Seven former Google employees, who were recently laid off, join to form new company

Ex-Google manager Henry Kirk had given himself six weeks time to set up the new venture.

Kirk managed a team that looked after Google services for iOS and Android platforms.

Kirk told Business Insider he was laid off on Jan 20.

He was one of the 12,000 global employees who were laid off by Google.

"I was pretty bummed out for about five minutes, but then I said, 'well I still have a family to take care of, I learned a lot, and I think I'm ready to do my own thing,'" Kirk said.

He immediately texted his team to see who else was affected and found that most had also been laid off.

"They started a group chat for moral support," he said.

He said six people helped him in building a design and development studio in New York as well as San Francisco.

Kirk told Business Insider that he would take the position of a general managing partner.

"First off, the goal is to get some projects in so we can start paying our bills," he said.

He has given himself and his colleagues until the end of March, when the 60-day layoff notification period ends, to establish a solid foundation for the company. This means he has just six weeks left to land projects, the news portal.

In his Linkedin post, Kirk said, " Today, I’m taking a leap forward and turning this tragedy into an opportunity. I’m teaming up with 6 outstanding #xooglers to shape and own our futures."

"We’re starting a design & development studio in NYC and SF," he said.

"Yeah, it’s probably the worst time ever to do this 🫤. But that’s the exciting and challenging part," he said.

"But, there's one catch…my partners and their families have given me just 52 days to get this going and land projects or we must go back to job searching 😨. I am determined to not fail, so I need your assistance," Kirk said.