Instacart hired at least 55 engineers, product managers, recruiters, designers, and data scientists from Facebook this year, based on analysis of LinkedIn data
Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta's decision to hire his replacement as the grocery delivery firm prepares a public stock debut surprised most of its employees and investors.
The Information
Context & Ripple Effects
Instacart's Facebook pipeline is broader than its marquee hires suggest: the LinkedIn analysis of 55-plus engineers, PMs, recruiters, designers, and data scientists predates the arrival of longtime Facebook ads chief Carolyn Everson as president, making the exodus a sustained drain on Meta's ad-talent bench rather than a one-off executive raid.
The timing matters because Instacart is rebuilding while preparing for an IPO under a new CEO, and it has since had to pay up to keep the people it hires — the company later said it voluntarily cut its valuation to roughly $24B explicitly to boost recruiting and retention.
First-order effects
Facebook loses a steady stream of mid-level ad-tech and product talent to a much smaller competitor, weakening the teams around the ads business Everson just left behind.
Instacart gets Facebook-grade engineering, ads, and recruiting capability in-house during its most critical window — the run-up to a public stock debut under incoming leadership.
Second-order effects
Poached recruiters compound the effect: each hire brings sourcing muscle that targets more Facebook colleagues, raising Facebook's cost to retain staff just as Instacart's discounted valuation makes its equity packages easier to sell.
The talent build-out collides with fiscal discipline — Instacart later announced plans to slow hiring after adding over 1,500 staff in 2021, meaning the Facebook cohort was hired into a company that then had to ration headcount growth.
Third-order effects
If pre-IPO companies can systematically out-hire big tech by repricing equity downward, valuation becomes a recruiting instrument rather than a prestige metric — a structural inversion of how private-market marks are used.
A grocery platform absorbing Facebook's ads and data-science DNA points toward delivery businesses competing on advertising infrastructure, not just logistics, tightening competition with the very companies losing the talent.
The trend: Pre-IPO platforms like Instacart are using repriced equity to strip senior talent out of Big Tech's ads organizations, converting valuation cuts into a recruiting weapon.
@om I hope in the future we look at people who were in high ranking positions at FB the way we'd look at execs from the cigarettes, asbestos etc. Industry today
In light of @Instacart poaching Facebook exec @fidjissimo to be its next CEO, @amir and I dug into the grocery-delivery platform's wider poaching spree. Who will be next? 👀👀https://www.theinform ation.com/ ...
Instacart bringing @fidjissimo on as the CEO comes as no surprise. After a year of explosive growth, they've been on a hiring spree, poaching key executives from several big tech companies, including Uber, Google, and Facebook. Here are the most recent key hires: https://twitter.…
🚨BREAKING: instacart taps Fidji Simo-Head of Facebook App-as next CEO Simo replaces founder Apoorva Mehta Aug 2 Simo among highest ranking female execs at $FB, after Sandberg & Marne Levine Full exclusive intv with & @fidjissimo & @apoorva_mehta here https://cnbc.com/...
🛒🥕New: At Instacart, people joke that incoming CEO @fidjissimo already did the hard part of hiring a trusted team from Facebook. It's no joke. *Instacart hired 5 other key FB PMs this year. *In June, Instacart hired 2 FB employees every 3 days. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
I'm an admirer of @fidjissimo and her incredible work ethic + approach to team dynamics. I wrote about her work around productivity while at Facebook in #Lifescale. Today, she was announced as the new CEO of @Instacart. Go Fidji! I'm proud to know you!🙌 https://www.instacart.com/…
Really great hiring strategy — hire executives from a company with obtuse sense on morality, fairness and taking advantage of society. They will bring the value system they finessed at Facebook to an already morally weak company. https://twitter.com/...
New chapter for Instacart @apoorva_mehta & @fidjissimo want to build an “incredible consumer app” beyond delivery, where friends & family can plan meals, find recipes,etc Oh, and sounds like they want to build a giant ad business too Full intv here: https://www.cnbc.com/...