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I think it follows from Brian's point that only founders may ever put in that much work, maybe very early employees; as he said, the trick is to be painting your own house...

Having said that, I completely agree that long hours are overrated and maybe unhealthy. Burnout will follow. Everyone has to recover. Such long stints can only be kept up for so long!

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Is that true? I avoided ever joining startups because I assumed everyone worked 60 hours every week.

To an extent, yes.

However, I would say typical early stage startup work is 55 hours/week.

Basically 10 hours day through the week, and a couple hours on the weekend.

What's your experience on the average workweek for mid/later stage startups?

Again, n=1 but I've experienced and have friends who have experienced around 50 hours/week for mid/later stage startups.

The stress is lower because you usually have more cash flow or significant rounds that make the work more enjoyable and you have a better comfort of working overall.

Having been based in various co working spaces where many startups work from I can definitely say most work regular work weeks!

As the other reply says, usually you find people doing longer hours in a few selected periods of a startups life. E.g. First MVP, first big client... crunch time!

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