Will Robots Take My Job
Acquired post-viral (~2018); still live on automation anxiety SEO, ~68K visits/month
Mubs Iqbal: Product Hunt Maker of the Year 2016, 100+ side projects, Upstate NY. Dimitar Raykov: designer from Bulgaria. Met via Freelance TV Slack.
Mubs and Dimitar met in a Slack group. Dimitar proposed wrapping a 2013 Oxford automation study into a searchable tool. Two weeks of spare-time work, no budget — a developer from New York and a designer from Bulgaria.
The Receipt
“The methodology is questionable and this is just fearmongering dressed up as data.”
The Journey
Growth trajectory — click a dot to jump
- Oct 2016
press HN thread: criticism of methodology and 'no business model.' Traffic unaffected.
- Oct 2016
“Interesting novelty but zero recurring revenue. What's the business model?”
- Sep 2016
What they said
“The methodology is questionable and this is just fearmongering dressed up as data.”
What happened
Will Robots Take My Job? built over a weekend using Frey-Osborne Oxford automation probability data.
September 2016
Criticism → Reality - Sep 2016
What they said
“This is built on one 2013 Oxford study. It's not a real product, it's a meme.”
What happened
Viral launch: 1M+ visitors in first week via Reddit, Twitter, and media pickup.
September 2016
Criticism → Reality - Nov 2016
press Coverage in The Guardian, BBC, and Washington Post. International traffic surge.
- Jun 2017
milestone 5M+ total visitors. Becomes the canonical 'robot automation' query destination on Google.
- Jan 2019
other Site updated with additional data sources. Evergreen content strategy reinforces SEO dominance.
- Jan 2021
milestone COVID-era automation fears drive another traffic spike. 15M+ cumulative visitors.
- Jan 2023
milestone ChatGPT-era automation anxiety drives highest-ever traffic. 25M+ cumulative visitors.
- Jan 2024
milestone 30M+ total visitors. Still running, ad-supported, nearly zero maintenance.
- Jan 2025
acquisition Site acquired by new ownership. Mubs and Dimitar exit. Site continues running under new team with original data intact.
Outcomes & Insights
Latest outcome
January 2024
Cumulative visitors
30M+ total visitors
SEO dominance: ranking #1 for 'will robots take my job' and related queries across a decade of growing search volume
Evergreen anxiety topic: automation fear compounds — each technology wave (ML, ChatGPT) drives new traffic peaks
Viral launch capturing media coverage from BBC, Guardian, and Washington Post in week one
Zero competition in the specific format: searchable job-by-job automation probability with shareable results
💡 What you can learn
- Will Robots Take My Job is the rare side project that gets more relevant every year it ages.
- Raykov didn't build a business — he built a query.
- If you can own the Google result for a fear that millions of people will always have, that is a business.
When they pushed back
When critics called it a meme with no business model, the site kept getting traffic — because automation anxiety is a permanent search category, not a fad. The 'no business model' turned out to be: own the SEO query, serve ads forever.
Success patterns
See all patterns →Chat about Will Robots Take My Job loads when this section enters view.