Foreign investors have started to praise the 996 work schedule.

When it comes to the 996 work schedule, office workers always frown.

Especially for contemporary young people, the "996" work schedule is undoubtedly a workplace dross. People generally believe that the 996 work schedule is a direct manifestation of the involution culture. It neither respects employees' personal lives nor brings substantial improvements to the company's development. If a company adopts the 996 work schedule, people will subconsciously think that the company has incompetent management, a vague strategy, no core competitiveness, and treats employees as "cogs."

To be more specific in criticism, the "anti - involution initiatives" of Silicon Valley technology companies in terms of work schedules are often mentioned. For example, it is said that Google and Meta have no clock - in system, employees can leave work at 3 p.m., and the companies provide free five - star three - meals a day. Employees can also choose to work from home every Wednesday. Another example is the famous film and television company Netflix. It is rumored that they always pay the highest market salary and are willing to offer an indefinite annual leave system on top of that.

The latest example is the fintech company Bolt. Since 2022, Bolt has taken the lead in implementing the "4 - day work week." The additional day off means "no need to be on standby online, no impromptu meetings, no extra overtime, and it doesn't affect legal holidays." 84% of employees said that this work rhythm has greatly improved their "Work - life balance." Bolt has also successfully raised funds all the way to Series E in a harmonious atmosphere, with a valuation reaching $14 billion, becoming one of the largest unicorns in Silicon Valley.

However, as the saying goes, "The world is like a huge boomerang." As long as you live long enough, you'll see everything. Probably even the "996" work schedule itself didn't expect that as a lament of the times that had long been "criticized and condemned," it managed to "turn its fate around" in 2025, and it happened in the Silicon Valley venture capital circle: More and more well - known investors have clearly stated that the "996" work schedule is a "virtue" worthy of promotion. They even directly say that they will give priority to investing in startups that implement the "996" work schedule.

"The 996 work schedule is good, and Confucius would agree"

Strictly speaking, the Silicon Valley venture capital circle has not just recently started seriously discussing the benefits of the "996" work schedule. As early as 2018, the legendary Silicon Valley investor and the head of Sequoia Capital, Michael Moritz, published a column in the Financial Times titled "Silicon Valley Should Wisely Follow China's Example." He introduced the "996 phenomenon" in Chinese Internet giants in detail and pointed out that although the "996 phenomenon" is unhealthy and cruel, there is a " collective desire for progress " behind it. He then concluded that from a purely commercial perspective, "in many ways, doing business in China is more convenient than doing business in California."

So why did the Silicon Valley start discussing the "996" work schedule again after seven years? It all started with a podcast interview that Nik Storonsky, the founder of Revolut, participated in this March.

Revolut is one of the hottest fintech companies at present. Its annual revenue exceeded $2.2 billion in 2023, and it has more than 50 million global customers. Its investors include well - known names such as Coatue, Tiger Global Management, and D1 Capital Partners. After obtaining a UK banking license in July 2024, its valuation soared directly to $45 billion (about 322.5 billion yuan), surpassing Barclays Bank and Lloyds Bank and becoming the second - largest in the European financial circle after HSBC.

Then, this "European pride" poured cold water on his compatriots during the podcast interview. When the host asked, "What do you think about the fact that European entrepreneurs don't seem to have achieved much in recent years compared with those in the United States and China," Storonsky said bluntly, "This is a cultural difference. European entrepreneurs always emphasize the work - life balance. Of course, they won't achieve anything decent. In short, they 'don't work hard enough'."

(Nik Storonsky, the founder of Revolut, podcast screenshot)

What's even more heartbreaking for European entrepreneurs is that another "European pride," Harry Stebbings, the founder of 20VC and a well - known figure in the investment circle, came out to explicitly support Storonsky's view. He said on his personal social media, "European entrepreneurs should wake up. Silicon Valley has increased its work intensity. Working seven days a week is now a necessary strategy, and there is no room for shortcuts... Because you're not just competing with entrepreneurs in Germany and the UK. Now, entrepreneurs need to compete with the world's best companies at any time."

The double - blow from these two "prides" broke the hearts of the entire European venture capital circle, and everyone began to fight back against 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 poor time management and will only lead to faster burnout." Suranga Chandratillake, a partner at Balderton Capital, said, "If you're an entrepreneur, don't listen to the advice of a self - important financial guy who always wears a hoodie and has never been involved in your actual work."

