A different kind of platform builder: the playbook of Chris Barbin
A liberal arts degree from a top institution.
A job in political science working for a U.S. senator straight out of college.
For some, that’s the perfect start. A proud fulfillment of a college major and a respectable rung on the career ladder.
For Chris, it was a slow realization… this wasn’t it.
Six months later, convinced the world was moving faster than what he experienced in his government job, Chris did what many great entrepreneurs have done: he left what wasn’t for him to build what was, even if he didn’t know what it was yet.
This is an important pivot and first major signal of how Chris thinks: lean in, learn from mistakes fast, and make the system move as quickly as the opportunity demands.
What follows is a multi-decade career in technology services and eventually the founding of Appirio, one of the most influential cloud consultancies of its era, and now Tercera, an investment and advisory firm supporting the next generation of services companies.
From “Captive consulting” to the frontier of enterprise software
His journey starts with what Hunt Club has always believed in… A personal connection.
A single connection eventually dropped Chris at W.W. Grainger, a $4B industrial supplier with zero online revenue at the time (it was the late 90s, so, pre-Amazon Prime, pre-“add to cart” culture).
But the early humming of digital transformation was already in the background and like any great disruptor preparing for the future, Grainger did something unusual. They built a small, 4-person captive consultancy inside the company to help large customers rethink procurement, inventory management, and supply chain processes in a world that was beginning to change.
Four people. No blueprint. No established category. Just a mandate…
Figure out how our customers should buy and operate in a digital world… even though that world doesn’t really exist yet.
For Chris, that mandate was oxygen. It was the pace and creative problem-solving he’d been craving. And Grainger gave him a front-row seat to transformation at scale. They were in the middle of a $100M SAP implementation with an entire building literally filled with IBM Global Services consultants.
Imagine walking into corporate America as a 20-something and realizing:
“Hold on… companies spend nine figures to change how they operate. And someone has to advise them through it?”
That was the spark.
From WebMethods to Borland to the move the market hadn’t seen yet
That spark carried him to WebMethods (an early enterprise integration before enterprise integration was even a thing) and then later to Borland, where the next pivotal move happened.
He became the first CIO to roll out Salesforce across the entire organization.
Not just as CRM.
Not just for sales.
Wall to wall for the whole company.
Today that might sound obvious. But back then…
Salesforce was still largely seen as a sales automation tool, not a platform.
From inside this transformation, Chris saw something the market didn’t realize yet. More and more companies would move core operations to the cloud, and someone needed to help them do so successfully.
And in 2006, there was no consulting firm specifically built for that.
So he built it.
Next stop: Appirio… AKA the bet that cloud services could be a real business
Seizing the gap and opportunity, Chris founded and built Appirio. Like many great companies, they bootstrapped for two years. Zero to $3M. Then $3M to $10M.
And Salesforce noticed. They wrote their first-ever corporate venture investment to Appirio. Not because they necessarily needed the capital, but because the firm was sending a signal the industry desperately needed.
“The real win wasn’t even the funding,” Chris told me. “It was the attention it brought to the broader ecosystem that you could build a big services company around Salesforce. It was less the venture return, and more the awareness.”
That attention mattered. Appirio was so much more than a consulting firm. Appirio was real proof. It showed the market that:
- Enterprises needed and would pay for guidance, not just software
- You could build a viable business around new technology at a time when this was all new
- Early bets on platform adoption could create entirely new categories of services
They got big fast but, of course, scale always brings lessons! Chris shared some with me that I believe are some of the most valuable truths I’ve heard in a while for anyone building a services platform.
1. The truth about M&A
While scaling, Appirio made seven acquisitions, largely attempting to fully integrate each.
One or two worked.
The rest didn’t.
Not because the targets were bad companies by any means, but because services companies are built on people, culture, delivery methodology, and incentives. Those things don’t bolt on so cleanly.
Chris’s advice is sharp: “In services, M&A is hard. You need an incredibly specific integration engine. Otherwise, I might advise against it.”
2. The capital paradox: how money can fuel…or distract
This ties directly into his second lesson.
Appirio eventually raised a lot of money, which Chris now perhaps sees as a double-edged sword.
“In services,” he says, “you don’t need that much capital… and you often shouldn’t even have that much capital.”
Why?
- Excess money can lead to sloppy decision-making you otherwise wouldn’t make
- Capital can push wrong-fit acquisitions
- It diverts attention from fundamentals and dilutes focus
The venture world often loves to say “Take the money and grow faster!”
But Chris learned the truth that, “Just because you can take a lot of money… doesn’t mean you should.”
For services companies, capital is an accelerant. It can burn you just as easily as it can fuel you.
3. Focus is the hardest part of the job
Appirio built practices in Salesforce, Workday, Google, and more emerging tech.
In hindsight, Chris believes that this spread cost them. “If we had gone all in on Salesforce, we probably could have been twice the size and gone longer,” he shared.
I get it. The pressure in hypergrowth is to add more… more offerings, more markets, more logos, more bets.
But the discipline — the rare discipline — is to decide… You know what, what are we not going to do?
4. Know when to scale, and when to kill
This mindset blends right into how Appirio ran. Appirio used a strong rule that if a new initiative didn’t show a clear line to $20M in three years, it was shut down.
