Some founders believe in 996 but take a more nuanced approach. Iba Masood, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Optimal AI, is running a start-up for the second time around. The 35-year-old said she’s learnt that founders definitely need to follow a 996 schedule, especially in AI, but not employees. Still, before a major product release they often work long hours.
As the AI race heats up, many start-ups in Silicon Valley and New York are pushing the limits of work hours.Credit: Getty
“Right now, because there’s so much momentum, we’re putting in sheer hours,” she said. But she noted the schedule is flexible in terms of when people work. “It’s just naturally happening.”
Some start-ups are openly promoting long hours in their job openings.
San Francisco-based AI company Cognition recently told workers who joined from an acquisition that they needed to be ready to work long hours. Scott Wu, the CEO, said on X that the company routinely works weekends and does some of its best work late into the night.
“Cognition has an extreme performance culture, and we’re upfront about this in hiring so there are no surprises later,” Wu said in the post. “While we’re proud of how we work, we understand it’s not for everyone.”
Mercor, a San Francisco-based start-up that uses AI to match people to jobs, recently posted an opening for a customer success engineer, saying that candidates should have a willingness to work six days a week, and it’s not negotiable.
“We know this isn’t for everyone, so we want to put it up top,” the listing reads.
Being in-person rather than remote is a requirement at some start-ups. AI start-up StarSling had two engineering job descriptions that required six days a week of in-person work. In a job description for an engineer, Rilla, an AI company in New York, said candidates should not work at the company if they’re not excited about working about 70 hours a week in person.
Grind scores
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One venture capitalist even started tracking “grind scores”.
Jared Sleeper, a partner at New York-based venture capital firm Avenir, recently ranked public software companies’ “grind score” in a post on X, which went viral.
Using data from Glassdoor, it ranks the percentage of employees who have a positive outlook for the company compared with their views on work-life balance.
“Implicit in [996] is the view that doing great things takes a lot of effort,” Sleeper said. “It is something you’re opting into that will have trade-offs.”
But some former founders and venture capitalists say that the glorification of work cultures like 996 usually leads to burnout and limits the talent pool, as more experienced workers may be less willing to work endless hours.
More often than not, long work schedules lead to more procrastinating than working, said Deedy Das, partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. People need to be refreshed for their brains to do more creative work, he said.
“I think overwhelmingly the founders who choose to glamorise this are younger,” he said. “They don’t have the maturity to understand that experienced people can work 40 to 50 hours a week and get a lot more done than in an 80-hour week.”
‘996 = slaves with no life’
When Müller’s co-founder Gregor Zunic posted an open call for new talent on X, he quickly got a lot of unexpected attention. The description was simple: “Amazing salary, hacker house in SF, crazy equity. 996.”
The post got more than 53,000 views, and some commenters harshly zeroed in on 996.
“996 = slaves with no life,” one person commented in response.
But the start-up’s co-founders, who are both in their 20s, said including 996 in job postings ensures they can attract the right talent and “people who are really obsessed” with what they do, Müller said.
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For Daniel Gibbon, CEO of AI start-up Edexia, it’s key for team members to learn how to push their own limits without getting burned out or physically ill. Gibbon, 22, works seven days a week from 4am to about 6.30pm during most weeks, coding, meeting with customers and strategising. But he takes breaks to see his family and girlfriend, and goes for walks, and sometimes he works outdoors while looking at nature.
“If you do it right and optimise everything, including your mental and physical health, you can push your body pretty far.”
The Washington Post
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