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Show HN: I made a site to simplify recommending talented people to others
Hey HN, i made this app to improve tech hiring via personal recommendations let me know what you think!
- wscourge 3y agoThe idea is nice, but I wouldn't subscribe - simply not worth it. Consider one-time payments or some kind of pay-per-usage model instead. The Succession characters usage is clever, kudos.
- rohanmahen 3y agoCheers thanks for the feedback!
- spullara 3y agoIs it already down? Just out of curiosity, what is the bottleneck?
- rohanmahen 3y agoShouldn't be haha
- spullara 3y agoDunno. Can't reach it. curl -v https://www.youshouldworkwith.com * Trying 76.76.21.61:443... * connect to 76.76.21.61 port 443 failed: Operation timed out * Trying 76.76.21.22:443...
- rohanmahen 3y agoHmmm no clue getting tons of people rn could the be the issue
- spullara 3y agoi think you were blocked by hotel wifi for some reason.
- rohanmahen 3y agoHuh thats super bizarre
- amne 3y agoHard pass after reading "10x better than S". Based on what? I get the idea to bash on competitors but at least make claims at least someone, anyone, can measure. 5 looks random. Why not 4? Kendall has only 4.
- rohanmahen 3y agoCheers– thanks for the feedback! Yeah completely fair just a bit of a hook. Re: 5 - just cuz people usually say top 5 etc
- subtra3t 3y ago$18/month seems to be a tad too much. Maybe $20 would be a good one-time fee?
- rohanmahen 3y agoCheers thanks for the feedback! I think there's been some pushback on price will definitely reflect on this
- rohanmahen 3y agoAlso its $9/month annually ;)
- gardenhedge 3y agoSo you list people without their consent or do they need to approve?
- rohanmahen 3y agoRecommend people publicly but they have to be signed up yeah – can only be positive recommendations though!
- falserum 3y ago> can only be positive recommendations Curious: how is it ensured? (I mean moderation is hard..)
- rohanmahen 3y agoIt's a dropdown you can choose (Hire, Startup With, Freelance From, Work for etc)
- oldtownroad 3y agoDon’t charge based on profile visits: you’ll punish people for utilising the service and you’ll create a negative experience when someone reaches that limit. People should choose to pay as an active decision to gain access to new features. I’d be happy to pay for a service like this but “the link you’ve shared isn’t going to work any more unless you pay immediately” would leave a very bad taste in my mouth.
- rohanmahen 3y agoCheers thanks for the feedback! I think a couple other people have been mentioning the free limits / pricing as a roadblock
- thih9 3y agoWhat is the basis for recommendations? I.e. what is the platform doing to make sure that the recommendations that I receive are relevant to me?
- rohanmahen 3y agoNothing at this point haha but they can only be positive and help your profile out. But i get where ur coming from – what would you suggest an acceptance of a recommendation from the receipient?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ValtteriL 3y agoDoes this require everyone to be on the platform to get any value?
- rohanmahen 3y agoYeah pretty much but it's sign in with Linkedin so ez onboarding
- robertlagrant 3y agoSo - interesting to see this as I did some work for a company a couple of decades ago that did this, but pre-digital. The way that worked, they just took a referral cut of first work done via referral to the referer (well, actually, to the referral network, but mostly the referrer). Worked quite well!
- rohanmahen 3y agoCheers! Got it will definitely think about implementing it, will have to try hard to avoid gaming tho
- robertlagrant 3y agoYes - they avoided gaming things by just having a regular-sized business and meeting in person :) I'm not sure how you do it in your case.
- moose_man 3y agoI mean it looks cool, but I don't see how it competes with the network effects of LinkedIn and LinkedIn recommendations.
- rohanmahen 3y agoI tried LinkedIn but its corporate garb nowadays. connections are like follower lists, recommendations are fluffy ( Great Communicator, Hard Worker) and there's no curation, everyone hands out recommendations left and right
- jdthedisciple 3y agoHow can this help me if I don't know anyone and nobody knows me? I still get a ton of value from LinkedIn because Recruiters contact me based on my skills (or I contact them) but I don't see how this can be replicated in a better way on here (yet).
- rohanmahen 3y agoHmm you're right, it's more likely you would get value from this if someone vouched for u / you vouch for others, haven't thought about how to help people without a network yet. Open to suggestions tho!
- yitchelle 3y agoThat would suggest that to get value, you would already have a network of folks that has good synergies with you, right? Are the vouches private between the parties or is that information socialised on the feed? There might be value in this type of transparency.
- rohanmahen 3y agoExactly yeah, so for instance you can see people who recommend you + the people they recommend to expand your network. I totally get the transparency thing (coveted contacts and all) but I think its more about helping people out in their career, so its gotta be public
- Uptrenda 3y agoYou should focus on this tbh. People who have a network already aren't going to need as much help. If you could help people without a network find employment that would be tremendously positive. It's a hard problem though, very hard. GL. You are probably do well just to offer a linkedin like alternative without spam at this point.
- rohanmahen 3y agoThanks for the feedback! Will definitely consider it!
- vouaobrasil 3y agoThis type of technological solution makes society worse. If we are so anonymized by technology that we need even more technology to try and refine recommendations, we are heading down the wrong path in my opinion. The entire problem with this is that we have created a system where we have become anonymous cogs, where machines are more and more deciding on where we go and how people get to know us. Soon we will have a system where AI machines analyze us and communicate with other AI machines on whether we fit well with being a drone in some large corporation. This sort of development is sick.
