SWE -> PM internally

I agree with Jonathan, needing to be a PM at a large co should not be a pre-requisite for entrepreneurship. In fact, you could argue that many of the skills you learn at a Big Tech co Product Manager are counter-productive for running a successful startup.

Besides, there are many, many examples of successful founders who were former engineers. I think you should develop the product-building muscle as an engineer, either through your day job, or bu building things on the side.

The other trend to keep in mind is that it's easier and easier to build things now with AI tools. Increasingly, you'll find that many skills are being "collapsed" into one job function. You should not expect a job title change to magically give you all the skills to be a founder.

If you're looking for entrepreneurship, a PM job likely isn't that much of a jump. Honestly, being proactive at finding opportunities & convincing others is the better shift to make (and that's not really tied to any job).

Focus less on titles and more on what skills & behaviors you want to build & loosely rank them on how important they are for you. See if you're able to find opportunities to build those skills/behaviors and leverage your manager to help you opportunities as well.

Roles are just a string and there's not hard-coded fixed list of things that narrowly defines what is OK/not OK in each role. The control over the skills and behaviors developed in your career is what matters for progressing to your goals. If that results in a role/title change, so be it. But don't be dependent on needing to switch to PM as a deciding factor to move your career towards entrepreneurship: doing so is 100% a skill issue.