Last month, Craig Silverstein, Google’s first hire, announced he was leaving the company for Khan Academy. Now Google is losing another old school Googler – David Girouard (VP, Product Management). He’s not quite as old school as Silverstein, but he’s been there for 8 years.

He’s leaving to launch UpStart.com, which is being partially funded by Google Ventures. The only description we get from UpStart’s site is: “Upstart lets you raise capital in return for a small portion of your future income. So you can do what you were meant to do.”

Girouard writes on Google+:

It’s true. After eight wonderful and life-altering years, I’ve decided to leave Google to pursue my own adventure. I owe a lifetime of gratitude to +Larry Page +Sergey Brin and +Eric Schmidt and so many others at Google for giving me such an incredible opportunity. I don’t know if I’ll ever match the learning experience I’ve had here, but I’m going to give it one hell of a try!

In recent months, I’ve thought a lot about the younger generation; about the opportunities and challenges they face in navigating their careers and life choices. The result is www.upstart.com, which you’ll (hopefully) hear a lot more about in the coming months.
Thanks to all of you who have made my Google experience so wonderful!

Here are some videos of talks with Girouard from the past: