
Woo.io - mikevm
https://woo.io
======
amidudu
Hi, I'm Ami and Iam the founder & CTO of Woo. Thanks for adding us to hacker
news :) The service is currently by invitation only because it's important to
us to get the right techies on-board and keep our service quality. However
this community is definitely unique and special so here is an exclusive invite
which you can use to bypass the invitation request.

Feel free to share your feedback!

[https://woo.io/eng/useinvite?token=1085A2AA0E9B89D90AF94BCD0...](https://woo.io/eng/useinvite?token=1085A2AA0E9B89D90AF94BCD0596458E)

~~~
fweespeech
You need to include "Remote" as a location. :p

Also, you should allow "Other" to be the only location used. I had to pick an
irrelevant location to get the profile to go through.

~~~
Kiro
Or they only support the US atm? That's how I interpreted the error message I
got when picking something outside of the autocomplete list (which also was US
only).

~~~
fweespeech
Well, I'm looking to relocate if I was to change jobs so my current location
is the question they implied/asked for and the target location is a different
city.

I could change it but then people would be unaware I'd need to relocate.
Basically, the only reason I'm looking for a job is because my current
employer has blocked me on relocating to one of our other locations.

------
minimaxir
There _really_ should be a rule that when a press logo is present, clicking on
the logo brings you to the article mentioning the startup, especially since
the site itself is relatively sparse.

I could only find 2/4 of the press articles:

[http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/02/09/woo-lets-you-
find-a...](http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/02/09/woo-lets-you-find-a-new-
job-on-your-terms-anonymously/)

[http://www.cmswire.com/social-business/new-platform-
promises...](http://www.cmswire.com/social-business/new-platform-promises-to-
woo-tech-talent/)

Both articles were released 7 hours ago, which implies that this is a
coordinated marketing strategy and not organic buzz.

~~~
amidudu
[http://www.fastcompany.com/3056478/the-future-of-work/new-
re...](http://www.fastcompany.com/3056478/the-future-of-work/new-requiting-
platform-uses-anonymous-profiles-to-help-tech-companies-fin)
[http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/02/09/startup-aims-to-
turn...](http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/02/09/startup-aims-to-turn-tech-
recruiting-process-upside-down/)

~~~
minimaxir
Thanks for that; I was wondering why they were not showing up in Google.

So all 4 were released at the same time. I strongly question the use of a
Early-Morning USA embargo.

~~~
hammock
>I strongly question the use of a Early-Morning USA embargo.

Why?

~~~
minimaxir
Ideally you want your press released at a time where it's most visible for
your target demographic (unless it's bad news, in which case you release at
the _least_ visible time, a tactic that startups have been employing). Press
releases aren't evergreen content.

------
latchkey
I tried to sign up to check it out and got some bullshit about... "Your
request to join Woo's closed beta has been sent."

I'd want to use this site as a hiring tool (and wanted to see what the
experience is like from the person signing up), but if they aren't even
allowing people to sign up without going through some 'beta' process, I can't
see how they would have anyone using their site.

Why is this at the top of hackernews?

~~~
sbierwagen
Astroturfing.

~~~
dang
Actually, this is an interesting case. It looks to me like the early votes
were real, but then a bunch of later voters showed up to promote the story.
Perhaps teammates got wind of their startup being on HN.

All: promotional voting is bad on HN. It's against the rules, users hate it
and are good at detecting it, and we penalize accounts and sites that do it.

In this case, though, there clearly was some real community interest, so we've
reduced the penalty on the story. Hopefully the thread can focus on the actual
startup now.

