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.
While holidays are designed to help people rest, I almost always feel exhausted after them. I’ve started to take a completely different approach. Especially if you are a type A entrepreneur, this approach may work for you, too.
Read more ➞I receive far more requests for help than I can possibly fulfill. I am much better at saying no than I used to be, but it is something I am still working on. A friend recently modeled how to say no in a way that was actually more helpful than a yes. I’m going to try her approach going forward.
Read more ➞Asking for a referral can be a delicate request to make, so I am sharing some tips on how to ask for them.
Read more ➞I have been asking for feedback more than usual. I have found that I receive better feedback when I share some context upfront. In case this will help you when you ask for feedback, here is what I've been sharing.
Read more ➞