New York CEO recalls firing ‘super senior and meritorious people at Microsoft’ who joined his team

“We once hired a guy from Microsoft. The result was a complete mismatch and we had to let them go,” Ivan Burazin wrote on Twitter.

Also read: American technician says CTO fired him twice in one month, CEO intervenes: “I was threatened”

He clarified that the dismissal was not due to poor performance but a fundamental disconnect in work ethics. He noted: “All work is expected to come in. Whatever comes in, they get done; if it doesn’t, they do nothing. In large tech/corporations, work is pushed to you by the market or management. In small early-stage startups, you have to find it yourself. No one is paying for you.”

One person observed, “Large companies reward execution within the system. Startups reward initiative amid chaos. The real difference is not talent, but someone waiting for a job, versus creating a job.” Another commented: “You failed to define the job profile for them. This is more of an onboarding, expectation management, and role definition issue than an inherent lack of work ethic in the people you fired.”

Also read: Indian-origin founder reflects on losing ‘best employee’ after rejecting work-from-home request: ‘I said no because…’

A third said, “Big tech teaches you how to do good work at a desk. Startups need someone to build the desk, find the work, haul the work back, and not wait to be told that the desk is necessary. They are not the same people. Interviews almost never reveal which one you have.”

A fourth wrote, “Big companies teach you how to execute. Startups force you to create jobs. At startups, no one assigns problems. You have to find them, own them, and solve them. This shift breaks down a lot of otherwise impressive resumes.”

Ivan Burazin is the co-founder and CEO of Daytona. He launched his own startup in 2023.