A fiery debate is ripping through European tech circles on LinkedIn: should founders adopt the “996” work schedule — working 9am to 9pm, six days a week?
Evangelists of the 996 life say it’s the only way for startups to build successful companies, and compete in an AI-powered world where products are being shipped at breakneck speed and competition is intensifying.
“What European founders need to realise: the valley has turned up the intensity once again. Seven day days a week is the required velocity to win right now,” wrote 20VC founder Harry Stebbings in a LinkedIn post, to a mixture of praise and protest. “You aren’t competing against a random company in Germany, but the best in the world.”
Several forces are driving the shift to 996, said Index Ventures partner Martin Mignot on LinkedIn — among them AI. “This feels like a once-in-a-generation (or once-in-humanity) moment, and it’s moving incredibly fast. The size of the opportunity and the pace of change means any minute not working on your product is costly.”
Opponents of the idea say it’s a recipe for burnout — and no way to build a business in the long-term.
Is working flat-out the only way to get a startup off the ground in the era of AI? Or is there another way? We asked Sifted readers to pile in with their views.
A recipe for burnout
Plenty of founders who have built a business think 996 isn’t a great idea. Some told Sifted they experienced significant health issues after working non-stop to scale their startup.
“Building a startup is a long game. And ‘996’ is one of the fastest ways to burn out — we’ve all seen it happen, both openly and behind the scenes,” Nino Dvalidze, founder and CEO of Young Minds App, tells Sifted.
“In my experience, when you have a strong team, you focus on the right things, and you’re building where there’s real demand — you simply don’t need to work yourself into the ground.”
Some VCs who have built companies themselves are sceptical of the 996 narrative — especially when it is being endorsed by investors that haven’t been founders themselves.
Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton Capital and a former founder, says that while there are moments where entrepreneurs do have to work hard and push themselves to the limit, those periods must always be followed up with time to rest and recover.
“Building a really big company is a marathon. No one works all day, every day for a decade or two. You have to build balance into the journey,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“The better founders know when to step back, reflect, talk to others, etc. Bill Gates always took a week out to read and reflect while becoming the richest person on the planet. If he found the time to do it, you probably can too.”
Balderton Capital was the first VC in Europe to set up a founder wellbeing programme with the aim of helping founders build resilience and prevent burnout. Other VCs like Cherry Ventures and climate firm AENU have since launched their own programmes.
The founder-athlete analogy is one that is repeated over and over again when talking about the tightrope founders must walk to scale a successful tech company, while being careful not to overstep their physical or mental limits.
But athletes do train hard, points out Seth Bannon, founder of deeptech company builder 5050.
“If a 996 schedule leads a founder to burnout, they shouldn’t do it. But the reality is, founders who can’t sustain intense effort are likely to be outrun by those who can. Endurance matters in startups, just like it does in sport.”
“Fortunately, endurance isn’t fixed. Founders can improve it by exercising, eating well, and sleeping well,” he added.
“The best founders have always worked more than 996… How can anyone think they can build a generation-defining company in 40 hours per week?” Jan Claudio Muñoz, partner at BackBone Ventures, an early-stage VC investing in underrepresented founders, tells Sifted in a LinkedIn message.
“I’d only start a company with someone who I’m sure will work almost nonstop and not clock out after 9pm.”
For the few
There’s also the question of what kind of tech ecosystem a 996 schedule would foster.
“If the future of tech requires 996 then it’s a future built by and for the privileged few,” says Nina Neumann, founders associate at Female Invest, a platform helping women learn about finance and investing.
“It’s hard not to notice how these visions of success rarely include space for parents, caregivers, or anyone outside the traditional founder mold. We need models that work for more than just the work-obsessed and for anyone with a life that doesn’t revolve just around work.”
Index Ventures’ Mignot also acknowledged in his post that 996 may be “particularly appealing” to younger people who haven’t yet got families, and are willing to put their life on hold for a few years to grow their companies.
“The key question for the companies that reach escape velocity is how to maintain the quality and speed of their output after they’ve grown out of this early Big Bang phase when maximum energy needs to be applied to create something out of nothing,” he said.
“This is where processes and systems become needed to make the unsustainable sustainable.”
Stick to what works for you
Other founders say it’s hard to make blanket statements about how many hours we should spend at work — as the sweet spot will be different for everyone.
Success also looks different for every founder.
“The best startups succeed because they’re nimble and adaptive, not because they follow rigid frameworks,” wrote Pedro Pamplona Henriques, cofounder of The Newsroom, an AI-powered tool helping journalists in their research and reporting processes on LinkedIn.
“As a founder I’m finding that what works best for me is to listen to my needs and the business’ need: 996 can be awesome if I’m in a flow, 965 can be great to re-focus, 007 can be just what I need to take a step back. These numbers are irrelevant by themselves.”
And with AI supposedly speeding things up, shouldn’t we all be thinking about how we can do more in less time?
“We’re shipping faster today because building and distributing software is cheaper than ever, not because we tack on extra shifts,” says Sandra Dajic, head of growth and marketing at AI agent platform for customer experience Chatbase, which has scaled to $6m ARR with 14 people.
“What Europe really needs is investors who take more (and wider) bets, back founders from different backgrounds, step outside the usual circles. And founders should spend less time chasing those investors and more time on the fun part: building, selling, iterating.”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/996-debate-europe/
