Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave departing employees David Hoeller, Nikita Rudin and Bing Xu unusually direct advice as they launched startups after leaving the chipmaker. Hoeller and Rudin departed in 2024 to found Flexion Robotics, a robot-intelligence company that later received an Nvidia investment, opened a San Francisco office and raised more than $57 million. Huang criticized the founders' original name, Checkpoint, and warned them about the difficulty of building the business. Xu, who left Nvidia earlier this year to launch INT21, said Huang spent two hours discussing his plans, urged him to stay and identified communication as his biggest weakness. Huang also encouraged Xu to rest while dealing with high blood pressure and other health issues. The accounts portray Huang's approach to departing founders as candid but supportive, consistent with his hands-on management style at Nvidia.