Internet ads firm’s CEO posts wild job description for 'A-players,' draws internet ire

A tech services firm’s Careers page has been raising the hackles of netizens worldwide. Icon.com’s flagship product is AdGPT, “think ChatGPT for ads,” and its CEO proclaims that he would “eat dog poop if it means winning.” However, new “A-player” recruits must also show similarly unswerving devotion to the company cause.

Take all the best macho posturing one-liners from Capitalist Noir movie classics like Glengarry Glen Ross and Wall Street, and then chisel them into a post-Covid AI-era corporate philosophy. You’d end up with a 'Values' statement, like this one, designed to filter potential applicants to vacancies at Icon ‘The AI Admaker.’

Perhaps inevitably, Icon.com is backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, among others. If potential hires get past the intro, which admits, “Our culture would make 99.99% of people go crazy. And that’s by design,” there’s a minefield of bullet points about the “Grind…because we want to… A-players only… Shameless… Fast firing… Many hats” environment at work.

Potential applicants are also warned, for example, that they may be required to “Run through walls to get things done… [and] Be extremely annoying if it means winning.” We don’t know exactly how staff will maintain such intense energy levels when they are also supposed to be at the office “on weekends and at night if needed. [and] It's ok to send messages at 3 am.” Of course, there’s no room for WFH wusses at Icon.com, and “Work is a key part of your identity/fulfillment in life.”

It was actually difficult to decide on the most deranged corporate posturing in the brutal business buzzword bingo prose that constitutes Icon.com’s Values statement. So, please check out the source page or our screenshot above. Also, as Ars Technica notes, be aware that Icon.com has already toned down its language(!), and removed a photo of Hurin the “Tier 1” and musclebound Human Resources dog.

Satire or bravado?

People are apparently divided about whether Icon.com is satire or muscle-brained bravado on steroids. After finding the CEO’s about page, though. We fear it is the latter.

In addition to the “eat dog poop if it means winning” quote, CEO and Founder Kennan Davison has some other inspiring tales to tell. On his journey to the top, he “worked 100-hour weeks until I became a 100x engineer,” for example. Driven by “a massive chip on my shoulder,” the Columbia dropout is also inspired by the dream of wanting to "make the $12M I spent on the icon.com domain worth it."

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