paying customers. It has no outside funding. Khan said he would rather raise money after validating the idea with an audience than give up equity early. He initially told himself he would give the company a year and then reassess. He has continued because he believes he built a good product and has an audience that wants the company to succeed.
Khan exchanged a $200,000 annual compensation package plus Big Tech RSUs for full ownership of a solo AI finance startup, a social-media audience of 30,000, and $6,000 in revenue. The arithmetic is simple: if Treasury scales, the upside is his. If it does not, he has spent his savings and two years of his career. He has retained an audience and a public record of the build.
"I used to think: If I get into this accelerator, then I'll quit. If this happens, then I'll do the next thing," Khan wrote. "Sometimes we look for those things as validation. I've learned that sometimes the only permission you need is your own."
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