How Getting Screwed by Indeed Led to 7,500 Users and a Recruiter-Angering Feature

The Spite-Powered Origin Story #

When you get laid off, it sucks. When your pregnant wife gets laid off, it really sucks. This guy on Reddit decided to channel that rage into building a competitor to Indeed. Fast-forward to 7,500 users (and counting), and he’s about to launch a feature that recruiters will absolutely hate. The best revenge isn’t just living well, apparently—it’s disrupting job boards.

As someone who’s dabbled in side projects (and, let’s be real, killed ~80% of them), I’m obsessed with builds like this. They’re powered by obsession, real pain points, and just enough pettiness to push through when things get hard.

What Makes This Different? #

The poster didn’t rebuild another generic job board. Thank god. Nobody needs Yet Another LinkedIn Clone™. Instead, the project leans into bad experiences with existing platforms—ghosting from recruiters, clickbait job postings, “entry-level” roles requiring 5 years of experience + three certifications—and fixes them.

One killer feature? Transparent hiring. The job board will show exactly how far along your application is in the company’s hiring pipeline. No ghosting, no black box. You apply, you can see when your resume is read, if the hiring manager leaves feedback, and whether your app hits the bin.

This transparency sounds incredible for job seekers—and like an absolute headache for recruiters. But hey, hire better and ghost less if you don’t want to end up on blast.

Let’s Talk Numbers #

So how does a job board go from zero to 7,500 users? Especially with heavyweights like LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster—and like 20 VC-backed clones—dominating?

1. The audience was ready. This wasn’t building a solution in search of a problem. People hate job boards, recruiters, and ghosting. The OP planted a flag and immediately tapped into that frustration.
2. Product-market fit from day one. The r/sideproject poster said they launched the first prototype on r/recruitinghell with features like transparency and ghost-proofing. It blew up because these pain points hit hard for millions of people. (Not just Redditors—this issue’s universal.)
3. Community-driven growth. This found users the old-school indie-hacker way: online communities. The job board is tiny by Indeed’s standards, but 7,500 users isn’t nothing. Build for the right niche, and you don’t need $100k burn rates.

I love that there’s no mention of a growth hack here. Just listening to what users hate and shipping fixes.

The Thorny Recruiter Problem #

Here’s where things could get spicy. Recruiters will hate this transparency feature. It takes away any plausible deniability for ghosting or “oops, that senior role wasn’t entry-level.” OP might run into serious pushback if companies don’t want to participate.

But you know what? Screw ‘em. Recruiters are one half of the market on most job boards, but if you focus on job seekers, you can succeed without recruiting teams.

Case in point: r/recruitinghell’s comments. One user mentioned how they’d “love to see employers held accountable” and how transparency would help them apply “without wasting hours on crap roles.” These users don’t care if hiring managers reject another tool—they’ve got options.

A potential workaround? OP could skip the recruiters entirely and collect job deals via scraping instead. Ghost-proof the entire corporate layer if you have to. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a freemium model where companies can pay for extra features but never drive the platform’s rules.

Will It Work Long Term? #

Here’s the wildcard: maintaining energy in side projects is hard. There’s a reason platforms like Indeed are so dominant—scaling systems is brutal work. The OP has a passionate base of early users, but turning that into a sustainable model is a whole other animal.

Still, I’m rooting for them. Spite-built projects are some of the best out there because they’re born from hitting obstacles firsthand. The mission’s clear, the community’s engaged, and there’s real potential to shake up bloated incumbents.

We won’t know how this ends yet, but one thing’s for sure: recruiters will be Mad Online when that feature drops. And honestly? Good.