In my fifteen years of running a tech recruiting firm and speaking with countless founders at startups, I've seen a predictable pattern: the initial burst of excitement often gives way to a culture of unsustainable crunch. This isn't just anecdotal; it's a pervasive theme that separates teams that scale from those that fracture. Based on what I've learned from the most successful companies we partner with, here’s why the culture of 'crazy hours' is a strategic misstep.
AI engineers and startup employees are facing a new workplace reality: 80+ hour workweeks are becoming standard across the artificial intelligence industry. This trend affects tech professionals considering AI career moves or already working in the field who wonder if these demands are sustainable.
In this article, we'll explore how the race to achieve AGI is driving unsustainable work schedules at companies like Cognition, Lovable, and xAI. We'll examine the promise of generational wealth that keeps employees grinding through weekends, and reveal why extreme hours don't necessarily guarantee business success in the AI space.
The artificial intelligence industry is witnessing a dramatic shift in work expectations, with 80+ hour workweeks rapidly becoming the baseline requirement at many startups. This trend shows no signs of slowing as long as AI remains a hot sector. The intensity mirrors the controversial "996" work pattern (9am to 9pm, 6 days a week) that originated in Asian tech companies—a schedule previously rejected in American corporate culture and explicitly prohibited in European countries due to its association with employee burnout.
At companies like Cognition, the extreme work culture has reached new heights. CEO Scott Wu openly acknowledges that staff routinely work late into the night and through weekends at the office. The boundary between work and personal life has dissolved to such an extent that many employees have taken to literally living in their workplace. This lifestyle merges professional and personal spaces completely, creating an environment where employees are perpetually available and work becomes the dominant aspect of their existence.
Perhaps most telling is how AI startups now explicitly advertise their demanding cultures during the recruitment process. Cognition's leadership is unapologetic about what they call their "extreme performance culture," stating they are completely upfront about these expectations when hiring. Job listings from companies like Lovable directly mention requirements like "Long hours, high pace" and specify that candidates "must thrive under high urgency, with AGI timelines approaching." This transparency reaches alarming levels with companies like Icon, an ad maker that boldly states they "only hire the top 0.01% engineers with no life." Icon goes further, expecting employees to work all seven days of the week, challenging prospects with the question: "why do 6 [days of work] when you can do 7?"
Cognition stands out as perhaps the most transparent example of extreme work demands in the AI industry. CEO Scott Wu makes no apologies for what he explicitly calls an "extreme performance culture." Employees at Cognition routinely clock more than 80 hours weekly, with workweeks extending through weekends and late nights. The dedication has reached such levels that many team members have literally turned the office into their living quarters, blurring the line between work and personal life completely.
This grueling work pattern isn't limited to Cognition. Across the AI startup landscape, extended hours have become normalized and even celebrated. Lovable explicitly mentions "Long hours, high pace" in their job descriptions, specifically seeking candidates who "thrive under high urgency" due to what they describe as approaching AGI timelines.
The practice of overnight work sessions appears commonplace. Replit's CEO Amjad Masad proudly shared photos of his entire team working at midnight to ship a product. Similarly, CodeRabbit's development team was observed still actively shipping code at 2:30 AM from their San Francisco headquarters. At Elon Musk's xAI, engineer Zeeshan Pate reported that his team was "grinding in the office day and night" to meet deadlines.
Perhaps most extreme is Icon, an ad maker that publicly states they hire only the "top 0.01% engineers with no life." They not only expect seven-day workweeks but question the very logic of working just six days when employees could be working all seven.
Even established tech giants are embracing extensive work hours in their AI divisions. Google co-founder Sergey Brin told staff in Google's AI unit that "60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity." This statement essentially establishes a 60-hour workweek as the minimum expectation rather than the upper limit, signaling that even traditional tech companies are adopting startup-like intensity when it comes to AI development.
The extreme work culture in AI startups stems from a pervasive fear that there's a rapidly closing window to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Companies and their employees are operating on the premise that AGI could be achieved in mere months, creating an atmosphere of urgency that justifies demanding schedules. This perceived timeline creates tremendous pressure to maintain unsustainable work patterns, with many organizations explicitly referencing "AGI timelines approaching" in their job descriptions, as seen at companies like Lovable, which directly uses this reasoning to explain their expectations for high urgency and extended hours.
