HiBob Beast Mode & DOL Dismantles Worker Protections

The latest episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast delivers a hard-hitting breakdown of massive developments across technology, enterprise software, and corporate compliance. The boys tackle Salesforce leading a massive $166 million investment round into HR tech provider HiBob, exploring how this ties into broader ecosystems involving competitors like Deel, Rippling, SAP, SmartRecruiters, Workday, Paradox, Greenhouse, and iCIMS. They also break down a controversial promotional stunt by startup Lemon Lime at an unofficial Y Combinator afterparty, where attendees were offered fast-track job interviews in exchange for getting company tattoos. The conversation then shifts to the future of labor, dissecting Bill Gates’ latest decade-long predictions regarding AI automation and workforce displacement. Finally, the co-hosts investigate a major regulatory shakeup from the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). They explore the rollbacks of critical affirmative action hiring mandates for federal contractors, alongside a projected budget proposal that could defund the watchdog agency and transfer its remaining functions to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Chapters 00:00 - Introduction to the episode and main themes 01:58 - Discussion on AI's disruptive potential in the workforce 03:59 - Recent funding and valuation of HR platforms like Hi Bob 08:04 - Policy changes impacting diversity and veteran hiring 11:57 - Humorous stories about personal experiences and industry events 19:55 - The resurgence of SaaS companies and their strategic moves 28:00 - Bill Gates' warnings on AI and workforce disruption 34:02 - The societal impact of AI and economic considerations 45:02 - The trend of using jobs for marketing and employer branding 55:02 - Humorous anecdotes about tattoos and job interviews

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Meet Dave. Dave's resume says he's customer centric, a point of sale systems expert and a people leader. Reality check, Dave's resume was written by AI and AI applied to thousands of jobs while Dave was on his couch binging episodes of Jackass all day.

• 0:20Speaker 00

  How can you insert trust back into your hiring process? One word, Tatio. Tatio cuts through the BS by using real world job simulations, testing candidates so you can actually see how they perform the job before you waste a single minute interviewing or onboarding a fake. Insert trust back into your hiring process with Tatio. Check out Tatio today at T A T I O dot I O. That's T A T I O dot I O. It's not even under the D O L, the Department of Labor anymore. No, they're shuffling it over to the Health and Human Services, the department currently run by Robert Corkscrew Raccoon Penis Kennedy Jr.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  The guy's making measles great again.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  Come on, just slam an iron brew and let's do this, boys.

• 1:13Speaker 02

  Hide your kids, lock the doors. You're listening to HR's most dangerous podcast. Chad Soash and Joel Cheeseman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where it hurts. Complete with breaking news, brash opinion and loads of snark. Buckle up, boys and girls. It's time for the Chad and Cheese Podcast.

• 1:36Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Wake me up when September ends. Hey, boys and girls. It's the Chad and Cheese Podcast. I'm your co-host Joel "Let Data Rain" Cheeseman.

• 1:47Speaker 00

  Oh, this is Chad nap culture, Soash.

• 1:51Speaker 03

  And on this episode of HR's most dangerous podcast, Bill wants to protect humans, Bob wants to feel the full power of the force, and Benioff is getting his mojo back. Let's do this. It's commercial time.

• 2:06Speaker 00

  Okay, face it. Recruitment marketing is broken. Seventy percent of paid recruitment media goes wasted. Ninety-three percent of candidates bounce off your job ads before they even apply for the job. And this is not a talent problem. No, it's not a data problem. It's a targeting and experience problem. The beauty of this is companies aren't trying to fix it. They're transforming it.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  Hell, yeah.

• 2:31Speaker 00

  With up to eighty percent more high-quality applicants, forty percent reduction in spend, and fifty percent less recruiter time spent, they're realizing what's possible with recruitment marketing that actually works. So how'd they do it? Well, they chose Jovio, an AI-led, high-performance recruitment marketing platform built to eliminate waste and drive more results. With Jovio's AI agents, your job ads reach the right candidates while your career site, conversational AI and application process drive better candidates and conversions. What about those qualified candidates you've already bought and paid for and they're wasting away in your ATS? Well, Jovio also re-engages

• 3:14Speaker 00

  them. Want to learn more about Jovio? Cool. Just go to jovio.com. That's J O V E O dot com. It's showtime.

• 3:25Speaker 03

  Nap culture. What's that about?

• 3:27Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, and yes. Well, Matt Adam once told me that he took like an eighteen-minute nap every day, every day, no matter what. It was standard nap rejuvenated him. And I always thought, dude, that's eighteen minutes. I could fucking be doing something, right? I mean, just like, I can't do it. How long does it take me to get to sleep and buzz? So now, now, being Euro Chad, much more relaxed, get up in the morning, play some paddle, have a little brunch, and then like around 1:30 or something like that, I'll take maybe, you know, twenty, twenty-minute, thirty-minute nap. Hey, I gotta say, Matt Adam, you put that, you put that seed in my brain, not to mention Joel.

• 4:12Speaker 00

  I'm always talking about you and your naps. Yeah, no, it's lovely.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  It escalated quickly.

• 4:16Speaker 00

  It is lovely.

• 4:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm a, I'm a twenty-two-minute man. That eighteen, that twenty-minute-ish thing tends to be the best. Now, Matt Adam, the don't, anyone that doesn't know, longtime friend of the show. It works at N A S.

• 4:30Speaker 00

  Love that guy.

• 4:30Speaker 03

  Same age, age group, I dare say. So the challenge is doing the twenty-minute commitment. Like, my wife can't do twenty minutes. She's too much in her head. She's too, like, if she naps, it's like a three-hour event. So if you can do the twenty, to me, it's, to me, it's like the old control, all delete, like, just like, quick restart, clear the system out, get yourself back. I feel much better after the twenty-two-minute nap. But that's, and the evolution of Chad, when we started this thing, naps were no, no bueno. It was not a thing that you were open to. So clearly, this is the older, kinder Euro Chad that's coming out, just in time to come back to America.

• 5:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, no shit, right? That, that in over a decade with Julie, who's been able to really kind of like smooth out the

• 5:22Speaker 03

  She's always been pretty chill, right?

• 5:24Speaker 00

  Not entirely.

• 5:24Speaker 03

  She's chilled you out, hasn't she?

• 5:26Speaker 00

  Oh, yes. A lot, a lot. And she's just like Christine with regard to if, like, we'll nap, we nap together. I have to get her up. Like, she'll get another ten, more ten minutes than I will, but if I don't get her up, she's going to be three to five hours. I mean, she just, she can

• 5:42Speaker 03

  Fade into that.

• 5:42Speaker 00

  Hard nap.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. Once, once the brain hits rim and once the brain, like, goes deep, like, it's, you're done. You gotta keep it just, just the tip. Little, little update on me. I was at a red carpet event this weekend.

• 5:55Speaker 00

  Say what?

• 5:55Speaker 03

  Chad, yeah. Not quite Hollywood, not quite the Chinese man theater, but Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, Kentucky. Yeah.

• 6:04Speaker 00

  They have red carpets there. Okay.

