Magnus Müller works around-the-clock, including Saturdays and Sundays. Sometimes that might mean starting at 7am and continuing until he goes to sleep at midnight or 1am. The co-founder and chief executive of AI start-up Browser Use lives with five others in a co-living space known as a “hacker house” in San Francisco’s upscale Marina neighbourhood. This living situation allows his team to convene around a whiteboard at 1am to work out new ideas for AI agents.

Müller and his team work “996”, a term popularised in China that refers to a rigid work schedule in which people work from 9am to 9pm six days a week. Müller said his company doesn’t keep track of each person’s 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 “addicted” to work.

“Most of the stuff people count as work I don’t,” the 24-year-old said. “It’s like playing video games; we can do this all day.”

The grind culture that birthed Big Tech companies such as Google and Amazon is back. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) 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. Some are even promoting 996 as a virtue in the hiring process and keeping “grind scores” of companies.

“Because of generative AI, we all know that giant companies are going to be born,” so start-ups are working extra hard, saying, “let’s all see if we can be one,” said Caroline Winnett, executive director of Berkeley SkyDeck, the University of California at Berkeley’s flagship start-up accelerator and incubator program.

‘It’s like playing video games; we can do this all day.’

Browser Use CEO Magnus Müller talking about his work

Whoever builds first in AI will capture the market, and the window of opportunity is two to three years, “so you better run faster than everyone else”, said Inaki Berenguer, managing partner of venture-capital firm LifeX Ventures.

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. Nandy recently posted a job opening on X that requires in-person work seven days a week. He said that 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.

“The chances of success increases when everyone is focused on the mission together,” Nandy, 21, said. Employees don’t have to “struggle” with worrying about housing, food or access to dating.

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.

“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

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.

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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