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Key Takeaways Jason Lemkin, a longtime software investor, says he is not interested in investing in startups that allow remote or hybrid work.
Lemkin is looking to back startups that require an in-office presence six days a week.
He says the companies that succeed will be those with small teams that collaborate in-person constantly.
A prominent investor says he will only back startups whose staff members are in the office six days a week. Anything less than that is a recipe for failure in the AI era, he says.
Jason Lemkin, a longtime software investor, laid out his new standard on a recent episode of the 20VC podcast. He said he is not interested in companies that treat the office as optional.
“I want small, high-paid teams that work in the office over six days a week,” he said on the podcast. “I’m not interested in investing in anything else — I’m just not interested. And it’s not because I don’t have empathy; it’s because they’re going to fail.”
The bar is high. In Lemkin’s view, startups that treat in-person work as the default mode of work will move faster and outcompete rivals that rely on hybrid or remote arrangements.
Lemkin acknowledged that remote work proved viable during the pandemic. But he also added that the window for that model of work is closing as AI raises the bar for output.
“The companies we want to invest in, and this is a very narrow set of the universe, they’re not hiring folks that want to work 20 hours a week from home,” Lemkin said.
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