But it really is just buying jobs. For many people, the $50 minimum is nothing. For most people (in the US anyway), it's more than you'd be willing to invest in any coworker, no matter how good they are. And for many people, it's the difference between paying rent or not.

The kid from a rich family will have no problem getting his parents, and family friends to slap $50 down. The kid who grew up in public housing? Not gonna happen.

I want to like the idea. Having a better way to connect likely-qualified candidates and jobs is a good thing. But a set amount of money really isn't a good guarantee of anything.

I assume they require that the money comes from a former manager or co-worker and if you work in tech in the USA/Canada, $50 shouldn't be a lot to most co-workers.

And if you want to buy an internship, you can just plop your kid at a startup for free. Unpaid internships are how you buy experience already.

They claim to verify that all the money comes from former coworkers not friends and family.

I feel like many people have judged without really understanding the details.

They are asserting that, however, as this seems a very hard task to really prevent it and they simply assert that they will succeed (especially since if they don't succeed, they don't lose anything, the employer does) without providing any arguments why they think they have an effective solution to this hard problem, their assertion that they'll somehow beat all fraud attempts is simply not convincing.

But this would make it disproportionally easier for people with wealthier friends/family while creating a chilling effect against people from a poorer background, or immigrants.

As a job candidate I would consider doing this.

As a former colleague I would consider staking somebody.

As a hiring manager, I would not do this. It’s just too weird. Hiring is hard enough.

Would you change your mind if they managed to filter people sufficiently to make hiring take far fewer interviews and they could actually source good candidates?

It is weird now, but my parents also think it is weird to interview 8 times for one job.

Honestly, no, not until it’s proven out. and I fear there will be a selection bias where more questionable companies would use this first before established and reputable companies. They need to make it not weird first like sign Uber or another 2nd tier tech company and socialize the idea so it’s acceptable for small companies.

Otherwise you look like a scam.