Indian-American CEO Defends 84-Hour Workweek, Receives Death Threats

Greptile founder and San Francisco-based AI startup promoter, Daksh Gupta, ignited an intense debate by opening the lid on the challenging culture of the firm for work. Gupta said his employees are expected to work 84-hour weeks with long hours straddling between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. and sometimes even beyond. The tweet, aiming to be transparent about the recruitment process, spread like wildfire in minutes and created a storm of mixed reactions-from applications for jobs to death threats.

Baring Greptile’s High Stress Culture

Gupta shared on a tweet that Greptile offers no work-life balance. “I have recently started telling all my applicants in the first round of interviews that at Greptile, there is no work-life balance. Typical workdays typically start at 9 am.”. and close at 11 p.m., often later, and we work Saturdays, sometimes also Sundays,” he said. He admitted that he initially hesitated about being so frank, but he has gotten to the point where he feels convincing that “transparency is good, and I’d much rather people know this from the get-go rather than find out on their first day.”

The tweet went viral within hours with over 1.6 million views and thousands of comments. Anger over the grueling hours poured out on social media, and many of them condemned the young CEO for taking advantage of his workers. Some commented on how such a work culture would be inefficient, such as one user asking, “Why would you want a candidate to work for you when you ask him or her to work twice as hard without double the pay?” Another commenter brought into question productivity, writing, “What makes you think that’s going to get your company ahead from just giving people the weekends off to produce more quality in less hours?”

CEO Receives Death Threats, Sees Flood of Job Applications

Response to Gupta’s tweet was fierce. In a second post, Gupta said that an inbox he had found flooded with 20% of death threats and 80% of job applications said Gupta in his follow-up “Now that this is on the front page of Reddit and my inbox is 20% death threats and 80% job applications, here’s a follow-up,” Gupta tweeted. He asked to address critics about the reality of the tech industry, especially for employees outside of the US.

Defending the Demanding Culture

Gupta also argued that high-level pressure was needed at the outset of a startup. According to him, although this method is not sustainable for the longer term, it is essential to build up the company in its formative stage. Gupta also defended the culture by stating that it is best for people who thrive in such pressure. He bluntly stated, “The people that work here had 6-fig 20 hr/week jobs before this, and can go back to them any time,” noting that Greptile was in an intense work phase.

Gupta Attempts to Head Off Backlash, Clarifies Approach

Gupta took this opportunity to clarify some of the racial backlash regarding his management style, having said, “A lot of Indian hate coming from this post, so I want to clarify that I am like this not because I’m Indian but because I’m San Franciscan.” He clarified that his approach to work culture was due to his San Francisco fast-paced tech industry upbringing rather than what is culturally supposed to come with his Indian heritage.

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