At many Silicon Valley startups, growth is fueled by venture capital and free, fancy lunches.
At Applied Intuition — a multi-billion-dollar company that focuses on AI software for cars and planes — it apparently starts with employees taking off their shoes and wiping off their own desks.
"Sometimes people will come to our office, and they'll say, 'Oh, like, it's like such a clean office, you guys must have like this giant cleaning staff,'" CEO Qasar Younis told "Lenny's Podcast" on an episode aired on Sunday. "And it's like, actually, we clean our office."
Younis said employees hold a weekly "cleaning zen," scrubbing the office themselves rather than relying on janitorial staff.
Workers are also asked to remove their shoes at the door.
Younis said the practices were inspired in part by his time living in Japan, where students clean their own classrooms — a ritual meant to instill humility and awareness, he said.
Applied Intuition's software helps manufacturers such as Toyota and Volkswagen develop and test autonomous driving systems, and it also supports defense programs. Younis suggested the company's emphasis on cleanliness and order carries into its engineering culture.
"Our employees are aware of their surroundings," Younis said. "I think there's a direct line between being quiet and alone and cleaning your desk — and well-written software."
Younis framed the approach as intentional borrowing rather than corporate eccentricity. Like many tech leaders, he cited the Apple cofounder Steve Jobs' famous quote that "great artists steal" — but said the idea is often misunderstood.
"What he's really talking about is the less magnanimous version of that, to be humble and learn from everything around you," he said. "I would implore you as a founder to really try to take the best of Japan and the best of Germany, the best of China, the best of Detroit, the best of Silicon Valley."
Founded in 2017, Applied Intuition has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding, including a $600 million Series F in June 2025 that valued the company at $15 billion.
