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This 26 y/o 10x'd Revenue Doing the Opposite of Every AI Startup | Paraform, John Kim

EO13:43Added Aug 31, 2026

John Kim's AI startup has paid out over $50 million to human recruiters. While every other hiring platform races to replace them, Paraform bet the opposite d...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00recruiting. It's the most important
  3. 00:02thing you should be doing as a leader,
  4. 00:04as a company, yet it's so inefficient.
  5. 00:06And I heard from a recruiter that well
  6. 00:08respected in the industry that 5 years
  7. 00:10ago, if you reach out to 500 to 700
  8. 00:13engineers, you could probably make a
  9. 00:15hire as a recruiter. 2 years ago, that
  10. 00:17number jumped to 1500 engineers to make
  11. 00:20one hire, which was already so difficult
  12. 00:22to manage. With AI recently, it's 5,000.
  13. 00:25So essentially, AI is actually making
  14. 00:27hiring a lot more noisier. It's bogging
  15. 00:29us all down. If you get reached out
  16. 00:30about thousand opportunities, it's not
  17. 00:32special anymore. Meaning comes from
  18. 00:35scarcity. So I think even more in the
  19. 00:37future, if it takes 5,000 emails to get
  20. 00:39one engineer hired, trust,
  21. 00:42relationships, and access, these things
  22. 00:44become more and more important. So I
  23. 00:46think that was our deliberate decision
  24. 00:47to work with recruiters rather than
  25. 00:49replacing them. Yeah, we paid out 50
  26. 00:51million soon to our recruiters. Hey

  27. The AI Startup That Pays Humans $50M

  28. 00:55guys, I'm John Kim, one of the founders
  29. 00:57and CEO of Parform. We uh raised 65
  30. 00:59million uh to date and in 2025 we uh
  31. 01:0210xed our revenue. We work with
  32. 01:04customers from early stage startups all
  33. 01:06the way to public companies uh like
  34. 01:08Palunteer, Rippling, Dakagon, A Bridge.
  35. 01:11Parapform is a a hiring platform that
  36. 01:13makes hiring exceptional talent as easy
  37. 01:15as pressing a button.

  38. How to Find What Truly Matters in Your Life

  39. 01:26Ever since the age of four, I sort of
  40. 01:28moved around a lot uh because of my
  41. 01:30dad's job. So yeah, I lived in
  42. 01:32Singapore, Australia, LA, uh and Korea
  43. 01:34as well. When I was 11, 12. In
  44. 01:37Australia, like entrepreneurship and
  45. 01:39going out on your own is not very
  46. 01:40celebrated. You're sort of told to stay
  47. 01:42in your lane, like do what's sort of uh
  48. 01:44comfortable. My grandpa encouraged me uh
  49. 01:47to go to law school. He went to law
  50. 01:49school and he really wanted to be a
  51. 01:50lawyer but uh he had to sort of take a
  52. 01:54different path because of uh his family.
  53. 01:56And so growing up I always thought you
  54. 01:58know that was the goal and I I did but
  55. 02:00um there was definitely a moment uh that
  56. 02:02I remember that I um you know started uh
  57. 02:05living my life and treating my time and
  58. 02:07and what I'm going to do very very
  59. 02:09differently. I think I was 18 back then.

  60. The Hospital Visit that Changed Everything

  61. 02:12I like was very sick for like three
  62. 02:14months and so um you know I went to like
  63. 02:16the hospital to get something checked up
  64. 02:17in Korea. I walked in and uh I was the
  65. 02:21only uh young person there. I remember a
  66. 02:24lot of people there were quite old like
  67. 02:26maybe in their 80s and '9s so it felt
  68. 02:28very out of place. I obviously didn't
  69. 02:30really think that anything could go
  70. 02:31wrong. I just thought like oh I'm young.
  71. 02:33I'm you know I'm invincible. That type
  72. 02:36of mindset. And when the results came
  73. 02:38out, the doctor sort of said like, "Hey,
  74. 02:40by the way, there's like something in
  75. 02:41your lungs and um you know, it could be
  76. 02:43something really bad." And I think when
  77. 02:46I heard that, everything changed. I
  78. 02:48started thinking, "Oh, well, in the most
  79. 02:50extreme sense, if I have only 1 year or
  80. 02:523 years left to live, uh what am I going
  81. 02:54to do? What am I going to do
  82. 02:55differently? How am I going to spend
  83. 02:56time?" And that actually really changed,
  84. 02:59I think, all of my brain chemistry and

