While sleep tracking, cold plunges and other forms of health optimization have become routine in technology circles, a small group of Silicon Valley founders has started lighting cigarettes again. For them, smoking is not only about nicotine. It can also provide a way to build relationships, step away from a desk or project an image that runs against the industry’s dominant culture.
Stephen Campbell, the 27-year-old co-founder of Revamp AI, experienced that dynamic during a business discussion with a major technology company in Shenzhen, China. A confidentiality agreement prevented him from naming the company. The meeting initially felt tense, with language barriers and commercial negotiations complicating the conversation. Then came barbecue, baijiu and a steady stream of cigarettes.
The group later moved to a cocktail bar where smoking was allowed and then continued to a karaoke venue. By the end of the night, Campbell and the potential client were smoking together in a private room and singing Oasis songs that the client liked. Campbell said the experience made the supplier-customer relationship feel more personal and created space for an exchange outside the formal meeting.
Smoking falls in the US, but not everywhere in tech
The share of American adults who smoke has fallen sharply. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the rate above 40% in 1966, compared with 11.6% in 2022. Cigarettes appear especially out of place in an industry that emphasizes longevity, efficiency and sustained performance. People seeking nicotine are more likely to use e-cigarettes or nicotine pouches such as Zyn, while some startup offices are more likely to smell of fruit-flavored vapor.
Still, cigarettes have not disappeared from San Francisco or other technology hubs. Some engineers smoke repeatedly during demanding coding sessions. Founders and venture capital investors may step outside office buildings for a cigarette while discussing a company’s “burn rate.” The attraction is not necessarily the stimulant effect. More often, it is the chance to leave work briefly, meet someone unexpectedly and form an informal connection.
Jake Jolis, a Los Angeles-based general partner at Zeno Ventures, has spent years meeting early-stage founders. He said founders who smoke often appear less concerned with how they are perceived by venture capitalists. That lack of visible effort to please investors can distinguish them from founders who are cautious, polished and determined not to offend anyone.
Jolis does not seek out smokers and does not view smoking as a positive investment signal. In his experience, lighting a cigarette can sometimes indicate that a founder has lowered his guard. Two smoking founders in his portfolio later performed “extremely well,” he said, but that does not establish a direct connection between smoking and company performance.
The cigarette break becomes an informal meeting room
One seed investor recalled seeing a founder smoking Marlboro Reds at a bar and subsequently feeling more confident about the investment. The cigarette itself was not the reason. What stood out was the founder’s ability to speak casually and connect with people in a relaxed setting.
Campbell also said smoking can lead to “accidental networking.” He met employees of Revamp AI while smoking with them and later hired some of those people. For founders, a few minutes outside the office can become the starting point for an interview, a recruitment conversation or a business discussion.
Jamie, a cryptocurrency-industry professional who asked not to disclose a last name, met an investor in a fresh-milk startup at a kava bar in Miami. The crowd included people recovering from opioid addiction, as well as Wall Street and Silicon Valley figures seeking distance from tax pressures and pandemic restrictions. Jamie smoked several Marlboro Reds with an investor who rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. They discussed startups and alternative approaches to health. A week later, the investor signed a check.
Such encounters do not mean an investor commits capital because of a single cigarette. They do show how informal interactions outside a pitch meeting can shape perceptions of a founder. In early-stage companies, trust and familiarity often develop alongside, rather than inside, the business plan.
From Robert Noyce to the sidewalk outside a San Francisco bar
The technology industry has its own history with smoking. Intel co-founder Robert Noyce, known as the “Mayor of Silicon Valley,” smoked for years. Atari employees were once known to smoke so-called “special cigarettes” on the production line. In the television series “Silicon Valley,” the character Jian Yang reserves cigarettes for special occasions.
Today, cigarettes are most likely to appear on the balconies of private homes, outside San Francisco bars or around company buildings. A Microsoft engineer said young employees rarely smoke at the company’s Seattle campus; smokers there are more often managers and senior engineers. In San Francisco, however, the engineer frequently sees startup employees in their twenties passing a pack around outside bars.
