(Bloomberg) -- The premature death of the 44-year-old founder ofa prominent mobile health app startup has spurred a bout of soulsearching in the Chinese tech community, where working long hours in the hope of making aquick fortune has become a way of life.

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Zhang Rui, founder and chief executive officer of thestartup Chunyu Doctor, died from a heart attack on Oct. 5. Heartattacks can have many causes and Chunyu spokesman Tan Wannengsaid there’s no evidence that Zhang’s death was due tooverwork.

Yet as tech executives mourn his passing, that hasn’t stoppedsome from wondering about the deeply competitive nature of theirindustry and the potential health burdens they face.

"The stress and loneliness that startup founders feel can’t becomprehended by normal people," Leon Li, founder of Huobi, one ofChina’s largest bitcoin exchanges, wrote on his WeChat account inresponse to Zhang’s death. "Especially in the internet sector,where entry barriers are low and competition is fierce, it’s likestepping on thin ice."

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Inspired by the rise of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which raised$25 billion in a 2014 initial public offering, China’s newgeneration of entrepreneurs have been engaged in a fierce battlefor capital and talent.

The country saw the startup of 1.2 new internet companies everyday in the second quarter. While Silicon Valley is also renownedfor its competitive culture and lengthy hours, China’sentrepreneurs face a unique set of challenges because the industryis more nascent, and regulations and funding are in constantflux.

“The China startup community is under a lot of pressure, if notas much but even more than in the Valley or in the states,” saidDave McClure, the founding partner of Mountain View,California-based venture firm 500 Startups. “Unfortunately, I thinkpeople don’t think about health issues that much.” McClure saidthat among the more than 3,000 founders that he has invested inglobally, at least six have passed away, with even one committingsuicide.

Zhang died at a critical juncture for Chunyu. In June, itcompleted a 1.2 billion yuan ($178 million) round of Series Dfundraising at a valuation of about $1 billion and was planning togo public, according to Tan. Startups with a valuation exceedingthat mark are known as "Unicorns."

For a few months when Chunyu was first founded the companysometimes required a so-called "996 schedule" -- Chinese slang forworking from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week -- Tan said, addingthat the company is long past that stage.

Zhang started out as a journalist at a Beijing newspaper, andworked as deputy editor-in-chief at NetEase, a Chinese internetportal.

In 2011, he founded Chunyu, which allows patients to have onlineconsultations with doctors, skipping the wait at overcrowded publichospitals.

Chinese executives have for years talked about the difficultiesin balancing work and life.

After fighting cancer, Kai-Fu Lee, a long-time techexecutive, published a book last year saying that he saw thedisease as a sign of protest from his body after decades of 15-hourworkdays during a high-flying career.

Lee is currently running his own company called SinovationVentures that invests in startups and he previously held jobs atApple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., and served as Google Inc.’s GreaterChina vice president from 2005 to 2009. Jean Liu, president oftaxi-hailing app Didi Chuxing, has encouraged her staff at Didi toexercise more and take care of their health.

People who work for more than 55 hours a week face an increasedrisk of stroke and coronary heart disease compared to those workingthe standard hours of 35 to 40 a week, according to a study basedon data from more than 600,000 individuals, published last Octoberin the medical journal The Lancet.

The unexpected death of a founder can also highlight theimportance of succession plans, according to Paul Asel, Palo Alto,California-based managing partner at Nokia Growth Partners. Chunyuin an Oct. 6 statement said its businesses are operating as normalwith Zhang’s duties taken up by co-founder Li Guanghui.

Startup executives face long hours, conflicts with partners andfamily, and worries about fundraising, Wang Lifen, founder ofYoumi, a provider of training courses for entrepreneurs, said in anarticle mourning Zhang’s death in her Weibo microblog.

"This is a group of people who are surrounded by envious looksfrom outsiders, who appear at forums and under the spotlightbearing the fine title of entrepreneurs, but do not have a momentof peace in their hearts," said Wang.

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