Some action - oriented investors even started to prove themselves like the character in the story "How many bowls of noodles did the sixth son eat?" For example, the European venture capital firm Antler published a large - scale survey of its invested companies, saying that among the 128 founders they invested in, three - quarters of them work more than 60 hours a week, and nearly one - fifth work more than 80 hours a week.

Further investigation showed that 70% of these founders said that starting a business was the "hardest thing" in their lives, and three - quarters of them thought that "their dedication was not recognized accordingly." Alan Poensgen, a partner at Antler, specifically said, "In Europe, you're more likely to become an Olympic medalist than the founder of a unicorn company... Because although both require similar ambition, resilience, and endurance, the degree of recognition for founders is different."

However, just as the saying goes, "The enemy not only refuses to surrender but also dares to fire at us." When the European venture capital circle refuted, the discussion became even more heated. Then, in June, a heavy - weight figure entered the arena. Martin Mignot, a partner at Index Ventures, decided to join the discussion himself.

Index Ventures is one of the most active venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. It has been established for 28 years and has invested in more than 300 companies. Scale AI, Figma, Wiz, and the aforementioned Revolut, all these top Silicon Valley unicorns are in their investment portfolio. It can be said that their views are quite persuasive based on the results. Martin Mignot wrote a long article on LinkedIn, directly stating at the beginning that the "996 work schedule" should become the standard for contemporary startups, because now humanity is entering a critical stage of the AI era - just as 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 magnitude of the opportunity and the speed of change mean that "any time not invested in product R & D comes at an extremely high cost."

Secondly, the opportunity is global, and so is the competition. Silicon Valley companies no longer have much of an "information gap advantage." Coupled with the fact that top - notch technical talents are always a scarce resource, a qualified startup must find a way to "maximize the productivity of each team member."

To support his view, he also listed three cases around him:

- A founder decided to move the company to the "quietest area" in the Bay Area to let employees focus on work without being disturbed by various factors such as entertainment. During the interview, he would straightforwardly tell job applicants, "We implement the 996 work schedule. If you have hobbies that conflict with this work schedule, you're not suitable here."

- A founder tried to implement a "unified vacation system" in the company. The company takes a unified two - week vacation every year, and all employees rest and return to work together without exceptions. Because "the company's business is developing too fast to withstand the fluctuating efficiency." It is said that this system has been implemented smoothly, and even half of the employees in his team will voluntarily work overtime on weekends.

- A friend decided to give up millions of dollars in earn - out income after much thought and resolutely founded a new AI company, starting an endless "overtime mode" because "the opportunity in front of him is too great. While he is young and not burdened by a family, he must seize it, or he'll miss it."

This view has been supported by many people. Amrita Bhasin, the co - founder of the artificial intelligence startup Sotiro, shared her experience in the comment section, saying, "Not working on weekends means your competitors will develop faster than you... I think founders should at least follow this work culture in the first one to two years. Our team also follows this culture and often works overtime on both weekend days."

(This is Martin Mignot, a partner at Index Ventures)

Some supporters also posted a podcast interview of Sam Altman from last year in the comment section. At that time, Altman said, "Someone once told me that working too hard would lead to burnout... But at least in my own experience, I found that burnout actually comes from failure and things not going well. I found that I have endless energy to do things that I'm interested in and that are effective, but almost no energy to do things that I'm not interested in and that are ineffective."

People also found a warning from the place of origin, China, to endorse the "996" work schedule, which is "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." Foreign friends pointed out that this is a quote from Confucius. After some thought with Deepseek, it is most likely derived from these two sayings:

"Those who know it are not as good as those who like it, and those who like it are not as good as those who enjoy it." "He was so absorbed in his pursuit that he forgot to eat, was so happy that he forgot his worries, and didn't realize that old age was approaching."

Has the anti - involution culture failed?

Of course, Harry Stebbings and Martin Mignot are the more extreme ones in this discussion. Most people think that the "996" work schedule has its merits, but ultimately it is a "survival strategy" that needs to be considered in different stages.

For example, Pujun Bhatnagar, the founder of the AI + SaaS company Kintsugi, said, "If you want to create an influential product in today's market, adopting the 996 work schedule is not news. It can even be said to be a required action. You can improve the work process later... Because in the early stage of entrepreneurship, everything is about delivery and survival."

