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Tech Bro 2.0 Wrapped: The final report on the new breed of bro

We asked male founders 50 questions about their lives. Here are their obsessions, ambitions, and anxieties — in their own words.

A duotone collage features a young man's head with a tennis headband, an open book, a retro microphone, wireless earbuds, a smart ring, and abstract tubular shapes on a grid background.
Your field guide to the books, gadgets, and fears shaping the modern tech bro. | Source: Photo illustration by The Standard. Treatment by James Marshall

To report The Standard’s Tech Bro 2.0 package, we spoke to nearly two dozen founders, asking each of them more than 50 questions about their lifestyles, relationships, and worldview. At the end of our conversations, many commented that we know them better than their friends do. 

Inside the lives of Silicon Valley’s young hustlers

As journalists, it’s against our nature to gatekeep. So here is Tech Bro 2.0 Wrapped, with all the finer details from our coverage. Consider it your definitive cheat sheet to tech bro culture in 2025.

Who is a tech bro anyway?

“They watch “TPBN.” That’s my de facto definition.” 
— Kian Sadeghi, 25, CEO of Nucleus Genomics

“He’s probably slightly autistic.” 
— Eric Zhu, 18, CEO of Sperm Racing

“You certainly have to live in SF, and you have to have tech be a pretty big part of your personality. And you probably have to wear an Oura ring.” 
— Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, 24, CEO of Artisan

“Being a tech bro is about working in technology, but it’s also about playing these subtle status games, like being in great shape, like having a crazy number of Twitter followers, like hosting parties that have a good ratio of men and women.” 
— Zach Dive, 26, cofounder of Adam

What’s the tech bro uniform?

A blue shirt, a ring, blue jeans, a black cap with white text, and a blue short-sleeve shirt are arranged side by side on a neon grid background.
Nothing says you’ve “made it” as an early-stage founder like an Arc’teryx jacket branded with your startup’s logo, the tech bros said.

What are your favorite apps?

Icons for the apps X, LinkedIn, ChatGPT, BeReal, Worldcoin, Uncircle, and 8kun are shown in a row over a blue grid background.
A small minority of tech bros said they limit their screen time. Most said being chronically online is part of the job.

What podcasts do you listen to?

Black spheres with a grid pattern float against a glowing blue net background, interspersed with logos of various podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience and TBPN.
“TBPN,” a talk show hosted every weekday by John Coogan and Jordi Hays, was the most popular podcast cited among the tech bros.

What’s on your reading list?

Seven books—Zero to One, The Wealth of Nations, Atlas Shrugged, Meditations, Endurance, The Book, and Growth Handbook—are floating among blue spheres and a glowing grid.
PayPal and Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel’s ”Zero to One” was the most popular book among the tech bros.

Best tech bro slang?

“Clanker”: A slur for AI and robots. As in: “Get these filthy clankers off the streets.”

“Ngmi”: Short for “Not gonna make it.” As in: “If your startup isn’t based in San Francisco, ngmi.” 

“Skill issue”: A dismissive phrase used to suggest that someone’s failure or frustration is due to their lack of ability rather than external factors. As in: “You can’t bike up Hawk Hill? Skill issue.”

What’s your work schedule?

“I wake up at 8:30 a.m. I start working at 9:00 a.m. I stop working at 1:00 a.m., and I go to bed at 1:15 a.m. I do that every day.”
— Max Marchione, 25, cofounder of Superpower

“I’m 996; most of the Delve team is. Personally, I’m somewhat active on Sundays. We’re a super young, hungry, and passionate team.”
— Karun Kaushik, 21, CEO of Delve

“996 is pretty much the gist of things. Obviously we can’t be all completely off, but it’s six days very, very intense, and one day to take it easy.” 
— Zach Dive, 26, cofounder of Adam

Best productivity hack?

A man’s head with a headband, a vape device, a ZYN nicotine pouch can, and a lowercase “gl” logo float over a blue grid background.
The Neurode headband is meant to track and treat ADHD symptoms. Wearing it for 20 minutes a day is said to balance and boost brain function.

What do you do for fun?

“I like going on drives to Treasure Island, Grizzly Peak, Pacifica, or past the Golden Gate Bridge.”
— Karun Kaushik, 21, CEO of Delve

“I like food. I like architecture. I love skiing, but I don’t have time for it anymore.”
— Max Marchione, 25, cofounder of Superpower

“I do jiu-jitsu and sometimes take a cheeky morning swim at Chrissy Field.” 
— Zach Dive, 26, cofounder of Adam

Do you go to Burning Man?

“I won’t go to Burning Man until I’m a billionaire. If there’s bad weather or anything else comes up, I need to be able to get a helicopter out.” 
— Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, 24, CEO of Artisan 

Where do you go on a (rare) night out?

Which company would you want to work at if you weren’t building your startup? 

Blue, grid-like waves with floating dark spheres and white labels displaying the names of AI companies: OpenAI, Anthropic, Prenuvo, Palantir, Anduril, Meta, and Safe Superintelligence Inc.
Just one of the 20 tech bros mentioned a Big Tech classic (Meta). Many said OpenAI and Anthropic.

Who is your tech idol? 

Seven men are arranged in front of a glowing grid background; one wears a SpaceX hoodie, another sunglasses, and the rest are dressed in formal or casual attire.
The most common answers: Mark Zuckerberg, Palmer Luckey, Peter Thiel, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Shayne Coplan, Larry Ellison. No love for Sam Altman!

What’s the biggest challenge facing the world? 

Political polarization: “There seems to be a big collapse in our ability to listen to different viewpoints, mainly because of social media. No one listens to anything across the aisle anymore.”
— Kian Sadeghi, 25, CEO of Nucleus Genomics

Bioweapons: “I’m 90% sure if I wanted to create a bioweapon that wiped out the entirety of the U.S., I could do it — which is crazy, because I don’t have that many means. It just takes someone who is moderately smart with malicious intent to introduce something that is very dangerous.” 
— Max Marchione, 25, cofounder of Superpower

Loneliness: “Just looking at SF, I do notice there’s this loneliness epidemic. I think that people are in this big city, with a lot of people, yet somehow still very lonely.” 
— David Yue, 24, cofounder of Accordance 

What are your thoughts on the arrival of AGI? 

“This is the last chance to build generational wealth. You need to make money now, before you become a part of the permanent underclass.” 
— Sheridan Clayborne, 25, cofounder of Brix

“I think we’ll know when we hit AGI when the large language models refuse to respond to us.” 
— Jake Adler, 21, founder of Pilgrim 

“Every year that we don’t have AGI there’s hundreds of millions of lives that are not being lived as well as they could be.”
— Silen Naihin, 23, founder of Endflow

And that’s a wrap! Catch us in the post-AGI world to unpack Tech Bro 3.0. 

Rya Jetha can be reached at [email protected]
Margaux MacColl can be reached at [email protected]