Building A Start-Up? LinkedIn Founder Says 'No Weekends, No 9-to-5 Work'

Just when the debate over work life balance or toxic work culture fading into silence, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has reopened the old chapter as he narrated the early days of his start-up. While giving the reality check about balanced life to aspiring entrepreneurs, Hoffman said that the business owners have to sacrifice things like enjoying weekends if they want to build a successful company.

The LinkedIn founder, in a 2024 podcast doing rounds on social media these days, cited his own example to explain the scenario. “When we started LinkedIn, we started with people who had families, so we said sure they go home, have dinner with your family, then after your dinner with your family, open up your laptop and get back into the shared work experience and keep working,” he said.

According to Hoffman, work like balance is not the start-up game. However, the interviewer asked him that the absence of work life balance might be considered harsh today. And Hoffman responded to this statement, saying people who have such viewpoints can’t understand how start-ups really work because running a new business requires full dedication.

The CEO said that joining a start-up is a voluntary choice; it’s not that everyone has to work for new-age companies. He explained two situations where a person can maintain work-life balance while building a start-up: First, when the start-up is very small and there is not real competition. Second, when no one can challenge the business due to its stronghold in the market.  

Besides LinkedIn, Hoffman also cited an example of PayPal. He revealed that the PayPal management started serving dinner at the office so that employees can work instead of going home.

Work Life Balance Debate

India's work culture often makes headlines, and not always for the best reasons. In India, the debate sparked over a year ago by Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy's call for a 70-hour workweek showed no signs of simmering down. Many industry leaders like Mohandai Pai, Harsh Mariwala, Harsh Goenka, Rajiv Bajaj, and others weighed in.

A oung techie's Reddit post garnered eyeballs where he talked about his company's "toxic 15-hour shift" work culture. Accusing one of the company’s co-founders, also the tech lead, of verbal abuse and humiliation the techie also shared that the mistreatment left him in tears during a Google Meet session.

Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram also criticised this culture on social media and said, "Working longer is meaningless, focus should be on efficiency. Daily life is as it is a struggle, battling  inefficient & substandard infrastructure & amenities."

More importantly, a report by YourDOST, a mental health startup, revealed that those in the initial stage of their entrepreneurial journey have higher levels of imposter syndrome due to increased pressure and uncertainties. 

Earlier in 2024, India lost another two startup founders, Rohan Malhotra and Ambareesh Murthy due to cardiac arrest.