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The AI Startup That Guaranteed Job Interviews for People Getting a Tattoo
A co-founder apologized after offering job interviews to those willing to get inked with a company logo.
Job interviews often require take-home tests, strategy memos, even personality assessments. This one, though, involved permanent ink and needles.
The co-founder of early AI startup LemonLime set off an uproar after offering attendees at a networking party a dare of sorts: anyone who got a company tattoo at the event would get an instant interview.
The idea was to “meet exceptional people, and find out which of them are just as crazy as we are,” Jordan Zietz posted on LinkedIn, adding that he had brought a tattoo artist along for the occasion. “We are bold, we take risks, and we do things that haven’t been done before.”
Seven people, he wrote, took him up on the offer, leaving the San Francisco event last weekend inked with a permanent tattoo. “If you’re reaching out to us to apply for a job, you might want to take notes,” he added.
The online outrage erupted almost instantly—some from people venting about “Orwellian” Silicon Valley startup culture. Others decried a hiring environment in which job seekers have to jump through even more hoops just to get a foot in the door.
“The job market cannot be this cooked,” one X user wrote, “that kids have to get permanent tattoos to get interviews.”
Another, more sheepish post from Zietz followed.
“I messed up,” he wrote, calling the offer reckless. This time, Zietz said that all of the people who got tattoos chose their own. None was asked to get one of LemonLime’s logo. Still, he said, “I should have understood the pressure and power dynamic created by connecting tattoos to hiring.” He declined to comment further.
Zietz and co-founder Daniela Muñoz started LemonLime earlier this year as a business that creates AI agents and automations for companies. The five-person company is in the current batch of startups going through the renowned Y Combinator startup accelerator program, and many people there were fellow Y Combinator founders and participants in its startup school, attendees said.
One of them, Dimple Amitha Garuadapuri, attended the event to network with other founders. She has her own startup, called Stri Health, which is focused on women’s health. She had been considering a tattoo for some time, and embraced the chance to go for it. She got something personal to her but declined to say what it was—except that it was neither a lemon nor a lime.
The photo of her receiving the tattoo went viral along with posts that she was interviewing for a job. “I felt the narrative of my virality wasn’t in my control,” she says. She is focused on her startup and is hiring: no tattoos required. “We don’t discriminate,” she says.
Another attendee, who asked not to be named, said about 30 others also showed up. He stayed about 30 minutes and witnessed the tattoo artist at work but couldn’t confirm whether anyone got a tattoo of LemonLime’s citrus-slice logo. (The event, he said, wasn’t exactly “bumpin’.”)
Zietz is no stranger to public attention. In 2022, while playing the Tree, Stanford’s unofficial mascot, he unfurled a 40-foot banner that read, “Stanford Hates Fun.” (He also spoke to The Wall Street Journal about it).
Veteran startup founders said the LemonLime gambit succeeded in generating attention, but plenty questioned the move.
“It’s novel, but I don’t like it,” said Mark Pincus, the former CEO of game company Zynga, and the author of a new book, “Life at the Speed of Play.” “You’re asking somebody to get the tattoo before we even know if we’re going to hire them—that’s not OK.”
He then offered a lighthearted alternative: “Maybe they could do a henna one, and then commit to make it permanent if we hire them.”
The technology industry, in particular, has been beset by layoffs in recent months from companies like Amazon and Meta, with thousands losing their jobs. Applicants have found it difficult to break through online hiring systems to even reach the interview stage.
An employee inking a company’s branding on their arms, legs or backs isn’t unheard of across American companies. Some staffers have stamped the logos of Walmart or Nike on their bodies to commemorate their time with the companies. The founder of sock maker Bombas, David Heath, got a tattoo—of the Bombas logo and its motto—after the company sold its millionth pair of socks.
In his mea culpa over the event, LemonLime’s Zietz wrote that interviews were available to “everyone regardless.”
He made another offer to those now having second thoughts about their tattoos: “We’re also ready to cover associated removal costs with anyone facing any delayed regret.”
Write to Allison Pohle at allison.pohle@wsj.com and Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com
