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.

  • RejZoR@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    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
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      1 day ago

      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
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        1 day ago

        “I work this hard, everyone should work this hard!” – someone has no idea what hard work is.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          1 day ago

          Oh oh oh, they have one for this!

          “HaRd WoRk DoEs NoT EqUaL VaLuAbLe WoRk!!”

          • cecilkorik@lemmy.ca
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            1 day ago

            “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!”

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    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
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      19 hours ago

      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.

  • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    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.

  • Morganica@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    Yeah, I’d work 995 if…

    1. I was being paid twice as much as I am now
    2. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided.
    3. You have someone who can do all my chores and errands before I get home.

    There’s not enough money you could give me could make up for having Saturday off.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    19 hours ago

    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.

  • grue@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    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
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    1 day ago

    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
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    1 day ago

    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!