Silicon Valley execs anticipating a hybrid-working boom are reportedly leaving Big Tech firms to join startups building collaboration tools

• Top engineers are leaving Big Tech firms to join collaboration software startups, the WSJ reports.
• Some tech execs expect that a rise in hybrid working will boost demand for collaboration tools.
• For example, Raymond Endres, a former Facebook vice president, joined startup Airtable this month as CTO.

Some executives at Big Tech firms, including Facebook, have left their jobs to join startups building collaboration tools in anticipation of a boom in hybrid working, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sarah Cannon, a partner at Index Ventures, told the Journal that many top developers who previously built collaboration and communication tools inside big firms have moved to smaller companies post-pandemic.

Cannon said that she knew at least 12 recent collaboration startups founded or led by former Big Tech executives, per the Journal.

Raymond Endres, a former Facebook vice president of engineering, joined startup Airtable this month as its chief technology officer. Airtable builds cloud-based database software.

Endres told the Journal that part of his role would involve tripling the size of the engineering team to about 300 employees, as the company expects a large increase in demand. He said that, even before the pandemic, worker collaboration was an issue, but that COVID-19 and working from home "accelerated that."

"Collectively we're all figuring out how remote works," Endres said, per the Journal.

Many companies have said that they will adopt hybrid working, where employees split their time between the office and their home during the week. Banking giants Deutsche Bank and Citigroup, for example, have said they would embrace hybrid working in the future.