Getting into Cursor’s San Francisco workplace means stepping out of your sneakers.
Ben Lang, a Cursor worker who joined the $9.9 billion AI coding startup earlier this yr, posted two photos to X on Tuesday displaying racks stuffed with sneakers, plus sneakers and slip-ons strewn throughout the ground. The vacation spot was not somebody’s residence, however relatively the Cursor workplace in San Francisco, which has a no-shoes coverage.
And whereas this may appear odd to the everyday 9-to-5er, it is truly fairly frequent in Silicon Valley.
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“I’ve solely labored at startups which have a no-shoes in workplace coverage,” Lang posted, including that he had labored at Notion, an AI workspace startup, along with Cursor. “Curious which different corporations do that.”
Lang compiled what he known as a “complete” record of 26 startups with no-shoes insurance policies, together with Lovable, an organization that helps customers construct web sites and apps with AI, and reMarkable, a paper pill startup.
Cursor workplace(s) in San Francisco https://t.co/6m68bUAghD pic.twitter.com/i0mf9S2B07
— Ben Lang (@benln) August 12, 2025
Andrew Hsu, co-founder of language-acquisition app Converse, chimed in on Lang’s publish on X, stating that Converse had “achieved this for years,” even providing workers a stipend for slippers. Lang wrote on X that Cursor additionally gives slippers to put on across the San Francisco workplace and gives shoe covers as effectively.
Converse’s no-shoes coverage started in 2019 as a result of its first market was South Korea. The startup wished to “pay homage to the standard Asian tradition of no sneakers inside,” a Converse spokesperson instructed Enterprise Insider.
One more reason why no-shoe insurance policies are common in Silicon Valley is that many startups start in somebody’s residence, the place sneakers aren’t worn inside. Based on a 2023 CBS Information/YouGov survey, the vast majority of Individuals (almost two-in-three) take off their sneakers when they’re in their very own properties.
Consultants say taking off your sneakers can go away unhealthy contaminants on the door, however that also doesn’t suggest you ought to be barefoot, which may lead to damage and an infection. Nevertheless, regardless of the drawbacks, the pattern of not sporting sneakers within the workplace has persevered for numerous years, starting earlier than the pandemic.
BI reported in 2019 that corporations like Notion and Gusto, a payroll platform, supplied employees the perk of slipping off their sneakers on the entrance door.
One startup founder, Kyle Sherman of software program platform Flowhub, went even additional than no sneakers by banning pants within the workplace as effectively (although shorts are obligatory).
“We are not any sneakers and no pants tradition,” Sherman wrote in a publish on X. “Shorts are required although.”
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Getting into Cursor’s San Francisco workplace means stepping out of your sneakers.
Ben Lang, a Cursor worker who joined the $9.9 billion AI coding startup earlier this yr, posted two photos to X on Tuesday displaying racks stuffed with sneakers, plus sneakers and slip-ons strewn throughout the ground. The vacation spot was not somebody’s residence, however relatively the Cursor workplace in San Francisco, which has a no-shoes coverage.
And whereas this may appear odd to the everyday 9-to-5er, it is truly fairly frequent in Silicon Valley.
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