How to start a Lowball Offer Detector for Job Postings business: plan and growth
After five interview rounds and a 4-hour unpaid take-home for a job posted at $90k, a candidate got a $62k offer and was told the top of the range was for a 'unicorn'.
An owner can start “Lowball Offer Detector for Job Postings” from a complaint people already posted. The offer, in one line: A browser extension that saves the posted salary range when you apply and flags offers below it. It is for job seekers. Charge a free tier and a paid upgrade, and test a price under $10 a month. Begin in the United States. Buyers already talk about this in r/jobs. One thread gathered 270 votes and 80 replies across Sep 14, 2026 – Oct 14, 2026. Use that room to meet the first twenty buyers. Do not export it, and do not republish the posts. The idea, the evidence, and the market estimate on this page are free to read. Two paid prompts finish the job: one drafts the offer, the price, and a ninety-day calendar; the other drafts a month of conversations and proof. One credit unlocks both. A software specification is not on this site. When the company is the product itself, a single link further down opens the founder library.
After five rounds of interviews for a job posted…r/jobs · Sep 14, 2026 – Oct 14, 2026 · 270 votes · 80 replies · Open the thread
Who would pay
Job seekers. Start in the United States, and charge a free tier and a paid upgrade, testing a price under $10 a month.
The thread above is the public complaint this business can learn from. Verbatim quotes are not invented. Further sources, when a later report adds them, stay with the evidence.
What buyers use today
- Glassdoor
- Levels.fyi
The offer, in our words
An extension/service that archives the job posting and salary band at application time, compares the offer to it and builds a public database of mismatches by company.
Score 3.70, Hot. Pain, willingness to pay, demand, and the gap in current options drive it. We are not scoring how fast you can code.
Market size
An estimate, built from the bottom up: real customer counts × a realistic price. It shows the size of the prize, not a forecast.
TAM Total addressable
$168M a year
2.8M job seekers · 40% of unemployed people in the US
SAM Serviceable
$50.4M a year
840,000 job seekers · US, online
SOM Obtainable in 3 years
$504K a year
8,400 job seekers · 1% of the reachable segment in three years
What that means
8,400 job seekers at $5/mo = $504K ARR
Medium confidence · estimated Oct 2026
How we estimated this
- Base: 7,100,000 unemployed people in the US.
- Has the problem: 40% (assume 40% are actively comparing offers).
- Revenue per job seeker: $60 per year ($5/mo).
- Reachable: 30% (US, online).
- Three-year capture: 1% of the reachable segment.
TAM is customers with the problem × revenue per customer. SAM is the part a new business can reach. SOM is a cautious three-year share of SAM. The bars use a log scale. A share marked “assume” is our judgment, not a measurement.
The business-plan prompt
The offer, the price, and a ninety-day calendar, written for an agent. 1 credit unlocks both prompts for this idea: this plan and the growth playbook below.
# Business plan prompt: Lowball Offer Detector for Job Postings You are writing a practical plan for one owner who will sell this as a business. Do not write a software specification, a venture memo, or a feature list. Use short sentences. Where a number is unknown, give a range and say what to measure. ## The business Working name: Lowball Offer Detector for Job Postings What the customer gets: A browser extension that saves the posted salary range when you apply and flags offers below it. Who pays: Job seekers
Locked · the first lines are above
Unlock both prompts for this idea · 1 credit ($9.99)
One credit opens the business plan and the growth playbook together, for good. Credits work on both businessideastobuild.com and realstartupideas.com.
Sign in once with your Real Startup Ideas account; the same credits work on both sites.
The growth playbook
Thirty weekdays of conversations and proof. Not an ad plan. Included with the plan above, on the same credit.
# Growth prompt: Lowball Offer Detector for Job Postings You are planning thirty days of distribution for a business that already has an offer. The offer: A browser extension that saves the posted salary range when you apply and flags offers below it. The buyer: job seekers. Price band: under $10 a month. Do not propose ads, a viral loop, or a rebrand. Propose conversations, proof, and a repeatable weekly rhythm. ## Starting point A public thread in r/jobs drew 270 votes and 80 replies. The pain, in the owner's words: After five interview rounds and a 4-hour unpaid take-home for a job posted at $90k, a candidate got a $62k offer and was told the top of the range was for a 'unicorn'.
Locked · the first lines are above
Unlock both prompts for this idea · 1 credit ($9.99)
One credit opens the business plan and the growth playbook together, for good. Credits work on both businessideastobuild.com and realstartupideas.com.
Sign in once with your Real Startup Ideas account; the same credits work on both sites.
Questions
How much money do I need to start?
Enough to talk to buyers and deliver the offer once. A service version can start with a written process and a way to take payment. A software version is a larger bet and is not required to test the price. The band to test is Under $10 a month.
How should I price it?
Test a price under $10 a month, charged as a free tier and a paid upgrade. Raise it after three paid pilots, not before the first conversation.
Where do the first customers come from?
r/jobs is the clue. A related thread gathered 270 votes and 80 replies. Show up there, follow the room's rules, and ask for conversations. Do not scrape it.
Do I need to write code?
No. The prompts on this page draft a plan and a month of growth. Code is a later choice. The founder site linked once below is where the build document lives, if you want it.
The coded version, and the option to hire it out, are on the founder site. PRD and build options
A two-week build starts at $10,000 on that site, after a $1,000 scoping fee.
Plans and growth playbooks
One credit opens both prompts for this business.
The idea, the evidence, and the market estimate stay free. The business plan and the thirty-day growth playbook for Lowball Offer Detector for Job Postings cost one credit, together, and stay unlocked.
Credits work on both businessideastobuild.com and realstartupideas.com. Sign in once with your Real Startup Ideas account; it is the same wallet.