Martin Babinec founded the HR services company Trinet in 1988, serving as its CEO for 20 years and as chairman for 10. Since he founded the company 32 years ago, Trinet has grown to annual sales of $4 billion and is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Martin founded and built Trinet in Silicon Valley while commuting from Upstate New York. After seeing the stark difference between these two startup ecosystems, he embarked on a ten-year journey to transform his talent-exporting community in Upstate New York to a talent-magnetic community to support the innovation economy. His journey included a run for congress in 2016, the creation of a new political party, and several experiments to create more innovation economy jobs in his region. He has just released a book entitled “More Good Jobs” about his experience.
In this episode, Martin offers timely advice on why and how VCs should engage politically, and how they can leverage opportunities outside traditional startup ecosystems.
I allowed myself to include all of my “ridiculous” wants and aspirations on my list of 2023 goals, one of which was “finding a coach and co-collaborator who would agree to hold meetings from the chairlift.” Believe it or not, I was actually able to manifest that.
Read more ➞It is amazing what you can achieve if you get out of your own way.
Read more ➞I have learned the important lesson that being mediocre at anything is not a “safe” path to success. I now realize that the “safe” path for others may not be the best route for me.
Read more ➞In investing, and in life in general, an ability to foresee potential pitfalls has served me well. However, being able to see what can go wrong can prevent me from seizing an opportunity. I sometimes forget that most of my successes have been the result of seemingly impossible feats.
Read more ➞