Leaving Big Tech like Apple, Google, or even Meta comes with a strange mix of confidence and panic. You’ve worked on complex systems, sat in rooms where decisions moved markets, and shipped at scale. But once you’re on your own, the brand stops doing the heavy lifting. The logo no longer opens doors, leads don’t arrive on their own, and the path forward suddenly feels unclear.
Building a consulting practice after Big Tech isn’t about recreating your old job as a solo act. It’s about learning how to sell, scope, and deliver value in a very different environment. Here’s how people who make the transition successfully usually do it.
Kelechi Edeh
/1. Start With the Problem You’re Willing to Own
Most ex–Big Tech employees start too broad. "Strategy", “AI,” “cloud,” “product,” or “growth” sound impressive, but they don’t help a potential client understand why they should hire you.
Strong consulting practices start with a specific pain point. Not a skill, but a problem. Think in terms of outcomes a client already cares about: reducing cloud spend, fixing a broken data pipeline, preparing for a security audit, improving mobile retention, or helping a startup scale without rewriting everything in six months. Your Big Tech background matters here, but only as proof, not the headline. Clients don’t pay for pedigree. They pay for relief.
Example: Instead of offering “cloud consulting,” you position yourself as helping fintech startups cut runaway AWS bills after their first growth spike. That single framing makes your value obvious to a very specific buyer.
/2. Reframe Your Experience for Smaller, Messier Companies
Inside Big Tech, problems are well-resourced, slow-moving, and surrounded by process. Outside, they’re messy, urgent, and underfunded. A startup or mid-sized company doesn’t care that you worked on a system serving hundreds of millions of users. They care whether you can help them make a decision this quarter with limited data and no safety net.
That means translating your experience into stories that show judgment, not scale. Talk about trade-offs you made, constraints you worked under, and mistakes you helped avoid. Show that you understand imperfect environments, not just polished ones. This shift in framing is often the difference between sounding impressive and sounding useful.
Example: Rather than saying you worked on a system serving 200 million users, you explain how you helped choose between two flawed architectures under time pressure, and what broke when the wrong one shipped. That story resonates with founders making similar trade-offs today.
/3. Price for Outcomes, Not Time
Hourly rates feel safe, especially early on. They’re also a ceiling you’ll hit faster than you expect. Consulting works best when clients buy outcomes. Think security assessments with clear recommendations, migration plans that avoid rework, and roadmaps that align engineering and leadership. These are deliverables people understand and can justify internally.
Packaging your work forces clarity on both sides. It also positions you as a problem-solver rather than extra hands. Over time, this is what allows a practice to grow without burning you out. Early on, your pricing will feel uncomfortable. That’s normal. If every proposal feels easy to send, you’re probably undercharging.
Example: Instead of billing 40 hours for “security consulting,” you offer a fixed-price security readiness review with a written risk summary and prioritised fixes. The client buys clarity, not your calendar.
/4. Use Your Network, But Don’t Depend on It
Your Big Tech network is your fastest path to early work, but it’s not a long-term strategy on its own. Former colleagues move roles, budgets shift, and referrals dry up if you don’t build visibility beyond people who already know you.
The most effective consultants treat their network as a starting engine, not the fuel supply. They write publicly about problems they solve, speak clearly about what they do, and make it easy for others to describe their work accurately. If someone can’t explain what you help with in one sentence, they won’t refer you.
Example: You land your first client through a former manager, but your next two come from a short LinkedIn post where you explain a common migration mistake you’ve seen repeatedly. Someone recognises their own problem and reaches out.
/5. Learn to Sell Without Feeling Salesy
Consulting sales isn’t about persuasion. It’s about diagnosis. Good sales conversations feel like collaborative problem-solving sessions. You ask questions, clarify constraints, and help the client articulate what’s actually broken. Often, they don’t fully know when the call starts.
Your credibility comes from pushing back when something doesn’t make sense, not from agreeing too quickly. Ironically, walking away from misaligned work builds more trust than chasing every opportunity. This is where many ex–Big Tech professionals struggle. Inside large companies, alignment is assumed. Outside, it has to be earned, one conversation at a time.
Example: A startup asks for help “implementing AI.” After a few questions, you realise their data pipeline is broken. You tell them AI would fail in its current state, and offer a smaller engagement to fix the foundation instead. They trust you more for saying no.
/6. Build a Reputation Before You Build a Firm
Many people rush to websites, branding, and company structures. Those things matter eventually, but reputation compounds faster. A small number of well-executed projects will do more for your practice than any logo. Clients talk. Results travel. Case studies, even informal ones, become your strongest asset.
Early on, focus on doing excellent work for a narrow set of clients and letting that quality speak. Consulting is still a trust business, and trust spreads slowly but sticks.
Example: After finishing a six-week engagement, you write a short, anonymised breakdown of what the client struggled with and what changed afterward. That single post becomes something future clients reference on intro calls.
/7. Expect the Emotional Whiplash
Consulting after Big Tech is rarely a smooth climb. One month you’re fully booked and confident. The next you’re wondering if you made a mistake.This volatility is normal. It doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re no longer insulated by a massive organisation.
Successful consultants plan for this. They build financial buffers, keep pipelines warm, and resist the urge to panic-pivot after one quiet period. Consistency beats intensity here.
Example: You finish a major contract and immediately feel uneasy when the calendar clears. Instead of panic-discounting your services, you spend that time following up with past clients and writing about your work. Two weeks later, one of those threads turns into a new engagement.
Oluwaseun Bamisile
Conclusion
Leaving Big Tech to build a consulting practice isn’t about escaping work. It’s about choosing a different kind of responsibility.
You trade brand safety for autonomy. Predictable reviews for direct feedback. Internal alignment meetings for real-world impact. The learning curve is steep, but so is the upside if you approach it deliberately.
The consultants who succeed aren’t the smartest people in the room. They’re the ones who learn how to package judgment, communicate clearly, and stay patient while trust compounds.
If you can do that, your Big Tech experience stops being your past life and starts becoming your foundation.
