Some companies want a cover letter. This one wants body art.
The boss of an AI startup is eating crow after a jaw-dropping hiring gimmick blew up in his face—offering job seekers an instant interview if they permanently branded themselves with the company’s logo.
Jordan Zietz, co-founder of the Y Combinator-backed LemonLime, is scrambling to clean up the fallout after an eyebrow-raising stunt at the company’s afterparty during Y Combinator’s Startup School in San Francisco went viral for all the wrong reasons.
The startup brought in a tattoo artist and promised an “instant interview” to anyone willing to get a LemonLime tattoo on the spot.
“We are bold, we take risks, and we do things that haven’t been done before,” Zietz wrote in a LinkedIn post that was later deleted.
He doubled down in the post, adding: “Being committed to our mission is paramount. Pre-requisites for building the future. If you’re reaching out to us to apply for a job, you might want to take notes.”
Instead of applause, the stunt triggered a torrent of criticism after screenshots spread across X, with many accusing the startup of exploiting ambitious tech workers desperate to land jobs.
Other compared the spectacle to an episode of Netflix’s Black Mirror.
Still, seven people took the company up on the offer and walked away with permanent LemonLime logo tattoos.
Zietz and the company’s CTO, Daniela Munoz, also got the startup’s logo tattooed.
As the backlash snowballed, Zietz admitted he “messed up” in a lengthy apology posted to X.
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He also pledged that LemonLime would cover laser tattoo removal costs for anyone who later experiences “delayed regret.”
Despite the controversy, the company told Inc. Magazine that all seven participants remain in the interview process for AI and engineering roles.
The damage did not stop there.
Dimple Amitha Garuadapuri, an independent women’s health startup founder who appeared in photos from the original announcement, later said LemonLime had used her image without permission.
She said she was not applying for a job, did not get the company logo tattooed and had simply received a personal tattoo while attending the event.
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