SAN FRANCISCO – How does a start-up founder hire a software engineer or a tech worker find a date in 2025? They could share a job posting on LinkedIn, log on to a dating app – or leave a handwritten note in a Waymo.
That’s what Influur CEO Alessandra Angelini was thinking when she and Jennifer Lo Chan, Influur’s head of marketing, tucked a piece of paper into a self-driving taxi’s center console on a recent trip to San Francisco.
“Looking to hire senior software engineers to work on AI/music project,” said the note, a retro touch in a futuristic setting, with the company’s website and Angelini’s email scrawled below. That same day, another Waymo rider snapped a photo of the note and posted it on the social media platform X, where it has been reshared nearly 200 times, received more than 4,000 likes and more than 300,000 views.
As a result, Angelini said she has received about 60 résumés. Based in Miami, Angelini said the Bay Area is full of the type of AI-savvy engineers she is seeking.
“This was an old-school type of ad that worked pretty good,” Angelini said in an interview.
A few days later, another handwritten ad found in a Waymo was shared on X from a single man looking for a date. The bachelor described himself as a 26-year-old who works in tech but “doesn’t make it my whole personality” and left a phone number for interested parties to text. The post has gotten more than 200 replies.
Self-driving cars are ubiquitous in tech hubs such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, and it’s common to see tourists snapping selfies and posting videos of their rides – sometimes even with footage of harassment or attempts by others to enter their vehicle. But the latest social media content seeking workers or lovers through personal ads highlights how difficult it is to find quality people, forcing some to turn back to basics like placing handwritten notes in a taxi.
It’s a sharp contrast to the ever-present notion in the Bay Area that artificial intelligence is going to replace our jobs, hiring and even our relationships. Billboards in San Francisco urge observers to “stop hiring humans,” and tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI predict that digital helpers called “AI agents” will complete tasks on human’s behalf. Companies are also touting AI “companions” to replace their human partners.
“Young daters are trying to roll back the clock in dating to a simpler time,” dating coach Damona Hoffman said, adding that the speed with which online dating unfolds can be “crushing” to singles, leaving them nostalgic for earlier ways of meeting.
While Hoffman finds the Waymo personal ad “clever,” she doubts it will be effective. “You simply cannot reach critical mass this way, and there are unlikely to be enough people who get into the car who fit the criteria and are open to take a chance texting a stranger,” said Hoffman, author of “F the Fairy Tale.” “Dating culture today is much more visual than it was when personal ads were an effective method of meeting.”
However, Joyce Zhang, a Bay Area-based dating coach who used to work as a product manager at Waymo rival Cruise, loves this old-fashioned approach to finding love.
Anyone who gets in the Waymo and sees the note “can feel this emotion of surprise, joy or inspiration” at seeing someone putting themself out there in an unorthodox way, Zhang said, potentially prompting riders to ask themselves: “What can I do to put myself out there in the world?”
The 26-year-old single man did not respond to a reporter’s text and voicemail seeking comment.
Alphabet’s Waymo said it is “proud to be driving mobility both personally and professionally.”
It’s unclear how long the notes would remain in Waymo cars. The company said its vehicles are “inspected and cleaned every time they return to the depot, plus extra cleaning can be requested if needed.”
Chan said the idea to leave the note in the Waymo was spontaneous, and it felt like a natural place to seek an engineer with AI fluency.
“This would only happen in San Francisco,” said Christina Zerka, a 23-year-old visiting from New York who snapped the photo of the handwritten job ad and posted it on X. She said she was charmed by seeing the ad and thought her social media followers, many of whom work in tech, would enjoy it.
Many of her followers called it a brilliant marketing strategy, with several saying: “Respect the hustle.”
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