Comment by WrtCdEvrydy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by WrtCdEvrydy | Hacker News Reader

PoachMe.Dev: https://www.poachme.dev/#/devLand?reqCode=HNGOBRRR

Premise: Recruiters spam left and right, so we decided to create a website just so they could get a familiar calendar-like interface but asked them to pay for your time. As soon as we exposed the external version with the URL, we decided to make an automated template ("Great. Please book a slot on my calendar and we can chat more about this. You'll receive my resume upon confirmation of the booking. https://bk.poachme.dev/Lazaro"). After that we ended up creating a virtual business card service so that could easily create a web presence without going through a different service (https://bk.poachme.dev/kBMf).

Availability: Web

Price: $0

Cost: Nearly nothing, it just sits with my other hosted services.

Why do it? Honestly, asking someone to pay for your time is the easiest way to see who values your time. The cost to send a single spam message to thousands of developers is nearly zero and it takes time to sort through the messages to see if there's anything good. I have had experiences going from blackmail all the way to people disclosing the actual salary for the position without any money exchanging hands which proves that when your time has value it's suddenly possible for the pay bracket for a position to appear.

I really like this idea, where I'm from recruiters are the absolute worst.. Being that this is your app can you disclose that the model works? Like are people making some money with this? I'd hate to take this line and get no bites, or worse alienate myself from the opportunities.

Edit: I just remembered the title of the thread :), I guess not?

> get no bites, or worse alienate myself from the opportunities.

Each person can do it however they see fit. I tend to use it as a way to get the critical info needed (company name, salary, remote or not). Recruiters who send me messages with enough info don't get a link from me. If you're still reluctant to give me enough info to make a decision can book at $100/hr, and about 5% of those book.

It's up to you, if you're getting shitty recruiters, send me them the link.

Great idea, you must pursue it. I too get a lot of recruiter spam. The idea should be extended to companies who take up several hours of your time to interview only to reject you. Life is short.

The same ideals apply to companies...

"Here's my booking link"

Followed the 1st link in post, used GitHub sign-up button, allowed pop-up, signed in to GH, authorized app, ended up on white page with message about missing session status or something (sorry, I didn't capture verbatim message).

Went back to 1st page and tried again. No GH login prompt, white page with coloured progress bar at top, ended up back on initial page with message "Unable to establish a connection with the popup. It may have been blocked by the browser".

Firefox on Android. (Btw, perhaps it's on purpose, but I can't select and copy text on that page.)

Sorry, man, things be on fire over here... I didn't think anyone would actually sign up.

Gonna check this out and see what's wrong.

Some feedback (not sure if this is on purpose):

I'm using Brave, and I couldn't right-click to "Suggest a Strong Password" in your signup field. I've never had that happen with any other site before. No adblock or Shields up.

Also I can't seem to confirm my membership.

Weird, I have never seen that dropdown option but I was able to do it (but I also sometimes get a "Suggest Password" option).

We're mostly developer focused so that email/password signup is really for non-github users. I'll check it out.

Mm, okay. I tried signing up (I'm a marketing/community guy) and didn't use the Github sign-up. When I click the verification email link it just hangs on your logo.

That's no bueno but we are getting the HN hug of death.

I see your account is created and ready to roll.

How many users do you have right now?

Last year I created a prototype of something very similar, the key difference was that the idea was to auto pre screen recruiters instead of ask for pay.

We stopped counting after a bit but regularly get an influx get new features drop (like the virtual business card) and when we post someplace.

It's profitable enough to cover hosting but honestly we built the features we wanted out a product we wanted and it went from there.

Reminds me of 21 Co's Earn Product RE pay for answering message

Goes to show nothing is truly unique in this world.

We mostly just got fed up with spending hours on interviews where recruiters showed up late or just ghosted only to realize nothing materialized.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com