Former Salesforce exec Bret Taylor is teaming up with Google AR/VR vet Clay Bavor on thriller startup • TechCrunch

When Bret Taylor introduced he was stepping down as co-CEO and co-chair at Salesforce in November, it was simple to be cynical about him saying he needed to go construct once more. Effectively, guess what? He needed to go construct once more — and as we speak he and very long time Google engineering veteran Clay Bavor introduced they have been teaming up on a brand new thriller challenge.

Bavor, who spent virtually seven years because the VP of AR and VR at Google as a part of an 18-year profession with the corporate, was coy in a LinkedIn post about what’s coming subsequent, however he was clear he’s doing it together with his pal Taylor.

He wrote that the 2 have recognized one another for years, since they broke in at Google collectively, and that he “at all times admired [Taylor’s] eager product sense and entrepreneurial spirit, his technical chops, and, above all, his character and integrity.”

Maybe hinting at what comes subsequent, Bavor wrote, “We share an obsession with latest advances in AI, and we’re excited to construct a brand new firm to use AI to resolve among the most essential issues in enterprise.” Will it have an AR/VR taste? It’s not possible to say proper now, however the two have one thing cooking.

No matter it’s, he wasn’t saying particularly, however we’d know extra subsequent month. “I’ll be setting out with Bret on this subsequent journey in March, and could have extra to share as soon as we get began. Till then, I’ll be specializing in transitioning my groups and tasks, and wrapping issues up correctly at Google.”

Taylor spent 4 years at Google beginning in March 2003 earlier than enterprise an entrepreneurial journey, founding early social community FriendFeed in 2007, proper after leaving Google. The corporate was bought by Fb in 2009 and Taylor had a stint as CTO on the firm.

He would later discovered Quip, an enterprise doc collaboration firm, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2016 for $750 million. He climbed via the ranks to co-CEO and now will probably be returning to his firm constructing roots.

Solely a few weeks in the past, Bavor authored an e mail detailing cuts to Google’s R&D tasks inside the Google Labs group, which housed the corporate’s inside incubator Space 120. Bavor had been in control of Labs following a reorg in 2021, however Alphabet’s in depth layoffs closely impacted a lot of its experimental tasks.

It additionally resulted in Space 120 Managing Accomplice Elias Roman being put in control of the remaining Space 120 tasks.

No matter’s coming subsequent, it must be fascinating to search out out.