Rilla pays $18,000 for near-office living

Rilla’s $18,000 – Sebastian Jimenez, CEO and cofounder of New York AI startup Rilla, says the company pays employees an $18,000 annual housing stipend to live within about a 10-minute bike ride of its Williamsburg office—part of a broader strategy built around “flow,” long work

On weekdays, Rilla employees work 12-hour days, coming into the office six days a week. The company doesn’t clock people in or out, and employees aren’t required to work there. Rilla’s chief executive. Sebastian Jimenez. frames the choice as a demand for a specific kind of focus—one he believes can be protected. in part. by where people live.

Rilla. an AI startup based in New York City that builds speech analytics software for in-person sales teams. relocated to Williamsburg. Brooklyn. in 2026. Jimenez says the company now offers employees an $18. 000 annual housing stipend if they live within about a 10-minute bike ride of the Williamsburg office. His pitch is simple: reduce friction so employees can spend more time in the state of “complete focus and immersion” that he says Rilla is built to sustain.

The stipend is optional, but Jimenez says about 80% of employees take it. He also estimates that—before healthcare, retirement benefits, or equity—Rilla spends roughly $37,000 per employee each year on housing, meals, and fitness benefits.

Rilla’s approach is rooted in an idea Jimenez credits to the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.” The company’s goal, he says, is to create an environment where employees are “in the flow almost 100% of the time,” and to optimize around that rather than treat perks as distractions.

That philosophy shows up in how Rilla talks about culture and work itself. Jimenez describes the company’s pace as “insanely hardcore,” and says Rilla selects people who want that kind of environment. He adds that many employees are former Division I athletes. entrepreneurs. or people who have “always pushed themselves to perform at a very high level.”.

In Jimenez’s telling, long workdays are not just about output—they are also meant to cut down on the unused time that can creep into a life. When employees spend that much time working, he says, they become more intentional about the rest of their day.

The physical workspace, however, is where Jimenez says Rilla found a clear obstacle to its ambition. As the company grew to around 120 employees. it began to confront a basic problem with many commercial buildings: sealed windows can cause carbon dioxide to build up over the course of the day. Jimenez points to studies showing that once CO₂ levels rise high enough, cognitive performance can fall significantly.

He says employees often feel “tired at 3 p.m.” but that the reason may be stale air rather than effort.

To address that, Rilla hired Dr. Joe Allen from Harvard, which Jimenez describes as one of the world’s leading experts on healthy buildings. Rilla toured around 20 offices looking for exceptional ventilation. then signed a 10-year lease for the entire penthouse floor at 25 Kent in Williamsburg. Jimenez says Dr. Allen told Rilla the penthouse’s ventilation system is the best he had seen in New York City.

Clean air may not sound like a competitive advantage in the usual sense, Jimenez argues, but he ties it directly to the company’s needs for creativity and focus—especially for an AI startup that builds speech analytics software for in-person sales teams.

Rilla’s benefits package follows the same logic. Jimenez says the company offers three meals a day. builds a gym with a sauna and cold plunge. and provides the $18. 000 housing stipend for employees who live close enough to cycle in. He doesn’t portray these benefits as a way to “coddle” people. Instead, he says Rilla asks a tougher question—whether each benefit helps someone get into the flow.

He also returns to commuting as the enemy of time. In his view. commuting can steal the limited freedom that builds up for people who work 12 hours. sleep eight hours. and work out for an hour. He says he would rather employees spend that time with family. reading. or doing something meaningful than sitting on a subway.

The company’s willingness to spend on benefits, Jimenez says, is tied to its economics. He describes Rilla as “extremely capital-efficient,” estimating that each engineer generates roughly $4 million to $5 million in annual recurring revenue. That efficiency, he says, allows Rilla to invest in day-to-day conditions instead of treating employee experience as an afterthought.

Jimenez ends with the claim that the purpose isn’t simply to keep people in the office. Rilla’s aim. he says. is to build an environment where employees can do “the best work of their lives.” He adds that employees who stay long enough often end up “pretty ripped. ” a result he attributes to eating well. working out. and spending their days in a culture that takes performance seriously.

The clearest through-line in Jimenez’s explanation is that Rilla treats the workplace as an instrument—not just a location. Ventilation matters. meals matter. a gym matters. and housing near the office matters. because each piece is meant to protect the same outcome: sustained immersion. In a company where employees work long days and rarely step away from the company’s rhythm. the decision to tie $18. 000 in housing support to distance from the office reads less like a perk and more like a design choice for staying power—both for the work and for the people doing it.

Rilla Sebastian Jimenez AI startup speech analytics employee housing stipend Williamsburg Brooklyn office healthy buildings Dr. Joe Allen flow psychology employee benefits CO2 ventilation recurring revenue