This $15 Billion AI Company Requires Its Engineers to Clean the Office — And Leave Their Shoes at the Door
Here’s what inspired the practices.
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Key Takeaways
- Applied Intuition, an AI startup valued at about $15 billion, still expects employees to wipe down their own desks.
- Workers are also asked to remove their shoes at the office entrance, a practice CEO Qasar Younis says reinforces a particular kind of disciplined, focused culture.
- Younis argues that there’s a direct connection between cleaning a workspace and producing well-written code.
Applied Intuition has a $15 billion valuation, but its office culture doesn’t allow for anyone to get too high and mighty about their stature. All employees are expected to wipe down their own desks and leave their shoes at the door.
On a Sunday episode of Lenny’s Podcast, Applied Intuition cofounder and CEO Qasar Younis explained that he requires staff to clean their own workstations as part of a weekly “cleaning zen” session, rather than relying on a large janitorial crew. The weekly habit is inspired by his time living in Japan, where students routinely scrub their own classrooms.
Applied Intuition was co-founded in 2017 by Younis and Peter Ludwig. The startup builds simulation and software tools that help automakers and defense players develop autonomous systems for vehicles, farm equipment and aircraft. The company has raised hundreds of millions of dollars, including a $600 million Series F in 2025, which pushed its valuation to $15 billion.
Visitors to the office sometimes assume that the company pays for an army of cleaners because the place looks so pristine, but Younis said it is actually the engineers doing the work. Applied Intuition employs over a thousand engineers alone, he added.
“I think it’s important not to get wrapped up in your own narrative of ‘I’m a Stanford software engineer, and I do AI.’ It’s like, clean up your desk,” Younis said on the podcast. “Our employees are also aware of their surroundings.”
Younis said that there was “a direct line” between employees cleaning their desks and writing well-written software. “It all falls in the same arc,” he said. In his telling, the cleaning mindset carries over to engineering: if you notice dust on a windowsill, you are likely to notice problems in code.
Shoes off, slippers on
Applied Intuition additionally has a “no shoes” policy in the office. Employees and guests must remove their outdoor shoes at the entrance and switch into company-provided slippers or flip-flops.
Younis traces the habit to his time in Japan, where removing shoes before entering workspaces signaled respect, cleanliness and a shared standard of order. He said the approach was intentionally borrowing from Japanese culture.
“I would implore you as a founder to really take the best of Japan, and the best of Germany… the best of Silicon Valley,” Younis said.
The “no shoes” policy puts Applied Intuition inside a broader wave of AI and startup offices experimenting with the same policy to make workplaces feel more like living rooms than corporate campuses. Founders from other companies, like AI code editor Cursor and AI website editor Replo, describe similar setups, where employees leave shoes at the door and exchange them for slippers or flip-flops.
At least two dozen other startups have “no shoes” policies in place, including Gusto, a payroll platform, and Speak, a language acquisition app.
Key Takeaways
- Applied Intuition, an AI startup valued at about $15 billion, still expects employees to wipe down their own desks.
- Workers are also asked to remove their shoes at the office entrance, a practice CEO Qasar Younis says reinforces a particular kind of disciplined, focused culture.
- Younis argues that there’s a direct connection between cleaning a workspace and producing well-written code.
Applied Intuition has a $15 billion valuation, but its office culture doesn’t allow for anyone to get too high and mighty about their stature. All employees are expected to wipe down their own desks and leave their shoes at the door.
On a Sunday episode of Lenny’s Podcast, Applied Intuition cofounder and CEO Qasar Younis explained that he requires staff to clean their own workstations as part of a weekly “cleaning zen” session, rather than relying on a large janitorial crew. The weekly habit is inspired by his time living in Japan, where students routinely scrub their own classrooms.
