Huida CEO Huang Renxun’s “outspoken” coaching style for departing employees

Huida CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. (Reuters)

What happens when you tell Jen-Hsun Huang that you are leaving Huida? The US media "Business Insider" reported that Huang Renxun coached some people who were about to leave the company, using an "encouraging outspoken approach". This forthrightness also runs through Huida's corporate culture, with Huang known for breaking down management hierarchies and getting personally involved in everything from employee output to customer complaints.

Huang Renxun will ruthlessly give advice to Huida employees who have resigned, but the advice is also based on the good of the other party.

As David Hoeller and Nikita Rudin prepared to leave Huida, they anxiously held a late-night conference call with Huang. The pair, who have worked in robotics for years at the chip giant, have pushed the boundaries of analog technology and helped complete a demonstration in which Huang took the stage with a group of humanoid robots.

Both Hoeller and Rudin wanted greater freedom to bring this technology into the real world, so they decided to leave the company in 2024 and founded Flexion Robotics, a startup dedicated to building robot intelligence.

When they called from a conference in Munich, Huang didn't try to dissuade them from leaving, even though Huang had one complaint about their startup: It was originally going to be called Checkpoint. "He told us the name was bad and had to be changed," Rudin said, adding that they also heard from others that the name sounded like it was from other industries. "I don't want to give him all the credit, but it's probably his suggestion that we changed our name." Huang also reminded them that there is still a long road ahead.

The cooperation between Flexion and Huida does not end here. Huida subsequently invested in the Zurich-based company, which is currently actively expanding into the U.S. market. It recently opened an office in San Francisco and hired researchers from companies such as Meta. Flexion’s cumulative financing has exceeded US$57 million.

Another example is that Bing Xu joined Huida in 2024 after Huida acquired his first startup. He left Huida earlier this year. Xu Bing said that he gave up a potentially life-changing Huida equity to create another startup company called INT21, which uses artificial intelligence to improve chip software.

After Xu Bing shared his plans, Huang spent two hours discussing his job with him and other Huida executives and trying to convince him to stay.

Huang Jenxun also made sharp criticism. He pointed out that communication is Xu Bing's biggest weakness, which may limit his achievements. Xu Bing tends to assume that others have the same technical knowledge as he does, which makes his explanations difficult to understand. Huang Renxun recalled that he suggested that Xu Bing might be a better choice to stay at Huida.

Xu said: "This is the most honest self-feedback I have received in the past ten years"; "I did not expect that my communication skills would be such a big problem, but after Jason (Huang Renxun) told me, I decided to take this opportunity to make myself better." Xu Bing believes that Huang Renxun's concern and criticism prove that Huang hopes that he can succeed.