He Thought Remote Work Was Going to Be Shit. So He Built a Virtual Office.

Remote work was supposed to free everyone. Instead, it killed one of the best parts of work: being around other people. Slack gave us messages. Zoom gave us meetings. Notion gave us documents but Somehow, nobody really rebuilt the office. Rajiv Ayyangar thought that was strange. In 2019, he co-founded Tandem around a simple idea. You should be able to see who’s around, walk into a conversation, and talk without scheduling your existence three days in advance. Then COVID hit and Tandem usage jumped 30x in weeks.

The interesting part is that Rajiv wasn’t trying to build another Zoom. He was trying to rebuild the feeling of being at work. Someone’s online, so you drop by. You overhear something and join in. You want to ask a quick question without writing a paragraph in Slack. Tandem became a virtual office built around spontaneous conversation, shared screens and all the little interactions that make a team feel like a team. The idea was weird in 2019. Then suddenly the entire world was working from home.

That’s what makes Rajiv interesting. Not that he got lucky and happened to be right. He had a strong opinion before everyone else had a reason to have one. What if the office isn’t a place? Maybe that sounds obvious now. It wasn’t then. And that’s usually where the interesting founders start.

Budera Founder Files. The people building before the rest of us know what to call it.