5 ms·

We quit our Big Tech jobs after hitting #1 on HN and Product Hunt

mupuff1234 1y ago
Kinda feels like making job searching a job in itself. I just want to send a CV and that's it.
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  Yeah Totally get that! for some people, sending a solid CV and letting the work speak for itself should be enough. Openspot is more for folks who feel like their resume doesn’t tell the whole story. Maybe they’re career-switching, self-taught, or just want to show a bit more of who they are, not just what they’ve done. That said, we’re working to make the process super lightweight — upload your resume, we generate a profile in under a minute. So it’s more of a bonus layer if you want to stand out, not a whole extra job search on top of everything else.
fliellerjulian 1y ago
Two weeks ago I posted "LinkedIn sucks, so I built a better one" here on HN — it unexpectedly hit #1, and the feedback was incredible. Since then: - we hit #1 on Product Hunt the next day - got featured in their daily + weekly newsletter - 1,500+ sign ups - 1,000+ waitlist sign ups from non US countries - 32,000+ website visitors - 35 recruiter signed up The response gave us so much conviction that we decided to go all-in: we left our Big Tech jobs to work on Openspot full time. It still feels surreal. What we are building: In a world where AI can write the perfect resume for anyone, what actually makes you stand out is you — your personality, your voice, your story. That’s what OpenSpot helps you showcase — through video, audio, projects, and more. If you're curious what we've learned so far — from launch tactics to handling the wave of attention to quitting Big Tech jobs to build this full-time — happy to share everything.
- refulgentis 1y ago
  I don't buy this as sold because Big Tech has very strict policies about IP ownership on code you write while you're working for them, even if it is totally separate from work. Wish you the best of luck, but I also wish for a tradeoff towards honesty from salesmanship in this world. EDIT: A cursory review of your Twitter reveals several significant departures from this narrative. I'm very confused but given your goals with this, would highly recommend you at least tighten things up enough so it doesn't take 1 missed piece of ingroup knowledge on your part, and ~1 minute of due diligence on X, to find out we're reading copy-pasta. It's also really uncool to create two bits of "someone else did it" knowledge in the world that are absolutely false and irresponsible (built quickly parttime, quit after launch). Also, if the other founders contracted you while they were still at big tech, that can be a major problem for them.
  - richardhenry 1y ago
    This isn't really true. In California specifically, Labor Code Section 2870 limits an employer's claim over inventions or products created a) outside of work hours, b) without using company resources like your work laptop, and c) not related to/competitive with the company's business. Even outside of California, it's extremely rare for companies to try to claim ownership of side projects that check all of the boxes above. Legal action is expensive and bad PR unless the employee is clearly infringing or building something competitive.
    - ryandrake 1y ago
      > c) not related to/competitive with the company's business. Is a loophole big enough for a train to go through. BigTech can, and will, with a straight face, claim almost anything as "related to" something they are working on--because they work on everything. I have worked at two BigTechs and had to basically stop working on side projects because they both emphatically threatened (during onboarding) that they will aggressively claim IP ownership of moonlighting projects. Anyone considering doing potentially commercializable side projects should do their due diligence. Even if you're right and they can't claim it, do you have the $$$ to fight their army of lawyers? EDIT: The loophole's actual wording is: "Relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer" Which I think we can all agree is pretty broad. Be careful out there!
- sksxihve 1y ago
  Any concern that something like this could make it easier to discriminate against certain groups of people? Or how this might tip towards appearance-based bias or age bias when making decisions on who to interview?
  - echelon 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - sksxihve 1y ago
      > Don't tell these founders not to build their thing. Where did I tell them not to build it? > We're all actively discriminating against those who don't have the faculty or propensity to code or engineer as they would lower the productivity of our software teams. Discrimination here is healthy for the good of the whole. That's not what hiring discrimination is, companies aren't required to hire someone who is not capable of doing a job. That's why you'll see requirements like "ability to lift 50lbs". > Some are unjust and we can do things about them. Yeah, like laws against discriminating based on age, race, disability, etc..
- leereeves 1y ago
  > In a world where AI can write the perfect resume for anyone, what actually makes you stand out is you — your personality, your voice, your story. That’s what OpenSpot helps you showcase — through video, audio, projects, and more. The video and audio part are clear, but how do you showcase projects?
  - fliellerjulian 1y ago
    we have a "projects" section where you can upload, pdfs, images, links, and videos and also ofc write something about each project :)
- robg 1y ago
  Have you considered scrapping HN, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc posts? I used to play with semantic algorithms and it’s pretty cool how quickly you can show someone’s voice and content vectors and how they relate to others.
- srivmo 1y ago
  How will this scale for Product folks? Unlike Engg. and Design, there is very little product guys can do to showcase their work/projects (except for a go-live feature blog). How about Sales guys and other similar functions?
bhevrkjncwnkljf 1y ago
Can you share a bit about the stack you’re using for OpenSpot? Always curious how early-stage projects like this scale so quickly after getting traction.