A powerful driver behind these brutal work cultures is the widespread conviction among AI professionals that achieving AGI first will be "game over" for competitors. The industry operates under the assumption that once AGI emerges, it will create a new, solidified status quo where the winning companies will dominate indefinitely. This belief stems from the notion that AGI can improve itself, creating an insurmountable advantage for whoever crosses the finish line first. With such high stakes, companies feel justified using all possible means—including extracting maximum labor from their workforce—to secure their position in this winner-takes-all race.
Perhaps most concerning is how the industry has embraced a "sprint" mentality for what may actually be a marathon. Work patterns originally intended to last for a few intense months are stretching into years with no clear end in sight. Despite nearly three years passing since ChatGPT's release, there are still no definitive signs that AGI is imminent. This disconnect between the perceived urgency and the reality of AGI development raises serious questions about sustainability. Employees who signed up for a short-term sprint are finding themselves trapped in an indefinite period of extreme work demands, with companies continuing to fuel this urgency despite the lack of concrete progress toward true AGI.
While AI startups often glorify extreme working hours as necessary for innovation, this approach comes with significant hidden costs that ultimately undermine business performance.
Contrary to popular belief, demanding excessively long hours from employees actually slows down work pace rather than accelerating it. When staff are consistently overworked, their cognitive function declines, leading to diminished output quality and quantity. The human brain simply cannot sustain peak performance under prolonged stress and fatigue. Studies have shown that productivity steeply declines after a certain number of hours.
"We once worked with a promising AI startup that was struggling to close senior candidates. Their technical challenges were exciting, but their offer acceptance rate was abysmal. After surveying declined candidates, we found a common thread: during interviews, engineers had spoken with burned-out team members who openly discussed their 70-hour weeks. The company wasn't losing candidates on salary or tech stack; they were losing them on culture. Once the leadership committed to a more sustainable pace, their hiring success transformed completely."
As burnout sets in, the physical toll becomes evident through increased sick leave. Employees who regularly work extreme hours develop compromised immune systems and stress-related illnesses, forcing them to take more sick days. This creates a counterproductive cycle where the very culture meant to increase output actually reduces available working hours through health-related absences.
Perhaps the most expensive hidden cost is the loss of valuable talent. When faced with unsustainable working conditions, employees inevitably seek positions offering better work-life balance. This turnover is particularly damaging in AI fields where specialized knowledge is difficult to replace.
Each departure represents significant lost investment in recruitment, training, and knowledge transfer. Additionally, constant turnover disrupts team dynamics and project continuity, further hampering productivity. Companies pushing extreme hours find themselves in a constant, costly cycle of hiring and training replacements rather than building stable, experienced teams.
Mandatory extended hours create an artificial barrier that automatically excludes valuable talent pools. Many highly qualified professionals have:
By enforcing extreme working hours, AI startups effectively limit their talent pool to those without significant external commitments. This self-imposed restriction prevents access to diverse perspectives and experiences that could drive innovation. The exclusionary nature of overwork culture means companies miss out on candidates who might bring fresh approaches precisely because they maintain balanced lives outside work.
The promise of generational wealth serves as a powerful motivator in AI startups, creating an environment where extreme work hours aren't just tolerated—they're embraced. This wealth potential creates a unique dynamic where both founders and employees willingly sacrifice work-life balance for potentially life-changing financial outcomes.
In today's AI industry, the prospect of earning $10M+ in compensation has become a realistic goal for many talented individuals. This possibility transforms the equation of work sacrifice dramatically. Many professionals are readily committing to grueling schedules of 80+ hours weekly and six-day workweeks, viewing it as a worthwhile trade-off when the payoff could be financial independence within just 1-3 years. The rapidly expanding AI sector has created unprecedented opportunities for wealth creation, making these extreme work patterns seem rational despite their personal costs.