  85. Living on a 3-Year Timeline

  86. 03:01what I decide to do. back of my mind, I
  87. 03:04always knew that I wanted to start and
  88. 03:06build my own company. When it comes to
  89. 03:08thinking that it's a big decision to
  90. 03:10start a company, it's what I always
  91. 03:11wanted to do, what I wanted to dedicate
  92. 03:14my life to. I thought that, okay, when
  93. 03:16I'm like 75, 85 years old, that's like
  94. 03:19my timeline. So, I had, you know, 65
  95. 03:21years to figure something out, right?
  96. 03:23So, if you think about it in your 65
  97. 03:25year timeline, then all of a sudden you
  98. 03:27push things back, right? If you want to
  99. 03:29do something, you push it back. If you
  100. 03:30want to try achieve a goal, you think
  101. 03:32you have 10 years, 20 years. But um if
  102. 03:35you think about that 65 years in
  103. 03:36three-year terms, you are sort of forced
  104. 03:39to prioritize and then think about what
  105. 03:40you really want. I think maybe that
  106. 03:43event made me think, okay, I have 3
  107. 03:45years to make that happen, so let's do
  108. 03:46it now. And I think it added that
  109. 03:48urgency to start for the next 3 years.
  110. 03:50Every 6 months, I had to get it checked
  111. 03:52up to see if it's anything bad. So there
  112. 03:55was this sort of anticipation every 6
  113. 03:57months of like what's going to happen.
  114. 03:58And turns out it was uh sort of like a
  115. 04:00false alarm. But I look back to that
  116. 04:02moment and you know although it felt
  117. 04:04pretty terrible. Maybe it was actually a
  118. 04:06blessing in disguise.

  119. AI Moves Fast, It Breaks Trust

  120. 04:12I was actually on a business trip to New
  121. 04:14York and that's when I met my co-founder
  122. 04:16Jeff at Parapform. So I went around
  123. 04:18asking uh other people around us uh
  124. 04:20which were mostly founders asking them
  125. 04:22what is your number one problem right
  126. 04:24now and how much would you pay us to
  127. 04:25solve it? Uh and almost all of them said
  128. 04:27uh hiring and they said they would pay
  129. 04:29us 40k per hire. So we were like hey
  130. 04:32maybe if we make five hires each this
  131. 04:33year you know that's like maybe
  132. 04:35equivalent of like a salary. So maybe
  133. 04:37this is a good business to start. So we
  134. 04:38set out on a journey to make five hires
  135. 04:40each. So the first thing we did was
  136. 04:42actually become recruiters ourselves.