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  The Frontend is build with React, while the backend is written in Python (Flask). For the Database, we use MongoDB and everything is hosted on AWS. To build fast, we used cursor and some other third party SaaS like streamIO and Supabase.
hypebrand 1y ago
Any plans to expand beyond the US? I’m in Germany and would love to get access. The professional scene here is pretty stiff — this could be a breath of fresh air.
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  Since our initial launch, we have also launched in India, but we are currently working on all legal requirements to launch in more countries very soon!
  - franceso_ 1y ago
    From Canada here, would also love to sign up! just entered the waitlist
franceso_ 1y ago
Congrats on going full-time, really takes guts to leave the golden hand cuffs!!
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  haha thanks!!! :)
quintes 1y ago
What’s wrong with LinkedIn and how will you stop yours from whatever those issues are? How will you get network effects? Btw I hate LinkedIn
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  totally agree on the last part What’s wrong with LinkedIn (in our view): - It’s become more like Facebook than a professional network: lots of noise, humblebrags, and algorithm-chasing. - Everyone looks the same on paper — resumes blur together, and it’s hard to stand out. - You're incentivized to perform rather than be real — especially if you're early in your career or outside of the “right” networks. How we're different: - No feed. No likes. No fake engagement. - You show who you are with video, audio, and proof of work — like a mini personal pitch. - Profiles are curated and designed to be browsed, not scrolled endlessly. Re: network effects — We’re starting small and high-signal: curated profiles + inbound interest from early recruiters. Our goal isn’t to replace LinkedIn’s entire graph, it’s to become the place you go when you want to stand out and be discovered for real.
  - postalrat 1y ago
    How are you going to make money? Linkedin makes money by blocking access to profiles unless you pay them. I don't see why your business model won't evolve to be just like them.
    - fliellerjulian 1y ago
      just like linkedin, we will be charging recruiters to access the platform and search for candidates
  - quintes 1y ago
    Thanks it sounds like you’ve got a game plan. My last caution is to avoid the post function. On LinkedIn at least in my network it’s everyone posting typical self promotion but I’m seeing more political leaning content and mostly dare I say it - left leaning - which means I can’t say anything - but also means I know where my network stands on issues. That’s interesting but only serves to promote those agendas.
berketheay 1y ago
I’ve always felt like my LinkedIn just collects dust unless I actively post, will definitely check out openspot
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  LinkedIn became Facebook with resumes..you basically need a "personal brand" to get hired
phoe18 1y ago
This page seems to have formatting issues on mobile (at least on mine -- pixel 9 pro running chrome browser, worth looking into).
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  looking into it, thanks!!
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  fixed ^
bnchrch 1y ago
This seems great, and surely well designed. But! I have one issue. You don't have a demo profile for me to view. I saw small pieces, but I didnt know if the investment in signing up would be worth the outcome, without knowing what the outcome would be.
- bnchrch 1y ago
  Also, I am based in the US but when I click the "Im hiring" button im told "Its only available in the US, give us your email and we'll let you know when we launch in your area"
  - onionopionion 1y ago
    Are you maybe using a VPN outside the US?
    - bnchrch 1y ago
      Im someone from the US whos at a conference in Canada. Just a good data point for you may not want to block on IP. Particularly if you think of remote companies with Staff in other countries who are part of hiring for US roles.
- onionopionion 1y ago
  good point, I will add a demo profile to the website! For now feel free to view my profile here: https://career.heyopenspot.com/meet/julian-flieller-eoua https://career.heyopenspot.com/meet/julian-flieller-eoua You can sign up using your resume or linkedIn and your profile will be curated for you, so it takes about 30sec ;)
brailsafe 1y ago
So it's like about.me but with video?
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  That’s a fair comparison, but we’re aiming for something much deeper than just a pretty landing page. Openspot is about curated professional identity. It lets people showcase not just what they do, but who they are — through video, audio, projects, and real storytelling. It’s built to help people stand out in a world where resumes are starting to look the same (especially with AI). We’re also bringing in discovery tools for recruiters, so it’s not just a personal page — it’s a real alternative to the resume-black-hole problem.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
instagib 1y ago
The landing page doesn’t display well with mobile. Also, this got flagged for some reason.
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  idk why it has been flagged..anyways, the mobile display is now fixed ;)

Kinda feels like making job searching a job in itself. I just want to send a CV and that's it.

fliellerjulian 1y ago
Yeah Totally get that! for some people, sending a solid CV and letting the work speak for itself should be enough. Openspot is more for folks who feel like their resume doesn’t tell the whole story. Maybe they’re career-switching, self-taught, or just want to show a bit more of who they are, not just what they’ve done. That said, we’re working to make the process super lightweight — upload your resume, we generate a profile in under a minute. So it’s more of a bonus layer if you want to stand out, not a whole extra job search on top of everything else.