• 6:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:06Speaker 00

  I thought it was just red knaps.

• 6:07Speaker 03

  You can buy, you can buy.

• 6:10Speaker 03

  Sorry, Kentucky. I love you. I love you. Don't listen to Chad. Don't listen to Chad. He loves your bourbon, too.

• 6:15Speaker 00

  Oh, yes.

• 6:15Speaker 03

  No, my, uh, my niece, in her twenties, has always, was always a theater kid, was always good. There are certain things that people do and you watch when they're young and you go, that's what you need to do with your life. Like, that's, that's your thing. And she never really pursued it. And most recently, she was, she still has a day job, and one of her friends that she used to work with is a director and started a pilot or filmed a pilot of a show. It's called Second Shift. It hasn't been picked up. It's still a pilot. And I was thinking of the Pulp Fiction scene where John Travolta's like, I don't have a TV. And Samuel L. Jackson's like, well, you know, there's an invention called the TV, and on this invention, they show shows, and there's a pilot,

• 6:59Speaker 03

  and they sell the pilot. And if the pilot gets picked up, then the more shows are made. So they're in the pilot stage, but my niece is in this pilot, and they're pitching it to like HBO, Netflix. If it gets picked up, I'll update everyone on where to watch it and do that. So that would be very cool. But they had sort of an official event with red carpet, a photographer, and all that good stuff. So from the, just from the camera scenes, it looks like I might be in Hollywood or I might be in somewhere, you know, not Louisville, Kentucky. And it was a ton of fun. A lot of young people. Everyone that's in the show did it voluntarily. Nobody got paid for it. It's a real bootstrap kind of thing. It's very, if you like Kevin Smith humor, if you like clerks

• 7:41Speaker 03

  and kind of that really conversational humor, kind of like meets The Office. So it's a lot of, like, looking at the camera, sort of offbeat humor, conversations, very raunchy. It was fun. So I did that, did that this week. And then shout out to my, my son, my oldest, he turned twenty yesterday, on the first. So he's, he's back in Indiana, back at IU sophomore year, loving life, loving life. So things are good for me. Things are good for you.

• 8:11Speaker 00

  How could it not?

• 8:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:12Speaker 00

  Did you, did you wear your derby tux to the red, the red carpet event?

• 8:20Speaker 03

  Come on, come on. You know I did. You know I did. You know I did. I didn't, I didn't wear the bow tie, though. I kept, I kept the white t-shirt with the, the crystal, the sparkling white Air Force Ones. So I kept it hip, but not like too hip, because I don't want to be that old guy that overdoes it. So I thought the sneakers and the t-shirt.

• 8:40Speaker 00

  You're saying you're, you're bringing Dumb and Dumber to 2026 this week. Okay. No, I got it. No, it's good.

• 8:46Speaker 03

  I'm going full dumb in 2026, for sure. Yeah. Full, full dumb, full dumb.

• 8:52Speaker 00

  I love it. I love it.

• 8:53Speaker 03

  Speaking of full dumb, let's go to shout outs, shall we?

• 8:55Speaker 01

  Is it time for shout outs?

• 8:57Speaker 03

  Guys, our shout outs are sponsored by, yeah, you guessed it, bourbon.

• 9:01Speaker 00

  Oh, I love chicken cock. I do. I love it.

• 9:04Speaker 03

  That's right. And if you love bourbon, give, give thanks and praise Proven Base, our sponsor that helps make free bourbon doable. I just sent out two bottles, Chad. Bottle from you, bottle from me. Some lucky winner gets that every month. But you can't win it unless you play. You gotta go to chadcheese.com/free to get that lovely, lovely, lovely liquor that comes from Kentucky and our friends from Proven Base. Big thank you to them for making miracles happen. Chad, what you got?

• 9:35Speaker 00

  Well, I've got a history lesson for my shout out. So let's go ahead.

• 9:38Speaker 03

  Oh, stop. It's too early for a history lesson.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  History lesson.

• 9:43Speaker 00

  So Joel, before, before the smartphone, were you a big map guy? I mean, did you enjoy using maps to navigate around big cities?

• 9:53Speaker 03

  Oh, maps, the fold-out maps?

• 9:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, sucked. Awful. It's a great, it's a great skill to have when someone pulls the plug on the grid. Gen X is going to be the only, only generation to survive.

• 10:07Speaker 00

  I'm telling you. So after being dropped into the jungles of Panama and the swamps of Fort Polk, Louisiana, and the military.

• 10:16Speaker 03

  Hello.

• 10:17Speaker 00

  I, uh, I began to love using maps, right? Not just to find my way through, you know, said jungles and swamp, but you know, definitely everyday travel. But back in the day, you had so many maps. You had the US map, you had different state maps. And then when you got into larger cities, you had to get the city map. So if you did any travel whatsoever, you had a collection of big ass maps that you had to unfold, probably stored in your glove box. That's what you used to use the glove box for, kids. You had to find your place. Where were you at on the map? You had to find out where you were on the map. You had to find the destination. You had to pick the route you wanted to take. You had to know where north was. You had to orientate the map.

• 11:02Speaker 00

  And then you had to read the map while driving, right? So, did you remember the first time the magic of MapQuest met, met your life? Do you remember that?

• 11:11Speaker 03

  Sure. It was one of the many miracles of the internet. That was the next, like, maps? Okay. I put in where I'm going and it tells me when to turn and like, how, basically roughly how much time? No, it was, it was amazing. Yeah, it was great.

• 11:26Speaker 00

  So, late 1990s, my first time, I, I printed out, I remember printing out and stapling about 10 pages of directions together instead of unfolding that huge map of, let's say, for instance, like Indianapolis.

• 11:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:39Speaker 00

  It was amazing because like you said, all the directions were laid out.

• 11:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:43Speaker 00

  And then it came the smartphone and unfortunately MapQuest didn't assimilate quick enough.

• 11:47Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:48Speaker 00

  And Google Maps literally just became the default.

• 11:52Speaker 03

  So, remember the Garmin? The Garmin?

• 11:54Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 11:54Speaker 03

  People had Garmins in their car. Yeah, that was before, yeah. The Garmin.

• 11:59Speaker 00

  So, so MapQuest died. Uh, wait, wait a minute, wait, excuse me. This just in, MapQuest is now the top download. What, what, what? What?

• 12:08Speaker 03

  What?

• 12:09Speaker 00

  What the hell happened? MapQuest.

• 12:12Speaker 03

  At least people have Minecraft.

• 12:14Speaker 00

  MapQuest refused to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America, which sent MapQuest's iOS app to the number four position in the US. Yes, it reached number eight overall in the US, but over the App Store with games, everything. And obviously in navigation, it was number one. And in Canada, go figure.

• 12:36Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 12:36Speaker 00

  It was overall number two. So I want to shout out to MapQuest, allowing us to have a nostalgic moment, a history lesson, due to rebellion over sheer, sheer stupidity. Thanks, MapQuest.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  All right, all right, all right.

• 12:53Speaker 03

  So, uh, AAA, uh, which you probably had growing up.

