From Microsoft Layoff to CEO: The Human Side of Reinvention

Описание: In July 2025, 9,000 employees were laid off in a single day.

Quentin Cobb was one of them.

After 17 years in the gaming industry — working across studios owned by Sony, Bethesda, and Microsoft — Quentin suddenly found himself asking the same question thousands of professionals face:

“What now?”

Instead of returning to another AAA studio, he decided to build something of his own.

In this episode, Quentin shares the raw, emotional, and practical realities of:

Navigating your first layoff
Detaching identity from job titles
Competing in a brutal remote job market
Starting a company with friends
Hard creative conversations
Founder burnout (and the December breaking point)
The importance of support systems
Why networking is about relationships — not requests
And how to prepare for layoffs before they happen
This isn’t a highlight reel startup story.

It’s honest. It’s emotional. And it’s deeply human.

If you’ve ever been laid off, feared a layoff, or wondered whether you could build something on your own — this episode is for you.

Connect with Quentin on LinkedIn:
👉   / quentin-cobb  

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Everything shared on this podcast is based on personal experience and opinion. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, no content should be considered professional, legal, or career advice. Any mention of companies, products, or individuals is done in a personal capacity and does not represent the views or endorsements of those organizations or people. If a sponsorship or paid partnership is ever included, it will be clearly disclosed during the episode.