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.
Why does everything have to be a fucking billion Dollar startup? Why can’t you just provide a product or service that people actually need and simply live off that? If it runs well, you employ more people with a fair salary, who then pay taxes so everyone gets to be happy. I fucking hate this timeline.