• 12:57Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 12:57Speaker 03

  I can remember when we'd take a, a vacation in the summer, my parents would like, let AAA know where we're going, what, like where we're, all the, all the stops. And we would get a packet from AAA of directions of where to go. We'd have coupons for, you know, the Motel 6 or whatever it was. Like, we would get this travel pack, which also a little bit of history lesson in there. But yeah, maps, yeah. Maps and travel has been a long time, uh, challenge for human beings. And I don't think young people know, know the pain of maps and going places that you didn't know where you were going.

• 13:33Speaker 00

  Well, and then reading that map, you had to be careful. You had to be careful.

• 13:40Speaker 03

  Oh, the worst was like, oh shit, there's a, there's a accident.

• 13:44Speaker 00

  Yes. Now you have to reroute.

• 13:45Speaker 03

  Get the map out, we gotta find an alternate route. And, and good luck with that. I mean, how many, and then the gas station pull over, right? And your dad never wanted to do it. And your mom is like, pull over and ask the gas station where such and such is. I'm pretty sure people messed with you. People on the side of the, like, oh, we're gonna mess with these people. Like, oh yeah, you go down 10 miles up and then over and then, yeah.

• 14:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 00

  Good times.

• 14:10Speaker 03

  That's a good, that's a good shout out. I like a good, I like a good history lesson.

• 14:14Speaker 00

  Time for a history lesson.

• 14:17Speaker 03

  I might have one too. All right, Chad, my, uh, my shout out, I don't think, uh, I don't think Snoop has ever been on the show, has he?

• 14:23Speaker 00

  I.

• 14:23Speaker 03

  I was trying to think, have we ever had a Snoop shout out?

• 14:26Speaker 00

  I, we've had over 1,600 episodes.

• 14:28Speaker 03

  For such a cultural icon.

• 14:30Speaker 00

  Somewhere.

• 14:31Speaker 03

  For Snoop not to be on it, uh, surprise. So Snoop, Snoop is in the, uh, in the news for doing something in our space, which is, is worth a shout out. So.

• 14:40Speaker 00

  I like it. Weed jobs.

• 14:42Speaker 03

  Deal, Deal and Rippling, as we've been talking about for a while, and we'll get to Hi Bob in a second, uh, they're, they're in the news too, is, is, from my perspective, full court press on the promotion. They've, they've signed a deal with Arsenal, the football, the English Premier Football Team. They're on their jerseys now, actually stopped at the Edinburgh Mall.

• 15:01Speaker 00

  Outlet mall.

• 15:02Speaker 03

  I was going down to Louisville and they have the new Arsenal with the Deal logo on the, on the sleeve. So, so they're, so which tells me like, the IPO must be coming. If they're doing like the full court on the promotion, uh, it must be coming. And they've, they've employed Snoop to partner up and, uh, and have a new promotion. So without further ado, I'm just gonna play you the ad.

• 15:24Speaker 00

  Let's do it.

• 15:24Speaker 03

  That Snoop does, it's for his ice cream company called Dr. Bombay. So he'll mention that. Never had Dr. Bombay ice cream. I don't know if it's laced with reefer or what, because it's Snoop. But, uh, but yeah, here, here we go. Snoop, pimpin' Deal.

• 15:38Speaker 04

  Hold up. I'm hiring an international ice cream taster here at Dr. Bombay. 10 grand a month? You can apply anywhere in the world. What? Must have a passport, E248. But first, you gonna need this. Tell them, pops. Howdy, folks. See, 50 years ago, we had a Derrin public in Mississippi. Today, we are going global, baby. And we didn't use to help us find new flavors. See, we tried to hire ourselves.

• 16:09Speaker 04

  I ain't no lie to y'all, boy. You gonna need to slow down a little bit. Times out, going global's not that easy. See, I love the paper, not the paperwork. But all right, let's handle now with this. And who knows? If you keep it playing, you might end up here with me. So you ready to be Dr. Bombay's official ice cream taster? Then go to deal.com/snoop and apply.

• 16:34Speaker 03

  And yes, I've applied, Chad. I've applied to be the ice cream tester for, uh, for Snoop. Do you think that's his real, do you think that's his real dad?

• 16:41Speaker 00

  I don't know.

• 16:41Speaker 03

  Cause he looks great if it is. Snoop is our age, so his dad, I mean, 70 something, but minimal, like he looks great if that is his dad, which.

• 16:50Speaker 00

  I, I, yeah, I doubt it. It was a commercial, but hey, if it was, awesome. If it wasn't, awesome.

• 16:56Speaker 03

  The question will be, uh, will Snoop be at the NYSE, uh, when they ring the bell? Or the NASDAQ? Cause I wanna see Snoop, I wanna see Snoop on Wall Street.

• 17:05Speaker 00

  We know we will. Yeah. And, and I mean, weed is legal in New York, so it'll probably be spoken while he's, while he's doing it. He, he should be at least.

• 17:13Speaker 03

  Sounds, sounds like an event that maybe we should go to.

• 17:15Speaker 01

  Events. Where we going, boys?

• 17:18Speaker 00

  Well, just for, so you kids know, travel is sponsored by Shaker Recruitment Marketing. That's right. Uh, if you are looking to try to fuse AI into your stack and you have no clue what, what you're looking for, what you need, any of that stuff, just go to your friends at shaker.com. They've been in business for 75 years. That's right. This year, their 75th year in existence, celebrating. So go, go check them out. Joe, we are going to Rec Fest in Nashville, happening September 23rd and 24th on the disrupt stage. We're gonna be doing that. Uh, the girls, Mo and JT are going to be on the innovate stage. So we're gonna have Chad and Cheese all over the place. Chad and Cheese all over the place.

• 17:59Speaker 00

  Now, the first night of Rec Fest, you can, you can join us on the rooftop at the bar of Old Reds, uh, have a drink with the Chad and Cheese. Uh, it's a different venue than the last couple of years. We actually had to upgrade, get a, get a bigger, uh, venue, get a better venue. Uh, so it's Old Reds, uh, and if, uh, you haven't seen information, go to LinkedIn. You got, you gotta know a guy for, for, for, for the most part.

• 18:28Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:28Speaker 00

  Then I'm gonna be heading off to Cabo for Chris and Marion's wedding. Have a good time there, a little fun in the sun. Then I've gotta go to, oh, I almost forgot, Dallas, the very first time we've gone to an SIA event, Collaboration X at the Omni. And there is a shark tank that's happening. And you know, you and I both love a good shark tank.

• 18:49Speaker 03

  We love a good shark tank.

• 18:50Speaker 00

  Show them what's up.

• 18:51Speaker 03

  All right, let's go. It's a shame if you're not watching this, cause if you're just listening, it's a bunch of slides promoting the, uh, the conference.

• 18:59Speaker 00

  It's hype, baby.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  Just take our word for it.

• 19:01Speaker 00

  Nothing but hype. I love it. Ooh, Agog.

• 19:04Speaker 03

  Atlas.

• 19:05Speaker 00

  Atlas.

• 19:05Speaker 03

  First word.

