A group of young people in their early 20s in Silicon Valley have given up alcohol and entertainment, and their only belief is a trillion-dollar market value.
Key points:
- Many AI entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley generally work over 90 hours a week, giving up vacations and sleep. They view high - intensity work as a necessary price to pay for achieving their dreams and even take pride in "sleeping in the office".
- The founders give up alcohol and entertainment, eat takeaway meals, and live in shared cabins. Their social activities revolve entirely around work, forming a unique "ascetic" entrepreneurial culture.
- Many founders come from Ivy League universities. They drop out of school to start businesses, believing that practical experience is more valuable than classroom learning. Many of them started coding in high school and founded their first projects during college.
- Young founders aim for billion - dollar valuations and quickly raise funds through incubators like YC. The investment market expects AI companies to achieve ultra - high - speed growth, intensifying the competitive pressure.
Working 92 hours a week for three consecutive weeks; living in a "coffin - like" sleep pod that costs $700 a month; sustaining on only one takeaway meal a day; demonstrating software at a client's home until 1 a.m....
This is not a survival experiment but the daily life of founders of AI startups in Silicon Valley. In Silicon Valley, USA, these geniuses in their early 20s on average are competing for a ticket to the trillion - dollar market - value club in an almost "ascetic" way.
They give up alcohol and entertainment, compete to see who sleeps less and who is more "hardcore", compress their lives to the extreme. Their only beliefs are laptops and the entrepreneurial dream of a trillion - dollar market value. This is not a remake of The Social Network but a real and more crazy struggle story happening in Silicon Valley.
They firmly believe that this is the price that must be paid to change the world.
01 The "Hardcore" Entrepreneurial Generation in Silicon Valley
Marty Kausas, a 28 - year - old startup founder, showed up at the office as usual on Sunday. For him, this is quite normal. He recently revealed on LinkedIn that he has maintained a work intensity of 92 hours a week for three consecutive weeks. Although he once tried to take a vacation, he ended it early because he couldn't stop worrying about work. He is determined to build a technology company worth $10 billion in ten years.
Photo: Marty Kausas, co - founder of Pylon, working in his San Francisco office
Kausas' motivation is not purely about pursuing wealth. "There are many ways to make money," he said frankly. It's also not for some lofty social mission. "We're making customer support software. It's not about changing the world." He compares entrepreneurship to a "board game that you want to win." "Working as a programmer in a big company? That's so boring." Now, the AI company Pylon he co - founded has successfully raised $51 million in funds.
In San Francisco, if you throw a stone randomly, you're likely to hit an aspiring or dream - chasing technology company founder who hopes to launch a breakthrough product. These young people dream of joining the ranks of tech billionaires who have changed the way the world shops, communicates, and entertains.
Mackay Grant, 24, voiced what many people think: "There's no other choice but to work hard. You have to go all out and be more hardcore than others." He even missed his college graduation ceremony last year and headed straight for San Francisco, a city "suitable for genius outliers", and founded an AI financial startup.
This generation of entrepreneurs grew up watching The Social Network, started using iPhones as soon as they could read, and began coding in their teens. Their ultimate goal is to build a trillion - dollar company with a global user base. To achieve this dream, they rarely drink, scoff at the so - called "work - life balance" concept, and fully immerse themselves in this 24/7 race.
Emily Yuan, 23, co - founder of CorgiAI, a financial infrastructure company, said bluntly: "Why waste time in a bar when you can start a business?"
02 Staying Up All Night and Sleep Pods Like "Coffins"
Most of the limited free time of these young entrepreneurs is spent on work - related social activities.
Photo: Founders of San Francisco startups running along the Embarcadero waterfront
Some people only catch their breath during high - intensity fitness classes at Barry's or while sweating it out at urban baths like Archimedes Banya. They also use this time to chat with peers about the next round of financing. Some even post excerpts from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead on social media to pay tribute to the so - called "strivers".
Emily Yuan dropped out of Stanford in her junior year. "I learned far more from starting a business than from classes," she said, echoing the thoughts of many of her peers. They firmly believe that with just an idea and a laptop, they can single - handedly build a billion - dollar "unicorn".
Photo: Emily Yuan, 23, co - founder of CorgiAI
Most of these people graduated from the well - known Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator (YC for short), which has nurtured industry disruptors like DoorDash and Airbnb. Since its establishment in 2005, YC has invested in over 5,000 companies with a total valuation exceeding $800 billion. This summer, they received nearly 20,000 applications.
To outsiders, the lives of these young entrepreneurs seem almost joyless. They chase wealth in one of the most scenic cities in the United States but have no time to truly explore it. They hunch over in front of their computers, shoveling in fast food or takeaways every day. Eating with a hunched back has become the norm. But for them, this is just the price of success.
Haseab Ullah invested his savings in an AI customer - service chatbot project. He works at "Founders" in the Fort Mason waterfront campus, which has shared workspaces, hardware labs, game rooms, and a stage area for hackathons and fireside chats. He said he sustains on just one Uber Eats meal a day and doesn't cook to save time.
Ullah pays $700 a month to live in a co - living space converted from an old office building, sharing it with about 20 people. The beds are in the common area, each a fully enclosed "sleep pod" with a light - blocking curtain, similar to a train sleeper. When the curtain is drawn, it's pitch - black inside, making it convenient for him to catch up on sleep during the day after working all night.
"It feels like sleeping in a coffin every night," he said. "But other than that, everything is fine."
