The CEO of a crypto startup cofounded by Sam Altman thinks his company’s mission is so important that employees should care about their work and nothing else.
Tools for Humanity CEO Alex Blania reportedly said during a staff meeting in January that any employee who thought differently had no place at the company.
“We will neither fail, nor will we be an average outcome, and that’s what we want, and that’s all I care about every day and all you should care about every day, and nothing else should matter,” he said in a recording reviewed by Business Insider. “If you should care about something else, and if you want something else, you should just not be here. It’s as simple as that.”
In a slide deck reportedly displayed at the company’s now-former office in San Francisco, an outline of blunt work values was also justified because of the company’s ambitious mission.
“We are very (very) hardworking. We believe this is a once in a lifetime project and that success is important for humanity,” one of the slides read, according to a video reviewed by Business Insider. “Therefore, we work weekends, we’re always on call, and we push as hard as our circumstances allow us to. As a result we defy the odds, get to escape velocity, and succeed on the mission.”
Other values include that the company has no time for “slowness and comfort,” and that employees shouldn’t worry about hurting one another’s feelings, according to Business Insider.
Tools for Humanity chief product officer Tiago Sada defended the company’s intense work culture in a Thursday X post, saying the allegations found in Business Insider’s reporting are “absolutely correct,” and promoted the company’s open positions.
“The organization’s transparency about its values and operating principles has resulted in building a team that is passionate and focused on its increasingly urgent mission of ensuring every human benefits from the age of AI,” a Tools for Humanity spokesperson said in a statement to Fortune.
Founded in 2019 by Blania and Altman, Tools for Humanity has already scanned about 13 million people’s irises using thousands of shiny, metallic orbs worldwide in exchange for cryptocurrency. The company, which was built to “ensure a more just economic system,” according to its LinkedIn page, is the developer behind World, a cryptocurrency project that aims to provide “proof of personhood” in part to offset the pervasive spread of AI deepfakes. The company’s cryptocurrency, WLD, was not available in the U.S. when the company first launched in 2023, but is available for participants as of April.
Tools for Humanity’s candidness takes the usual hardcore Silicon Valley startup culture to the next level, yet it also may fit into the wave of workaholism sweeping tech. Recently, more startups have adopted the Chinese-imported work culture of 996—or working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week—especially in the fast-moving AI space. Some companies are even adding 996 clauses into employment contracts or transparently telling applicants to expect 70-hour in-person workweeks.
Larger companies have not been so transparent, yet some in the tech sector have also recently signaled a shift in employee expectations—especially as AI threatens to replace workers in some positions. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said earlier this year that the increased adoption of AI means the company “will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today.”
While larger companies may mince words, Blania apparently did not hold back. Any other pursuit, apart from the company’s mission, is a distraction, including DEI and politics, he said during the employee gathering.
“We just care about, how can we achieve the mission through merit, performance, and excellence?” he said.
