Index Exchange - Prost to the Pivot: FAANG to Startup (KW Oktoberfest)
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See upcoming eventsWednesday, September 30, 2026, 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM
305 King St W, Kitchener, ON
About the event
Join Index for an evening that starts with a real conversation and ends with a stein. First up is an honest, fireside conversation—the pros, the cons, and what nobody tells you before you jump—with folks who've made the leap from FAANG to startup land. We'll dig into how "weathered veterans" from big tech can ramp up fast in a brand-new environment. We'll also cover how AI is reshaping that transition, from accelerating onboarding to giving newcomers a genuine fast start. Once the talk wraps, stick around. We're turning the space into a full Oktoberfest celebration with pretzels, beer, and good company. Maciej Kalisiak SENIOR STAFF ENGINEER, INDEX EXCHANGE Maciej is a recent (July 2026) addition to Index Exchange. He joined from Google, where he spent nearly two decades working across Display Ads, Cloud/Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and finally Gmail, building and scaling infrastructure that operates at planet scale. He's a generalist at heart with a soft spot for backend infrastructure — a trait that shows up in his academic arc too: a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering (Waterloo), a Master's in Computer Engineering (Toronto), and finally a Ph.D. in Computer Science (Toronto). With his recent transition to IX, Maciej offers a unique, "from the trenches" (Individual Contributor) perspective on the differences and challenges of moving between the worlds of FAANG and an established but "small" (by Google standards) company. Having also "converted" only earlier this year from full-on AI skeptic to a mostly-full-on believer, he brings insights on what role AI can play in — and what benefits it can bring to — a career transition such as this.
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