• 19:06Speaker 00

  First word.

• 19:07Speaker 03

  These are the companies in the, in the competition.

• 19:08Speaker 00

  Insignia.

• 19:09Speaker 03

  Insignia. Tenzo.

• 19:10Speaker 00

  Tenzo.

• 19:11Speaker 03

  Oh, Tenzo.

• 19:13Speaker 00

  Ooh, look, it's Brian. Aww.

• 19:18Speaker 00

  Happening on September 30th, kids. That's right.

• 19:24Speaker 00

  Go to collaborationx.com. You like that? I came up with that. I came up with that.

• 19:30Speaker 03

  Little fun fact, the Tenzo founder.

• 19:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:34Speaker 03

  Lives, lives up the street from me. He went, he went to HSC is which is the high school. I think he was valedictorian. Uh, he graduated like 18 or 17, went to Stanford and, and obviously made good. Not that I'm pimping them or that I'm promoting them, but like little fun fact, if you meet the founder, let him know like, oh, Fishers.

• 19:54Speaker 00

  I'm sure he'll be pitching. Yeah.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  You know, Cheeseman, you live right up the street, right?

• 19:58Speaker 00

  I'm sure he'll be pitching. Yeah. You know, Cheeseman. Oh, loser. You're done.

• 20:04Speaker 03

  His dad and I are having Shake Shack later today for lunch. It's all, it's all good. It's all good. I don't, I don't know though.

• 20:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:11Speaker 03

  If he signed up for fantasy football.

• 20:14Speaker 00

  Well, come on now.

• 20:17Speaker 03

  That's right. We're, we're picking the teams. Uh, as we speak this week, we're going to formalize the final, uh, folks that are in the competition. So next week we'll have who's in, we'll do the draft, uh, I think Sunday, I forget what day the draft is, but we should have draft grades very soon. And the games are starting, Chad. I'm pretty excited. Uh, college starts this weekend. The mighty Ball State Cardinals take on the Ohio State Buckeyes. The number one ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. I think I told you the, the Ball State quarterback is 511, 250.

• 20:56Speaker 03

  I mean, the dude's going to look like Earl Campbell playing quarterback. I, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. It's a game that you normally not watch, but if you're out there like, check it out. 511, 250 quarterback.

• 21:08Speaker 00

  That's fucking crazy.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  Could be worth watching.

• 21:12Speaker 00

  511, 250.

• 21:13Speaker 03

  It is a little, a little bit crazy.

• 21:15Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 21:15Speaker 03

  Almost as crazy as the topics we're about to talk about. There we go.

• 21:22Speaker 03

  All right. Let's talk about money. Salesforce has led a 166 million dollar investment in HR platform. Hi Bob, increasing its valuation to $3.2 billion. Hello. The strategic partnership aims to utilize workforce data for enterprise AI agents, prompting Hi Bob to defer its initial public offering until at least 2027. Chad, the money is flowing again. Your take.

• 21:54Speaker 05

  What are you doing, step bro?

• 21:57Speaker 00

  This is about, this is sexy money right here. Right? And not to mention they, they have 700 million in total funding. Okay. Uh, I think the market loves that Hi Bob, Hi Bob, because they're catering to businesses of all sizes, but that's kind of like where I see the problem trying to attack a total addressable market that wide globally is a pretty big effort. So they're going to need some cash. Plus, like smart recruiters who went with the all or none movement to Agentic for an ATS, Hi Bob is bigger. They're an HCM. They're not, they're not just a bigger platform. They are looking at a bigger TAM. So they're going to be a lot, they're going

• 22:36Speaker 00

  to need a lot more money. It's a bigger platform. Uh, the vision, the cash, they need it all. Uh, it's, it's interesting that, uh, Salesforce, go figure, um, was, was one of the companies that doubled down on these guys. I think that's smart. I think the, we'll talk about it later in the show. I think the SaaS apocalypse is bullshit. And I think this is just Salesforce saying, look, this is how the market is going to evolve and we're going to put the money behind Hi Bob. So yeah, I think, I think it's a good way to hedge your bets.

• 23:05Speaker 03

  I'm the best there is. Plain and simple. I mean, I wake up in the morning, I piss excellence. Yeah, I'm in agreement. Um, we talked a couple of weeks ago about private equity coming for Workday. Um, and I think this sort of reflects the timing is right. Private equity coming into Workday. Uh, we'll talk about their earnings a little bit, but, uh, Salesforce coming in and partnering and, and investing in Hi Bob makes a lot more sense to me than private equity just coming in and ripping out the, the guts. So timing is right because I do think valuations on these SaaS companies are still low. Where they will come back or bounce back, we don't know, but Salesforce smartly came and said, look, the price is right for these companies. They may have approached deal. They may have approached Rippling and some others. My guess

• 23:50Speaker 03

  is the price was probably a little bit, uh, less amenable than a Hi Bob. It's kind of like back in the day where you could, you know, you could invest in Lyft or Uber. Uber was way too expensive. So I'll invest in the Pepsi. Uh, Hi Bob might end up being the, the Dr. Pepper of this whole thing, but it's probably a really good sound bet. And I think that it makes much more sense. Second piece of this is that it fits in so well with Salesforce and their AI aspirations. We've all seen the Matthew McConaughey, uh, you know, commercials, the chat and the, the, you know, the AI that's coming and the agent force and all that. So, you know, HR used to be, used to basically be of, uh, org chart. It used to be sort of a maintenance thing. And because of

• 24:34Speaker 03

  AI, it becomes an intricate part of the entire thing. Cause if you know who reports to who, uh, what someone's paid, what their job duties actually are, then the agents in a company become way more influential because you're, you have much more data in terms of what that agent is doing within a company. So for me, like Salesforce and their agent force and what's going on there, this is a perfect fit for that. I suspect the Hi Bob brand will eventually be Salesforce and there'll be Salesforce, HCM, workforce, something. It'll all fit into agent force. So I, I think this is part of a bigger picture for Salesforce. And I think it's a great

• 25:15Speaker 03

  opportunity for Hi Bob to get some extra funding. The IPO thing is interesting. Uh, they obviously basically said like, hey, we're going to put this off till 2027, whereas Workday, you have already public company looking to go private. So we have a little crossing of the streams there. But Hi Bob just became a must watch in our space going forward. And, uh, you and I will continue to watch what they're doing and, uh, what Salesforce is doing with it.

• 25:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. I think PE, as you're talking about, the money is going to burst the fucking dam. The economy has been shit, which has kept companies from spending money. Right?

• 25:50Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 25:51Speaker 00

  Uh, this is kind of like a leakage of the dam, not even from PE yet. So there's going to be, as soon as we can turn the corner and we can stop all this bullshit, that's, that's literally just suffocating the economy.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:05Speaker 00

  There's going to be money that's flowing. There's going to be tons of money that's flowing. Now, on the other side of the house, talking about building agents versus buying agents. We were talking to, uh, a professor a couple of weeks ago where he really is focused on the, the building of the agents. And I don't think that motherfucker understands our industry.