Brad Porter, the former CTO of Scale AI and the founder of the industrial robot startup Cobot, said that he called for a rational view of the "996" work schedule because he wanted to balance the increasingly serious "comfort culture" in Silicon Valley. He wrote a long article on LinkedIn to explain his observations in detail: "In the 1990s, companies created a comfortable working environment because it could improve work efficiency, which led to the idea that 'the more caffeine, the more code'... But somehow, companies now need to provide free meals, on - site laundry services, allow pets in the workplace, allow dog - walking, offer massage services, and preferably have nap pods. Later, it extended to the psychological level, with the need for mental health days, mental health subsidies, and unlimited personal leave."

Brad Porter couldn't help asking, "Now, the management of Silicon Valley companies needs to be 100% inclusive of everyone and respond to all social issues... But if the comfortable environment starts to disrupt the normal work atmosphere and breaks the basic principle of hard work, what exactly are we pursuing?"

Even the fintech unicorn Bolt, which took the lead in the anti - involution movement at the beginning, has changed its mind.

After announcing the "4 - day work week" in 2022, Bolt expanded its employee scale by 20% to stabilize the company's productivity. But in May this year, a spokesperson for Bolt confirmed externally that the company had officially cancelled the "4 - day work week" - and this was just the beginning. Ryan Breslow, the founder of Bolt, announced in an internal letter that "the company will conduct a round of layoffs and fire all 'second - rate employees'. Before that, all employees have 60 days to prove their abilities." At the same time, all "luxurious benefits" for employees, such as team outings and the in - company equal - rights organization Conscious Culture, will be suspended until the company achieves a revenue increase of "200 million to 300 million US dollars."

From these cases, it seems that the "anti - involution culture," as a product of the upward cycle, is no longer appropriate and needs to come to an end. The only thing to consider is that the entrepreneurs who advocated the 996 work schedule back then are not the same group as today's entrepreneurs.

Different educational backgrounds, different growth environments, different life concepts, and different understandings of technology determine that these entrepreneurs will definitely have different feelings about work pressure. Whether the crucial role of the "996 work schedule" in the rise of the Chinese Internet can be replicated many years later is still unknown.

At least according to the existing survey data, the situation doesn't seem very optimistic. The third - party data agency Startup Snapshot conducted a survey of more than 400 entrepreneurs and found that more than 70% of them said that the hard work of starting a business had affected their mental health. Among them, only 10% of the entrepreneurs had the opportunity to talk to investors about their mental pressure.

A similar topic also appeared at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 conference. Andy Dunn gave a keynote speech titled "Would you invest in a person with mental illness?"

Andy Dunn is a serial entrepreneur. His most glorious entrepreneurial experience was selling his men's clothing e - commerce website Bonobos to Walmart for $310 million, successfully achieving financial freedom. Now he has started a new entrepreneurial journey, working on a face - to - face social product called Pie.

However, these successes didn't bring him enough happiness. He even suffered from bipolar disorder. He was diagnosed in 2016, and since then, he has experienced "mania and depression" for two or three months almost every year. He clearly realized that in his bipolar state, he couldn't be a "good boss" or a "good colleague." So he made a somewhat "immoral" decision - when raising funds, he asked all co - founders to hide his medical history from investors and only be honest after the deal was completed.

Andy Dunn believes that this is not only the result of "social pressure." "There must be some connection between neurodiversity and human creativity." This means that dealing with mental health issues is almost an unavoidable thing for entrepreneurs on their path to success. So he applied for this speaking opportunity, hoping that more people would discuss the "mental health issues of entrepreneurs" during the entrepreneurial process.

Coincidentally, the UK venture capital firm Balderton Capital also conducted a large - scale survey on the mental health issues of startups in 2024. They found that nearly two - thirds of entrepreneurs were experiencing severe "burnout," a much higher proportion than in 2023. Balderton Capital also pointed out that some investors are one of the culprits of this phenomenon because they subconsciously think that excellent entrepreneurs should "sleep in a sleeping bag in the office, eat instant noodles when hungry, and regard the company's development as the only path in their lives."

However, he also put forward a somewhat unexpected view, that is, "mild bipolar disorder" may actually be helpful for entrepreneurship. Because the typical symptoms of mild bipolar disorder are "rapid