  137. The Two Pivots That Failed

  138. 04:44What we started doing was like we
  139. 04:45scraped the web. We looked at, you know,
  140. 04:47your Twitter profile, your GitHub
  141. 04:48profile, like everything really online
  142. 04:50about you and we sort of try to combine
  143. 04:53that with like your professional
  144. 04:54experience, like your LinkedIn, your
  145. 04:55resume. And then, um, you know, 3
  146. 04:58months, 4 months in, we were not even
  147. 04:59close to making five hires, let alone
  148. 05:01one. And so, we were like, okay, like
  149. 05:03clearly this is like super inefficient.
  150. 05:05What should we do? While we were
  151. 05:07exploring the problem space, we realized
  152. 05:09like it's actually like trust, access,
  153. 05:11and relationships. I could find a great
  154. 05:14engineer at Facebook or OpenAI right
  155. 05:16now, but doesn't mean that person will
  156. 05:19respond to me or know me or even
  157. 05:21interested in the opportunity, right?
  158. 05:23Whereas like maybe if your friend
  159. 05:24reached out, you might consider the
  160. 05:26opportunity or someone you respect,
  161. 05:28right? So the next idea we pivoted to
  162. 05:30was a referral marketplace, referral
  163. 05:32platform where essentially our startup
  164. 05:35customers could post bounties, referral
  165. 05:36bounties like 5 10k for the engineers
  166. 05:39they were trying to hire and turn anyone
  167. 05:41in the world to your recruiter. But
  168. 05:42there was not much retention. Um I think
  169. 05:44we overestimated how many people each
  170. 05:47person knows, how well connected someone
  171. 05:49is, and um it wasn't like their main
  172. 05:51profession and job. So they um didn't
  173. 05:54come back to the platform. You release
  174. 05:56it to the market and no one wants it. I
  175. 05:58think that you know it wasn't great. We
  176. 06:00were sort of hitting a dead end for
  177. 06:01three four months. Nothing was happening
  178. 06:03and then um one user group started uh
  179. 06:06using it a lot. We saw that uh user
  180. 06:09group growing and these were like
  181. 06:11independent recruiters, recruiting
  182. 06:12agencies, head hunters and it made so
  183. 06:14much sense. They're very well connected
  184. 06:16compared to most people. Uh it's their
  185. 06:18job. It's their profession. They're
  186. 06:19financially incentivized. So they
  187. 06:20started sort of um coming back and using
  188. 06:23the platform continuously. And I think
  189. 06:24that's when we realized, oh, we, you
  190. 06:26know, built something people want and
  191. 06:28then it scaled to where Parapform is
  192. 06:30today. We're really focused on how do we
  193. 06:32match the right person to the right
  194. 06:34opportunity. That's done not by giving
  195. 06:36them a thousand options and telling them
  196. 06:38to choose, but giving them, you know,
  197. 06:40three or four that actually really match
  198. 06:42what they're looking for. When you don't
  199. 06:44use AI correctly, I think it loses
  200. 06:47meaning and makes things not special, if
  201. 06:50you will. I think the word special is
  202. 06:52basically directly correlated to
  203. 06:55scarcity and directly correlated to
  204. 06:57quality over quantity.
  205. 07:00I think maybe AI can make you know 70
  206. 07:0280% of what recruiters do and automate
  207. 07:05that. But I think it's like the last
  208. 07:07sort of 20% like the human touch I think
  209. 07:09is like very very important. Meaning
  210. 07:11comes from scarcity.

  211. Everyone Has a Night They Want to Give Up

  212. 07:18So, uh, at the time, um, I was actually
  213. 07:20in Australia trying to get my visa to
  214. 07:22come back to the US. The time zone is
  215. 07:24obviously really difficult. I remember
  216. 07:26my routine was sort of waking up at
  217. 07:2911:00 p.m. and then um, working
  218. 07:31throughout the night to overlap with San
  219. 07:33Francisco time and then going to sleep
  220. 07:34at like maybe lunch or after lunch and
  221. 07:36then repeat. And we didn't even have an
  222. 07:38office. So, I used to go to my old uh,
  223. 07:40college uh, library to work there um,
  224. 07:43just in a booth. So when people saw me,
  225. 07:45they probably thought I was just like a
  226. 07:47student. It was like a weird feeling
  227. 07:48because it was a school that I dropped
  228. 07:50out of and I'm like in the library um
  229. 07:52trying to build my company. And I
  230. 07:53remember the way we got customers
  231. 07:55because we had no brand name was just
  232. 07:57pure hustle like just going door to door
  233. 08:00uh emailing people one by one. No like
  234. 08:02email automation tool or anything like
  235. 08:03that. Just reaching out. And so each
  236. 08:07customer was very very valuable. Like uh
  237. 08:09when they said yes, I want to try it
  238. 08:10out, it meant the world to us. And there

