[carterjbastian]

From my perspective, the message that "we don't care about work-life balance" is equivalent to "we expect you to prioritize your job over your physical, mental, and emotional health".

That, to me, is a really big red flag. The founders are making it clear that they care more about their bottom line than they do about their future employees. I think this is an immature and problematic way of going about business.

[gatherhunterer]

It’s also bad for business. Healthy workers do healthy work and they can do it for years without becoming disillusioned or overly invested. If the company fails because of uncontrollable factors like an economic crash they will still have a healthy personal life and all of that time won’t feel like a waste.

The attitude of trying to solve one big problem now so that everything else will fall into place doesn’t work. If the company does well you still only have your work. You don’t just win a great life because you reached a finish line in one area. I take issue with the term “work-life balance” but every job is a lifestyle job. The line that the OP quoted is just start-up talk for “hustle culture”.

[bob33212]

That is intentional. They don't want people who are looking for red flags. They are looking for people to go all in on changing the world.

Three years from now the company will be bankrupt or the applicants will be expendable because the company will be much larger.