Two weeks ago I posted "LinkedIn sucks, so I built a better one" here on HN — it unexpectedly hit #1, and the feedback was incredible. Since then: - we hit #1 on Product Hunt the next day - got featured in their daily + weekly newsletter - 1,500+ sign ups - 1,000+ waitlist sign ups from non US countries - 32,000+ website visitors - 35 recruiter signed up The response gave us so much conviction that we decided to go all-in: we left our Big Tech jobs to work on Openspot full time. It still feels surreal. What we are building: In a world where AI can write the perfect resume for anyone, what actually makes you stand out is you — your personality, your voice, your story. That’s what OpenSpot helps you showcase — through video, audio, projects, and more. If you're curious what we've learned so far — from launch tactics to handling the wave of attention to quitting Big Tech jobs to build this full-time — happy to share everything.

refulgentis 1y ago
I don't buy this as sold because Big Tech has very strict policies about IP ownership on code you write while you're working for them, even if it is totally separate from work. Wish you the best of luck, but I also wish for a tradeoff towards honesty from salesmanship in this world. EDIT: A cursory review of your Twitter reveals several significant departures from this narrative. I'm very confused but given your goals with this, would highly recommend you at least tighten things up enough so it doesn't take 1 missed piece of ingroup knowledge on your part, and ~1 minute of due diligence on X, to find out we're reading copy-pasta. It's also really uncool to create two bits of "someone else did it" knowledge in the world that are absolutely false and irresponsible (built quickly parttime, quit after launch). Also, if the other founders contracted you while they were still at big tech, that can be a major problem for them.
- richardhenry 1y ago
  This isn't really true. In California specifically, Labor Code Section 2870 limits an employer's claim over inventions or products created a) outside of work hours, b) without using company resources like your work laptop, and c) not related to/competitive with the company's business. Even outside of California, it's extremely rare for companies to try to claim ownership of side projects that check all of the boxes above. Legal action is expensive and bad PR unless the employee is clearly infringing or building something competitive.
  - ryandrake 1y ago
    > c) not related to/competitive with the company's business. Is a loophole big enough for a train to go through. BigTech can, and will, with a straight face, claim almost anything as "related to" something they are working on--because they work on everything. I have worked at two BigTechs and had to basically stop working on side projects because they both emphatically threatened (during onboarding) that they will aggressively claim IP ownership of moonlighting projects. Anyone considering doing potentially commercializable side projects should do their due diligence. Even if you're right and they can't claim it, do you have the $$$ to fight their army of lawyers? EDIT: The loophole's actual wording is: "Relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer" Which I think we can all agree is pretty broad. Be careful out there!
sksxihve 1y ago
Any concern that something like this could make it easier to discriminate against certain groups of people? Or how this might tip towards appearance-based bias or age bias when making decisions on who to interview?
- echelon 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - sksxihve 1y ago
    > Don't tell these founders not to build their thing. Where did I tell them not to build it? > We're all actively discriminating against those who don't have the faculty or propensity to code or engineer as they would lower the productivity of our software teams. Discrimination here is healthy for the good of the whole. That's not what hiring discrimination is, companies aren't required to hire someone who is not capable of doing a job. That's why you'll see requirements like "ability to lift 50lbs". > Some are unjust and we can do things about them. Yeah, like laws against discriminating based on age, race, disability, etc..
leereeves 1y ago
> In a world where AI can write the perfect resume for anyone, what actually makes you stand out is you — your personality, your voice, your story. That’s what OpenSpot helps you showcase — through video, audio, projects, and more. The video and audio part are clear, but how do you showcase projects?
- fliellerjulian 1y ago
  we have a "projects" section where you can upload, pdfs, images, links, and videos and also ofc write something about each project :)
robg 1y ago
Have you considered scrapping HN, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc posts? I used to play with semantic algorithms and it’s pretty cool how quickly you can show someone’s voice and content vectors and how they relate to others.
srivmo 1y ago
How will this scale for Product folks? Unlike Engg. and Design, there is very little product guys can do to showcase their work/projects (except for a go-live feature blog). How about Sales guys and other similar functions?