The Windsurf IDE team exemplifies the wealth-creation potential driving this work culture. Just ten months after launching, this 40-person team was acquired by Google in a deal that generated enormous returns. The founders likely secured hundreds of millions in the transaction, while even regular engineers potentially walked away with $10M+ each. These real-world examples circulate throughout the industry, reinforcing the belief that extraordinary effort can lead to extraordinary compensation in remarkably short timeframes.
Founders stand to benefit most from this dynamic, with potential earnings far exceeding the already substantial $10M threshold for employees. This financial incentive creates a powerful motivation for founders to maximize team productivity at all costs. The economic rationale becomes clear: when hundreds of millions or even billions are at stake, pushing teams to work nearly continuously makes business sense to founders. This results in workplace cultures where employees are encouraged to dedicate almost every waking moment to work or work-related thinking, creating environments where extreme hours become normalized and expected.
In the AI startup ecosystem, the relentless push for extreme working hours shows no signs of abating. The fundamental economics and competitive dynamics of the industry continue to reinforce this high-pressure work culture.
The AI landscape is evolving at a breakneck pace, with technology advances happening in weeks rather than years. This compressed timeline means that competitive advantages gained through innovation have increasingly shorter lifespans. For startup founders, this reality creates immense pressure to ship products quickly and continuously iterate before rivals can catch up. When a breakthrough occurs, companies must capitalize immediately or risk watching others commercialize similar capabilities. This environment naturally pushes founders to view extended working hours as the most straightforward path to accelerating development cycles and securing market position.
Magic.dev offers a cautionary tale about the consequences of failing to maintain momentum. Despite raising an impressive $515 million and announcing a groundbreaking 100-million token context window a year ago, the company has watched its technological lead substantially diminish. Mainstream LLM providers like Google's Gemini (with 2 million tokens) and Claude (with 1 million tokens) have rapidly closed the gap. Magic.dev now faces a critical situation: if they don't release a public product soon, they risk losing their potential customer base entirely. This example resonates throughout the industry, reinforcing founders' fears that easing workplace demands could result in competitive extinction.
The fear of missing out (FOMO) has become a powerful cultural force across the AI sector. As some companies achieve breakthrough results through intense work schedules, others feel compelled to follow suit. The perception that competitors are outworking you creates immense psychological pressure to match or exceed their commitment. This industry-wide FOMO perpetuates the spread of extreme workweeks, as companies worry that adopting more moderate approaches might signal a lack of commitment to investors or result in technological irrelevance. The result is an ecosystem where very long working hours continue to proliferate as the expected norm rather than the exception.
In the race to dominate the AI landscape, many startups have embraced punishing work schedules. However, mounting evidence suggests that extreme hours don't necessarily translate to market success or sustainable business models.
Cognition has proudly touted its "extreme performance culture" as a competitive advantage in the AI space. The company has positioned its demanding work environment as necessary for breakthrough innovation. However, despite this intense approach, their flagship AI tool, Devin, shows concerning signs of limited market penetration. According to The Pragmatic Engineer 2025 survey, Devin was among the least-referenced AI tools by industry professionals. This disconnect between work intensity and actual market adoption raises serious questions about whether grueling schedules actually deliver proportionate business results.
Icon presents another cautionary tale in the extreme-hours narrative. Despite requiring seven-day work weeks from its staff—essentially eliminating any work-life balance—the company appears to be pivoting away from its high-growth ambitions. Reports indicate Icon is transitioning toward a traditional advertising agency model, a business approach rarely associated with the billion-dollar valuations that typically justify such intensive work demands. This shift suggests that their extreme work culture may not have produced the innovative breakthrough or market advantage necessary to sustain a high-growth trajectory.
These examples highlight a concerning pattern across the AI startup landscape: the investment of human capital through extreme hours often fails to correlate with groundbreaking business outcomes. While founders and investors might justify punishing schedules as necessary sacrifices for extraordinary results, the evidence increasingly suggests otherwise. The gap between intensive work demands and actual business performance raises fundamental questions about the sustainability and effectiveness of the extreme-hours approach.
