1) It's possible (however unlikely?) you weren't the only candidate to mention the idea

2) I sometimes ask candidates how they would handle tricky dilemmas I face; yeah, it's free consulting in a way but it really helps you see how the candidate thinks. If the candidate can't tell you something you don't know, why are you hiring them? But the ability to answer that question well may not be the only skill or the most important one for the job; maybe they were indexing more on another skillset than that idea itself and its execution for the role they were hiring. This is just part of interviewing candidly. I think you are better off showing your expertise than hiding it.

3) Hindsight is 20-20; if you hadn't mentioned the idea, you still wouldn't have gotten the job. You took a risk to tell them and it didn't pay off, but you didn't get harmed. I agree it does seem unfair/unjust, but this is a little bit of the nature of ideas. If you want an acknowledgement/thank-you, I would circle back to the CTO and say "hey, I saw you ended up hiring someone else, but you did seem to like one of the ideas I mentioned (xyz) since it looks like you all are pursuing that... can you give me any feedback on what I could have done better in the interview?" That will give him a face-saving way to acknowledge your perception or refute it without you accusing him/her outright without direct evidence or threatening him... You might still not get an answer... but you might get a better sense of what happened, from the ensuing admission or the ensuing stonewalling/denial or failure to answer.

1) It is the CTO who had not thought of the growth idea, not the person in charge of sales/marketing/growth. So it might not have been so novel after all had OP been talking to the people who really would have used it. Likewise, because it was a non-technical topic, it may not have been relevant to what the actual role being hired for was. Would you hire an engineer based on a good idea completely unrelated to their potential role?

2) It is possible that the company did not intend to steal an idea but were handed one anyway. Based on the post, we don't even know if the interviewer asked for the idea, or if OP volunteered it. What are they supposed to do? Are they expected to say, "Well, we have this great idea in front of us that can triple our growth, and yes it came about through a valid internal process, but not the marketing team, so we should not use it."

3) Unless the interview put OP and the company on bad terms somehow, there is nothing stopping them from dropping the CTO a line and saying - "Looks familiar - did some of that come from our conversation?" and see where that goes.

So yes, some type of recognition might be appropriate if it was a novel idea that truly came from this specific interview, but we have no way of knowing whether or not that is true, at least not unless OP tells us more.

Chances are some other part of the interview went wrong in a way you didn't recognize, and perhaps the same idea also was raised internally or by another candidate.

Not everything suspicious has a bad explanation. Sometimes reality is simpler.

Never give free ideas away during an interview.

What happened to you is called brewdogging, named after a similar public shaming:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=brewdogging

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/brewdog-...

Or brain rape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlwwVuSUUfc

Or getting free labour out of job candidates: https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/companies-are-using-job-c...

Ignore all the gaslighters telling you maybe the company didn't steal your idea and some fantasy happened where they thought about it themselves. They didn't, the CTO definitely stole it.

If it was me and I had proof I would send an invoice and then sue if not paid. If I didn't have proof I would just write about it and share everywhere and prepare to fight. When I was younger and more naive I also accepted it and moved on. That's also an option.

Whatever you do, be very very careful from now on. Job interviews and hiring changed, it's all about power and self-preservation now. The people doing the hiring will rob and destroy you if it makes them look good to their bosses.

Copy paste:

Social Proof: Use the opinions and experiences of others to influence a customer’s decision. This creates a sense of trust and familiarity.

Reciprocity: Give something valuable to the customer in exchange for their attention or consideration. This sets the stage for a positive interaction and creates a sense of obligation.

Limited Availability: Create a sense of scarcity by limiting the availability of a product or offer. This can trigger FOMO (fear of missing out) and encourage customers to make a purchase.

Curiosity: Use curiosity to motivate customers by creating an “itch” that they need to scratch. This can be achieved by asking questions or providing valuable information that requires further exploration.

Storytelling: Use narratives to connect with customers on an emotional level and make your product or service more relatable.

Expertise: Showcase credentials, industry knowledge, or relevant experience to position yourself as an authority and build credibility with potential customers. Emotional Triggers: Tap into customers’ emotions by using language and imagery that resonates with their desires, needs, and values.

Loss Aversion: Highlight the potential losses or consequences of not taking action, rather than just emphasizing the benefits of your product or service. Scarcity Mindset: Play off the idea that a product or offer is in high demand and may run out soon, encouraging customers to make a purchase quickly.

