Tech CEO Who Offered Job Interviews For Tattoos Of Bay Area Company Logo Apologizes

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The CEO of a San Francisco startup is apologizing after offering job interviews to people who got tattoos at a recent afterparty, acknowledging the promotion created an inappropriate connection between permanent body art and employment opportunities.

Jordan Zietz, co-founder and CEO of LemonLine, initially offered job interviews to attendees who got tattoos during the afterparty for startup accelerator Y Combinator.

The promotion drew criticism for linking a hiring opportunity to a permanent decision.

"I messed up," Zietz wrote in a LinkedIn post."What I thought would be a fun, memorable way to meet people was, in reality, reckless, and instead came across as tying a permanent tattoo to job opportunity, which showed poor judgement."

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Zietz said he failed to recognize the "pressure and power dynamic" created by connecting tattoos to hiring, even though interviews were available to everyone regardless of whether they got a tattoo.

He said LemonLine has removed posts promoting the event, contacted everyone who participated and offered to pay for tattoo removal if anyone later regrets the decision.

"I'm sorry to the people we put in that position, and to everyone who expected better from me," Zietz wrote. "There's no clever explanation here. I got carried away, and I was wrong."

Zietz also emphasized that "interviews were available to everyone regardless."