CEO Insights: Unveiling Enboarder’s Vision with Brent Pearson

Meet Brent Pearson! Brent is the Founder and CEO of Enboarder. He started his career in film and television production, moved to management consulting with a global consulting firm, and then settled into the HR technology space, where he spent the majority of his 30+ year career.

Nowadays, Brent spends his days at Enboarder meeting with customers, hyping up the team, and driving innovation. He’s passionate about using technology to solve problems and ensuring that employees actually enjoy their time working-which is kind of a unique perspective from a startup CEO! We sat down with Brent to learn what makes him tick and how he encourages connectivity within Enboarder and beyond.

So, where did the idea for Enboarder come from?

“I was exploring potential business ideas with some of my trusted contacts in my HR network. While my initial idea wasn’t exactly right, it had an onboarding button that garnered a lot of interest.

That interest made me step back and dive deeper into the world of employee onboarding. It was during that research that I came across an academic paper that quantified the connection of a good onboarding experience to key business metrics. Those conversations and that research sparked the idea to focus on employee experience rather than on operational efficiency.”

What excites you about Enboarder?

“So many things excite me about Enboarder. For starters, we have a product that genuinely makes people’s lives better. I love working with customers and hearing their stories about how we’ve improved their employees’ lives and simultaneously helped their businesses. The team we have is truly amazing and I will always do everything in my power to protect them and the culture we’ve built here.”

Are you nervous about potential economic downturns?

“One of the benefits of being older is that I’ve experienced a lot in my career-including numerous economic downturns, recessions, financial crises, and even world crises. My career has spanned the 1991 Global Recession, the 1997 Asian Financial crisis, the 2000’s-era Dot Com meltdown, the 2001 World Trade Center attack, the 2007 Global Financial Crisis, and the 2020 pandemic. Needless to say, I’ve seen a lot.

I remain an optimist, though, and that helps. So while I typically plan for the worst, having an optimistic outlook helps get through gloomy times even when it looks like there’s no way out.

At Enboarder, we haven’t panicked when others have-just look at our COVID response-and we’re building our business responsibly rather than lighting money on fire to grow at all costs. I think this balanced approach will continue to see us through any tough times that may lie ahead.”

How do you approach mentoring relationships with your team?

“I’m a huge believer in mentoring. I’ve mentored a number of people throughout my career and also had wonderful mentors of my own-people that genuinely care about me and my career development. I encourage all my team to find and cultivate those relationships themselves and among the broader Enboarder team as long as it’s real and genuine. Being a mentor is a responsibility that people have to sign up for with open eyes.”

What’s the biggest challenge facing Enboarder in the next year?

“We’re going to need to educate the market about what is possible with true human connection. It’s going to take leading HR teams beyond the basics to really explore the potential of building human connections within a business. How do we do that?

By building the best product we can while spending a lot of time with our customers. If we listen to them, show them what we can do and share that knowledge and learning with others, we’ll handle this challenge without a problem.”

What else should we know about you?

“I love spending my time adventure motorcycle racing and, in fact, used our last company Enrichment Day to go on a bike ride with some mates. Adventure bike riding always clears my head and gets rid of my stress. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to follow along on all of those adventures or just check out my latest trip here.

What else is there to know about me? Well, I recently enjoyed the Hulu show about Elizabeth Holmes, The Dropout. And I strongly believe that nobody needs more than five pairs of shoes. Ever. Never ever.”

Wait, what’s an Enrichment Day?

We’re glad you asked. Enrichment days are a perk that we created for our Enboarder team. Once a quarter we give them a day off to do anything that enriches their lives. Read more about our perks and how to join the team by checking out our careers page.