Work History Verification for Closed Employers: startup idea with real demand
A candidate was denied credit for 4 years of experience because the former employer closed in 2024 and the manager's email is now on Gmail, not a company domain.
r/jobs · Sep 14, 2026 – Oct 14, 2026 · 515 upvotes
Apparently my 4 years of work experience don't
Read the thread · 83 comments
Work History Verification for Closed Employers is a startup idea for job seekers and recruiters. A candidate was denied credit for 4 years of experience because the former employer closed in 2024 and the manager's email is now on Gmail, not a company domain. A thread in r/jobs drew 515 upvotes and 83 comments between Sep 14, 2026 – Oct 14, 2026. People get by with The Work Number and Manual reference calls, and that still leaves this job open. Hotness is 4.00, Scorching. Strong pain. Clear willingness to pay. The thread drew 515 upvotes and 83 comments. Only clumsy or enterprise-only options. A few weeks of work. A first version is a moderate amount of work, about 3–4 weeks, priced between $10 and $49 a month and charged as a one-time purchase. The pain, the source, the alternatives, the scope notes, and the questions on this page are free to read and free to build from. The agent starter prompt is the paid part. The first slice is on the page. One credit unlocks the rest, to paste into a coding agent, download as Markdown, or send as a private link.
Verbatim quotes are added only after a manual check. Until then, the thread title is the excerpt. Exact post date and verbatim quotes pending enrichment.
Who has it
Job seekers and recruiters.
What people use now
- The Work Number
- Manual reference calls
A way through
An employment verification service that accepts alternative evidence (W-2s, LinkedIn history, indirect records) for defunct companies and issues a verifiable certificate for HR systems.
MVP scope
- Give job seekers and recruiters a way to do this in one sitting: Verify past jobs at companies that no longer exist using W-2s and indirect records, with a certificate HR systems accept.
- Persist the result and show it again after a reload.
- State the empty case when there is nothing to show yet, with one next step.
- Charge later with a one-time purchase, between $10 and $49 a month. The free path must finish the core job once.
- Ship the web app only. Leave The Work Number to keep the jobs they already do well.
How it could charge
One-time purchase · $10–49 a month · B2B · US.
Hotness 4.00
4 of 5, Scorching. Strong pain. Clear willingness to pay. The thread drew 515 upvotes and 83 comments. Only clumsy or enterprise-only options. A few weeks of work.
Why this score
| Pain | 4 / 5 |
| Willingness to pay | 4 / 5 |
| Demand | 4 / 5 |
| Competition gap | 4 / 5 |
| Ease of build | 3 / 5 |
| Recency | 5 / 5 |
Weights: pain 25%, willingness to pay 20%, demand 20%, gap 15%, ease 10%, recency 10%. Recency is recomputed every build. The source report’s 1–10 score is not shown.
Questions
Is this idea already taken?
People already use The Work Number, Manual reference calls. Those options do not do the job in the solution above. The idea is free to build. Nothing here is an exclusive claim.
How hard is a first version?
Moderate. A tight MVP is about 4 weeks (3–4 weeks), assuming the regulated or partner-gated parts are stubbed. The paid prompt turns that into tasks.
Who would pay, and how?
The audience is job seekers and recruiters. Charge a one-time purchase, and test a price between $10 and $49 a month. Willingness to pay is one input to Hotness, not a promise that someone will buy.
Can I use the evidence?
Yes. Build the product. The thread title is a short excerpt with a link, not a quote we are putting in someone's mouth. Exact post dates and verbatim lines are added only after a manual check. Ideas are suggestions, not medical, legal, or financial advice.
Agent prompt
The first slice is public. The rest is fetched only after you unlock it, and it is not in this page’s HTML.
# Agent starter prompt: Work History Verification for Closed Employers You are a senior product engineer. Build only the product described in this document. If a detail is missing, choose the smallest option and write it down in the README. Do not invent a second product, a marketplace of marketplaces, or a growth hack. ## Product Name: Work History Verification for Closed Employers One line: Verify past jobs at companies that no longer exist using W-2s and indirect records, with a certificate HR systems accept. Shape: Web app AI stance: AI-assisted Region for v1: United States Hotness (context only, not a requirement): 4.00 (scorching). Strong pain; clear willingness to pay; thread engagement 515▲/83💬 (demand 4/5); only clumsy or enterprise-only options; a few weeks of work. ## Problem A candidate was denied credit for 4 years of experience because the former employer closed in 2024 and the manager's email is now on Gmail, not a company domain. Who feels it: Job seekers and recruiters.
Unlock the rest with 1 credit.
If you want the operating plan rather than the build document, it lives on the sister site. The business-plan version
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