~~~
sanderjd
Honest question: if in the future a company I work for is submitted to HN and
I notice, should I really not upvote it? That seems like it would be a really
unnatural reaction.

~~~
dang
An isolated vote won't make a difference. If a bunch of people have the same
reaction, that might be indistinguishable from a voting ring.

------
boondaburrah
Since cost of living and rent varies widely by location, it'd be much nicer if
I could set multiple expectations of salary. You'd have to pay me more for me
to be willing to move to SF, for example, but I know I can expect less if I'm
working on the east coast, or say, Tokyo, where programmers aren't as 'hot'.

------
vyrotek
I'm more interested in this from the hiring side of things but I was curious
to see the experience from the employee side. For something that emphasizes
things being _anonymous_ it sure does ask a lot of identifying questions about
you that may deter individuals from signing up. It asks for: LinkedIn URL,
Full Name, Country, Current Company, Current Position.

I imagine the intent was that things would be kept anonymous in regards to
your data being exposed to the companies looking to hire. But I can't help
feel like individuals would feel more comfortable being a bit more anonymous
with Woo.io itself.

------
chrisabrams
This seems similar to what Startup Digest did years ago with their Startup VIP
program.

If the focus stays on helping quality talent connect with quality companies,
then it should do well.

------
pavlov
LinkedIn profile required -- pass...

(Maybe their business model is to be acquired by LinkedIn? This would make
some kind of sense as a LinkedIn service.)

~~~
mikevm
After getting the invite and signing up, I no longer see the link to my
LinkedIn profile anywhere in my account. I'm thinking that they ask for the
profile only to get the invite (maybe a verification step for them?)

------
alexandercrohde
I opened this link, thought the site looked interesting. Scrolled down, saw
"Yahoo," "Microsoft," and a bunch of companies I've never heard of.

Interest went from 70% to 0. Yahoo is not "Top Tech," it is a corpse of a
company that has recently layed off tons of staff, has dim prospects, and has
recently been accused of sexism. And the fact that you call it "Top Tech,"
demonstrates to me that the site lacks integrity.

~~~
ultramancool
Like it or not, Yahoo still runs several extremely popular services including
Tumblr, so I don't think its that disingenuous to call it a top tech company.

~~~
alexandercrohde
Yahoo owns Tumblr, but it runs independently. If the Tumblr portion of Yahoo
is hiring they should (and I suspect would have) put their logo up.

And no, Tumblr is not "top tech" either. It may be more than a dying husk, but
it's 2 tiers below "top tech."

------
beau26
I guess I don't really see the value to businesses. People have an awful
tendency to (a) overrate themselves dramatically and (b) have wildly
unrealistic expectations for what they're worth and what's out there. So you
wind up with a bunch of "10/10" Ruby engineers who think they're worth 150k,
when the reality is that they're probably 7/10 guys that are worth 2/3s of
that.

------
bentpins
Would be nice if it was clearer that it is only taking a US address at the
moment (I think)

------
ishener
The basic idea is brilliant. Put an anonymous resume out there, and get
approached by companies who already agree to your salary expectations...

I do agree though that something is not very enticing about that homepage and
wording (or lack thereof...)

------
bduerst
How does this recruitment service differentiate from Hired.com?

Your landing pages are eerily similar.

~~~
gingerrr
This is the biggest question I have as well. Will be interesting to see how
they differentiate themselves, Hired has been providing this anonymized,
salary-first hiring platform for a few years now.

I hate to ask how Woo plans to "disrupt" the existing market, but...

------
dmxt
I'm not particularly happy that they didn't openly say that subscription is
for participation in closed beta. I'm glad that I read comments before signing
up. Almost all websites with closed beta subscription clearly tell you before
you sign up.

Interesting fact: This woo.io is posted right after "the woo guy", on Super
Bowl sunday, who screamed "woooooo" every few seconds near CBS TV
camera/microphone for everyone on the nation to hear.

Edit: Beta invite bypasser is posted somewhere in the comments.

~~~
amidudu
Here is an invite:
[https://woo.io/eng/useinvite?token=1085A2AA0E9B89D90AF94BCD0...](https://woo.io/eng/useinvite?token=1085A2AA0E9B89D90AF94BCD0596458E)

------
chm
I wondered how they make money, and it's covered in their FAQ. It seems they
sell matches to companies. So MS has to pay to get matched to you, for
example.

~~~
rivalz
I think it's kinda like a LinkedIn recruiter account

------
meetsamir
Nice. Will it work?

------
hws100
Really like the idea, simple ui, yet clean, the onboarding was very smooth.
Now let's see what I get...

------
ajax_freak
Wow thats really amazing! I will try it out next time I will find a job!

