Brent Pearson is the CFO and co-founder of Enboarder, a technology company that helps employers create engaging onboarding experiences for their new employees.
Early career
In August 1988, Pearson worked as a Business Analyst at Booz Allen & Hamilton. Pearson worked at various client engagements for Booz Allen based out of London. Pearson saw much of the world and learned a lot in this role. In early 1994, Pearson got promoted to Knowledge Management Director, where he was part of a talented team who designed Booz Allen’s Knowledge Management program. Pearson was leading the technology architecture team, while many of the competitors were going down the Lotus Notes route, the team firmly developed one of the early web-based applications call Knowledge On-Line II.
In 1996, after working for over eight years at Booz Allen, Pearson worked at Morgan & Banks as a Chief Technology Officer. He served the bank for four years. In 2000, Pearson then worked as a Senior Vice President of Strategy and Planning at Monster.com. Pearson ran Monster’s strategy and planning group. The team was responsible for product strategy, acquisitions, and some elements of business strategy. It was a tough time to work for a dot.com whose focus was recruitment and watched the dot.com collapse, and recession in the USA decimates many companies.
In November 2002, Pearson worked as a General Manager at Monster Government Solutions. As a General Manager for Monster Government Solutions, Pearson led a talented team who put together an integrated approach to recruiting. The team acquired the leading government-specific Applicant Tracking Vendor (QuickHire) and folded their offerings into its solution set. The team developed the business from $2.2 million in 2002 to $16 million in 2003 and $30 million in 2004. Pearson left this role to relocate back to his native country of Australia.
In January 2005, Pearson co-founded HRX Pty Ltd, a leader in Recruitment Process Outsourcing. Pearson held different roles which ranged from Chief Operations Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Director of Innovation, and Director of Business Development. Pearson worked closely with customers and also internal delivery teams to design and innovate the recruitment solutions.
In March 2012, Pearson served at LiveCareer as a Vice President of Employer Products. As Vice President of Employer Products for LiveCareer, Pearson led a cross-functional team in designing and building a B2B SaaS recruitment application. Pearson conducted market research into the market and competitors, recruited cross-functional team, and established Agile SCRUM product development processes. Pearson also implemented LEAN UX design methodologies and worked with a distributed team of designers, developers, customer service, sales, and marketing professionals.
In September 2014, Pearson served as Chief Executive Officer at Reffind. Pearson worked with a great team designing and building a very cool way for employers to supercharge their existing Employee Referral Program by making it mobile, fun, and easy to use for employees. In this role, Pearson architected an innovative product that adds real value to customers with no changes to ATS, no extra work for HR, no involvement by IT, and no changes to processes by recruiters. The product was successful that the company even conducted an initial public offering (IPO) in July 2015.
Enboarder
After being in the HR industry for more than 20 years, Pearson realized that although HR Technology products were performing HR team’s lives easier by making dynamic task management solutions; they were ignoring the experience of the employee. Pearson had his moment when reading through an MIT research paper that confirmed the influence first impressions have on business results. Pearson noticed an enormous opportunity for businesses to develop employees’ satisfaction and retention by employing new hires.
In May 2015, Pearson founded Enboarder, a technology company that supports employers produce engaging onboarding experiences for their newly hired employees. Enboarder is a vastly customizable platform that enhances the onboarding experience for employers and their new employees. Enboarder’s mobile-first platform enables employers to engage new hires with personalized, automated messaging, making it accessible to provide all employees the same warm welcome.
As of June 2018, Enboarder claimed to have over 100 customers, including McDonald’s, Walmart, Tesco, Gucci, ING, Nationwide Building Society, and Westpac.
Funding rounds
In September 2016, Enboarder raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding from its lead investor Our Innovation Fund, LP. In November 2018, Enboarder raised $4 million in a venture round, led by Greycroft. Other investors include Venmo, Thrive Global, HuffPost, BetterCloud, and Axios Investments. Existing Investor Our Innovation Fund, LP has also participated in this round. Enboarder intends to use the funds to expedite growth in the US, as well as the ongoing expansion of the platform.
Awards and recognition
Enboarder was awarded as Best Advance in Onboarding Technology – Brandon Hall 2016, and Runner-Up, HR Tech World Startup Stage 2017.