Merit: The One Idea America Agrees On

The Shared Problem

Despite bipartisan agreement on the idea that merit should facilitate opportunity, there’s no shared path to achieving it.

That’s not for lack of intent or trying. Each man developed and led his approach.

The holes within each approach are gaps in training, systems, understanding, and tools to identify merit.

I’ve spent years inside these gaps.

I’ve built and scaled hiring systems that reveal how bias, perception, and familiarity override merit every day.

I’ve experienced direct discrimination.

I’ve also helped companies reduce hiring and onboarding time by 21 percent through blind hiring systems.

I’ve built tools that helped underestimated job seekers increase offers by 12 percent.

I’ve also recruited authentically diverse, high-performing teams for myself and others.

Through all of it, one truth became clear.

The hiring problem usually isn’t malice. It’s a lack of training and tools.

The Cost of Hiring on Perception

In most small companies, those with 10 to 50 employees, hiring decisions are made by founders or owners who know their craft but not how to identify talent objectively.

In mid-size organizations, hiring falls to team leads or department heads who often rely on referrals or “gut feel.”

Both approaches reward familiarity, not skill.

It isn’t their fault.

Most companies never train decision-makers on how to hire based on merit.

So they choose candidates who feel right rather than those whose merit proves they’re right.

The result: costly mis-hires that drain productivity, profit, and morale.

Collectively, these businesses represent nearly half of all American employers:

• There are 8.8 million businesses with 10 – 49 employees, which represent 40% of all U.S. businesses
• There are 1.9 million businesses with 50 – 250 employees, which represent 9% of all U.S. businesses

In America, all business mis-hires add up to an estimated trillion dollars in annual losses, money spent replacing employees who were never the right fit in the first place.

Building MERiT from the Ground Up

After two and a half years of medical and personal hardship, I decided to focus my work around one idea: ensuring every American has access to opportunity based on merit.

This decision led to the creation of MERiT, a hiring platform that works like a blind date for hiring.

MERiT removes demographic data at the top of the funnel so that decisions are based on skills, performance, and outcomes, not gender, race, or age.

It gives employers tools to identify the best candidates based on proven merit.

It also gives professionals a way to create a blind profile that showcases results, not résumés.

The Promise We Can Keep Together

When demographic data is stripped away, what’s left is what both Obama and Trump agree on: effort, evidence, and merit.

MERiT isn’t just a platform. It’s a movement to make opportunity merit-based, where every hire, promotion, and chance to grow is earned.

If you believe in this promise, you can be part of it.

Create your blind profile or join the waitlist and help build the workforce America keeps saying it wants, one where merit actually matters.