Nvidia CEO Offers Candid Feedback to Departing Employees

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been known to give candid feedback to departing employees. According to two former Nvidia founders, he told them that their startup name was bad and they had to change it.

David Hoeller and Nikita Rudin left Nvidia in 2024 to start a robotics company called Checkpoint, but they soon received word from Huang that the name didn't sit well with him. They took his note and changed the name to Flexion Robotics, which has since raised over $57 million and expanded into the US.

Another former employee, Bing Xu, left Nvidia in 2024 after initially joining through a business deal. Before his departure, Huang spent two hours discussing with Xu and other executives why he should stay at the company, pointing out that his greatest weakness was communication.

Xu was also dealing with high blood pressure at the time and Huang advised him to take some time off and rest before starting a new venture.