Employees at one New York City startup are being offered what sounds like a dream deal: a rent stipend of up to $1,500 a month, meals covered, free gym memberships, and salaries that can reach as high as $350,000 per year. But to cash in on those perks, workers must agree to work 70 hours per week, in person, Fortune says.
Rilla, an AI transcription startup based in Long Island City, is behind the controversial offer source. Founded by Sebastian Jimenez in 2019, the company wants employees to live close to the office and spend nearly all their waking hours there. According to Fortune, the rent stipend is only available to those who live within 10 to 15 minutes of the office and commit to the company's high-demand culture.
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‘If You Live 30 Minutes Away, That's an Hour a Day You Could Be Working'
Jimenez believes long hours are the key to success and efficiency. "One of our core principles is to maximize productive time. If you live 30 minutes away from the office, that's an hour a day that you could be working," he told Fortune. He lives just five minutes from the office himself and expects employees to adopt similar habits.
Beyond the rent stipend and the other benefits, Rilla offers compensation that exceeds typical startup levels, Fortune says. Product designers can earn between $110,000 and $230,000, engineers up to $300,000, and sales professionals average around $350,000 annually, according to Jimenez.
So far, only about a dozen of Rilla's roughly 80 employees have accepted the rent stipend offer, despite the steep cost of living in New York City, Fortune reports. For many, the appeal is obvious as median rent in the city climbed 5.6% in the past year alone, reaching $3,397, according to data from Realtor.com.
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This Startup Doesn't Believe in Work-Life Balance and Says So Up Front
Rilla runs on a "996" calendar: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, with occasional Sunday off-sites as well. According to Fortune, new hires must read a "culture deck" before joining and are warned directly in job postings not to apply unless they're excited about working 70 hours a week, in person.
Jimenez is transparent about who thrives at Rilla. He says the company mostly hires former startup founders or Division 1 collegiate athletes who are already used to extreme performance expectations. "This is by no means the way to run every startup," Jimenez told Fortune. "This is just the way it works for us."
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Rilla Isn't Alone in Raising the Bar for Employee Output
The push for higher productivity isn’t isolated to Rilla. A Microsoft report found a 16% increase in meetings scheduled after 8 p.m. and nearly 30% of employees checking email after 10 p.m. According to Entrepreneur, Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently told employees that 60-hour workweeks represent a productivity "sweet spot."
Rilla's offer may seem extreme, but it might be a signal of where parts of the industry are heading. The perks are real, the pay is high, and the expectations are spelled out from the start. For some, that's the dream, while for others, it's a warning label.
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