  239. The First Big Customer Who Almost Dropped Us

  240. 08:12was this one customer uh called
  241. 08:14Hightouch. Uh they're like a AI
  242. 08:16marketing platform. I remember they were
  243. 08:18the first sort of uh company that it
  244. 08:20wasn't our friend or some connection. It
  245. 08:22was like a company that through our own
  246. 08:25effort and hustle we got. They were
  247. 08:27hiring like a director of engineering
  248. 08:29which is like a very important hire. And
  249. 08:31we felt very grateful that they trusted
  250. 08:33us to do such an important job for them.
  251. 08:35And so we got started. But um I remember
  252. 08:39like it was like 3:00 am at the library
  253. 08:41over and over again every day trying to
  254. 08:42make it work for that customer. One of
  255. 08:45the recruiters messaged us saying like,
  256. 08:46"Hey, we haven't been impressed with the
  257. 08:48quality of candidates uh and the
  258. 08:50experience. If you guys don't turn this
  259. 08:52around in the next 10 days, we we can't
  260. 08:53be a customer anymore." In the middle of

  261. Visa Rejected, Company Almost Dies

  262. 08:55that, I heard my visa got rejected.
  263. 08:57Actually, most people get it approved on
  264. 08:59the spot, but uh for some reason, mine
  265. 09:02didn't get approved for the first time.
  266. 09:03It was definitely mental breakdown, not
  267. 09:06being productive, all these struggles.
  268. 09:08So, I couldn't fully focus um because
  269. 09:10it's almost like a company killing
  270. 09:11event. What failing a visa interview
  271. 09:13actually means is never being able to
  272. 09:15come back to the US. Maybe for some
  273. 09:17people it's just like, oh, let's try
  274. 09:18again. But for me, there was so much at
  275. 09:20stake. It was everything I built for,
  276. 09:22all the work I put in sort of going to
  277. 09:23nothing. And then I had responsibility
  278. 09:25to my co-founder as well. And uh I
  279. 09:27couldn't tell him the news because it's
  280. 09:29hard thing after hard thing after hard
  281. 09:30thing. I think the two things that kept
  282. 09:32me going was one like this
  283. 09:34responsibility this like if I don't do
  284. 09:36this this company will die you know I
  285. 09:38have this responsibility to make it work
  286. 09:40there's no other option than surviving
  287. 09:42and continuing so that was one the other
  288. 09:44one was actually a lot of like things
  289. 09:46were going on in my personal life as
  290. 09:47well like um friends and family and then
  291. 09:50I actually realized that oh other people
  292. 09:52have like pretty difficult problems too
  293. 09:54in life I then reflected whatever I'm
  294. 09:56going through right now at the time was
  295. 09:59something that I inflicted upon myself
  296. 10:01like I chose to start this company. I
  297. 10:03could have not done that. I chose to
  298. 10:06move here to the US and be based here.
  299. 10:08You know, I chose to apply for this
  300. 10:10visa. Like, you know, it's all like
  301. 10:11something that I chose to do. And there
  302. 10:13were a lot of people in my life who had
  303. 10:15problems and they didn't choose that. It
  304. 10:17wasn't within their control. And so, I
  305. 10:19think that was actually in a weird way
  306. 10:22encouraging as well. We were just like,
  307. 10:23oh, like maybe this is actually not that
  308. 10:25big of a deal. Like, you know, at the
  309. 10:26end of the day, I I wanted to try this.
  310. 10:28Um and so that gave me the energy back
  311. 10:32uh to sort of stand back up and and

