SAN FRANCISCO—Describing “a persistent unease” that began when she realized nobody was tracking vacation time, recent grad Alex Sheffield told reporters she was starting to wonder if every company was as disorganized and messy as Toketanic, the early-stage startup where she began working immediately following her graduation from Berkeley.

“At first I thought I was being dramatic. There are a dozen other people here and they’re all more experienced than I am. Surely they would have said something,” Sheffield told reporters outside Two Embarcadero, home of a WeWork where only fine upstanding startups are allowed to rent offices month-to-month. “I texted a friend at another AI startup that just finished YC and he told me speed and growth matter more than anything.”

“But when I caught up with my college friends last weekend,” she added, “I told them expense approvals happened via Discord emoji and everyone got kind of quiet.”

Sources familiar with the catch-up described a brunch that nearly turned into an intervention when Sheffield recounted a conversation with the CEO in which he discussed pivoting the company to “world models and physical AI,” two buzzwords that had less than nothing to do with the company’s ostensible purpose.

“I asked how she has so much autonomy already and she told us both of her bosses had left and she had received a ‘battlefield promotion,’” said longtime friend Jeff Chen. “When we asked her what she would do if she had an HR question or a problem with another employee, she just laughed nervously.”

At press time, sources say Sheffield had been asked to own a new initiative called “Project Iceberg” and accepted without being told what the project actually was.