The Sam Altman-founded company behind the “Orb,” a volleyball-sized metal sphere that scans irises to prove people’s humanity, had a message for employees: work weekends and ignore anything outside your job — for the good of humanity.
During a January all-hands with employees of the startup, Tools for Humanity, CEO Alex Blania laid out his expectations.
“We will neither fail, nor will we be an average outcome, and that’s what we want and that’s all I care about every day and all you should care about every day, and nothing else should matter,” Blania said, according to a recording reviewed by Business Insider. “If you should care about something else, and if you want something else, you should just not be here. It’s as simple as that.”
The company’s mission is to build a global digital identity system that can verify who is human in an increasingly AI-driven world. Blania said it exists solely to achieve that goal — and that anything else is a distraction.
“We don’t care about politics, we don’t care about DEI, we don’t care about anything, we just care about how can we achieve the mission through merit, performance, and excellence,” said Blania, who also told staffers he had recently attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC.
Several “team values” displayed on a television screen in the start-up’s now-former San Francisco office echoed Blania’s messaging, a February video viewed by Business Insider shows.
“We are very (very) hard working. We believe this is a once in a lifetime project and that success is important for humanity,” one read. “Therefore, we work weekends, we’re always on call, and we push as hard as our circumstances allow us to. As a result we defy the odds, get to escape velocity and succeed on the mission.”
Other values included a warning that the company doesn’t “tolerate slowness and comfort,” as well as the idea that “we have no place for talkers, ideology, or politics. We don’t have time to worry about each other’s feelings; we say what needs to be said.”
The values were written by Blania, according to a former employee.
“The organization’s transparency about its values and operating principles has resulted in building a team that is passionate and focused on its increasingly urgent mission of ensuring every human benefits from the age of AI,” a Tools for Humanity spokesperson told Business Insider.
The core values currently include optimism about the project, individual responsibility, and clear thinking.
Embracing a hardcore culture
The company’s philosophy reflects a broader corporate trend toward hardcore culture.
John Stankey, AT&T’s CEO, sent the company’s managers a frank memo about its return-to-office policy and told workers to prioritize performance and accountability over loyalty or comfort. Business Insider previously reported on Amazon’s “hardcore culture reset.”
During the January meeting, Blania said that the company aimed to deploy an additional 3,000 Orbs to verify 30 million users by the end of the quarter, and that it wanted 100 million verifications by the end of the year.
He has described the company’s overarching goal as reaching a billion users. Business Insider previously reported that, so far, Tools for Humanity has verified around 17.5 million people — a little under 2% of its target.
Employees were also encouraged during the January meeting to use artificial intelligence to boost productivity.
“We’re here as a company that’s trying to solve problems in the AI world,” said Damien Kieran, whose LinkedIn describes him as the company’s chief legal and privacy officer. “We also probably don’t use AI as much as we should.”
To address this, he said, the IT team was negotiating a new deal with ChatGPT Enterprise — the large language model sold by Altman’s OpenAI. Business Insider has reported that there were also discussions around integrating Tools for Humanity’s cryptocurrency World project with OpenAI to verify those using its services.
OpenAI didn’t respond to a request for comment.
ChatGPT wasn’t the only artificial intelligence tool being employed by Tools for Humanity. Staffers were told that another AI model — which directly competes with Altman’s flagship venture — would soon be accessible.
“Gemini Enterprise will also be available by the end of the month to everybody,” Kieran said. “All of the Gemini AI stuff that Google has to offer will be available to folks.”
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