bhevrkjncwnkljf 1y ago

Can you share a bit about the stack you’re using for OpenSpot? Always curious how early-stage projects like this scale so quickly after getting traction.

fliellerjulian 1y ago
The Frontend is build with React, while the backend is written in Python (Flask). For the Database, we use MongoDB and everything is hosted on AWS. To build fast, we used cursor and some other third party SaaS like streamIO and Supabase.

hypebrand 1y ago

Any plans to expand beyond the US? I’m in Germany and would love to get access. The professional scene here is pretty stiff — this could be a breath of fresh air.

fliellerjulian 1y ago
Since our initial launch, we have also launched in India, but we are currently working on all legal requirements to launch in more countries very soon!
- franceso_ 1y ago
  From Canada here, would also love to sign up! just entered the waitlist

franceso_ 1y ago

Congrats on going full-time, really takes guts to leave the golden hand cuffs!!

fliellerjulian 1y ago
haha thanks!!! :)

quintes 1y ago

What’s wrong with LinkedIn and how will you stop yours from whatever those issues are? How will you get network effects? Btw I hate LinkedIn

fliellerjulian 1y ago
totally agree on the last part What’s wrong with LinkedIn (in our view): - It’s become more like Facebook than a professional network: lots of noise, humblebrags, and algorithm-chasing. - Everyone looks the same on paper — resumes blur together, and it’s hard to stand out. - You're incentivized to perform rather than be real — especially if you're early in your career or outside of the “right” networks. How we're different: - No feed. No likes. No fake engagement. - You show who you are with video, audio, and proof of work — like a mini personal pitch. - Profiles are curated and designed to be browsed, not scrolled endlessly. Re: network effects — We’re starting small and high-signal: curated profiles + inbound interest from early recruiters. Our goal isn’t to replace LinkedIn’s entire graph, it’s to become the place you go when you want to stand out and be discovered for real.
- postalrat 1y ago
  How are you going to make money? Linkedin makes money by blocking access to profiles unless you pay them. I don't see why your business model won't evolve to be just like them.
  - fliellerjulian 1y ago
    just like linkedin, we will be charging recruiters to access the platform and search for candidates
- quintes 1y ago
  Thanks it sounds like you’ve got a game plan. My last caution is to avoid the post function. On LinkedIn at least in my network it’s everyone posting typical self promotion but I’m seeing more political leaning content and mostly dare I say it - left leaning - which means I can’t say anything - but also means I know where my network stands on issues. That’s interesting but only serves to promote those agendas.

berketheay 1y ago

I’ve always felt like my LinkedIn just collects dust unless I actively post, will definitely check out openspot

fliellerjulian 1y ago
LinkedIn became Facebook with resumes..you basically need a "personal brand" to get hired

phoe18 1y ago

This page seems to have formatting issues on mobile (at least on mine -- pixel 9 pro running chrome browser, worth looking into).

fliellerjulian 1y ago
looking into it, thanks!!
fliellerjulian 1y ago
fixed ^

bnchrch 1y ago

This seems great, and surely well designed. But! I have one issue. You don't have a demo profile for me to view. I saw small pieces, but I didnt know if the investment in signing up would be worth the outcome, without knowing what the outcome would be.

bnchrch 1y ago
Also, I am based in the US but when I click the "Im hiring" button im told "Its only available in the US, give us your email and we'll let you know when we launch in your area"
- onionopionion 1y ago
  Are you maybe using a VPN outside the US?
  - bnchrch 1y ago
    Im someone from the US whos at a conference in Canada. Just a good data point for you may not want to block on IP. Particularly if you think of remote companies with Staff in other countries who are part of hiring for US roles.
onionopionion 1y ago
good point, I will add a demo profile to the website! For now feel free to view my profile here: https://career.heyopenspot.com/meet/julian-flieller-eoua https://career.heyopenspot.com/meet/julian-flieller-eoua You can sign up using your resume or linkedIn and your profile will be curated for you, so it takes about 30sec ;)

brailsafe 1y ago

So it's like about.me but with video?

fliellerjulian 1y ago
That’s a fair comparison, but we’re aiming for something much deeper than just a pretty landing page. Openspot is about curated professional identity. It lets people showcase not just what they do, but who they are — through video, audio, projects, and real storytelling. It’s built to help people stand out in a world where resumes are starting to look the same (especially with AI). We’re also bringing in discovery tools for recruiters, so it’s not just a personal page — it’s a real alternative to the resume-black-hole problem.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

instagib 1y ago

The landing page doesn’t display well with mobile. Also, this got flagged for some reason.

fliellerjulian 1y ago
idk why it has been flagged..anyways, the mobile display is now fixed ;)