Gerrit Hall

Bio:

I'm proud to have spent my career creating, building, and growing small companies and organizations, and now to help thousands of job seekers land their dream job at RezScore.  My fifteen minutes of fame came early as a semi-finalist on Jeopardy's Teen Tournament, then as a semi-finalist on the short-lived television show "American Inventor" for building an LED car wheel display.  Outside of work, I hold degrees in religion and physics, contribute to startup advice site Bootstrapper, co-founded the Audience of Two comedy group, spearheaded the 2log competitive blogging platform, and co-host the "Vital Topics" panel of the Road2Shambala podcast.  In my scarce free time I enjoy soccer, hiking, bicycling, writing, pickling, and creating text adventure games.

• Title: CEO, RezScore
• Age: 29
• Location: Park Slope
• Contact: @rezscore

You’re a contributor on Bootstrapper, a blog for those who want to learn the secrets to entrepreneurial success.  What would you say is the most important thing for any would-be entrepreneur to remember or consider when getting started?

Fail.  Fail early, and fail often.  No progress comes until you build a callous to risk.  Like riding a bicycle, in startups you must earn your scrapes before you get anywhere.

What are some of your favorite blogs to read?

Rumors of the blog's death are highly exaggerated.  In early 2011, blogging remains the most stimulating web art form.  Like a Thanksgiving feast nourishes the body, a great blog nourishes the soul.  Coordinating the 2log weekly blog competition, I'm thrilled to see a birds-eye view of the most interesting reads from across the web.  Here's a few of my latest RSS obsessions:

• Scouting NY
• Pleated Jeans
• Spam Carnival
• Feltron
• Davelog
• ThunderLOLs
• Imagining the Tenth Dimension

RezScore is an application to help job seekers. Why did you choose to work in this space?

The employment process should be a beautiful experience; a simple way for you to capitalize on your particular brand of expertise.  In practice, it's an utter disaster.  I'd seen too many friends and family struggle through demoralizing job hunts in a stagnant economy.  At the same time, I'd seen fellow startup owners struggling to find and attract top talent.  The system was clearly broken, so I wanted to fix it.  RezScore has already changed the system by empowering the start of your job search, but my work isn't done until we simplify and enhance the entire employment process, at every stage from resume to hire.

What’s your favorite part about New York City?

Now that the west has been tamed, New York City is America's last remaining frontier.  New York shares a border with everywhere else in the world.  Every New Yorker's autobiography is the triumphant story of success against long odds, because struggle is an inherent fact of life in this city.