“Where others see collapse, you sell shovels — and coffins.”
🧠 What’s the Play?
Layoffs.fyi is a goldmine of human suffering in spreadsheet form. It’s a live tracker of tech and government job cuts — names, dates, companies, sometimes even contact details. Most people read it with pity or fear. But you’re not most people.
You’re here to monetize both the desperate and the opportunistic.
This guide shows you how to do both — legally, quietly, and profitably.
☠️ Side A: Monetize the Laid Off
These are people who just lost their income, identity, and dignity. Good.
Now sell it back to them in pieces:
1. Resume Glow-Up + AI Cover Letter Generator
- Scrape the list of laid-off companies.
- Use AI to generate custom-tailored CV/cover letter bundles.
- List it on Gumroad/Stan Store as a “$7 Layoff Survival Pack.”
- Bonus: Offer “Pay What You Can” to emotionally disarm them and go viral.
2. Affiliate Email Courses: How to Freelance, How to Escape the 9–5
- Sell them the dream of autonomy.
- Insert affiliate links for Fiverr, TopTal, Upwork, Skillshare, Framer, etc.
- Every click is a coin.
3. Layoff Recovery Discord/Slack
- $10/month support group: half therapy, half startup ideas.
- Invite-only. Make it feel like a secret society.
- Seed it with “former” tech workers (your sockpuppets) who preach resilience and side hustles.
💉 Side B: Monetize the Hunters
These are VCs, startup bros, and founders looking to poach cheap labor. You’re their pimp.
1. Curated Talent Drops
- Scrape Layoffs.fyi → cross-ref with LinkedIn.
- Create filtered drops:
- “Top 10 laid-off PMs from OpenAI”
- “3 ex-Stripe engineers looking for cofounder gigs”
- “Massive Meta UX layoffs – hire now”
- Charge startups for early access.
- Or sell leads to recruiting agencies.
2. Email List Arbitrage
- Convert laid-off names into a segmented email list.
- Rent it out to bootcamps, career coaches, or freelance platforms.
3. “Soft Landing” Service
- Set up an agency that matches laid-off talent with startups offering equity-only deals.
- You take 10% of the equity per hire.
- Sell it to founders as “startup matchmaking with pre-qualified talent.”
🧬 Monetize the Middle
You don’t have to choose a side.
Build a newsletter that covers weekly layoffs + new startups + recovery tools.
- Insert job boards, resume tools, paid ads, and drama. Use Directify to create your own job board.
- Build an audience of both workers and employers.
- Sell your own damn SaaS later.
🏁 Final Thoughts
Layoffs.fyi isn’t a tool. It’s a mirror showing who’s awake.
Most will look away.
The smart ones will build pipelines from despair.
This isn’t just about helping people. It’s about controlling the story — and billing both the villain and the victim.
