Why Did Bilal Zuberi Take a 90% Pay Cut?

Bilal Zuberi took a 90% plus pay cut when he left Lux because he treats the job as a mission he already holds with conviction. He refuses to believe someone has to be an asshole to succeed in the industry, or loosey-goosey on ethics because the world is too complex. He wants the work to impact human lives.

He grew up with posters of scientists in his room and thought he would become a scientist and a professor. He studied science, then did a PhD with a Nobel laureate. What he enjoyed most was reading how discoveries changed lives. His PhD professors' discovery of reactions in the polar stratosphere and polar stratospheric clouds was leading to discoveries of destruction of the ozone layer, which was leading to cancer on earth. Impact required the chemistry to create Freon, understanding the physics, creating alternatives to Freon, and the political work to get the world to stop using Freon. The outcome was massive impact, and he decided to dedicate his life to work of that kind.

He built a company and loved the earliest stage most: negative one to zero, ideating and thinking about the problem, and zero to one. After a company moved past that stage, the work was no longer enjoyable enough, which is where he decided he wanted to become an early stage investor.