Avi Schiffmann, founder of the Friend wearable AI device, said he sometimes smokes during work meetings with the camera turned off, even inside his San Francisco apartment. He worries that a landlord would object because the smell could make the apartment resemble an “opium den.” Schiffmann does not buy cigarettes pre-rolled. Instead, he rolls his own tobacco purchased in Amsterdam. He said the nicotine effect is not particularly strong and that, for him, smoking is closer to a small, repetitive hand movement.
Imported Asian cigarettes are also common among this group of technology workers. One Microsoft engineer said most of the cigarettes he had smoked came from China and Japan. Another San Francisco engineer prefers berry-flavored Mevius cigarettes from Japan. Friends returning from overseas trips may bring back different brands, which then become conversation starters.
Campbell used to smoke Marlboro. After Revamp AI began developing business ties with China, he switched to Zhonghua cigarettes. He said they are available in San Francisco’s Chinatown, although buyers need to know where to look.
Hardware and defense founders appear more likely to smoke
The decline in US smoking rates has not produced a uniform pattern everywhere. Smoking rates in Europe and Asia are roughly twice the US level, and Silicon Valley has a large population of immigrant technology workers. Jobs related to professional, scientific and technical services account for nearly half of H-1B applications, and some workers bring established smoking habits with them to technology centers such as Palo Alto.
Hassan Ismail, co-founder of physical-AI startup Argos Research, said he has noticed that founders in hardware and defense technology seem to smoke more often than software-as-a-service founders. He did not offer a definitive explanation, but said the work in those sectors can resemble traditional industries more closely. Some people may use smoking as a way to cope with physically or mentally demanding work.
He said Chinese founders do not always fit that pattern. Even Chinese entrepreneurs running conventional SaaS businesses, without an especially unusual lifestyle, often maintain a regular smoking habit.
Smoking is also used to create controversy
Silicon Valley’s health-conscious culture gives cigarettes a built-in sense of contrast. When entrepreneur Richard Wang launched a promotional video for Clad Labs’ “brain rot IDE,” he deliberately placed a pack of Newport cigarettes in the frame. His goal was to provoke controversy and generate discussion on social media.
Wang normally smokes about once a year. For the shoot, he smoked four or five Newport cigarettes in a single day, although he disliked their flavor. He took only a few puffs from each before throwing it away, leaving the rest of the cigarettes in his apartment. Health-focused technology workers found the behavior difficult to understand, while regular smokers viewed it as an attempt to borrow smoking culture for attention. Wang described the result as a situation in which “neither side is satisfied,” but said that tension helped produce a viral marketing effect.
Lucas Harris, founder of the 10X trading app, said health optimization and smoking are not always mutually exclusive. Some people who spend $800 a month on premium sauna and cold-plunge services may also smoke several cigarettes, he said, attempting to balance conflicting habits.
Harris smokes blue-pack American Spirit cigarettes on weekends and relies more on Zyn during the workweek. While smoking outside San Francisco’s Balboa Café, he overheard several founders speaking candidly about a startup and warning him against joining its founding team. That informal conversation helped him avoid an opportunity that later proved unsuitable for him.
“Low efficiency” becomes a form of resistance
Schiffmann has cited an article by AI writer Gwern Branwen about the potential benefits of nicotine. He has also suggested that by the time a smoker develops lung cancer, artificial intelligence may have helped medicine solve the problem. That is a personal view, not a substitute for medical evidence on the health effects of nicotine and smoking.
Campbell understands that smoking conflicts with Silicon Valley’s constant focus on health, efficiency and productivity. Yet he sees value in the fact that smoking is inefficient. In a work environment built around optimizing every process, standing outside with a cigarette and talking to strangers can create one of the few intervals not organized around output.
For these founders and investors, a cigarette may represent a networking opportunity, a form of self-expression or a short break, depending on the setting. The broader facts remain unchanged: US smoking rates continue to decline, and technology companies commonly promote healthier habits. Even so, cigarettes retain a small but visible role in startup financing, recruitment and industry socializing.