LR entrepreneur's MeritBuilder lets employees create personal brands

Arkansas Business, May 4, 2009 by Mark Carter

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FAST-FORWARD 25 YEARS.

* Head Coach Paul Petrino leads a downtown Little Rock parade celebrating the Hogs' seventh football national championship.

* Hard Rock Little Rock celebrates its 20th anniversary in the River Market.

* The Greens and Libertarians have supplanted those other two parties as the movers and shakers in national politics.

* And job hunters don't get hired without their MeritBuilder profiles.

At least one of these scenarios is on the cusp of reality.

MeritBuilder is a personal-feedback platform that enables workers to build a portable brand and employers to improve the way they thank and value their employees. The product of Little Rock entrepreneur Dustin Henderson, MeritBuilder one day may join--and potentially replace--the resume as the document of choice for those in the employment market.

"Put simply, MeritBuilder is a way for you to send, receive, collect and display thanks, kudos and other accolades," Henderson said. "As you send and receive thanks, MeritBuilder automatically creates a success log. Over time, it accumulates to create a personal brand."

Henderson wants to change corporate culture and help companies move past traditional means of incentives.

"We enable companies to tell a story that they've never been able to tell: 'We care about you, even if your career path does not end here. We're going to invest in you and build a brand that you can take with you anywhere,'" he said. "In these uncertain times, we find this concept resonates with both employers and employees. People are the only true competitive advantage in business. MeritBuilder ensures that employees know their impact and celebrate their wins."

Merits--those kudos, thank-you notes, accolades, awards, any type of positive recognition--can be sent via e-mail, public profile or Twitter.

"Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are 'What are you doing?,'" Henderson said. "MeritBuilder is 'What have you done?' We believe you are more than just your resume blog posts and tweets. You're the sum total of all the lives you've impacted."

Although MeritBuilder.com is a public site and public use is encouraged, Henderson is targeting what he calls progressive HR folks who are looking for a cost-effective incentive program.

"With this generation, old incentive programs don't work," he said. "Most new graduates, research tells us, will change careers five times. This is the connected generation, sharing their lives with each other digitally. HR is scrambling to understand and adjust to the demand.

"Our corporate tool empowers companies to create a culture of thank-you--because we know that recognition and employee engagement are the single greatest success factors."

Henderson's experience at a Little Rock company that went through several restructurings is responsible for the idea that became MeritBuilder.

"In three years, I had eight bosses," he said. "And with each new manager came the process of re-establishing the reputation I had worked so hard to build with the last manager. The only tools I had at my disposal made me seem narcissistic and self-promoting. I needed a passive way to share my past successes. I needed MeritBuilder."

Henderson shared his idea with a co-worker--he stresses that entrepreneurs must be willing to take risks and not be afraid to share ideas--who knew of a potential investor. A conference call led to a meeting in Dallas, which led to the funding that created MeritBuilder.

And since its funding, MeritBuilder has been nurtured in the Innovate Arkansas start-up incubator program. Henderson has used the legal and research resources afforded him by IA, as well as office and meeting space, publicity and connections to other potential investors.

"IA has been outstanding," Henderson said. "IA is that sounding board for me that every entrepreneur needs. We need more resources like IA in Arkansas."

Henderson, a Houston native, said he hopes to help foster a start-up culture in Little Rock similar to the early days of Silicon Valley and current hotbeds like Boulder, Colo.

"Ultimately, I want to be a serial entrepreneur in Arkansas," he said. "I believe in Arkansas. Why Little Rock isn't one of the biggest cities in the mid-South is beyond me. I love it here."

And he loves the potential for MeritBuilder.

"I've had so much fun communicating MeritBuilder to others," he said. "In many ways, it's like Twitter, a very simple idea that's difficult to explain if you don't use it. But most people get MeritBuilder the moment they receive their first merit.

"My favorite merit is one from my son that says simply, 'Thanks for being a great dad.'"

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