Prakshal Jain: Meta Engineer Quits $300,000 Job to Build Privacy AI Startup "Mitosis Labs"

Indian-origin former Meta software engineer Prakshal Jain left his $300,000 annual salary to launch an artificial intelligence startup named Mitosis Labs alongside co-founder Alex Morris.

Jain publicly announced the company after operating in stealth mode for seven months.

He spent three and a half years at Meta as a frontend engineer developing web and extended reality applications.

Jain wrote on X and his personal LinkedIn profile:

"I quit my $300,000 job at Meta. Alex Morris and I are coming out of stealth to launch Mitosis Labs."

Before departing Meta, Jain worked on the Comet Frameworks Team.

His team launched Facebook and Instagram on the Meta Quest headset in 2024, and he contributed to internal Meta AI applications.

Jain previously worked as a frontend software developer intern for Facebook and WhatsApp at Meta.

Credit: Prakshal Jain / X

Jain based his decision to leave on changes in his daily computing habits.

He noticed that he stopped visiting standard websites and mobile applications, opting to perform tasks through command-line artificial intelligence tools.

Jain explained on X:

"I caught myself living in my terminal. I stopped going to websites or using apps. I'd just ask ChatGPT or Claude Code to find things or do things for me."

This observation led him to propose a design philosophy centered on eliminating manual interfaces.

Jain wrote:

"The best UX is no UI."

Credit: Prakshal Jain / LinkedIn

He stated that visual interface elements like dashboards, forms, and screens exist primarily because humans do not fully trust automated systems.

He noted that businesses struggle to gain full returns on AI investments because companies treat artificial intelligence as an interface issue rather than rethinking underlying software architecture.

To test his concept, Jain built a personal software agent trained on his personal digital data footprint.

Jain claimed on X:

"I built a personal agent, fed it my entire digital footprint, and my iPhone screen time dropped 78% in three weeks."

Mitosis Labs built three software products over seven months: Mitosis Cortex, Yappy, and UFA & Wikipedia. The startup combines an intelligence layer with a simple user interface, and the system maintains user privacy controls.

Jain posted on X:

"We've been building for 7 months. I'm really excited to finally show our hard work to you in the coming days!"

Jain completed a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in computer science at the University at Buffalo.

Credit: Prakshal Jain / Github

He judged events at Reality Hack at MIT, HackMIT, and Stanford XR, and worked as a full-stack developer for UB Hacking.

Before founding Mitosis Labs, he created Chimaera Auto Inc. in 2025 and ClawBody in January 2026.

He transferred from an F-1 student visa to an O-1 visa, a classification designated for individuals with extraordinary ability, to launch and operate Mitosis Labs full-time in the United States.