• 26:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:22Speaker 00

  We're not going to build that stuff. Right? We've done it before. We've, we've built applicant tracking systems before. We tried to maintain that. We're like, nope, shut that down. Let's buy something. Right?

• 26:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:31Speaker 00

  We want experts in our space to be able to do that shit. Right? Not, not just the building, but also the maintenance, not to mention building new features. So I think, I think from our standpoint, that is the smartest thing. And as I talked about with, uh, smart recruiters, you take a look at one of the biggest companies, I mean, just from a business standpoint, SAP, buying smart recruiters, they see that as a very integral part, agents, not just smart recruiters, but agents, building agents all the way through your business model, I think is amazing. And if they can take a look at bigger companies, like the Workdays of the world, looking at Paradox, Salesforce, prospectively looking at Hi Bob, if you can get that agent company to

• 27:16Speaker 00

  come in and start building agents throughout that actual business stack, oh, that's fucking money, baby. And that, that I think is the business of the future.

• 27:24Speaker 03

  Yeah. I, I think it's a really pivotal day for our space because thanks to AI and agents, the data that we have in our systems becomes essential infrastructure as opposed to like just an administrative software. This becomes a real strategic step for companies to start understanding and utilizing their talent in a way that they never had before. So I, I think this move is really exciting. I'm working with a startup, uh, sort of in the, in the opening phases and the conversations of integrating with Greenhouse and iSims, whoever, those conversations are evolving into, okay, how do we integrate with Zoom and Salesforce?

• 28:06Speaker 03

  And like these bigger platforms. And that's a very exciting evolution in my opinion, uh, in our space. So this is something to, to keep an eye on for sure.

• 28:14Speaker 00

  Agreed.

• 28:15Speaker 03

  I'm going to come. All right. Speaking of high tech, Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, uh, warns that artificial intelligence will severely disrupt the workforce within a decade. Stop me if you've heard this one before, placing young and blue collar workers at the highest risk of displacement. Bill Gates urges governments to implement protective measures, protecting what he calls, quote, "human reserved," end quote occupations, saying we should tax AI computing and robots to fund retraining programs and prepare for the human race, uh, prepare the human race for universal basic income. Chad, put down your flippy and let us know what you think about Bill's words of warning.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  Well, personally, I don't think the timing of this is good. Um, go, go ahead and play that video that I, that I sent you.

• 29:03Speaker 03

  You got it. Record highs while workers' slice of the pie has sunk to historic lows, according to an analysis today.

• 29:09Speaker 05

  The Financial Times, all of it based on federal data going back to the 1940s, showing a corporate earnings bonanza, as the newspaper put it, nearly doubling the corporate share of national income over that time, while the worker's share has slipped, especially over the past 12 months. Experts say it's too early to gauge whether that shift is temporary or tied to something deeper like the introduction of AI.

• 29:35Speaker 00

  So again, personally, I don't think the time is-

• 29:37Speaker 03

  Can I jump in real quick?

• 29:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:39Speaker 03

  I know some of our, if you're, if you're listening to the show, the spike that happened in COVID in terms of employee pay, it went straight back down. Isn't that a shame? Like, we had talked so much about like, hey, we're back, baby, and then nope, went straight back down. Anyway, I just wanted to, wanted to highlight that because I thought it was interesting. And if you didn't see it on the audio version, go ahead.

• 29:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, I, so we're feeling the impacts of wage inequality more than ever, which is compounded by inflation tariffs, an economy that's paying its CEO 400 times more than the person that's actually doing the hard work. What do we need? Well, I don't believe the answer is the wild, wild west for AI, right? That, the approach of the wild, wild west, I don't think that's it. Unfortunately, we don't have the right leaders in place to navigate this, this situation. I think that's what Bill's saying. And over the past two to three years, we've heard about AI taking jobs, but we've seen little real examples

• 30:41Speaker 00

  of that actually happening. We've seen tasks, small subsets of jobs automated, and we've heard CEOs boast that they're replacing humans with AI, just to hear that they're actually offshored the jobs, or they're, they're bringing employees back.

• 30:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:58Speaker 00

  We're inundated with stories and surveys that scare us or make us happy, right? So I think it's important at this point to start by separating the wheat from the chaff. And because today, there are so many voices that are out there. Instead of listening to them all, I think we really have to provide weight and priority to some of them. And Bill Gates, unlike most of the other billionaires and AI figureheads that are out there, I believe Bill Gates has been around, he understands, and his experience is in more than just tech, and that he better understands the problems of humanity as a whole. So more importantly,

• 31:38Speaker 00

  as evidence of this open letter that he wrote, he understands that humanity equipped with AI is a big problem for humanity without proper leadership. So I believe we give way too much credit to most of the AI voices that are out there, as I said before, because they don't even understand some of the answers that they're putting out there, and they're just making shit up. Or they have a vested interest in how they are creating a certain narrative. And for example, I remember Musk asking for a six-month AI pause. Was that because he was afraid of AI progressing so fast? Or maybe he just wanted the other models to slow down while his, you know, piece of shit Nazi porn bar bot, sorry.

• 32:23Speaker 03

  You're talking about Grok. Are you disparaging Grok?

• 32:26Speaker 00

  It's a piece of shit, dude. Anyway, those, those all come down to leadership. And at this point, I believe, unfortunately, we're all looking to Europe for leadership, because in the US, we've pretty much stated, this is going to be the wild, wild west.

• 32:41Speaker 05

  There might be a wee problem, boys.

• 32:44Speaker 00

  Just a little, yeah.

• 32:45Speaker 03

  So the, the Bill Gates manifesto, and how, how crazy he would come out with this when the, the Gates and Epstein Island conversation just became something that people are doing. Nice little pivot, shift of attention. But anyway, he writes this manifesto, I guess I would call it, and it comes off to me as very, just very anti-human. And also, more and more familiar, to your point, in 2014, 2014, Elon Musk said, and I quote, "With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon," end quote. So this sort of apocalyptic,

• 33:25Speaker 03

  AI is going to kill us all, take all the jobs, is over a decade old. It's, to me, it's starting to lose its emphasis, its, its threatening tone. Look, radiologists, we're going to be out of a job five years. You know, like, all these positions that are gone, customer service, we had, we recently talked about that, like, people are off, are offshoring all of their, yeah, Klarna not replacing everybody. Like, these stories of, oh, maybe not so much, are becoming much more prevalent. And now we're talking about data centers, and people don't want data centers in their communities. And Trump is coming out with Truth Socials about like, let data reign, and if you don't have data centers, you're

• 34:08Speaker 03

  going to be poor and hungry and way behind, you know, humanity, and we got to keep up with China, and China's going to kick our ass if we don't do it. So like, this narrative, to me, is becoming numbing. And the message of humans are going to be okay, I think is one that we can all start to embrace. And I certainly am. I think that the humans' ability to adapt, humans' ability to take things, every, every, every time in history where technology has improved and industrial revolutions have happened, more jobs have been created, more prosperity has been, has been, you know, created as, as a part of that. I have no

