Google Labs executive Clay Bavor said he is departing the company to form an AI startup with ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor.
In a LinkedIn post today, Bavor said he and Taylor, his longtime friend, "share an obsession" with AI's recent advancements and are "excited to build a new company to apply AI to solve some of the most important problems in business."
- He did not disclose further details about the project, saying only that they "will have more to share once we get started."
- Bavor, who is currently VP of Labs, Google's forward-looking bets segment, will depart the company in March after 18 years.
- Prior to becoming Labs VP in November 2021, Bavor was VP of Google AR/VR, leading related projects such as Google Lens and Project Starline, a 3D video chat booth.
- Taylor stepped down as co-CEO of Salesforce in January. At the time, he said he had decided to return to his "entrepreneurial roots."
- Before Salesforce, Taylor founded and ran Quip, a collaborative productivity software suite acquired by Salesforce for $750M in 2016. He was also CTO at Facebook, now Meta Platforms, from 2010 to 2012.