- geraldhh 3y ago> Soon we will have a system where AI machines analyze us and communicate with other AI machines on whether we fit well with being a drone in some large corporation. it could be argued that group-think is an artificial intelligence in itself, nevertheless what you describe seems common
- vouaobrasil 3y agoThat is a very interesting point. To take it one step further, I do think that group think augmented with machines is a sort of "new organism" that has arises.
- rohanmahen 3y agoNever looked at it like that haha – hopefully it won't only be recommendations to be a corporate cog
- amoss 3y agoThis reply seems a little bit pre-baked and somewhat irrelevant for the site in the link. The OP is building up a small world network of direct recommendations, i.e. it is about as far from an automated recommendation service as is possible. The warm introduction feature sounds like a simple path finding algorithm. There may be another lens through which to view this instead of "balanced critique of technology". Describing this as "sick" seems somewhat hyperbolic. More generally, is it really technology that makes us anonymous or is it simply an emergent property of scale? When there are millions of similar engineers out there (to use a single field as an example) relying on word of mouth, or similar non-technological approaches seems unlikely to find the best candidate with any degree of probability.
- jasongi 3y agoThe whole point of a personal recommendation is you're introducing people you know are good to people you know and trust you. What's the value-add by inserting a new app into the process, that charges one side? LinkedIn works because you attract supply (e.g professionals) with the draw of getting the personal recommendations/network effects for free and then make money off demand (e.g employers/recruiters) by letting them pay to win and send you spam. Two-sided marketplace businesses are supposedly the hardest to get off the ground. Especially if you're trying to charge for something that is currently offered for free.
- rohanmahen 3y agoThanks for checking it out! The Pro Plan is only to have unlimited profile visits, and meant for hiring managers so i'm charging kinda like linkedin sales nav. I think the value add is that you can traverse a network of recommendations (u -> your friend -> their recs etc).
- loa_in_ 3y agoSo it's a limit on displaying other profiles, not a limit on how many times my own can be. Okay.
- rohanmahen 3y agoYeah exactly – my bad I gotta make that clear!
- vitalipom 3y agoCool! Usually talanted people hang out in some network they have, this is a cool idea I think.
- rohanmahen 3y agoCheers glad you like it!
- jokethrowaway 3y agoIt's a cool idea but it's also a very easy problem to solve for free. Oftentimes it never gets to the point hr is actively looking for someone: they just use internal referrals (cost 10% of a recruiter, roughly) and worst case scenario use a recruiter. Personal introductions also seem to net a better salary in my opinion Companies that use only recruiters are too big / growing insanely fast or so bad employees wouldn't recommend to their friends. Me and friends / coworkers use a free trello board / free slack community and we keep hiring among us whenever we jump ship
- rohanmahen 3y agoThanks for checking it out! Personal referrals are by far the best for the employer / employee comp + retention wise. But yeah a free trello / slack community could be great but I think the public profile approach just works with a bit more visibility!
- popohauer 3y agoAs a founder with a long history as a PM, I would try to narrow in on one really specific use case that is valuable enough for someone to (eventually) shell out $18/month to solve. Reading over the site, it's not immediately clear to me who really needs this service, what problem they have, and why they would sign up.
- rohanmahen 3y agoGot it thanks for the feedback! I think the hiring manager / tech recruiter is that customer. Trouble is I wanted to aim the messaging towards the network members first... definitely needs work
- truculent 3y agoI appreciate the care and intention behind this project, but I’m not convinced nepotism is any more palatable for having been mediated by tech
- rohanmahen 3y agoThanks for checking it out and the kind words – ahahah yeah definitely not going for the nepotism hires but that could be a consequence of the service
- truculent 3y agoPeople rarely (if ever) do it on purpose which is what makes it so insidious. Appreciate you taking the comments gracefully. The site is very slick
- rohanmahen 3y agoThank you thats super kind!
- gitgud 3y agoLinkedIn also has a similar feature called “endorsements” where people effectively recommend/validate specific skills on you profile. How does this compare to that?
- rohanmahen 3y agoThanks for checking it out! – I think a) LinkedIn is corporate social media it's really gone down hill b) Endorsements are just full of noise (hard worker, great ppl person etc) no real actionable help c) they aren't curated! ppl hand them out like candy
- esafak 3y agoWhy would your site's endorsements be any better?
- rohanmahen 3y agoI think cuz you can only have 5 and you get a limited say in how you label them ("hire", "start up with", "work for" etc) it makes you reflect and be more considerate in your choices.
- esafak 3y agoWhat is going to happen once you have used your allotment and you want to change your selection as you make new professional connections? It seems like work for little benefit to have to think of which five out of who knows how many people I know deserve endorsement the most.
- em-bee 3y agogood point. how about allowing unlimited endorsements but only show 5 that you may choose? (and by default the newest endorsements should be shown so that older endorsements naturally disappear over time unless specifically selected to show)
- TriangleEdge 3y agoHow do you quantify talent?
- rohanmahen 3y agoThanks for checking out the site – no idea haha the 10x thing is just a hook
- rohanmahen 3y agoIn all seriousness, I think talent is quantified on the platform through the perceived talent of those who recommend u + who u recommend
- kodjima33 3y agoOh this is pretty cool actually! I recently build similar: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nik-shevchenko-08565b18b_no-one-trusts-linkedin-recommendations-we-activity-7141193066157084674-4mty?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nik-shevchenko-08565b18b_no-o... Just reached out to you on LinkedIn and email!
- rohanmahen 3y agoCheers! responded!
- krthr 3y ago$18 per month is exaggeration
- rohanmahen 3y agoA guy can dream haha