• 34:50Speaker 03

  reason right now to think that AI is going to be any different. There will be more jobs, more opportunities. We talked about more businesses being created ever, than ever before. I understand part of that is there, there's not as many jobs, but there are going to be companies that are born out of the tech layoffs and, and other things that happen that are going to create more jobs. So I, I'm more optimistic about sort of humankind than I have been in a long time. I don't think AI is going to kill us all. It could, I don't know. But, I mean, you might as well side on, on optimism in this world than pessimism, and adapt accordingly. That's how humans have survived the past, and it's how I think we'll survive in the future.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  Well, I think we've all, also rebelled. And I think that's where we're about to go. Because again, we talk wage inequity more than ever. I mean, look at the video, compounded by inflation, I mean, again, the economy itself. So yes, if we change the direction in which we are moving, and the direction we've been moving is to push more people lower, lower, lower into poverty, and give a bunch of people, not a bunch of people, a few people, most of the cash. I think if we start to give the individuals the wages they deserve for doing the hard fucking work. Yes, you had great vision. I appreciate that. You're at the top of that, you're at the top of the pyramid, you had

• 36:12Speaker 00

  great vision, but you didn't build that fucking shit, okay? Somebody else did it, and they're doing it day by day by day. They're doing the hard work to actually push the profits to you. Profits are at record highs, wages are at record lows.

• 36:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:26Speaker 00

  This, this to me, I appreciate the optimism, but unless we actually start paying our people, there's going to be a problem.

• 36:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:34Speaker 00

  There's going to be a huge problem, pitchfork types of problems.

• 36:37Speaker 03

  And we're seeing it, at least, I know you've been out of, outside of America for a while, but I know you keep track of, you know, the democratic socialists, and like, the kids are mad, the kids are pissed off, and part of that is, we're not getting paid, the jobs aren't there. I mean, there's, there's going to be a political sort of reckoning in all of this. And when you, when you hear talk about UBI, I think that's just bread and circuses. I think it's like, if we pay people-

• 37:03Speaker 00

  It is, yeah.

• 37:04Speaker 03

  If we, if we write a check, we can keep the party going, we can keep the data center going, and, and, and pacify the, the masses. That seems to be the strategy that they're, that they're embracing. May you live in interesting times, Chad. May you live in interesting times.

• 37:19Speaker 00

  I want boring. Give me boring. I keep saying that. I want boring.

• 37:22Speaker 03

  All right, Chad, let's take a quick break. Guys, if you haven't subscribed to us, if you haven't shared us with your, your industry friends, if you haven't left us a review, please do all of that, and listen to the ads, because there's no show if we don't have sponsors.

• 37:37Speaker 03

  Hey, boys and girls, it's Joel Cheeseman here from the Chad and Cheese Podcast. Guys, I've seen pretty much every AI recruiting tool out there. I give my time and money to a very small few, and I'm here to tell you that I'm an investor in Alex AI, because this tech actually delivers. Look, if you're still drowning in automated resume slop, ghosting candidates, and wasting hours on first round screens, it's time to hire with Alex. Alex is the AI recruiter that's actually solid, which means it doesn't sound like a robot from a 1984 sci-fi flick.

• 38:10Speaker 03

  Alex interviews candidates on video or phone, asks smart follow-ups, takes killer notes and surfaces the best ones. So your team can focus on hiring top talent instead of chasing ghosts. If you're scaling a team and tired of the same old pain, go check out Alex right now at alex.com. That's A L E X dot com and tell them Joel sent you. And right now you can get a free copy of the book by Alex founder Aaron Wang titled The 10x Recruiter. Just go to alex.com/cheese. That's A L E X dot com/cheese. That's right. A free book on the principles of AI and talent acquisition. And all you need to do

• 38:50Speaker 03

  is head to alex.com/cheese right now. Guys, alex.com. Interview everyone. Hire the best. All right, Chad, this next segment is brought to you by Free T-shirts. I'm wearing one right now. The most recent iteration of the Chad and Cheese T-shirt. And if you could see the back, you would see that it's sponsored by our friends at Erin App. That's E R I N. Better referrals through Erin App. But you can't get it Chad unless you go to Chadcheese.com/free. I've got a, I've got a child labor camp going on in my basement. We're packing up T-shirts. We're sending them out to the good listeners of the Chad and Cheese Show. But you can't

• 39:31Speaker 03

  get it unless you go to Chadcheese.com/free today. All right, Chad, the SaaS, the SaaS apocalypse may be on hold. Two software giants delivered strong earnings beats last week. Salesforce posted Q2 revenue of $11.35 billion. That's up 11% and raised full year guidance, heavily boosted by investment gains from Anthropic. Meanwhile, Workday beat expectations with $2.65 billion in revenue, driven by a 14% surge in subscription growth and rapid AI agent adoption. Hello, paradox. Chad, is SaaS so back? Or is this a temporary head fake?

• 40:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm going to focus on Workday because it's more our space. For the full fiscal year, Workday expects subscription revenues of between 9.94 billion and 9.95 billion. So that's a lot of money. Broadly matching analysts' estimates. And AI accounted for more than 25% of new annual contract value during the quarter. Okay, so Workday has over 11,000 companies using their platform. That's a portfolio of companies that are hungry to use AI. They are hungry to find ways to extract ROI out of AI. They are hungry

• 40:51Speaker 00

  to take these AI usage and ROI stories to their board. And they can do just that with a company like Workday exposing themselves to little risk, right? Workday is a steady business. It's a big business. It's a profitable business. And to all you SaaS apocalypse chicken littles out there, I told you motherfuckers that the SaaS apocalypse was bullshit. I told you that companies like Salesforce and Workday would integrate AI into their system and change their models if and when it's necessary. The most important thing to remember

• 41:31Speaker 00

  is that that companies, as you said earlier, Joel, have the gold. So Workday and Salesforce have the gold of data inside their, inside their system. Yes, please, I have another goodness. Data, mountains of motherfucking data. That's, that's the gold, right? And that's what is needed to make these models hunt. So to me, the market has become a whiny little baby that you can excite with a wonderful fairy tale instead of solid numbers. Workday and Salesforce are solid companies who will make big model changes slowly and only when the customers are ready. The market is just, it's fucking bullshit, dude. It's driving

• 42:15Speaker 00

  me crazy. It's driving me fucking, it used to be something we could look at and it made sense. You looked at, you looked at the expectations, meeting expectations, Workday met expectations and one of the analysts that even dropped, it was like, what the fuck is this? This makes no sense. Anyway, sorry, I'm ranting. You're not gonna fall for the banana, the tailpipe?

