PROJECT 17 / VENTURES & INDEPENDENT WORK
Recruiter-style feedback on your resume
A resume feedback product that reads your CV the way a recruiter does and hands back a list of changes you can act on, sold as one-off credits rather than a subscription.
- Role
- Designer and builder
- Where
- Self-directed
- When
- Ongoing
- Links
- CVRoastr
CONTEXT
You cannot read your own resume
A recruiter spends a few moments on a resume and decides. The person who wrote it has read it so many times that by then the obvious is invisible: the first thing a stranger notices is exactly the thing the author has stopped seeing.
CVRoastr is the outside view. It reads a resume the way a recruiter does, points out what they would notice first, and returns a practical list of changes the person can take into their next edit. It is feedback, not flattery, and it is priced to be bought for a single job search, not rented forever.
WHAT IT DOES
Three steps, no account required to start.
- Upload a PDF, DOC or DOCX, or paste the resume text
- Get recruiter-style feedback on what stands out first
- Take a practical list of fixes into the next edit
KEY DECISIONS
The product choices that shaped it.
ONE-OFF CREDITS, NOT A SUBSCRIPTION
Tension
Most tools price a resume review as a monthly service, but a job search is episodic. Nobody needs a resume roast every month.
Decision
Sell credits that never expire, bought once and spent when the person has a resume ready.
Tradeoff
No recurring revenue. In exchange, the pricing matches how people actually use the thing.
A SHAREABLE ROAST CARD
Tension
A paid product has to spread without an ad budget, and a resume review is private, which does not travel naturally.
Decision
Give the free tier a shareable roast card, so the verdict itself becomes the word-of-mouth.
Tradeoff
The card reveals the score publicly, which not everyone wants. That tension is the point: the ones who share are the channel.
FREE FIRST, THEN BUY WHAT YOU NEED
Tension
A paywall before the value is shown kills trust in a product whose whole promise is a fresh outside view.
Decision
Start with a free roast, then a single full review or a bulk pack when more is needed.
Tradeoff
The free tier has to be good enough to be useful and incomplete enough to convert. Getting that line right is the design work.
OUTCOME
CVRoastr is live at cvroastr.com and takes real orders. The thing I am happiest about is the pricing model: it respects that a resume is revised in bursts, not billed monthly, and that alone makes the product feel honest.