Prior to launching what would become his second career in the pet industry, Martin spent 20 years building business-to-business sales and production operations in the commercial printing industry serving Silicon Valley Fortune 500 companies.

 The financial crisis triggered by the dot-com crash would steer Martin onto an alternate path beginning with managing a family-run pet sitting agency, and then into a neighborhood retail pet store which he now says is “the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done.”

 Fifteen years into that move he is now General Manager of Pet People of Los Gatos, a 40-year-old, single-store retail pet supply business serving the same Silicon Valley he started his first career in.

 Martin has guided this small independent business through all the rocky transitions that affected the entire independent channel for the past half-dozen years, including the exodus of customers to Amazon and Chewy, the need to evolve into an omni-channel solution for new and existing customers, and the re-tooling of all business operations in response to the Covid crisis.

True to his Silicon Valley business upbringing Martin saw these challenges, not as obstacles, but as opportunities. 

While leading his small business team through all of these transitions, Martin developed a passion and determination to see that the independent channel not only survives them, but thrives because of them.

Martin and his husband Rod share their San Jose home with two standard poodles, Bowie and Deuce, and he schedules time off every year to serve his second passion to backpack California’s Eastern Sierra and hike the deserts of southern Utah.