{"id":1368,"date":"2026-08-01T12:48:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=1368"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:48:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:48:34","slug":"deepseek-founder-liang-wenfeng-says-his-workers-dont-do-overtime-or-even-have-kpis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=1368","title":{"rendered":"DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng says his workers don&#8217;t do overtime or even have KPIs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2196672039_88f134.jpg?w=2048\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In just three years, DeepSeek has gone from an unknown startup to a $60 billion AI powerhouse. The ChatGPT rival has had around 173 million downloads since it launched to the public in January 2025. And its founder Liang Wenfeng says he did it all without a single KPI or late-night shifts from his team.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe generally don\u2019t work overtime,\u201d Liang revealed in a nearly four-hour discussion session with staff, obtained and transcribed by <em>Tencent Technology<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the world\u2019s richest AI founder explained that there are two reasons for his laid-back approach: \u201cFirst, research needs a relaxed environment; if you push too hard, you can\u2019t do research. Second, we\u2019re very focused, which means we do very few things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not just the working hours that are relaxed at DeepSeek. There\u2019s apparently no rigid hierarchy handing down orders, no rulebook employees are expected to follow, and no strict written end goal that workers need to adhere to daily. Even how they manage half of their working days is up to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe don\u2019t really have an organization\u2014we\u2019re driven by a vision, organized by a vision,\u201d Liang, who has a $37.9 billion net worth, added. \u201cThat vision isn\u2019t even written down. We\u2019ve never written anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Employees aren\u2019t even given monthly targets to hit, and Wenfeng maintains that he\u2019s led by their consensus. \u201cNo one manages them. No KPIs,\u201d he said, before adding that they\u2019re only told what to do for half of their workday. \u201cWe hope \u2018formal work\u2019 doesn\u2019t take more than half of an employee\u2019s time. The other half is unallocated. They can do whatever they want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a strikingly loose setup for a company sitting at the center of China\u2019s AI ambitions\u2014not least because the country has a famously tough working culture.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">China\u2019s grueling 996 culture has become a badge of honor in tech\u2014DeepSeek is the exception, not the rule<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">China\u2019s 996 work schedule\u2014that is, working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week\u2014was outlawed in 2021. But instead of going away, it\u2019s become a badge of honor among tech founders.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The habit runs deep in Chinese tech. E-commerce giant Alibaba, social media titan Tencent, and Alibaba rival JD.com have all leaned on 996 as part of their success story, often crediting their rise, in part, to the long hours logged by passionate employees. Alibaba founder Jack Ma went as far as calling it a \u201cgreat blessing\u201d in a 2019 essay, framing the grind as a necessary ingredient in the company\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some young Chinese have even left professional careers for lower-paying manual labor to escape the country\u2019s tough office culture. The surging youth unemployment rate suggests others are opting out entirely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But bosses aren\u2019t taking note.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Entrepreneurs have been taking to LinkedIn and claiming that the only way to succeed in the current climate is by copying China\u2019s old 996 model. Harry Stebbings, founder of the 20VC fund, ignited the debate last year when he said Silicon Valley had \u201cturned up the intensity,\u201d and European founders needed to take notice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c7 days a week is the required velocity to win right now. There is no room for slip-up,\u201d Stebbings wrote on LinkedIn. \u201cYou aren\u2019t competing against a random company in Germany etc but the best in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cForget 9 to 5, 996 is the new startup standard,\u201d Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures, echoed on the networking platform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBack in 2018, Michael Moritz introduced the West to China\u2019s \u2018996\u2019 work schedule\u2026At the time, the piece was controversial. Now? That same schedule has quietly become the norm across tech,\u201d Mignot added. \u201cAnd founders are no longer apologizing for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some tech companies are reportedly even looking into adding 996 clauses in employment contracts\u2014essentially forcing new hires to sign up to 72-hour weeks to help them win the AI race.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet, betting on a relaxed culture is propelling DeepSeek to the front of that same race. While Liang insists his company is run by \u201ca bunch of very ordinary people,\u201d it\u2019s clear that his management stance is anything but.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#DeepSeek #founder #Liang #Wenfeng #workers #dont #overtime #KPIs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In just three years, DeepSeek &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[173,2676,2677,1273,2268,1149,2492,2678,669,2684,2681,2679,1580,2683,771,385,2680,2682,2497,530],"class_list":["post-1368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-china","tag-company-culture","tag-corporate-culture","tag-deepseek","tag-dont","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-flexible-work","tag-founder","tag-kpis","tag-liang","tag-management","tag-management-advice","tag-overtime","tag-silicon-valley","tag-tech","tag-well-being","tag-wenfeng","tag-work-life-balance","tag-workers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - 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