Tech Talent Migrates to Collaboration Startups as Hybrid Work Comes Into Its Own

Executives at some of the world’s largest technology firms are leaving prime jobs to join startups that build communications and collaboration tools, a market expected to skyrocket as more businesses settle into hybrid work arrangements.

Raymond Endres, Facebook Inc.’s former top engineer for its Messenger app, left the company last month to oversee technology at Airtable, which makes cloud-based spreadsheet collaboration software.

His initial focus will be on prepping the San Francisco-based startup to meet an expected surge in enterprise demand. That means ramping up investing in new product features and infrastructure in the year ahead, while tripling the size of his engineering team to roughly 300 workers, he said.

“Both of these are things that I’ve done in the past at Messenger,” Mr. Endres said. At Facebook, Mr. Endres grew Messenger’s engineering team to more than 1,000 workers, from roughly 30 when he joined in 2011.

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