Goodbye Google, Hello Startups

David Hirsch, a sales veteran in Google's New York office, is leaving the company to advise and invest in Web startups. Hirsch was one of Google's earliest New York-based employees and the first manager of its business-to-business vertical markets team.According to Silicon Alley Insider, Hirsch plans to get involved in early-stage companies. The Insider's Peter Kafka reports that Hirsch is a member of New York Angels and invested in music site Amie Street. I have a call into Google to confirm the details, but no call back yet.

Hirsch came to Google in 2000 from games portal Snowball.com (subsumed into IGN Entertainment, now part of Fox Interactive Media) along with Tim Armstrong, Google's current president of advertising and commerce for North America. Since then, the Big Apple has become Google's home away from home, second only to Mountain View, Calif., in the number of workers based in the area.

Attracted by New York's tech-skilled workforce, Google expanded in 2006 into 250,000 square feet of office space in the former Port Authority building in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. See "New York Gets Googled" for more on that.

Wonder what Googleplex East looks like? Here are some pictures.

Google's senior user experience design lead Kevin Fox is also leaving the company for a startup, disclosed today by Fox himself in his Fox@Fury blog.