Muller said his company doesn\u2019t keep track of each person\u2019s working time, and he regularly takes breaks to do other things such as walk through the woods to clear his mind. He wants the start-up to hire people \u201caddicted\u201d to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the stuff people count as work I don\u2019t,\u201d the 24-year-old said. \u201cIt\u2019s like playing video games; we can do this all day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The grind culture that birthed Big Tech companies such as Google is back. <\/p>\n
As the artificial intelligence race heats up, many start-ups in Silicon Valley and New York are promoting hardcore culture as a way of life, pushing the limits of work hours, demanding that workers move fast to be first in the market. <\/p>\n
Some are even promoting 996 as a virtue in the hiring process and keeping \u201cgrind scores\u201d of companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of generative AI, we all know that giant companies are going to be born,\u201d so start-ups are working extra hard, saying, \u201clet\u2019s all see if we can be one,\u201d said Caroline Winnett, executive director of Berkeley SkyDeck. It\u2019s the University of California at Berkeley\u2019s flagship start-up accelerator and incubator programme.<\/p>\n
Whoever builds first in AI will capture the market, and the window of opportunity is two to three years, \u201cso you better run faster than everyone else\u201d, said Inaki Berenguer, managing partner of venture-capital firm LifeX Ventures.<\/p>\n
At San Francisco-based AI start-up Sonatic, the grind culture also allows for meal, gym and pickleball time, said Kinjal Nandy, its chief executive. <\/p>\n
Nandy recently posted a job opening on X that requires in-person work seven days a week. <\/p>\n
He said working 10-hour days sounds like a lot but the company also offers its first hires perks such as free housing in a hacker house, food delivery credits and a free subscription to the dating service Raya.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chances of success increases when everyone is focused on the mission together,\u201d Nandy, 21, said. <\/p>\n
Employees don\u2019t have to \u201cstruggle\u201d with worrying about housing, food or access to dating.<\/p>\n
Some founders believe in 996 but take a more nuanced approach. <\/p>\n
Iba Masood, co-founder and chief executive of San Francisco-based Optimal AI, is running a start-up for the second time around. <\/p>\n
The 35-year-old said she\u2019s learned that founders definitely need to follow a 996 schedule, especially in AI, but not employees. <\/p>\n
Still, before a major product release they often work long hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, because there\u2019s so much momentum, we\u2019re putting in sheer hours,\u201d she said. But she noted the schedule is flexible in terms of when people work. \u201cIt\u2019s just naturally happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some start-ups are openly promoting long hours in their job openings.<\/p>\n
San Francisco-based AI company Cognition recently told workers that joined from an acquisition that they needed to be ready to work long hours. <\/p>\n
Scott Wu, the chief executive, said on X that the company routinely works weekends and does some of its best work late into the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cCognition has an extreme performance culture, and we\u2019re upfront about this in hiring so there are no surprises later,\u201d Wu said in the post. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we\u2019re proud of how we work, we understand it\u2019s not for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s not negotiable. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know this isn\u2019t for everyone, so we want to put it up top,\u201d the listing reads.<\/p>\n
Being in-person rather than remote is a requirement at some start-ups. <\/p>\n
AI start-up StarSling had two engineering job descriptions that required six days a week of in-person work. <\/p>\n
In a job description for an engineer, Rilla, an AI company in New York, said candidates should not work at the company if they\u2019re not excited about working about 70 hours a week in person.<\/p>\n
One venture capitalist even started tracking \u201cgrind scores\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jared Sleeper, a partner at New York-based venture capital firm Avenir, recently ranked public software companies\u2019 \u201cgrind score\u201d in a post on X, which went viral. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cImplicit in [996] is the view that doing great things takes a lot of effort,\u201d Sleeper said. \u201cIt is something you\u2019re opting into that will have trade-offs.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
More often than not, long work schedules lead to more procrastinating than working, said Deedy Das, partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. <\/p>\n
People need to be refreshed for their brains to do more creative work, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think overwhelmingly the founders who choose to glamourise this are younger,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Muller\u2019s co-founder Gregor Zunic posted an open call for new talent on X, he quickly got a lot of unexpected attention. <\/p>\n
The description was simple: \u201cAmazing salary, hacker house in SF, crazy equity. 996.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post got more than 53,000 views, and some commenters harshly zeroed in on 996.<\/p>\n
One person commented in response: \u201c996 = slaves with no life\u201d.<\/p>\n
But the start-up\u2019s co-founders, who are both in their 20s, said including 996 in job postings ensures they can attract the right talent and \u201cpeople who are really obsessed\u201d with what they do, Muller said.<\/p>\n
For Daniel Gibbon, chief executive of AI start-up Edexia, it\u2019s key for team members to learn how to push their own limits without getting burned out or physically ill. <\/p>\n
Gibbon, 22, works seven days a week from 4am to about 6.30pm during most weeks, coding, meeting with customers and strategising. <\/p>\n
He takes breaks to see his family and girlfriend, and goes for walks, and sometimes he works outdoors while looking at nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you do it right and optimise everything, including your mental and physical health, you can push your body pretty far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Muller said his company doesn\u2019t keep track of each person\u2019s working time, and he regularly takes breaks to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[365,192,665,806,138,69252,39789,21657,4912,78,8454,39790,52303,111,139,69,42306,7798,17893,1046,23371,8229,61,15146],"class_list":["post-92640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ai","tag-are","tag-around","tag-as","tag-business","tag-clock","tag-compete","tag-cultures","tag-hardcore","tag-in","tag-including","tag-magnus","tag-muller","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-promoting","tag-race","tag-saturdays","tag-startups","tag-sundays","tag-they","tag-to","tag-works"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}