Venture capitalist Harry Stebbings faced a wave of backlash in June after urging European startup founders to increase their work hours — but he now admits there’s some room for nuance when applying his mantra.
Stebbings, founder of 20VC, a firm managing $650 million in funds, advised founders on LinkedIn last month that “7 days a week is the required velocity to win right now,” to compete with startups in Silicon Valley and China.
The post went viral, to Stebbings’ surprise, and sparked a debate on whether China’s brutal “996” work culture — which means working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week — is needed in Europe.
VC behind ‘996’ work culture debate says 5-day weeks won't build billion-dollar startups
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/08/vc-behind-996-work-culture-debate-defends-7-day-work-weeks-.html
16 Comments
RejZoR@lemmy.ml · 63 pts · 1y
I'd like to see this motherfucker work for 12 hours every day for 6 days a week for some minimum wage shit. These corporate suits are beyond disconnected from reality.
paultimate14@lemmy.world · 53 pts · 1y
He probably "works" more than that, because for him his "work" looks like riding a private jet, golfing with business associates, fancy lunches and dinners, or sending emails from his phone on the beach.
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca · 37 pts · 1y
"I work this hard, everyone should work this hard!" -- someone has no idea what hard work is.
Asafum@feddit.nl · 12 pts · 1y
Oh oh oh, they have one for this!
"HaRd WoRk DoEs NoT EqUaL VaLuAbLe WoRk!!"
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 1y
"As you can clearly see on this chart I made of the value I put on things, the value I put on my own work is the highest, and the rest of you are very low, and you should feel bad that I don't value your work! What are you going to do about it? Work harder? Haha, that will just make my value go up even higher!"
surph_ninja@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 1y
Well not everything needs to be worth a billion. Certainly no person should ever be that rich.
People with insatiable greed have a mental disorder. They cannot even conceptualize the idea of working a reasonable amount, and being happy with a modest profit.
Maybe we should stop letting the most sociopathic & insatiable people set standards that can never be satisfied.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 1y
Yeah, you gotta work like that, if you're the one starting the business. Talking to a client who owned several businesses one night over drinks. He said you have to work your ass off for a year and-a-half to two years, then it pretty much runs itself.
One might note that he wasn't talking about his employees working like that.
blarghly@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1y
Yeah, like, I would be willing to work those hours if I had a significant stake in the company and I had a voice in how the company was run.
As a salaried employee, I'm not doing that.
grue@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1y
You gonna pay me a billion dollars to work at your startup? No? Then shut the fuck up, you wannabe-slaver asshole!
dangling_cat@piefed.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 1y
Tencent subsidiary riot games already does this. By soft policies like providing shuttle (only at night/early morning) and free dinner.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 1y
these people are physically incapable of saying things meant to scare people without it coming out as supporting the thing they dislike.
no more billion-dollar startups? fucking hell yeah, let's implement it!
isaaclyman@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
I’ve seen a handful of new startups posting about their 4-day, 32-hour work weeks. I can only imagine they’re bringing on a scuzzton of top talent at middle-of-the-road prices.
When one of them IPOs for a billion dollars, I hope their employees are incredibly annoying about it. I hope they never shut up. I hope my LinkedIn feed is wall-to-wall “look what you can do on four days a week.” I hope they go door to door with a Rolex on both wrists and say “hello, sir/madam, I just wanted you to know I haven’t worked a Friday in five years.” I hope they post pictures of themselves relaxing with a martini at the start of every three-day weekend and people go ballistic in the comments and they don’t even notice because they’re too busy doing interviews with Forbes and Fortune Magazine. I hope I get sick and tired of hearing about four day weeks.
I’m sure as hell tired of hearing about execs that want their employees to burn out.
Morganica@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
Yeah, I’d work 995 if…
There’s not enough money you could give me could make up for having Saturday off.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 1y
We live in a world of Supply & Demand, and he won't get the supply of labor he requires unless he meets the demand for proper compensation. It's the simplest economics there is.
sunzu2@thebrainbin.org · 6 pts · 1y
fogetaboutit@programming.dev · 6 pts · 1y
Who needs a life, religion, and family when you are working as a cog in "profit generator machine 3000"?
FerretyFever0@fedia.io · 3 pts · 1y
No. It's obviously not.