Why Does Cogent Hire Aspiring Founders?

Vineet Edupuganti champions the Founders Academy at Cogent because hiring founders and aspiring founders is a deliberate part of the talent strategy. He would not say Cogent actively encourages them to leave, but he expects them to leave at some point and start companies.

Founders and aspiring founders tend to share work ethic, ambition, a growth mindset, and optimism, since someone who is not optimistic probably does not want to start a company. The traits help Cogent get work done and move faster, and they also differentiate the company as an employer. People often think in one to three year increments, while careers are 40 years long, and longer life spans might extend careers further. In 10 or 20 years, he wants people to look back and call Cogent the launching pad that changed the shape of their career.

A workplace where people do their best work and then move to the next job, and the job after that, matters to him as a person as well as an employer.