Ausländische Investoren beginnen, das 996-System zu loben.

As soon as one talks about the 996 work mode, the employee almost always frowns.

Especially for today's young generation, the "996" work mode is undoubtedly workplace dross (here it should probably be called "workplace waste", but there is no exact German equivalent). People are generally certain that the 996 work mode is a direct manifestation of the unfair competition culture. It neither respects the employees' private lives nor can it actually improve the company's development. When a company introduces the 996 work mode, people unconsciously think that this company has incompetent management, an unclear strategy, no core competitiveness and treats employees as "screwdrivers".

To make the criticism more concrete, the "anti - unfair competition achievements" of Silicon Valley technology companies in terms of work mode are often mentioned. It is said in legend that Google and Meta have no sign - in systems, employees can go home at 3 p.m., free five - star meals are offered and one can work from home every Wednesday. Or the famous film and television company Netflix: It is reported that it always pays the highest market salary and also offers unlimited vacation regulations.

A new example is the fintech company Bolt. Since 2022, Bolt has introduced the "four - day workweek". The additional free day is "without online availability, without unexpected meetings, without additional overtime and has no impact on public holidays". 84% of employees say that this work rhythm has significantly improved their "work - life balance". Bolt has also raised capital up to the E - round in a peaceful atmosphere and reached a company value of $14 billion, making it one of the largest unicorns in Silicon Valley.

But as the saying goes: "The world is a big boomerang." Those who live long enough see everything. Probably even the "996" work mode didn't think that this once - condemned and trampled - on old complaint would achieve a "miracle of fate change" in 2025, and that in the Silicon Valley venture - capital scene: More and more well - known investors clearly state that the "996" work mode is a "virtue" to be advocated. They even directly say that they will prefer to invest in start - ups that introduce the "996" work mode.

"The 996 is good, even Confucius said so"

Strictly speaking, the Silicon Valley venture - capital scene didn't start seriously discussing the advantages of the "996" work mode recently. As early as 2018, the legendary Silicon Valley investor and head of Sequoia Capital, Michael Moritz, published an op - ed in the "Financial Times" titled "Silicon Valley should wisely imitate China's approach". In it, he described the "996 phenomena" in large Chinese Internet companies quite well and noted that although the "996 phenomenon" is unhealthy and cruel, one can recognize a " longing for collective progress " behind it. From this, he concluded that "from a purely commercial perspective, it is in many aspects easier to operate in China than in California".

So why is Silicon Valley discussing the "996" work mode again seven years later? This goes back to a podcast interview that the founder of Revolut, Nik Storonsky, participated in this March.

Revolut is currently one of the hottest fintech companies. Its annual turnover exceeded the mark of $2.2 billion in 2023, and it has over 50 million customers worldwide. The back - end investors are the well - known Coatue, Tiger Global Management and D1 Capital Partners. After obtaining the British banking license in July 2024, its company value directly rose to $45 billion (about 322.5 billion yuan), which surpasses Barclays and Lloyds Bank and makes it the second - largest company in the European financial scene after HSBC.

Then this "little European pride" poured cold water on his countrymen in the podcast interview. When the host asked him: "What do you think of the fact that European entrepreneurs seem to have achieved no significant results in recent years compared to American and Chinese ones?", Storonsky said brazenly: "This is a cultural difference. European entrepreneurs always focus on the balance between work and private life. Naturally, they can't achieve significant results. In short, 'they don't work hard enough'."

(Nik Storonsky, founder of Revolut, podcast screenshot)

What hurt European friends even more is that another "little European pride", the well - known influencer in the investment industry and founder of 20VC, Harry Stebbings, clearly sided with Storonsky. He wrote on his social media: "European entrepreneurs should be careful. Silicon Valley has increased the work intensity. A seven - day workweek is now a necessary strategy, there are no tricks... Because you're not only competing with German and British entrepreneurs. Today, entrepreneurs have to compete with the best companies in the world at all times."

The entire European venture - capital scene was hurt by this double - blow from the "little prides", and people began to strongly oppose Storonsky and Harry Stebbings. Amelia Miller, an investor at Insight Partners, said: "Only the worst entrepreneurs work seven days a week. This is a sign of incompetence in time management and only leads to faster exhaustion." Suranga Chandratillake, a partner at Balderton Capital, said: "If you're an entrepreneur, don't listen to the advice of an intrusive financier who always wears a hoodie and doesn't understand your work at all."

Some active investors even began to prove themselves like in the story "How many bowls of rice did the boy actually eat?" The European venture - capital company Antler published a survey among its portfolio companies. It says that three - quarters of the 128 founders it has invested in work more than 60 hours a week, and almost one - fifth even work more than 80 hours a week.

Further research shows that 70% of these founders say that entrepreneurship is the "hardest thing" in their lives, and three - quarters of the founders believe that "their contributions are not adequately recognized". Alan Poensgen, a partner at Antler, therefore said very pointedly: "In Europe, you have a greater chance of becoming an Olympic medalist than a founder of a unicorn company... Because although both positions require similar ambition, perseverance and endurance, the degree of recognition of the founders will be different."