03 Some Traits of Recruited Candidates: Not Caring About Material Life, Maintaining Ambition, and Desiring Success
Kausas is the son of Lithuanian immigrants. His father is a pastor, and his mother runs a non - profit organization. He originally planned to sleep in the office but finally "compromised" and rented a four - bedroom apartment just one block away from the company.
His breakfast and lunch are meals prepared by a company founded by Bryan Johnson, a health guru obsessed with "longevity". Kausas said that not having to worry about what to eat allows him to focus more on work.
Photo: Marty Kausas, co - founder of Pylon, taking dietary supplements
When recruiting salespeople for his startup, Kausas proposed a special standard - "PhD". However, this doesn't refer to a doctoral degree but to three traits: Poor, Hungry, Desperate.
Of course, these words in Silicon Valley don't just have their literal meanings but are given special cultural connotations.
"Poor" doesn't mean being in financial distress but rather an extremely frugal lifestyle that entrepreneurs actively choose for their career goals. They are willing to give up material comforts and invest the saved time and money into their work.
"Hungry" isn't just a physical feeling but a work attitude of not wanting to waste any time on daily trivialities (such as eating or choosing a restaurant). It's this "hunger" that drives them to work over 90 hours a week, voluntarily give up vacations and sleep, and never be satisfied with the status quo.
"Desperate" represents a win - at - all - costs, all - in mindset with a strong sense of urgency. Entrepreneurs firmly believe that "there's no other choice but to work hard". They find joy in work itself and have an almost obsessive pursuit of success.
Outside of work, his life still revolves around entrepreneurship. One recent Saturday, he gave a speech at a hackathon. Another weekend, he went cycling in Golden Gate Park with another founder - they have invested in each other's companies, and during the ride, the topic was always about "how hard it is for entrepreneurs to date".
Nico Laqua, 25, is determined to turn his founded Corgi into a trillion - dollar company, aiming to disrupt the traditional insurance industry. His father is a lawyer for an insurance company, and Laqua claims that he only hires people "willing to work seven days a week".
Photo: Nico Laqua, co - founder of Corgi, holding a Corgi dog in the company's San Francisco office
Among his more than 40 employees, about 30 were once entrepreneurs. His welcome gift for new employees is a mattress in the office.
"I live in the office," Laqua said, believing that he is the most "hardcore" among his peers. This isn't a company requirement, but "two - thirds of the early employees have the same Corgi tattoo," he added.
Photo: Employees with the same Corgi tattoo
Laqua even regrets getting a degree from Columbia University, believing that the classroom didn't teach him how to solve social problems. "I've always wanted to do the most ambitious things and have the greatest impact," he said.
Emily Yuan, co - founder of Corgi, said frankly that her life is completely occupied by work, and the startup circle is still male - dominated. "I don't really care personally, but it's really disappointing to see so few women."
Jared Friedman, a partner at Y Combinator, said that the hard - working state of young founders in San Francisco today seems to take people back to the early days of the Internet when many people slept under their desks at companies like PayPal.
"I think this is actually a cycle," said Friedman, who participated in YC training in 2006. "And the potential of AI may be ten times greater than that of the Internet."
He pointed out that since 2015, the tech entrepreneurial culture had become more relaxed, and it was even fashionable to remotely run a company from a beach in Rio de Janeiro. But the rise of AI has reignited the optimism and sense of urgency in the tech industry, making founders feel that they are at a historical turning point.
"I completely understand those founders who are willing to put everything aside and fully commit," he said. "They believe that this moment cannot be missed."
04 Six Days a Week, 12 Hours a Day: The Daily Rhythm of the Silicon Valley AI Startup Circle
Luke Igel, 25, moved to San Francisco last October and founded Kino, a five - person startup focusing on AI video - editing software.
As an alumnus of Y Combinator, Igel generally follows the "996" work schedule that many of his peers adhere to, which means working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day and six days a week. However, Igel's schedule is slightly different. He works half - days on Saturdays and Sundays. His office is in a shared space filled with many MIT graduates.
Igel, from Chanhassen, Minnesota, said that AI is raising growth expectations, and investors hope that startups can achieve higher revenues at a faster pace.
Amogh Chaturvedi, 20, dropped out of Stanford after his freshman year. "Almost all my friends dropped out," he said. "Everyone went to start businesses."
Chaturvedi and two co - founders, also YC alumni, sold their first AI accounting software company for $100,000. Now they jointly lead Human Behavior, an AI product - analysis company founded just five months ago, which focuses on using AI to analyze user application behavior.
Their "office" is actually the living room of Chaturvedi's apartment. The three founders live here, with five desks and computers. The team occasionally plays basketball and pickleball and doesn't reject drinking, but they admit that they rarely have time to indulge. Chaturvedi said that while one should enjoy life in their 20s, for them, work itself is the fun.
Socializing is also related to entrepreneurship. For example, the "AGI House", rented by seven AI founders for $19,000 a month, often hosts "reading marathons". "You have to finish reading a whole book to attend the event," said Jeremy Nixon, 32, who founded an AI book - writing company and manages the AGI House. Last year, he read a 408 - page mechanical engineering textbook in one go.
This year, Y Combinator also launched an offline "AI Entrepreneurship Academy", which attracted 2,500 participants. The speakers included Elon Musk and Sam Altman of OpenAI. The post - event party was hosted by Cluely. Its CEO claimed to have been put on probation at Columbia University for developing an AI tool that could "cheat on everything", which was said to handle exams, interviews, and sales proposals.
Michelle Fang, 26, who plans events for early - stage founders at the venture - capital firm Headline, pointed out that many AI events don't serve