Career Path of an HR Professional Specializing in Startups at TriNet Inc.
Anthony's career path is "eclectic and non-traditional," starting with an entrepreneurship degree from ASU, followed by a stint at Avnet where they learned what they *didn't* want in a job, which ultimately inspired them to co-found and become the CEO of a class one medical device company, raising millions in funding before losing everything during COVID. Later transitioning into business banking to bank "founder buddies" before experiencing the second largest bank failure in American history, Anthony now leverages experiences as a business owner and knowledge of finance in HR sales at TriNet Inc, helping small businesses navigate the complicated world of HR with "tacit knowledge experience that is only acquired through learning and doing."
Entrepreneurship, Start-ups, Business Banking, HR & Compliance, Career Transition
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Anthony M. Gonzales
HR - Start-ups
TriNet Inc.
Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey
Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey, MBA - Supply Chain
Entrepreneurship
Consulting & Related Professional Services, Insurance
Sales and Client Management
Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Entrepreneurship Degree: Anthony highlights the uniqueness of his entrepreneurship degree, emphasizing that it provided a philosophical understanding of business and different ways to start or get a job. This could be relevant to students considering a similar path.
2. Startup Experience: Anthony shares his experience as CEO and co-founder of a class one medical device company, including raising funding and navigating clinical trials. Despite facing challenges during COVID, he emphasizes the value of the experience and reputation gained, showcasing the resilience and learning opportunities in entrepreneurship.
3. Non-Linear Career Path: Anthony's career path includes experiences in banking after his startup, and now HR sales. He emphasizes how his diverse background, including his startup experience and financial knowledge, enables him to empathize with and deliver value to small and medium business owners in his current role.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Did you have any internships or jobs before your current role?
I'd be happy to walk you through my career path. I have a pretty eclectic and non-traditional career. I went to Arizona State University for undergrad and studied BA Business Management, with a specificity in entrepreneurship. It was one of the first entrepreneur degrees you could get from a university, still a new concept back then.
I was able to use that philosophical understanding of business and different ways to start your own business or get a job. I chose to get a job and joined one of the largest employers in our state, Avnet. They were a publicly traded, ginormous company, right outside of university.
That was a good place to learn that I never wanted to work there. It's important to have jobs you take so you learn what you don't want to do. Working at a large company inspired me to start my own business. After about 18 months of serving my penance and learning best practices, I gained valuable training from Avnet, an established company since 1920.
I started my own company in 2013. From 2013 to 2021, for eight years, I was CEO and co-founder of a Class I medical device. I went through several rounds of funding, including a $100,000 seed round in 2014, and raised $1 million in 2018 and $10 million in 2019.
I launched two clinical trial sites to take my medical device to market. My world came crashing down during COVID, and I lost everything. What I did not lose was my experience, my reputation, and the responsibility of running, growing, and scaling an organization.
I was able to take that case study and professional uniqueness and apply it to a different industry. I got into business banking. A large bank recruited me, even though I wasn't traditionally a banker, to bank other founders. I talked to other founder folks and started a career in banking, building out a book of business.
As a business banker, I helped businesses with loans, equipment purchases, and building acquisitions, using traditional financial engineering mechanisms. Unfortunately, I went through the second-largest bank failure in American history in 2023 when the federal government took over my bank. I went from a global pandemic to a banking crisis.
Now I'm in the third manifestation of my career: human resources sales. This might seem like an illogical pathway, but I'm able to take my experiences as a business owner and my understanding of finance from the banking industry. I'm now selling something businesses are legally required to have: HR technology and services.
It's not a question of whether to pay employees, offer employee handbooks, or have safety and compliance. Businesses are legally required to do this, and now I'm the person they need to talk to. I'm able to take what I call tacit knowledge – experience acquired through learning and doing, not from a book or classroom – and sell empathetically.
I deliver value to small and medium business owners, helping them configure their HR, which is complicated and nuanced, changing with every state, county, and country. It's like having a law degree in something hyper-specific: employee law.