  312. Don't Find a Better Problem, Understand Your Problem Deeper

  313. 10:34continue to go. Yeah.
  314. 10:39You know, it turns out the visa thing
  315. 10:40was like some process issues, so it's
  316. 10:42all fine now. We actually ended up
  317. 10:43making a hire for Hightouch for the
  318. 10:46director of engineering. Hightouch told
  319. 10:48us that that hire took like 18 months.
  320. 10:50That role was open for 18 months. They
  321. 10:52tried everything out there. They tried
  322. 10:54recruiting agencies, other tools, job
  323. 10:56boards, and just nothing worked. And to
  324. 10:59do that within a month and a half with
  325. 11:01our product gave us a lot of conviction
  326. 11:04that this is going to work. And I think
  327. 11:06our customer actually saw that too. And
  328. 11:08so they reached out to one of their
  329. 11:10investor connections and said, "Hey,
  330. 11:11like what these guys are building, I've
  331. 11:13tried so many recruiting products in the
  332. 11:14past. I'm obsessed with this problem and
  333. 11:17none of it worked. Uh, but this is
  334. 11:18different. This is special." So he
  335. 11:20introduced us to uh our seed round
  336. 11:22investors. I remember my co-founder and
  337. 11:24I the next morning surprised and um all
  338. 11:27uh happy sort of like biking to their
  339. 11:30office and we presented for one hour
  340. 11:32just like our product. There was no
  341. 11:33pitch deck. We didn't even prepare for
  342. 11:35fundraising. We didn't even think we
  343. 11:36were fundraising. Actually, we just
  344. 11:38thought we were meeting them and they
  345. 11:39texted us saying like, "Hey, do you guys
  346. 11:40want to grab drinks at at 5:00 p.m.
  347. 11:42tonight?" And we were like, "Okay." And
  348. 11:44then we went and they just said, "Hey,
  349. 11:47like we really love what you're doing. I
  350. 11:48think you guys are doing something
  351. 11:49special." Uh so they gave us a term

  352. Dig Deeper Until You Hit the Root Cause

  353. 11:50sheet and let our seed round uh that
  354. 11:52same day. I actually my analogy that I
  355. 11:54would give is uh going deeper and deeper
  356. 11:56and deeper like you're not going deep
  357. 11:58enough. You could at the surface just
  358. 12:00say hiring is very difficult but
  359. 12:02actually I think we understood the
  360. 12:04problem at a very high level and then
  361. 12:06did something to solve that. It's very
  362. 12:08easy to go hey like doing XYZ is
  363. 12:10difficult so let's go solve it but
  364. 12:12actually why is it difficult? Talk to
  365. 12:14users about it. You know what they do
  366. 12:15makes the problem inefficient or
  367. 12:17difficult. And I think that was the
  368. 12:19mistake we made first round and then
  369. 12:21like the subsequent attempts we dig
  370. 12:23deeper and deeper and deeper into the
  371. 12:25problem until we actually found the the
  372. 12:27root cause and I think that's when
  373. 12:29things started clicking. I see a lot of
  374. 12:31um people when they start a business or
  375. 12:33a company where they have this one idea
  376. 12:36they try it out for a little bit and
  377. 12:37they go ah actually it's not really
  378. 12:39working so try something again try
  379. 12:40something again. It actually takes like
  380. 12:42a lot more energy than most people think
  381. 12:44to like keep switching. Instead, what we
  382. 12:46did was we had a lot of conviction in
  383. 12:48the problem space. 110% conviction that
  384. 12:52this is the problem we need to work on.
  385. 12:54If you think you're going deep, you're
  386. 12:55probably still not deep enough. And so
  387. 12:57encouraging them to do that. Yeah.

  388. Advice to Myself at 3AM in That Library

  389. 13:01If you could go back and sit across from
  390. 13:03the virgin of you who was in the library
  391. 13:05at 3:00 a.m. in Australia, what would
  392. 13:08you tell him?
  393. 13:09I would tell him to keep doing what
  394. 13:11you're doing. at the time it's hard to
  395. 13:13imagine everything we've achieved and
  396. 13:15everything that we will achieve uh in
  397. 13:16the future have that same conviction and
  398. 13:19I think that's kind of like what I still
  399. 13:20tell myself maybe like if I look back 5
  400. 13:23years 10 years 20 years from now and
  401. 13:25look back to this moment maybe that
  402. 13:27might feel like the 3 a.m. every
  403. 13:28situation again. So I think keep going
  404. 13:31uh have conviction. Yeah.