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.
“What Europe really needs isn’t more hustle-porn, it’s more aggressive funding,” Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, said back then.
When’s the last time a “billion-dollar startup” was a net positive for society? All I see is grifters and privacy-invading, planet-polluting tech that furthers authoritarian government policy.
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there shouldn’t be billion dollar startups
“7 days a week is the required velocity to win right now”
Win what?
Win capitalism
Or rather, win him a super yacht
A depression.
The right to not hussle so hard anymore!!
I’m happy to work nights and weekends for my own company. For someone else’s, not so much.
They always seem to forget that equity is a vital part of the equation.
Bullshit.
The thing that five day workweeks won’t fund is obscene pay packages for executives.
They do, but there is always room for more obscenity.
we don’t have an endless supply of planet to go around, but greed is infinite
Why does everything have to be a fucking billion Dollar startup? Why can’t you just provide a product or service that people actually need and simply live off that? If it runs well, you employ more people with a fair salary, who then pay taxes so everyone gets to be happy. I fucking hate this timeline.
Because those times are over.
If you want to start a diner and pay fair wages, you will need to charge so much that people will go elsewhere. Or some shit like that, I’ve never really owned anything.
Living in squalor is bliss compared to whatever 996 might mean.
i like how they keep comparing it to places like china, japan, korea. all 3 are paying for it for low birth rates, even chinas feeling the effects of it right now, they are tyring to encourage births by telling them to have more sex.
Maybe some people would be willing to work 996 for a certain amount of time, if and when they get their equal share of the proceeds then …
This fella should check out stats on labour productivity. Make me work 996 and you’ll get MRE at best or I’ll quit and be a stay at home dad.
