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.
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.