FWIW I would not hesitate to hire a felon if they were talented. Smaller companies and startups won't really have a problem here. Larger companies doing background checks might - but then again they might not. TBH I would use this opportunity to help find an even better match. If a company is going to blindly say no to you, they are probably not worth working at. Unless of course they have some kind of legal issues where they are barred from having a felon on their team.