Inside the Rising Counterculture of Silicon Valley Smokers

Key Points:

• Stephen Campbell, cofounder of Revamp AI, credits cigarette-smoking sessions during social settings in China for helping build personal relationships that led to major business deals, highlighting smoking as a social lubricant in tech networking.
• Despite the US smoking rate dropping to 11.6% by 2022 and smoking being rare in the health-conscious tech industry, a counterculture of tech founders, engineers, and VCs still smoke cigarettes, using them as breaks and informal networking tools.
• Smoking in tech is often seen as a sign of authenticity and lowered guard, with some investors valuing the casual, rebellious attitude of smoking founders as a differentiator from more conventional entrepreneurs.
• The immigrant-heavy Silicon Valley workforce brings diverse smoking habits, with higher smoking rates among Asian and European populations influencing local tech culture, especially among hard tech and defense founders.
• While smoking is controversial amid Silicon Valley's wellness trends, some founders combine health optimization with occasional smoking, viewing cigarettes as a social tool or a counterbalance to their health routines, and even leveraging smoking imagery for provocative marketing.