Not from FAANG, but based in the Bay Area and been working at Tier2/3 companies for a few years now. Initially was going to pivot to LC->FAANGMULATAD. Even had Google remote interview setup. That was BC(Before COVID). AC(After Covid), I dropped it like its hot to focus on personal development and clear my mind. And now that I am clear on what I really want with my life, I am doing some Idea validation/ Invalidation in my spare time(WFH). I am not 100% WFH due to work constraints but certain days of the week I get the entire day to myself. So working and refining my idea and learning Laravel/Alpine/Tailwind/Livewire to launch my MVP. BUT, I know the MVP is at least 6 months away involving days of customer development. I am not even talking about launching a moonshot, but a B2B SAAS that I can start selling from day one. Scratching your own itch, IMHO is a bad idea. You need to solve someone else's need or want. The only way to do that if You are in FAANG is befriend someone , an outsider who is exposed to other non-faang problems. Do You want something in B2C, then ask around and see what consistent problems your friends have? If You want to do B2B, then look in Your LinkedIn circle and find out people in Your network who are non-faang and see what task could be automated for them, saving them time and getting them a raise. Or you could try and run a FB Ad campaign(there was a thread on that a few weeks ago), where a FB PM ran Ads to validate his Virtual Workout idea. Again its Your idea and not guaranteed to get traction. Lastly, don't quit Your day job to start something. Again, if You go through the idea generation/validation process as an "Indiehacker", takes months. Better be prepared for a lot of "busy" days of absolutely doing nothing in the initial phases while You hit PMF(Product Market Fit) and having a job provides that launchpad and motivation. Feel free to email me at vsap78 at gmail email service.