No sentimental extensions. No “maybe if we push harder...” Just kill it and move on. Harsh? Maybe. But behind that rule was a deeper operating philosophy to simply know your DNA.
For example, Appirio tried to build product and services simultaneously at one stage, building a professional services automation tool. Eventually they sold it to a company with true product DNA and that company turned it into a huge success - which, great! That outcome was a win for all, and it reinforces a critical point that success can also lie in recognizing what you shouldn’t own as much as what you should.
It wasn’t that Appirio lacked the chops or talent to keep and scale the tool. It just wasn’t who they were.
Most founders struggle not because they start the wrong thing but because they refuse to shut down the thing that doesn’t fit.
5. Market timing: Your GTM must follow the era you’re in
When Appirio was scaling, the market dynamics for cloud consulting services companies looked a little like this:
- Demand exceeded supply
- Few players really knew the cloud/there was low expertise
- Low differentiation amongst existing companies
- Crazy demand in a new frontier
- High pricing power + market pull for players like Appirio
- This all made sense for a sales-led motion
But things don’t look like that anymore. So Chris is clear: “If I launched a Salesforce consultancy today, it wouldn’t be sales-led. It would be partner-led.”
Why?
- There are more service providers than ever
- Customers have more options (maybe even too many)
- Partner ecosystems now drive meaningful pipeline
GTM is a response to market physics. So, go to market accordingly ;)
After Appirio: building Tercera, the “Sequoia for services”
After scaling and eventually selling Appirio, Chris stepped back into a new role: advisor, mentor, and connector for the next generation of services companies. In this role, he saw a recurring issue of services companies getting bad advice and capital from investors that didn’t truly understand services dynamics.
That gap inspired his next venture: Tercera, a growth investment and advisory firm designed to provide the right combination of capital, counsel, and connections — a “Sequoia for services” built by someone who had lived and scaled these businesses firsthand.
And now, the need for a platform like Tercera is only growing more complex in the era of AI. Today, most firms fall into one of two categories:
- Software-heavy organizations trying to figure out services, or
- Services-heavy firms attempting to bolt on software
Both approaches struggle because the cultures, incentives, and operating models clash.
Chris believes the future is the middle space, but also recognizes that this hybridization is messy.
You need different hires.
Different incentives.
Different onboarding.
Different culture.
Different operating cadence.
And it takes time.
Chris saw both sides of the consulting continuum, from captive services at Grainger to building Appirio, and now he’s creating a partner to help companies navigate the intersection of product and services, software and human capital, and ultimately scale them in ways that’s ahead of the curve…something he’s always done.
On philanthropy: the same operating discipline, applied to doing good
Discipline matters… in strategy, execution, and timing. That mindset doesn’t stop at business. When it comes to philanthropy, Chris applies the same rigor and intention he brings to building services companies. He rejects the “spray and pray” approach to giving. Instead, the focus is on:
- Minimum 3–5 year commitments
- Ideally 10+ year involvement
- Significant investment of time, not just money
- Selectiveness in who and what he supports
- A clear question: Where can I be uniquely helpful as an entrepreneur?
TLDR? If you make too many small bets, you don’t make meaningful impact anywhere.
When it comes to philanthropy, impact is more measured in depth. It’s also measured in time and commitment. “When you think in decades, not quarters, the decisions look different — and so does the outcome,” he shared.
Thinking in decades changes everything. The short-term wins and quick gratifications pale in comparison to outcomes shaped over years, shaped by persistence, patience, and repeated iteration. In this frame, giving becomes a real platform.
Final note: Thinking in decades
Over this past series interviewing founders and platform builders, one consistent theme emerged… thinking in decades and playing the long game.
In today’s business world, words like “decades,” “long,” and “less” can feel countercultural. But that’s exactly the point… maybe it’s a call to act differently right now.
We all feel it. The pace is relentless, amplified by AI and the constant pressure to scale faster, automate smarter, and disrupt continuously.
And yet… in just one person’s opinion, this makes the human element more critical than ever. How else does business remain human in an age where algorithms can optimize almost everything? How do companies create impact starting from connection, just as Chris did? One introduction, one problem solved, one relationship at a time?
In the end, the long game is about seeing beyond the next quarter. You have to make decisions that may not pay off immediately, prioritize depth over speed, and invest in people, relationships, and capabilities that compound over time.
This isn’t easy. But the alternative of chasing the next shiny trend, spreading yourself too thin, measuring everything in months instead of decades… is far more dangerous.
So here’s the question you have to ask yourself: 10 years out, which decisions will define you and your business?
As we enter this new year, I know I’ll be thinking about my next 10 years…and the next 10 after that…and the next 10 after that…
Chris's Next Adventure: Solo Ocean Rowing 1,500+ Miles for Mental Health & Addiction Recovery
In April 2026, Chris Barbin will attempt a world-first solo row, rowing 1,500+ miles from Monterey, CA to Punta Mita, Mexico.
Why row? Because this journey is personal. After walking alongside his son through recovery, Chris is rowing to spark more open conversations around men’s mental health and to raise $500,000+ for two mental health and addiction recovery organizations; Project Healthy Minds and Providence Farm—where his son began his recovery.
Please join us in supporting Chris by donating here.
