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AI Was Supposed to Fix Hiring — It Made Everything Worse | John Kim, CEO@Paraform

28 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, John Kim, CEO of Paraform, recounts the grueling experience of building his AI-driven hiring startup. He describes extreme work schedules—often pulling 8 AM to 3 AM shifts for months—commuting between Marina and Mission, and the physical toll of constant exhaustion. A pivotal moment occurs when a potential hire falls through just before a revenue-generating placement, highlighting the pressure of their pay‑per‑hire model. Kim and his co‑founder reaffirm a "win or lose" pact, emphasizing an all‑or‑nothing mindset. He reflects on how empathy for the challenges and the resolve to avoid giving up are essential for founders, noting that many companies fail when founders quit or run out of money.

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So I know it must be very hard to get to this point. What was the hardest thing about actually building this? It actually gets harder over time. We must have done like 8 AM to 3 AM for like 4 months straight. We used to like bike back from like Marina, that's where our first office was, to Mission, where my co-founder's apartment was, every day. One time we came back, it was so close to making a hire, the like offer fell through. Our model, like we only get paid when you make a hire. And I just remember going, Man, this is so hard. And we were hungry, so we were on DoorDash and we were picking for like 20 minutes talking about how hard it is. And I think one of us was like, what if we combine TikTok and DoorDash? We were delirious. This is like 3:00 AM. We just lost a revenue opportunity.
What happened in the 10 minutes when you were almost giving up?
My co-founder and I made a pact. One of our values is you either win or lose and there's nothing in between. There were days where I would just wake up just throwing up. It was just so hard and I didn't know how to solve it. What really helped was being sort of empathetic to the challenges. Like, companies only die when founders give up or you run out of money.
It's like very true.