I was working at Microsoft at the time. All the smart cool people left to go do startups, money was easy to get. This was 5 years in to my first job. I encouraged my friends not to sell their Microsoft stock because it was going up for a long time still (some are even still my friends). The market crashed but Microsoft kept on going. I didn't really notice a change. Many of my friends came back to the mother ship. I recognize I was lucky.
That's great. I was one who left Redmond, but never made it back. I still have "some" regrets about leaving, but have gained a lot of great experiences. (I'd have no doubt been better off financially staying there, though.)
