atsisbroken — a free, open-source, local-first alternative to simplify.us. Unlicense. No cloud. No premium tier. No data harvesting. Forever.
Before we replace it, we have to understand it. Simplify Jobs (simplify.us / simplify.jobs) went from a 2020 YC seed to 1M+ job seekers and 100M+ tracked applications with a team of seven. They executed cleanly. Here's the recipe:
| # | Move | Why it worked |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free forever core product | Autofill and tracking are free, indefinitely. Removes activation friction. Job seekers are price-elastic and broke. |
| 2 | Browser extension distribution | One install, instant value on every supported job board. The extension is the product surface. No login wall to first value. |
| 3 | Coverage of 100+ ATSes | Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Taleo, Avature, Lever, SmartRecruiters. The pain of filling out the same form for the 50th time only ends if your tool covers every form. |
| 4 | Resume upload → profile auto-built | One-time onboarding cost. Profile is reused on every application. The cost-curve is an L-shape: high once, then zero. |
| 5 | Multi-page autofill that doesn't stop | Modern Workday applications are 6-12 pages. Autofill that survives across pages is sticky. Users come back the next day. |
| 6 | AI for short-answer questions | "Why do you want to work here?" is the differentiation problem. Auto-generated personalized answers from resume + job description solves it. |
| 7 | Two-sided marketplace | Job seekers free; employers pay to post and promote. Premium tier (Simplify+) for power users. Classic B2B2C. |
| 8 | YC + brand-name VCs | $4.35M raised across YC, Craft Ventures, Soma, Roar, Hyphen, Global Founders Capital. Credibility halo for the employer side and recruiting talent. |
| 9 | Pain-point clarity | "Filling out 50 job applications is awful" is universal. No customer education needed. |
| 10 | Team of 7 doing 1M users | High-leverage product, low ops. Margin discipline lets the free tier survive. |
| Axis | simplify.us | atsisbroken |
|---|---|---|
| License | Closed source, Terms of Service | Unlicense — public domain, fork freely |
| Resume storage | Cloud (Simplify servers) | Local file on disk. Never uploaded. |
| Account required | Yes | No |
| Premium tier | Simplify+ (paid) | None. Forever. |
| Distribution | Chrome / Firefox extensions | Browser extension + native binary + CLI. WASM core. |
| AI personalization | Server-side proprietary | Bring-your-own-key (Claude / OpenAI / local Ollama). User chooses. |
| Cleared / regulated work | Cannot use (data residency) | Local-only mode. Fits cleared/healthcare/finance posture. |
| Data harvesting | 100M applications tracked centrally | Zero. Every user owns their data on their device. |
| Funding model | VC-backed, employer-paid, premium tier | None. Cochran Block. Anti-founder. Federal whistleblower-built. |
| Moat | Brand and bizdev partnerships | Open ATS adapter ecosystem. Anyone can ship a parser for a new ATS the day it launches. |
simplify.us is a YC-shaped answer to a problem that doesn't need a YC-shaped answer. The product is a thin client over public form-field heuristics, fronted by a marketing site, sold to employers as a recruiting funnel. None of those ingredients require a startup, a Series A path, or 7 employees in San Francisco.
What it requires is one open-source repository and a handful of contributors who decided the entire category should be free.
That's atsisbroken.
atsisbroken — reserved on crates.io
License:Unlicense
Status:Scaffold. Specifications are being written; first ATS adapters next.
Author:Michael Cochran — Cochran Block, LLC