GoKawiilJordan Zietz wants to be clear: He has never, and will never, force anyone to tattoo his startup’s logo on their body.
The 24-year-old briefly became the internet’s most hated person after LemonLime, his AI-for-small-business startup, hosted a party following Y Combinator's Startup School in late July. In a LinkedIn post, Zietz wrote that he brought an “actual tattoo artist” to the party, and “offered an instant interview to anyone who got a LemonLime tattoo.” Seven people, Zietz wrote, left with ink.
The backlash was quick. Zietz’s LinkedIn posts were flooded with angry comments calling him “disgusting” and “very unfair,” the perpetrator of a “textbook display of predatory corporate behavior, a gross abuse of power, and a profound violation of professional ethics.” A screenshot of his post went viral on X. One representative response read: “The job market cannot be this cooked that kids have to get permanent tattoos to get interviews.”
In an interview with WIRED on Tuesday, Zietz attempted to set the record straight.
He says that, despite what his original post suggested, no one permanently branded themselves with LemonLime’s corporate logo at the party. While there were pre-designed tattoos of lemons and limes, attendees could pick any design. (At least one said she got a personal tattoo; she added that she was “not seeking a job.”) According to Zietz, he told everyone at the party that getting a tattoo—citrus-themed or otherwise—was not a job requirement. In fact, he says, any attendee who wanted an interview got one.
“A decent amount of people who got tattoos never wanted to even take us up on any offer to chat” about a job, Zietz says. “They just wanted to get a tattoo for free.”
Three of LemonLime’s five employees received LemonLime-themed flash tattoos, including Zietz and his cofounder, Daniela Muñoz. So did at least one person who didn’t work for the startup, according to Zietz.
On Monday, Zietz got his second tattoo in less than month: the actual LemonLime logo, on his other shoulder. It is one of many. He got his first ever tattoo on a first date, and his thigh tattoos include a dinosaur doodle and text that says “This Is The Correct Knee,” with an X underneath.
“I would never ask anyone to do something I would not do myself,” Zietz says, while emphasizing, again, that he is the only person, to his knowledge, with the actual logo tattooed on his body. He plans to release a glossy video of himself getting the tattoo on social media.
Though Zietz insists the tattoos weren’t a prerequisite for employment at his startup, you’d be forgiven for assuming that was the case, and the language of his LinkedIn post certainly made people think it was. After reading various angry comments and posts, he says he understands why people were uncomfortable with the power dynamic.
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