In Silicon Valley, the new generation of young entrepreneurs has left behind the parties in which rivers of alcohol flowed. The example they follow is that of the big names of Silicon Valley, such as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Sam Altman or Brian Johnsonwho prioritize their business projects ahead of their own social life.
The phenomenon is not isolated, and more and more young entrepreneurs share the same mentality: “Why go to a bar if I can be creating a company?” summarizes Emily Yuan, a young founder of Silicon Valley, in an interview for The Wall Street Journal. The data doesn’t lie: alcohol consumption among young people of generation Z is shrinking, and in the realm of Silicon Valley startup incubators, not drinking alcohol is increasingly the norm rather than the exception.
The new habits of Silicon Valley. The daily routine of those who aspire to success in Silicon Valley is marked by working hours that go beyond the usual. According to what was published by The Wall Street JournalMarty Kausas, 28 years old and founder of the startup Pyloncommented in a LinkedIn post that he chained several weeks in a row of 92 hours of work and that he canceled his vacation because the stress of work prevented him from taking a few days to rest.
However, in another postthe young entrepreneur ruled out the application of a “996 culture” for his employees in his company, in reference to the new exported trend from Asiain which we work from nine in the morning to nine in the afternoon and six days a week.
What is fun? The main paradigm shift shown by this group of very young technological entrepreneurs is to define what is fun. In their case, and as both Marty Kausas and Emily Yuan detailed, what they consider fun is not spending time with friends having a few beers. “Our motivation for starting a company was fun and adventure. But what is fun for us is quite different from what is fun for others.”
That concept, together with the anti-alcohol messages that some influential figures in Silicon Valley are giving, such as Sam Altman, who has fully expressed against alcohol consumptionor Mark Zuckerberg who, unlike their cowsonly drinks beer on rare special occasions and what is necessary to take the photo. In general, for the “technobros“In Silicon Valley, alcohol and parties no longer fit into the concept of fun.
Sobriety in the tech era. The data suggests that there is a certain tendency for generation Z to reduce alcohol consumption all over the world. The data A 2022 study already pointed to the beginning of a drop in alcohol consumption of 4.5% annually since 2011, and it has been stabilizing since then.
According to a report of 2024 from the Ministry of Health, the average consumption of each adult in Europe went from 12 liters per year in 2000 to 9.5 liters in 2019, and if we focus on wine, the only alcoholic beverage that Jeff Bezos drinks at special celebrationsthe data points because its average consumption per adult has fallen from 14.2 liters in 1990 to 10 liters in 2017.
In 2025, these official data They were consolidated, confirming the tendency of younger people not to consume alcohol in their leisure time.
In the “new gambling dens” they talk about financing This decrease in alcohol consumption has been associated with a cultural change in the social activities of these new entrepreneurs. Meetings between colleagues, once animated by toasts and drinks, are now meetings in saunas, motivational talks or gym routines in search of professional connections.
Miranda Nover, co-founder of a fitness startup called Fort, said in an interview for Business Insider that the image of an ascetic existence is very important for young entrepreneurs. “You’re trying to convey: We do this six days a week in the office, we work until 9 p.m., we don’t drink, we don’t party, we don’t do any of that.”
The entrepreneurs of the future are “healthy.” Unlike what happened with previous generations of millionaire founders, such as Henry Ford or Aristotle Onassis, in which alcohol flowed in abundance at all their parties. Now, alcohol consumption is no longer the central axis and a philosophy closer to the postulates of the millionaire has been adopted. Brian Johnsonto focus all energy on productivity. At the San Francisco AI events, alcohol is absent.
According to Michelle Fang, 26 years old and organizer of events for these precocious founders of Silicon Valley, among the reasons why the entrepreneurial quarry parties are not only for a change in the concept of leisure and health: “many AI-related events do not serve alcohol, not least because it is out of fashion among the San Francisco public. Many founders are not old enough to drink.”
A version of this article was published in October 2025
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Image | Unsplash (Nguyen Hiệp)
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