This article is different from my usual technical writing. It is the story of a startup job that lasted two weeks before the offer was rescinded—and the warning signs I missed.
It came to me as a WeChat message in a group chat. The company's CEO was looking for a software/AI engineer, and I was like, "OK, sure. I'm unemployed anyway."
So I reached out, and two minutes after sending my resume, I got a reply saying yes and that we could start immediately. I was like, "OK, let's do it." That was how I got the job offer. It all happened really fast, and I was excited about it.
Too excited, actually, to notice how fishy it was. We'll get to that later.
As part of the process, they wanted me to develop an internal management board for them. I built a demo, and it was not exactly easy, even with AI helping along the way.
I worked on it for days and showed them the result. I even made a demo video to help them apply to incubators and things like that.
I was rewarded for my hard work, and they gave me 200. Yes, 200. It was so little that when I wrote this article, the AI kept prompting me with 2000 instead of 200. How generous of them, haha.
After I showed them the result, they were happy with it, and the "CEO" (I put it in quotes because she was basically the only person on the management team) said she would offer me a full-time co-op for the next term.
I was so desperate for a job at that point that I thought my hard work had finally paid off, so I accepted it immediately. Even though it only offered 2000, and even though that was below minimum wage, I told myself it would at least be good experience.
Then, one day later, when she sent the offer letter, the number had somehow changed from 2000 to 1500, with some random 3% fully diluted equity added in. I thought about it and signed it. Looking back, I was a dumbass for even considering it.
After I signed the offer, I felt so relieved. I thought I had finally done it. I had found a job before finals and could focus on preparing for them. I submitted my AOJAOJFor those who don't know, AOJ is a form used to arrange your own job if you get an external one. and bragged about it to my friends.
Everyone who heard about it questioned it at first, and I kept making excuses for the company with reasons like, "This is an early startup" and "The experience is worth more."
But I was WRONG.
Two weeks passed. I finished a security check on the code I had written using Codex and pushed it to the company's GitHub, one of my worst regrets. Then I got a notification saying they were changing my position to an unpaid internship.
I was frustrated. How could they just change the pay after we had already signed the employment agreement? So I declined their proposal and refused to work unpaid. They argued with me, saying, "Oh, you don't need to actually work full time because we have a CTO now." Yeah, who cares.
Anyway, after that, the CEO just vanished. She was still active on LinkedIn generating AI slop, but she stopped responding to my messages. After two days of anxious waiting, which I honestly saw coming, she told me I was fired. Well, more specifically, she said she would "not continue with my co-op placement." That was the original wording.
And just like that, I was employed for two weeks and then thrown back onto the job market.
I should have seen all of this coming before I even accepted the offer. The fact that they offered me 200 in the first place should have been a red flag. The fact that they changed the offer to 1500 and threw in some random equity should have been another. But I was desperate, and I wanted to believe the experience would be worth it.
This taught me that we should never work for free, especially in the startup world. If a company is not willing to pay you for your work, that is a huge red flag. It shows that they do not value your time or effort, and it is usually a sign that they will not treat you well later either.
After all, what kind of company would not even consider paying minimum wage for your work? That is just not a good sign, and there should be no excuses for it.
The experience taught me to be more cautious and to value my time. I hope sharing it helps someone else notice the warning signs sooner.
I'm not someone who likes stirring up trouble, but I am also not someone who likes being taken advantage of. I want to share some details about the company and the CEO, not to shame them, but to provide some context for my story.
The company is called KnowYi Tech, and the CEO is Ella Meng. To anyone who comes across this article and has heard of this company, I hope you think twice before proceeding.
Be protective of your time, especially when evaluating a startup offer. Your work has value, and you should not be pressured into giving it away.
Thank you for reading my story. I hope it helps someone out there.
Copyright © 2026 Sicheng Ouyang. All rights reserved.
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