Sidedoor - Paste any job, find who in your network can refer you

Hey Product Hunt 👋

I built Sidedoor because I kept seeing the same thing: people grinding through hundreds of cold job applications while sitting one or two connections away from someone who could have just gotten them in.

The referral path was always there. They just couldn't see it.

Paste any job posting and Sidedoor maps your network to find who can refer you, across Gmail, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Outlook, and friends' connections. Not just people you know directly, but people your people know too. Sidedoor is powered by Happenstance (YC W24).

I'd love your feedback, especially if you try it and find someone unexpected. Drop a comment and let me know what you think!

That's a pretty wide access scope for a free tool - Gmail, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Outlook, plus friends' connections. What happens to that data once it's mapped my network? Is the graph stored on your end for future searches, or does it get processed and discarded after each job paste?

the thesis is right. cold applications lose to warm intros. every hire that actually closes came from someone the recruiter already trusted.

but reading every social graph a user has ever touched to find the "right" referrer is basically linkedin premium without asking. the referrer half of the marketplace didn't opt in, they just got tagged.

genuine question: how do you handle the case where the found "referrer" has never actually met the user? does the referrer know they're being pinged, and can they opt out of showing up?

@jerry_feng This is very cool and will make job hunt easy.
To login, Gmail is good but it should be Linkedin or a job portal by default.

This is clever, especially the second-degree connection piece. Most job search tools just show you your direct network, but the referral that actually matters is usually two hops away.

Quick question: when you surface those unexpected connections, how does it prioritize them? Like if Sidedoor finds 10 people who could refer you, does it weight by recency of contact, strength of connection, or something else? Wondering how useful the ranking is in practice when you're trying to actually reach out.

Wow, this is clever! It can also be used for freelancing. When I switched to freelancing full time in 2021, I could use something like this. I did everything manually. I went through my emails, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn. I then checked who can help me out.

Worth checking out!

The idea sounds brilliant, but I know that Linked In is quite strict about using side tools and block accounts for using such tools. Did you solve this somehow?

The part that got me is how often the person who could vouch for you is already somewhere in your circle and you just never realized it. That quiet nudge toward a warm intro feels genuinely useful.

This is an interesting approach. I'm currently exploring career opportunities myself, so I'm curious how do you decide which connection is the best person to reach out to when there are several possible referral paths?