Active Listening: Demonstrate empathy and understanding by actively listening to customers’ concerns and addressing them directly. Consistency: Consistently deliver value and follow through on commitments to build trust and credibility with customers.

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Create a sense of urgency by highlighting limited-time offers or promotions, encouraging customers to take action before they miss out.

Did they actually hire someone for that role? Is it possible their growth strategy isn’t based on the idea but is something else? Do they have competitors that might also be interested in this vague idea? edit: I assume you didn’t sign an NDA for an interview.

It stings, but unless you have standing and are prepared for the pain of a litigious stance, just take it as a compliment that the idea you came up with had merit and move on. Being possessive of your ideas is a recipe for misery, whether it’s morally justified or not. Reaching out to the company is unlikely to bear fruit if they’ve expressed no desire to have a relationship with you. C’est la vie.

You'll always know this was your idea, but it's just an idea. You'll have many others, probably better ones.

This start-up might still fail. If they fail, would you be thinking "they had my great marketing idea and they failed". If they succeed, do you really think it would be because of your idea?

I wish I had this amount of distance from my own ideas, but I know I don't. It's much easier when looking at someone else's ideas.

But all in all, I'd say this is an opportunity to find out more, and maybe even come up with another idea based on the discussion you have with the company. It's up to you if you decide to share that further idea or not ;)

In JavaScript land you never have to worry about anything like this, because everyone immediately disavows trust in any idea the moment they meet the developer behind it.

The short of it is, as you gain real world experience you will realize that the world is filled with looters and thieves, and its up to you to figure out who they are and control your interactions with them so you come out on top. A large part of this is knowing when and when not to share.

It is entirely possible to do this, without being a slimeball. Take a measured approach, set up situations and observe closely. What people do in small things, they do in large things, and evil is most characterized in willful blindness.

You shouldn't be trying to differentiate yourself like this in an interview anyway.

Companies are looking for workers, and the rational creative problem solver people tend to be targeted by psychology profiling and discriminated against at the hiring stage; despite them providing unimaginable value, its a top down problem starting with hiring. AI also is a problem since it allows a new age for employers to bypass anti-discrimination laws based on protected classes.

To understand why these things have been happening and worsening, you need to go into the history of how and why business has changed since the 1960s. Its far too much for a single post, but there are reasons why this happened; largely as a progression from constitutional money to fiat debt and various mechanisms of sieving markets into fewer and fewer hands over time (ponzi).

The failures align with the same failures with any bureaucracy and no one covers this better than Mises (written 1930s).

These type of things will be getting much worse in the near future, so you will need to guard the products of your mind more carefully. Familiarize yourself with the Laws of Power (Greene), learn why these things happen, and prepare.

There may come a time in the near future where you'll have to bootstrap your own grid, and physically defend yourself but until that time, do what you need to and become self-sufficient and mature (by learning about important things like social contract theory/economics and other skills that will improve your ability to forecast).

Loyalty is misplaced in any business today, and trust is gone as the pillars of society fall to ruin.

Never provide your best work starting out, don't mention an idea unless it has a number of subtle pitfalls, understand the business growth cycle (and how its often another form of ponzi through preferential loans), and choose well.

In IT people used to joke about automating themselves out of a job (and how there will always be other problems to solve). We can see now where this mentality led, to 7% unemployment in tech (during peak hiring), where the national average is 1.5%.

Experienced people know the importance to semi-automate, and to also never make anything that will run and provide value for longer than a month without some direct input from them. You don't provide your best unless you are getting paid proportionally for the value.

So it goes.

Letting it go is the simplest thing that might work.

There are a lot of alternatives of course. Many of them will suggest not hiring you dodged a bullet.

Also there is a difference between not acknowledging they implemented your idea and not remembering they did. Acknowledgement would have involved a somewhat awkward conversation seeing as you weren’t hired…

…this time. Maybe they reach out in the future. Maybe you run into the CTO in another context…and it would perhaps be productive to add the CTO to your professional network. The future contains everything positive that might happen and the what’s past is done.

It sucks not to get a job. Good luck.

What's the worst that can happen? He tells you to fuck off? I know this isn't the movies, but I can't help but think; not an awful lot to lose in this situation...

Plus your idea’s probably not as unique as you thought it was and they might’ve been working on it already. Maybe another candidate mentioned it and it got stolen from them first.

Move on with your life. Or don’t. Your call.