The Startup Standard: Why "996" is Just a New Name for an Old Garage Grind

The term "996" has stormed the modern startup workplace conversation, presented as a radical new standard for professional dedication. This schedule—9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week—is often depicted as the hallmark of today's hyper-competitive tech industry. But to frame this as a recent phenomenon, or even a simple rebranding of Wall Street's notorious work ethic, is to miss the fundamental truth of entrepreneurship. Long before "996" became a buzzword, this level of intense commitment was the default, unwritten rule for startups. For decades, founders and their first hires have been living this reality not as a corporate mandate, but as a basic requirement for survival.

The "996" craze is not the invention of a new hustle; it's just the modern branding for the all-in ethos that has always fueled the startup engine.

The Myth of the New Grind: It's Always Been This Way

Before there were venture capital-backed unicorns, there were garages, basements, and dorm rooms where the blueprint for the modern startup was forged. The mythology of Silicon Valley is built on stories of relentless work: Bill Gates and Paul Allen famously pulling all-nighters to write code for Microsoft, or Steve Jobs pushing his team at Apple to deliver revolutionary products against impossible deadlines. This was not a 40-hour workweek. It was a "work-until-it's-done" mentality, driven by the existential threat that if they didn't, the company would cease to exist. For a startup, the grind is not about climbing a pre-existing corporate ladder, as it is in investment banking. It's about building the ladder, the rungs, and the factory that produces the wood, all at the same time. The pressure is not from a managing director, but from the market itself, from the dwindling cash in the bank, and from the burning need to turn an idea into a viable product before a competitor does. In this environment, long hours are not a choice; they are the price of entry.

This has been the case from the pioneers of the personal computer to the architects of the dot-com boom and the developers of the app economy.

A Different Breed of Hustle: Passion, Peril, and Pizza Boxes

While the hours logged by a startup employee and a junior investment banker might look similar on a timesheet, their motivations and cultures are often worlds apart. The Wall Street grind has historically been a structured rite of passage—a transactional exchange of time for immense financial reward and institutional prestige. It is a grueling but well-trodden path within an established system. The startup grind, by contrast, is typically more chaotic, mission-driven, and personal. It's fueled by a belief in the product, the allure of equity, and a sense of shared ownership in creating something from nothing. The reward is not just a year-end bonus but the potential for a world-changing innovation and the creation of personal wealth on a scale that feels more tangible and self-directed.

This distinction is crucial: one is a hustle to ascend within a system, the other is a hustle to build the system itself.

The Rebranding Cycle: From Garage Ethos to "996"

This brings us to the cyclical nature of how we talk about work, which closely mirrors the fads in health and wellness. Diets like Atkins, Paleo, and Keto, for instance, have all found popularity at different times. While each has its own specific rules and scientific justifications, they are all fundamentally variations on the same core principle of carbohydrate restriction.

They are repackaged for a new generation, with new branding and new celebrity endorsements.

In the same way, the raw, unglamorous, pizza-fueled work ethic of the original garage startup is the foundational concept. Wall Street's "9-to-1, 7 days a week" was a corporate version of this intensity. Now, "996" is the latest iteration, packaged for the global tech scene with a catchy, numerical name. The core ingredient—an enormous investment of time as a prerequisite for extraordinary success—remains unchanged. What's new is the terminology and the scale of the public debate it has ignited. Ultimately, the conversation around "996" is valuable, as it shines a mainstream light on the sustainability of such intense work cultures. But it's essential to recognize that this is not a new invention. It is the modern label for the demanding, high-stakes reality that has always been the engine of innovation in the startup world.

The hustle is perennial; it just gets a new name with every generation that reinvents it.