As the saying goes: "The enemy not only refuses to surrender but even fires at us." As soon as the European venture - capital scene opposed it, the heat of the discussion rose. Then in June, the heavy - weight candidate arrived: Martin Mignot, a partner at Index Ventures, decided to join the battle himself.

Index Ventures is one of the most active venture - capital companies in Silicon Valley. Since its founding 28 years ago, it has invested in over 300 companies. Scale AI, Figma, Wiz and also the above - mentioned Revolut are all within its investment scope. One can say that their view is quite convincing from the results. Martin Mignot wrote a long article on LinkedIn and directly claimed at the beginning that the "996 work mode" should become the standard for today's start - up companies, because now people are at the beginning of a crucial phase of the AI era - similar to how the steam engine was for the first industrial revolution and the internal combustion engine was for the second industrial revolution, the emergence of AI is a "once - in - a - generation opportunity". The size of the opportunity and the speed of the changes mean that "every hour not invested in product development costs an enormous price".

Secondly, the opportunity is global, and so is the competition. Silicon Valley companies no longer have many "information advantages". In addition, top - notch technical talents are always scarce resources. Therefore, a qualified start - up company must try to "maximize the productivity of each team member".

To support his view, he also listed three examples from his surroundings:

- An entrepreneur decided to move his company to the "most remote area" of the bay to make employees focus on work and not be disturbed by various factors such as eating, drinking and entertainment. In job interviews, he directly tells applicants: "We have the 996 work mode. If you have hobbies that conflict with this work mode, you're in the wrong place here."

- An entrepreneur tried to introduce the "uniform vacation regime" in his company. The company gives two weeks of vacation once a year, and all employees must rest and start working again together. There are no exceptions. Because "the business development of the company is too fast to deal with fluctuations in efficiency" - it is said that this regulation works well, and even half of his employees voluntarily work overtime on weekends.

- A friend decided after long consideration to give up millions of dollars in earn - out income and found a new AI company to enter the endless "overtime mode", because "the opportunity in front of us is too great. As long as one is still young and has no family obligations, one must seize it, otherwise it's too late."

This view has been supported by many people. Amrita Bhasin, co - founder of the AI start - up company Sotiro, commented and said: "If you don't work on weekends, it means that your competitors are progressing faster... I think that founders should at least follow this work culture in the first one to two years. Our team also follows this culture and often works both weekends."

(This is Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures)

There are also supporters who posted a podcast interview of Sam Altman from last year in the comment section. At that time, Altman said: "Previously, someone told me that working too hard leads to exhaustion... But at least from my own experience, I've found that exhaustion actually comes from failures and difficulties. I've found that I have endless energy for things that interest me and are effective, and almost no energy for things that neither interest me nor are effective."

People also found a warning for the "996" from its country of origin, China: "Choose a job you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life" - Foreign friends pointed out that these are the words of Confucius. I've thought about it with Deepseek, and it's most likely that it comes from these two sayings:

"He who knows something is not as good as he who loves it. He who loves it is not as good as he who enjoys it." "He is so engrossed that he forgets to eat, so happy that he forgets his worries, and he doesn't notice that old age is approaching."

Has the anti - unfair competition culture failed?

Naturally, Harry Stebbings and Martin Mignot are the extremes in this discussion. The majority of people think that the "996" has some positive aspects, but ultimately it is a "survival strategy" that must be considered in different phases.

For example, Pujun Bhatnagar, founder of the AI + SaaS company Kintsugi, said: "If you want to develop an influential product in today's market, the 996 work mode is not new, but can even be regarded as a mandatory measure. The improvement of the work process can come later... Because in the initial phase of entrepreneurship, it's mainly about delivery and survival."

Brad Porter, former CTO of Scale AI and founder of the industrial robot start - up company Cobot, explained that he wants to view the "996" rationally to balance the increasingly strong "comfort culture" in Silicon Valley. He wrote a long article on LinkedIn, in which he explained his observations in detail: "In the 1990s, companies created a comfortable workplace to increase work performance. Therefore, there was the idea: 'The more coffee, the more code'... But at some point, companies had to offer free meals, an on - site laundry, it was allowed to bring pets, walk dogs, there were massage services and even nap cabins were best. Later, it also went to the psychological level: There were mental health days, subsidies for mental health and unlimited personal vacations."

Brad Porter wondered: "Today's company management in Silicon Valley has to 100% accept all people and respond to all social problems... But if the comfortable environment destroys the normal work atmosphere and breaks the basic principles of hard work, what are we actually striving for?"

Even the fintech unicorn Bolt, which promoted the anti - unfair competition culture at the beginning, has backed down.

After announcing the "four - day workweek" in 2022, Bolt increased its number of employees by 20% to stabilize productivity. But in May this year, a spokesman for Bolt confirmed that the company...