This Investor Only Backs Startups Under One Grueling Condition

A prominent investor says he will only back startups whose staff members are in the office six days a week. Anything less than that is a recipe for failure in the AI era, he says.

Jason Lemkin, a longtime software investor, laid out his new standard on a recent episode of the 20VC podcast. He said he is not interested in companies that treat the office as optional.

“I want small, high-paid teams that work in the office over six days a week,” he said on the podcast. “I’m not interested in investing in anything else — I’m just not interested. And it’s not because I don’t have empathy; it’s because they’re going to fail.”

The bar is high. In Lemkin’s view, startups that treat in-person work as the default mode of work will move faster and outcompete rivals that rely on hybrid or remote arrangements.

Lemkin acknowledged that remote work proved viable during the pandemic. But he also added that the window for that model of work is closing as AI raises the bar for output.

“The companies we want to invest in, and this is a very narrow set of the universe, they’re not hiring folks that want to work 20 hours a week from home,” Lemkin said.

Lemkin framed the work-from-home debate as less of a fight over work-life balance and more as a test of ambition. From his perspective, the real question is whether employees want to build formidable companies in the AI era — and what they are willing to sacrifice for that goal.

He said that the companies that succeed will be those with small, well-paid teams that are constantly collaborating, not startups with employees working from home.

“Today, it is how you build a winner,” Lemkin said. “You can’t win in your marketplace if people are working 20 hours a week. You can’t win.”

The benefits of a six-day workweek

For those willing to sign up to work six days a week, Lemkin emphasized the rewards. He said that employees who fully embrace high-growth startup culture have a shot at building a nine-figure company. Meanwhile, he suggests that people who prioritize predictability and shorter hours are better off at companies that match those expectations.

Lemkin’s point of view aligns with a broader recalibration of work norms in the AI era. Last year, multiple Bay Area startups reported following China’s infamous “996 work schedule,” where employees worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. China’s Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security ruled the 996 work culture illegal in 2021, but enforcement of the ban has been uneven. Now Silicon Valley is adopting the schedule as its standard.

Lemkin isn’t the only executive to push for longer working hours. Google cofounder Sergey Brin told staff last year that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity.”