Summary of this article
The Indian-origin founder of San Francisco-based AI startup Greptile, Daksh Gupta, is once again in the spotlight - and for reasons that are as polarising as before.
Known for advocating 14-hour workdays, Gupta recently announced fresh job openings at his company with eye-popping salaries. But there’s a catch.
Daksh Gupta, the Indian-origin entrepreneur who found himself in various headlines last year after championing 14-hour workdays, has doubled down on his views. The San Francisco-based founder and CEO of artificial intelligence (AI) startup Greptile has announced fresh job openings that come with eye-popping salaries, but also an unforgiving work culture.
Entry-level employees at Greptile can expect base salaries between $140,000 and $180,000 (around Rs 1.2 to 1.5 crore) annually, along with equity worth as much as $180,000 a year.
For professionals with more than seven years of experience, the base salary jumps to $240,000–270,000. The package also includes perks such as free meals, transport, healthcare cover, and 401 (k) contribution matches.
But there's a catch: the company follows what Gupta calls a "9-9-6" rule which means working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. Remote work is not an option, with all staff required at the San Francisco office.
In an interview with The San Francisco Standard, Gupta described the prevailing work ethos in Silicon Valley's AI boom as one of discipline, not indulgence. "The current vibe is no drinking, no drugs, 9-9-6, lift heavy, run far, marry early, track sleep, eat steak and eggs," he said. The publication dubbed him "the poster child of the AI boom's grindcore culture."
This is not the first time Gupta has defended long hours. Speaking to NBC last year, he compared Greptile's pace of work to a "rocket launch", arguing that the first years of a startup require extreme commitment. "If you care about work-life balance, I think that's great. There's plenty of places that operate that way and they're very successful," he had said then.
Gupta, a Georgia Tech graduate, co-founded Greptile in 2022 with Soohoon Choi and Vaishant Kameswaran. The Y-Combinator-backed company has raised $5.3 million so far.
In an interview with Mint last year, Gupta explained his logic behind the advocacy for grueling working hours. Such working hours, according to him, are not prescriptive forever but necessary to reach what he described as "escape velocity." He shared that once he turned down an offer from Amazon to pursue entrepreneurship, backed partly by an earlier investment from a billionaire.
While Gupta insists that many young engineers actively seek such work intensity, social media has criticised such a hustle culture. Critics say it glorifies burnout, while supporters argue it reflects the cut-throat reality of building in AI, where only one or two players eventually dominate.
