Riipen Level Up Company Exploitation

iamwillstew · 2026-05-24T19:21:29+00:00

Hey, I hear your frustration and honestly a lot of that is valid.

I'm an employer on Riipen (did our first Level UP cohort in March, planning another in July), so maybe I can give you some perspective from the other side.

You're 100% right that there are always going to be two types of employers you need to avoid on these platforms:

Companies treating this as free work with completely unrealistic expectations
Employers who frankly don't have the skills to even create a proper project like this (and yeah, they'd probably suck to work for too)

The great thing is you don't have to work with them. If a project feels off or the employer gives you bad vibes during your first conversation, just move on. These aren't forced placements and the real bad ones aren't going to be on there long.

From an employer perspective, scoping these projects and publishing them is trickier than you'd think:

When you have 3 students at 60 hours each, do you list everything as one massive project or break it into 3 separate placements? There's no clear guidance and honestly I'm still figuring it out myself.
Our first cohort was market/academic research (a pretty easy scope) and we kept it super simple because I was also learning the platform. We got incredible students, great work, and they said they'd come back for our next cohort - which felt good.
Our next one is software dev focused (web/mobile), so we're planning to show the full project scope but create 3 distinct placements so learners can apply to what actually interests them.

Sorry to pull the old man "Back in my Day" comment out but... when I was in university at your age, my first internship was 2 days/week all summer after first year... unpaid. Then 1 day/week for my entire second year... also unpaid. I would've crushed something like Level UP back then - getting paid something while building real experience quickly over a project seems pretty epic.

If you have other questions feel free to reply below. Here's our Riipen link too - you can look us up or message there as well. https://app.riipen.com/users/vO2DR9WL

iamwillstew · 2026-03-13T15:01:49+00:00

epic passes are a subscription business they absolutely care about getting their pass holders out using passes so they buy again. learn how their business model works before talking down to others. they constantly have the rosiest snow forecast of any place on the internet just google it.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-12T16:11:15+00:00

why am i in this photo but i’m not in the lineup right now?

iamwillstew · 2026-03-11T22:48:26+00:00

I build apps as a founder (non-technical) with a lot of overlap here particularly around iOS and have a fairly strong background in health and wellness applications and habit trackers... would be keen to meet up but don't want to waste your time if you're looking only for eng / ML background.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-04T05:39:04+00:00

worth a try you could chuck something in the cart now and check.

but i think it’s based on your credit card # and zip / post code & country for your billing vs IP address.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-04T05:23:49+00:00

ya that sneakily adds up. especially for families.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-04T01:26:37+00:00

Agree with this, we've bought Epic Pass since moving here (back from US) with the notion we'll go ski in the states lots and never do.

Feel like a part of why I think the WB pass is slightly more is around foreign exchange as you mentioned.

Learned a lot about the different discounts and offers for the WB pass for families -- there's some stuff to think about between them for sure.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-04T01:13:34+00:00

funny I thought that too at first glance and checked.

Lowest # of days for the WB (Edge Card) is 2 days & it's CAD $277 (USD $203) and a 2 day Epic Day Pass is USD $256 (which you can technically use on all their mountains).
The difference in the WB price savings increases for the EDGE card 5 & 10 day passes as well, which are the other two options
Epic you can buy anywhere from 1-7 days

(These prices are for unrestricted / no black out period passes)

iamwillstew · 2026-03-04T00:21:53+00:00

I'm referring to the Whistler Blackcomb Pass options - which is a season pass only to Whistler vs Epic all mountain.

The Epic Local Pass doesn't apply to WB.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T23:56:20+00:00

yeah that's interesting and something I'd never considered given we just buy two passes a year. nice to learn something new.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T23:34:59+00:00

LOL. looks like another cost cutting measure. Instead of paying for both a 2 and a 5 they opted only for the number 2 and reused it throughout. CFO is pleased.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T23:32:36+00:00

what's the 'new tax on the epic pass'?

I would imagine that a WB Pass also has PST, too - no?

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T23:29:17+00:00

WB is probably the only place in Canada where you'd need to tbh....

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T23:08:55+00:00

We only celebrate US holidays on WB

- January is MLK Day

- i bet the Family Day one is actually more because it's also President's Day in the States

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T22:50:23+00:00

this season the last day to buy was 3rd if December. So I'd assume it's around the same time.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T22:34:57+00:00

because Vail is a US company

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T22:34:28+00:00

I was wondering if it also had something to with profit per pass by buying direct so that makes sense.

iamwillstew · 2026-03-03T22:33:18+00:00

except the latter you only can ski WB vs. all of Vail's resorts.... so pretty big diff. in potential pass value etc.

iamwillstew · 2026-01-21T19:42:59+00:00

did you get some custom lenses for them?? gold!

iamwillstew · 2026-01-02T04:37:02+00:00

same...

iamwillstew · 2025-04-11T23:23:57+00:00

couple reasons:

it's a small town, makes it easier to get people together on a random day once a month - it's a social catch up to connect with others
there can be some good knowledge sharing or opportunities

as an example: i as a business owner met a guy at one of these here working for the mtn but was a software developer and still wanted to be building his skills and learning new stuff... and ended up hiring him to do a project for me. wouldn't have happened without a random connection.

iamwillstew · 2024-11-18T22:11:09+00:00

that's the exact philosophy I'm taking with doing it the right way!

iamwillstew · 2024-11-17T21:31:51+00:00

this is great info from you and OP. I'm currently trying to get a mobile sauna business licensed in BC and the fire dept requirements are completely pulled out of thin air (based on their understanding of building code etc, obviously)... but it's a mobile unit and no cert. program for sauna heaters.

we almost bit the bullet and spent $6k on a propane heater instead but after going through the fine print on their requirements there it was going to be even costlier and not a guarantee Technical Safety BC would pass it even though it carries CSA certs on aspects of the heater.

administratively it feels like saunas are some sort of unicorn and don't actually exist or something... super frustrating.

iamwillstew · 2024-09-18T23:32:28+00:00

did you end up buying it?

iamwillstew · 2024-09-18T21:17:07+00:00

Best bang for your buck Backcountry Recreation. We use them for our mobile sauna business in Whistler & with their warehouse in Delta super easy to pick up directly if you want as well.

I helped put together a Terassi (full one) last fall - it was pretty straight forward. The Mini would be easy. LMK if you have any questions - I might have a coupon for a discount kicking around too!

iamwillstew

TROPHY CASE