• 42:35Speaker 03

  There were two primary narratives and the threats to, to software. The first one was, you know what, let's get our, let's get our webmaster to vibe code us CRM. Let's get Johnny, you know, intern to vibe code us an ATS. Like that was sort of the narrative. That was always silly. Yes, these enterprise huge ass companies are not going to get, you know, Sally webmaster to like vibe code some, some tech, right? Like that just was not very realistic. And I think we're seeing that play out now. The second, the second

• 43:14Speaker 03

  narrative was, well, if your pricing is on a per seat basis and companies are laying off and agents are doing work, like, how does the, how does the model work in this new reality? And well, shocker, they're all changing their pricing models from a per seat to like a consumption or how many tokens are you using, right? So like, yeah. So it wasn't a real, it wasn't a real tough narrative to say like, well, we'll just change how we charge for the product. We're not like bound to this seat, you know, the seat pricing model. So I think we've, I think we've both thought like, it was ridiculous to think that these software companies were going to go by the wayside. And I think in fact,

• 43:59Speaker 03

  with the Salesforce high bob, you can argue that these companies will be more important than ever before because hello, they have data and they can start aggregating data across multiple companies. And that's only a scale that a Salesforce or Workday can provide. So I think all those narratives were ridiculous. I think that probably there was some algorithmic trading that said, okay, these, these companies have lost 15%. So let's, let's keep the selling going with the, with the bots. And it just cascaded. And I think that we're learning that it's a, it's a false narrative. And we don't give financial advice on this show, but take a look at the software companies. Like they're kind of bouncing back and they'll probably keep doing so in the near future.

• 44:41Speaker 00

  They're solid. They're fucking solid.

• 44:43Speaker 03

  There's no reason to think that they are, that they are done by any, any standards.

• 44:48Speaker 00

  Solid as a rock.

• 44:49Speaker 03

  Yeah. Do not, do not fall for it, people. All right, Chad, this one's, this one's for you. The US Department of Labor has finalized three rules dismantling longstanding affirmative action requirements for federal contractors. These updates officially rescind race and sex-based mandates, eliminate the 7% workforce hiring goal for individuals with disabilities and update veteran contract thresholds. Though general anti-discrimination laws remain intact. This one's yours, Chad. Get it.

• 45:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, this one's near and dear to my heart. And also Julie's. I mean, because we've worked on veteran hiring programs, individuals with disabilities programs, and we've seen the outcomes. We've seen the, the impact on these, on these individuals, on these communities, right? The Trump administration is quietly tearing down the OFCCP, otherwise known as the Office of Federal Compliance Contract Programs. Now to quote the suit and tie lawyers over at Ogletree Deacons, quote, "President Trump's proposed fiscal year 2027 budget would defund OFCCP as he proposed for the fiscal year 2026 budget

• 46:07Speaker 00

  and move the agency's more limited statutory functions as to individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to an expanded Office of Civil Rights," end quotes. Okay, so what that means is the OFCCP is used to force corporations to actually play fair instead of just taking your hard earned tax dollars. For example, if a defense contractor wants a fat government check funded by you, the working people, the taxpayer, they aren't supposed to just hire Uncle Bob's golf buddies and call it a fucking day. They're required

• 46:48Speaker 00

  to hold higher standards for hiring. Public money should serve the public. So moving on. Why should defund the OFCCP make your blood fucking boil? Because the OFCCP is the watchdog stopping these corporate parasites from feeding off our tax dollars while discriminating whenever they want. Now, let's look at the absolute comedy of where they plan to dump the scraps of the OFCCP. They want to move the limited functions regarding disabled folk and veterans to an expanded Office of Civil Rights. Sounds cozy. Sounds like, oh yeah, civil rights, that's nice. Until you look at the map of where they're going to

• 47:33Speaker 00

  put them. It's not even under the DOL, the Department of Labor anymore. No, they're shuffling it over to the Health and Human Services. You know, HHS, the department currently run by Robert Corkscrew Raccoon Penis Kennedy Jr. The guy's making measles great again. That is where they want to bury workforce protections for individuals with disabilities and former military service members like myself in the darkest, most unhinged corners of federal government. This isn't agency reorganization. It's, it's a fucking burial. And the Trump administration is giving a massive fuck you to veterans and people with

• 48:18Speaker 00

  disabilities who just want a fair shot at working, living their lives and being a part of something, a part of society, which is what we all want to crack at and what these agencies allowed, especially since these corporations are taking our hard earned tax dollars. We should be treated fairly overall. And now that's all going away.

• 48:43Speaker 06

  I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

• 48:46Speaker 03

  I cannot put it any better than that, but I do want to add a history lesson.

• 48:51Speaker 00

  Time for a

• 48:51Speaker 03

  There's no way you're the only one getting a history lesson and on this one. So back in 2023, the Supreme Court struck down race conscious admissions in colleges. You might remember the case, interesting brought about by Asians because they felt they were being discriminated against and not getting into colleges. And at the, at the time, I opined that it would lead to fewer, fewer diversity in the applications process, not just the acceptance process. So the argument wasn't, oh, colleges are going to discriminate. I don't think they necessarily do, but the incentive to take more diverse applicants is gone.

• 49:36Speaker 03

  What I thought the result would be is if fewer black kids, Mexican kids, or Hispanic kids, kids of diversity thought, you know what? I have no shot at getting into an Ivy League school because those, those sort of protections for me are gone. Three years later, that's exactly what's happening in the 85 most selective colleges in the country.

• 50:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:02Speaker 03

  Black applications are down, Hispanic applications are down because these kids don't think they can get in without some little bit of a leg up. So my fear in this is do people with disabilities just not apply? Because they think, well, this is gone, so why would a company hire me? I'm a black woman. I'm not even going to apply because I have no shot. That's ultimately the, the, the damage that these laws, you know, impact on to our, our society. So that's sort of my take on this. I think that the counter argument of like, well, it's not 1967 anymore.

• 50:46Speaker 03

  Like women are way more advanced than they were back then. Black Americans are way, are way further ahead than they, they used to be. I think disabilities is the real sad part of this. I think that they are real, still really challenged in the workplace. But I think all of that goes away when you think, well, if the, if the perception is I'm not even going to get a chance to get this job. I'm not even going to apply, then we've really done society a disservice in my mind.

• 51:15Speaker 00

  All those categories you, you just talked about, they all get paid less than a white man. So it's not equal, right? And that was under protections, that was when, that is when we had protections, right? So when we don't have protections, and this is the thing, okay? So first and foremost, those individuals, they got a job, which is awesome. Because that's what we need. We need our communities to actually, to get those jobs so that you can spend money in the communities and drive economic growth. Okay, that's what we need. Now, what happens when they can't get those jobs? That's the thing. We had wage inequity even when we had legislation on the books. Yes. Now we have no protections.

• 51:58Speaker 00

  So now we've, we've come so far since the sixties. Well, we really have, but we still weren't equal and we were trying to work toward parity, right? So that the same person doing this, or different people doing the same job got paid the same money. We weren't there yet. We weren't even close. And now the protections are taken away. What happens? And I think you're right. There are a lot of individuals that literally are just going to throw their hands up. Like you'd said before, you want that optimist kind of view and you had those, at least, at least the government's looking out for me. At least the government's looking out for me. Now guess what? That ain't happening because they don't give a fuck and in Department of Labor, you can go fuck yourself.

• 52:37Speaker 03

  Elections have consequences, Chad.

• 52:39Speaker 00

  Let's hope.

• 52:40Speaker 03

  Interestingly, HBCU applications have gone up.

