996 Works — Until You Need to Start Hiring Experience

996 Works Until It Doesn’t

996 culture, working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week is almost now a rite of passage for AI startups. In the beginning, it feels like magic. Everyone is all in. Energy is contagious. Decisions are fast. Progress feels visible by the hour.

And for a while, it works.

Why 996 Works in the Beginning

In the earliest stages of a company, 996 can feel like an advantage. You move fast because you have to. There’s no red tape, no middle management, and no one watching the clock. You’re building from zero, and momentum is the only thing that matters.

The product is raw, the team is small, and the pressure is real. Success is measured by survival. You win by sheer effort and intensity.

Those moments are where belief is built. Everyone feels ownership. Every hour matters. The grind becomes a shared language.

996 works beautifully when a company is running on adrenaline and instinct. When the mission is existential and the team is made up of twenty-somethings with minimal obligations, it can even feel exhilarating.

But it’s not sustainable. And it’s not scalable.

When Maturity Changes the Equation

Eventually, the startup begins to grow up. You raise more capital, add headcount, and build structure. Customers expect reliability, not heroics. The chaos that once fueled you becomes friction.

That’s when the culture that got you here starts working against you.

You need to hire leaders. Not more hands, but people who have built and managed scale before. A VP of Sales who can turn individual effort into predictable revenue. A Head of Engineering who builds systems so the same problem isn’t solved twice. A CFO who replaces adrenaline with accountability.

These people bring a different kind of value, one that comes from experience, perspective, and pattern recognition. They’ve built teams, weathered crises, and learned that efficiency beats intensity every time.

And that’s where 996 starts to fail.

996 Becomes a Hiring Problem

996 doesn’t just burn people out. It filters them out.

The culture that once celebrated late nights and total devotion now becomes your biggest hiring liability. Because the people you need next, the experienced scalers who have families, kids, or aging parents, won’t sign up for it.

They’re not less ambitious. They’re calibrated differently.

They’ve learned how to get more done in fewer hours. They know that rest produces clarity, that boundaries protect judgment, and that real leadership isn’t about endurance, it’s about direction.

A 996 company sends a signal, even if it’s unintentional: we value effort over efficiency. And for seasoned leaders, that signal is enough to pass.

When a Startup Outgrows Its Own Work Ethic

996 is about speed. Leadership is about scale.

At a certain point, the behaviors that once drove success become the very things that prevent it. Endless hours stop being a sign of passion and start being a sign of poor design.

996 can build a product. But it can’t build a company.

You can’t recruit the kind of leaders who build sustainable organizations into a culture that runs on exhaustion. They won’t sacrifice family dinners for late-night meetings. They won’t trade stability for chaos. And they shouldn’t have to.

The Future of Sustainable Ambition

996 might get you to product-market fit. But after that, it becomes an anchor.

Mature organizations require balance structure that allows people to do their best work without burning out. The startups that learn this early will win the next war for talent.

Because the next era of success won’t be about who can work the hardest. It will be about who can create the conditions where smart, experienced people actually want to work.

996 can scale effort. But only leadership can scale wisdom.

And that’s the difference between building fast and building something that lasts.