There are a number of companies that have started that haven’t had “distinguished engineers from ex-FAANG companies”. And honestly, the quality of an engineer

There are a number of companies that have started that haven’t had “distinguished engineers from ex-FAANG companies”. And honestly, the quality of an engineer good at Leetcode is way different than the self taught Eastern European engineer who knows obscure protocol stacks up and down. It’s experience and capability that matters, not being tied to distinguished companies or overpriced fancy degrees.