Why do you think they are quitting after a few days on the job?
Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
231–240 of 378 posts
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#232This is sad, I hope you or someone else will start that again in another form.
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#233Thank you for trying
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#234When I announced the launch of 70 Million Jobs on HN back in 2017, it proved to be one of the most widely read and discussed posts ever on the site. I was totally blown away. Once again, I am struck by the incredibly sensitive and supportive tenor of the reactions to my news here. For some context, besides having a criminal record, I was/am a solo founder who somehow talked his way into Y Comb. Perhaps most surprisin…
Brother, sorry you’re going through this. Thanks for sharing.
> I'm here to say that some of these folks are the most honorable, humble, appreciate, hard-working people you could imagine. They just want a peaceful life, to take care of their family and get a good night sleep.
Not my experience with many felons. Not trying to be rude here, but how do you tell the food from the bad?
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#235I'm sorry for the outcome. This is is quite a gracious post given the circumstances.
Do you think with the Fed fighting inflation and the jobs market potentially turning in a year or so from now, that going into hibernation and relaunching when the economy has more need for this would make sense?
Asking for a friend who launched a two sided jobs marketplace for a niche market a few months ago and has a heck of a hard time attracting job seekers.
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#236There's a huge plot hole in the story.
> When the economy and job market began storming back, we were inundated with inbound requests for our services. Our perseverance seemed to be paying off. Except now we were hit with a new gut punch: “The Great Resignation.” Now our workers were reticent to come back to work. And if they did accept a job, they’d often leave after only a few days.
I couldn't understand how "The Great Resignation" made the situation more difficult for 70MJ. I've read the follow up comment[GrRegCm] and it didn't make things any clearer:
> During the Great Resignation, we found it took 10x the time and effort to get someone placed, eroding our already thin margins. Plus, if a worker left (which they began doing at a great rate), we're obligated to replace them. All of this made it pretty much impossible for us to make money. (Again, we're a for-profit business). I hope this clarifies things.
It doesn't.
There's a _sort of_ incoherency and inconsistency here.
On the one hand the "formerly incarcerated" have a hard time (re)-integrating into society. Among other difficulties they struggle harder than others, ceteris paribus, finding a job.
In turn this has, supposedly, certain negative effects like "the pernicious cycles of recidivism in this country--cycles that destroy lives, tear apart families and decimate communities"
That's both the societal issue you set out to improve and what made the for-profit venture viable.
But on the other hand the same "formerly incarcerated" can allow themselves to "often leave after only a few days", "which they began doing at a great rate". I guess the welfare system in the US is quite extensive if people - and not just any people but ex-cons - can allow themselves to quit jobs after a few days with nothing else in the horizon.
I'll qualify all of that and note that, as I wrote above, it's only _sort of_ inconsistent. It's possible that they don't have good alternatives, but they see everyone else quitting, including spoiled and overindulged by 2021 tech sector employees, and think their circumstances apply. Or they don't think but just do what everyone else.
It's also possible that I'm still missing here something and my whole analysis is wrong because of that.
But it's also possible that "The Great Resignation" isn't the reason for the company's failing.
I'm not convinced. If I did miss something I'd be happy to hear.
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#237When I announced the launch of 70 Million Jobs on HN back in 2017, it proved to be one of the most widely read and discussed posts ever on the site. I was totally blown away. Once again, I am struck by the incredibly sensitive and supportive tenor of the reactions to my news here. For some context, besides having a criminal record, I was/am a solo founder who somehow talked his way into Y Comb. Perhaps most surprisin…
What are the operational costs of 70MR? What prevents you from scaling to zero employees?
If I had to guess, account people who can work with employers and future employees to get deals done once the platform does initial matchmaking.
Not everything, particularly employment, can be self-serve through a website.
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#238I'm genuinely sad to read this, even while I am so very impressed by the grace and integrity that you are demonstrating. I'm going to save this as an example of how to do hard things, right.
This is hard, but it's clear that the world has not heard the last of you.
Indeed, the world might not deserve you.
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#239Never heard of it, but sounds dangerous helping out rapists and murderers and such.
Perhaps, but unless you want a permanent under class of people unable to find real employment, there needs to be an on-ramp. Either someone is too dangerous to have in public (which case they should still be imprisoned), or they have served their sentence and their punishment is over.
> Perhaps, but unless you want a permanent under class of people unable to find real employment, there needs to be an on-ramp. Either someone is too dangerous to have in public (which case they should still be imprisoned), or they have served their sentence and their punishment is over.
That's not how the "criminal justice system" works. Not in the US and not in most of the rest of the world, especially the "first world"/"Western world".
Prisoners are NOT release only once they are deemed no longer dangerous. They are release once their allotted prison time is over. They can still be dangerous and released, and they can be not dangerous at all from they one and still go to prison.
Also: Choosing to like someone and dislike someone else, choosing whom you assist when not obligated by law and whom you don't, choosing who gets your time and who doesn't - all of this is not part of the punishment people are sentenced to by the state court system and thus it is not "over" in any sense or way once they are release from prison. You, I, and Mr. sowwww are free to volunteer our time, money and efforts towards whom and what we'd like and we're under no obligation to assist people we don't like just because "they have served their sentence and their punishment is over".
Re: Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Several options 1) Marshall islands or Micronesia. Buy flight on credit, do farm or whatever labor you can to eat while you get booted. No visa needed to live or work. 2) Some nations such as Argentina have effectively no immigration enforcement. Once you're in the country you're good and you can file a court case to become a citizen immediately (you'll have to wait 2+ year for it to be granted). In the meantime the…
Have you actually done any of the 7 options you mention? (If you have, I'd love to hear details). I think you may be going on bad information on at least some of them. For the record, I have a federal conviction in the US. I got out of prison at age 28, finished my degrees (CS & math), and succeeded as an early employee at a startup, so it is possible. Then in 2014 I went to Argentina for the supposed "2 year citizen…
There’s also the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty which allows you to open a business and live in the Netherlands if your background is clean for the last 10 years. You only need a €4500 investment in the business and another couple k for the application fees. This is what I did.