Startup Offered a Tattoo in Exchange for an Interview — and Apologized

LemonLime, a small AI startup that promises to “optimize your data for working with AI,” decided that the best way to hire top developers was through flashy stunts. And it seems it got a little carried away.

Working seven days a week

The company's corporate culture is captured by the word “grindset.” According to CEO Jordan Ziec, the entire team comes into the office seven days a week. In a LinkedIn post, he wryly noted that more than a dozen candidates withdrew their applications after learning that no one here calls it a day at five and rests on weekends. Instead, employees are expected to “ship critical features to production while watching Pitch Perfect at 1 a.m. on a Saturday night into Sunday.”

Ziec isn't interested in grades — he reminded everyone that his own freshman-year GPA was 2.3. What the company does hire is “people you'd want to be friends with”: changing the world, in his view, is easier with friends, and it ought to be fun. To those interested, he promised an instant interview — on the condition of a perfect score in the company's signature game, “Is it a lemon or a lime?”

From a game to a tattoo

The next move was a tattoo. On July 25, LemonLime threw an after-party in San Francisco following the Y Combinator Startup School event, billing it as a gathering for “the most reckless builders of the future.” A tattoo artist was on site, and Ziec promised an instant interview to anyone who agreed to get inked. The goal was to find people ready to take risks. Seven agreed and got the company's logo on their skin (according to Ziec, the logo wasn't mandatory — some chose other images).

The reaction on social media was predictably heated, and before long the story was picked up by traditional media, including The Wall Street Journal. On July 30, Ziec apologized. What was meant to be a “fun and memorable way to meet people” turned out to be reckless and looked like tying a permanent tattoo to career prospects.

“Even if participants chose the design themselves and no one was asked to get our logo, I should have understood the pressure and the power dynamics created by linking a tattoo to hiring,” he admitted.

The company promised to pay for tattoo removal for anyone who later regretted the decision. That regret, however, may sting a little more after another of Ziec's admissions: the interview, it turned out, was available to everyone — regardless of whether they got inked.

Source: Ars Technica