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Martin began personally investing in real estate in South Los Angeles, Compton, Watts, and other neglected communities a decade before these areas became designated Opportunity Zones. Along with Gray Lusk, Martin launched SoLa Impact’s first fund in 2014. His early vision and leadership in creating Opportunity Zone funds that deliver true social impact has led to Martin being featured in Forbes, Black Enterprise, the WSJ, the New York Times, and other leading publications.

Prior to founding SoLa Impact, Martin was operating executive at Walz Group, LLC, a business services company selling to large mortgage servicers and law firms, which Martin helped grow from approximately $5 million to $30 million in revenue in his first four years with the company. As a result, Walz was rated the #4 Fastest-Growing Business Services Company in the United States by Inc. 500 in 2008 and was sold in 2014 for over a 500% gain to its investors. From 1996 to 2004, Martin was with leading venture capital firms and private equity firms, including as a founding principal of Accretive Partners, LLC ($200 million venture capital fund) and as a Principal and head of research for General Atlantic Partners ($10 billion late-stage private equity fund). Martin started his career as a technology analyst at Gartner Group (NYSE: IT) covering enterprise software companies.