I still remember the exact moment everything changed.
It was 2:47 AM on a Tuesday. I was sitting at my kitchen table, laptop open, staring at a rejection email that had arrived 73 seconds after I hit submit.
73 seconds.
I spent three hours on that application. Tailoring my resume. Crafting a cover letter that told the story of why I was perfect for this role. Every single requirement they listed? I had it. The preferred qualifications? I exceeded them.
73 seconds later, an algorithm configured by an Applicant Tracking System rejected my application.
Here’s the thing: I knew exactly why, and it was all my fault.
I had spent years on the other side of that algorithm. At Alibaba. At Meta. At Amazon. I was the person configuring those systems, watching qualified people get filtered out, knowing the tools were broken but telling myself it was just how things worked at scale.
Sitting there at 2:47 AM, having just been laid off for the second time despite doing everything right, I finally felt what I’d been too busy to understand.
This is far more than just broken. It’s actually inhumane.
At that moment, something inside me shifted. Not just frustration or anger. Something deeper. A match was lit.
Here’s What I Know to Be True
You deserve a career that works for you, not one that keeps you up at night wondering if you’re one layoff away from starting over.
You deserve to be seen for what you can actually do, not filtered out by a robot that can’t understand human potential.
But here’s what we’re not going to do: we’re not going to keep pretending this is our fault.
We’ve been told we need to “network better, optimize our keywords, upskill, etc.” as if the problem is us, and not the system designed to reject us.
I’m calling BS.
Because here’s what I realized at 2:47 AM: there’s a gap between talent and opportunity. No one was building a bridge across it because everyone was too busy charging tolls on opposite sides.
Job boards make money by keeping you searching. LinkedIn makes billions from recruiters who want to screen you out. ATS companies serve the people rejecting you, and have no incentive to help you get through their AI filters.
The system is rigged. We all know it. We just keep playing along anyway because we’re terrified of what happens if we don’t.
That ends today. I’m done accepting that and I think you are too.
The Conversations That Changed Everything
After that 2:47 AM rejection, I started reverse engineering ATS systems to understand how and why their AI fails to recognize talent.
That’s when I made a mistake that became the most important thing that ever happened to me.
I accidentally published a fake job while testing. Thousands of people applied in 18 hours. I was horrified. I immediately took it down and sent emails to everyone who had applied, apologizing and offering career support to make it right.
Hundreds said yes!
For two weeks, I did nothing but talk to people. 13-hour days. Back-to-back calls. A product manager who had applied to 1,200 jobs in eight months. A software engineer out of work for eleven months. A designer who was starting to believe maybe she just wasn’t good enough anymore.
Every single person was qualified. Every single person was talented. Every single person was exhausted.
Because here’s what I heard in every story:
- “I just want someone to see me.”
- “I know I can do this job. I just can’t even get an interview.”
- “I feel like my experience doesn’t matter, like I’m invisible.”
These weren’t people who needed to be or do anything better. They were just people fighting a system that was never designed for them to succeed, especially in a job market like the one we have right now.
The Foundation Has Been Laid
What we’re building together started as one sleepless night and a thousand stories, and grew when my cofounder, Nicolas, joined me. Together, we’re combining decades of experience across people operations, data, product, engineering, and AI to rebuild the system from the ground up with YOU in mind. Today, we finally launch Allie into the world.
Allie is an AI career agent that searches for jobs while you sleep, understands how to bypass the algorithms that reject you, identifies connections in your network you didn’t know could help, and applies on your behalf in seconds instead of hours.
Allie is just the beginning.
We’re building an operating system for your professional life. A place where your career context accumulates instead of resets. Where your skills are recognized through the work you actually do, not just what’s on your resume; your relationships stay strong without you having to constantly remember who to check in with; you get early warnings about market changes before they blindside you, and with actionable insights on how to pivot, stay ahead, and protect your livelihood and your life from being upended by company decisions beyond your control.
We’re building infrastructure that puts you back in control because work should serve people, not the other way around.
The Bridge I See
I want you to imagine something with me.
Imagine that bridge I said no one wanted to build. On one side: talented people who deserve to be seen. On the other side: opportunities that need them.
Right now, that bridge doesn’t exist. There’s just that gap, and we have all been told to jump it ourselves:
- Build the perfect resume.
- Network harder.
- Prove yourself again and again.
- Jump higher!
- Try harder!
- Apply again!
- We’ll keep your resume on file….
ENOUGH!
We are building the bridge that should have existed all along.
A bridge where your career context accumulates, rather than resets. Where your skills are validated through real work, not just claimed. Where your relationships stay warm without you having to remember who to message. Where you get warnings about market shifts before they blindside you.
A bridge strong enough that you can walk across it with confidence instead of desperately leaping and hoping you make it.
That’s what our CareerOS is. A bridge between where you are and where you deserve to be, with a powerful operating system propelling you forward.
What We Need From You
We can build the technology. I know the systems. I’ve seen both sides of this problem, but we can’t build the future alone.
You are not just customers to us. You are our co-creators. Every story I’ve heard, every moment of feeling invisible or powerless or exhausted has shaped what we’re building.
I need you to use Allie and tell us what works and what breaks. I need you to share your stories. I need you to invite others who are tired of fighting systems that were never designed for them to win.
This doesn’t work if it’s just us. It doesn’t work if it’s just a product. This works when it becomes a movement, and together we will be unstoppable in achieving the future of work that we all want.
One Last Thing
I know how this sounds. Building an operating system for professional life? Changing how hundreds of millions of people navigate their careers?
It sounds crazy, and maybe it is.
But you know what else is crazy?
- That we’ve normalized qualified people applying to 726 jobs to get one offer.
- That we’ve accepted 92% of candidates being rejected by algorithms that can’t understand human potential.
- That we’ve decided this is just how it has to be.
That’s the real crazy.
So maybe it’s time to be a different kind of crazy. The kind that refuses to accept broken systems. The kind that believes we can build something better. The kind that knows the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who actually do.
I’m crazy enough to believe we can change how the world works; that we can close the gap between talent and opportunity; that we can build a future where no one is left invisible; that we can build a future of work where workers have dignity, security, and the agency to not just survive, but to thrive in their careers.
Are you?