Companies demanding extraordinary sacrifice from employees should be able to demonstrate extraordinary results—yet in many cases, these results remain elusive despite the human toll. This disconnect serves as an important warning sign for both investors evaluating AI startups and professionals considering roles at companies with extreme work cultures.
The extreme work culture permeating AI startups requires honest self-assessment before diving in. As these companies increasingly filter out applicants who resist very long work weeks, you must realistically evaluate whether such intensity aligns with your personal goals and needs. This evaluation isn't simply about work ethic but understanding your psychological and physical limits under sustained pressure.
Consider how you've historically responded to deadline pressure, whether you thrive or deteriorate during crunch periods, and if you have the support systems necessary to maintain well-being during extended high-stress periods. The decision to join an AI startup with a demanding work culture should be made with clear eyes about what you're committing to.
Working at cutting-edge AI startups offers undeniable career advantages. The accelerated learning, exposure to advanced technologies, and resume boost can compress years of professional development into months. However, these benefits come with significant health trade-offs that must be carefully weighed.
The burnout risk in these environments is substantial, potentially leading to:
What makes this calculation particularly challenging is that the "normal" work pattern may no longer exist across the tech industry. As extreme work hours become normalized, your career path options may increasingly involve choosing between different degrees of overwork rather than finding true work-life balance.
One often overlooked benefit of high-pressure environments is the deep professional bonds that form when teams overcome challenges together. These intense work settings can forge lasting connections that prove valuable throughout your career. Working closely with brilliant colleagues under demanding conditions creates a shared experience that strengthens professional networks.
These relationships often transcend the immediate workplace, creating industry connections that can:
While these relationships represent a significant career asset, they develop within the context of potentially unsustainable work practices. The challenge becomes maintaining these connections while protecting your well-being in an industry where extreme hours are increasingly the expectation rather than the exception.
Q: Is it true that most AI startups require working 60-80 hour weeks?
A: While a stereotype exists that all startups demand extreme hours, it's not a universal rule. Many early-stage AI startups operate with high intensity due to fierce competition and rapid innovation cycles. However, a growing number of founders are recognizing that sustainable pace is a smarter long-term strategy for retention and deep work, rejecting the toxic "crunch mode" culture. The requirement largely depends on the company's specific leadership and culture.
Q: What are the actual risks of working crazy hours at a startup?
A: The risks extend beyond simple fatigue. Chronically long hours significantly increase the risk of burnout—a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion officially recognized by the World Health Organization. Furthermore, studies have shown that productivity steeply declines after a certain number of hours, leading to more mistakes and less innovative output. It also contributes to higher employee turnover.
Q: How can I assess a startup's work-life balance before joining?
A: During your interviews, ask direct, open-ended questions:
Q: Are investors to blame for the culture of overwork in startups?
A: While some investors may push for aggressive timelines, the ultimate responsibility for company culture lies with founders. Savvy investors know that a burned-out team is a bad investment. Many top-tier VC firms now value strong, healthy cultures as a sign of effective leadership and long-term viability. Founders can and should set boundaries and build realistic plans that don't rely on heroics.
Q: Do any successful AI companies promote a healthy work-life balance?
A: Absolutely. Many highly successful tech companies have built their success on a culture of focus and sustainability, not just raw hours. Some of the most successful companies, like Basecamp, have famously championed the 40-hour work week. The key differentiator is an emphasis on delivering results through focused work rather than measuring value by time spent at a desk.
The narrative that success in the AI startup ecosystem is built on unsustainable crunch time is a dangerous myth. The real competitive advantage lies in fostering a culture of deep work, psychological safety, and intentional rest. By prioritizing sustainable pace over chaotic hours, founders don't just prevent burnout; they build sharper, more resilient teams capable of the focused innovation required to win the long game. The future of AI will be built by those who work smart, not just those who work until they break.
Travis Lindemoen is the Founder and Managing Director of Nexus IT Group, the sister company of Underdog.io. With over a decade of experience in the technology recruitment space, Travis has spent thousands of hours with founders and engineers at hundreds of AI startups. This unique vantage point has given him deep, firsthand insight into the cultures that drive innovation and those that lead to burnout. He is passionate about helping companies build sustainable, high-performing teams.
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