• 52:44Speaker 00

  Oh, I bet.

• 52:45Speaker 03

  The difference is college applicants feel like there's somewhere that they can go if they can't go to Ivy League schools or elite schools.

• 52:54Speaker 00

  It feels like segregation again, though, right?

• 52:56Speaker 03

  The difference is like disabled people don't have an outlet. They don't have like an HBCU, like where do they go? So I think that's, it's just a real shame.

• 53:05Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. All the way around.

• 53:06Speaker 03

  Elections have consequences.

• 53:08Speaker 00

  Let's hope, please.

• 53:10Speaker 03

  And so do breaks in the show, Chad.

• 53:12Speaker 00

  Whew.

• 53:13Speaker 03

  Let's take a breath. We'll be right back.

• 53:17Speaker 00

  Imagine mixing Panda Logix AI with Broadbean's global job network to redefine your hiring process and expand what's humanly possible. Well, that's called Veritone Hire, kids. Whether you're piloting a scrappy startup or a corporate juggernaut, they've got you covered. Need to blast job postings, craft a killer programmatic campaign, or I don't know, maybe hit those diversity targets? Veritone Hire does it all. Find, connect and hire faster with AI powered tools designed to bring people together. So you can get back to what's important, growing your damn business. It's AI that helps people find more great people. Ready to elevate your hiring game?

• 54:02Speaker 00

  Head over to veritone.com/hire and see what all the buzz is about. That's veritone.com/hire. So Ash out.

• 54:13Speaker 03

  Boy, that escalated quickly. Let's lighten things up a little bit, Chad.

• 54:18Speaker 00

  This off.

• 54:18Speaker 03

  Let's, last month, AI startup Lemon Lime sparked online backlash after offering fast tracked job interviews to attendees who got tattoos at an unofficial Y Combinator after party. Critiques called the stunt exploitative, no shit. Co-founder and 20 something Jordan Zeitz apologized for the poor judgment and off, offered to cover full removal costs of the tattoos for those that wanted it. Chad, crazy pills, what you got?

• 54:50Speaker 00

  Bruh, I don't get it. I mean, I really don't get it. And to have a founder say, well, you know, I, we really didn't think this through. That's, that's an understatement. It's a true understatement because you have individuals, a lot of individuals are looking for jobs. The, the job market's not that great and to be able to do this just so that you can, you know, I don't know, feed your family. That's just total bullshit, man. And again, it seems very tech bro-ish, a not thinking about anybody but themselves. It's, it's a very Musk kind of, kind of thing to do.

• 55:25Speaker 03

  Spirits. Yeah.

• 55:27Speaker 00

  Yeah. Oh, Jesus Christ.

• 55:28Speaker 03

  Brain.

• 55:29Speaker 00

  As a guy who now has two tattoos.

• 55:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, you were tatted up now.

• 55:33Speaker 00

  Just tatted up.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  The sleeve is coming. Don't worry.

• 55:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, I'm going to work on that. I'm going to work on that. To be able to go through kind of like that whole interview, bait and switch kind of thing. Cause I, I wonder how many people actually got hired and how many people in the company? Because she, I mean, you do get into those almost like WeWork kind of cult, you know? I wonder how many people at the company actually got it. Anyway, it's, it's weird.

• 56:02Speaker 03

  You dumb ass. So seven people got a tattoo from this. Six of the seven got the logo, I think, the company logo. Another person just got kind of an artsy thing, not exactly sure. Look, this is a, this founder is young, to say the least. I'm sure everyone there was 20 something. I'm sure drinks were flowing. We've all done stupid shit. So I'm willing, I'm willing to give him a little bit of a pass on the stupidity and realizing like, okay, that was really dumb. Cause I've been at some conferences where people have done some really dumb shit for money or for companies. So, so I, I get it. Hopefully he learns from this and moves forward. It is not, it is not, it is not, no, it is not uncommon.

• 56:47Speaker 03

  Do you remember Golden Palace in the mid to like early 2000s? They paid people 10 grand to tattoo their logo on your forehead.

• 56:56Speaker 00

  Oh, I mean, come on.

• 56:58Speaker 03

  People did it. Like, I know that this is, yeah, this is, this is our space. This is interviewing for a job and so, but I don't think this was a, this was not a company sanctioned, like get a tat, get a tattoo and get an interview. I think this was a party with drunk, young people doing stupid shit and someone, unfortunately, the CEO and co-founder said, hey, let's get tattoos for an automatic interview.

• 57:23Speaker 00

  The CEO co-founder says it, it is company sanctioned.

• 57:26Speaker 03

  Since backed it up. I do, I do think, however, there's a trend worth watching of using jobs to market. In other words, marketing is hard, getting people to your site, getting people to your brand, embracing it is hard. And I think, I think more and more people are finding out that if we post jobs everywhere for free, people will find out about us. People will come to the site, people will like engage with us and learn who our brand is. Mr. Beast, interestingly, if you're watching, if you're following Joel Algy on social media, he's calling out Mr. Beast for ghost jobs. Apparently there's a job they have for recruiter and Joel knows someone at Mr. Beast. Apparently like over 30,000 people have applied to this job.

• 58:09Speaker 03

  Not that Mr. Beast needs it, but that's 30,000 people that now are in the system to be marketed to or to be, you know, be in the system of the Mr. Beast world. I think more and more companies are catching on to this and saying, let's just post jobs everywhere and get people in the system. We can market to them. It's like free advertising. So I do think that this is a little bit of a, it just smells of this new, hey, let's use jobs to market. Let's use interviewing or getting into the system from an employment perspective.

• 58:37Speaker 00

  A job for the Chad and Cheese podcast?

• 58:39Speaker 03

  No, we're not hiring anybody unless they're, unless they're family or child labor. We have no, we have no interest in hiring you right now.

• 58:52Speaker 03

  At some point, however, Chad, we may need someone to help write these dad jokes because.

• 58:59Speaker 00

  That's why you have Grok.

• 59:00Speaker 03

  Every week, every week. All right. This, this one's good. This one's awesome. Why, why couldn't the chili pepper participate in an archery competition? Why couldn't the chili pepper participate in the archery competition?

• 59:16Speaker 00

  Oh, I don't know. This, this sounds like a good one, though.

• 59:19Speaker 03

  He didn't have habanero. He didn't habanero.

• 59:24Speaker 00

  That is bad.

• 59:29Speaker 03

  Another Guinness barkeep. We out. We out.

• 59:34Speaker 00

  Thank you for listening to, what's it called? A podcast, the Chad, the cheese, brilliant. They talk about recruiting, they talk about technology, but most of all, they talk about nothing. Just a lot of shout outs of people you don't even know, and yet you're listening. It's incredible and not one word about cheese, not one cheddar, blue, nacho, pepper jack, Swiss. So many cheeses and not one word. So weird. Anywho, be sure to subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

• 1:00:16Speaker 00

  That way you won't miss an episode and while you're at it, visit www.chadcheese.com. Just don't expect to find any recipes for grilled cheese. It's so weird. We out.