While it may seem like an unlikely career choice for a history graduate, alumnus Randy Hetrick has found success in starting two major physical training startups: TRX Training and OutFit Training. It’s home. After earning a degree from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in 1987, his path as a fitness entrepreneur included unexpected stops, including serving as a U.S. Navy SEAL and as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill. There were some twists and turns.
So how did he get to where he is today?
Born as a Trojan horse on the path to becoming a fitness entrepreneur
Hetrick’s decision to attend USC was largely influenced by her family.
“My father was very excited about me going to USC because he had to transfer and was not able to finish his education there,” Hetrick says. “I grew up watching the Trojans, so USC was a big part of our family history.”
In 1987, Hetrick graduated from USC Dornsife with a bachelor’s degree in history. (Photo: Courtesy of Randy Hetrick)
After his parents’ divorce, Hetrick grew up between his parents’ homes in the Southern California beach towns of Corona del Mar and Huntington Beach. Money was tight, as her father attended dental school and her mother worked as a flight attendant. But because of her mother’s work, they were able to travel to England for free, touring the country by bus and train and visiting the castles that sparked Hetrick’s lifelong love of history.
Later, inspired by his stepfather’s encouragement to pursue a liberal arts education, Hetrick enrolled at the University of Southern California as a history major. This choice coincided with his growing interest in modern America, military history, and politics.
During his time at USC, Hetrick pledged fraternities, participated in every opportunity, and benefited from a great mentor, USC President Emeritus John Hubbard. He was a World War II U.S. Navy bomber pilot and recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross. “Dr. Hubbard reinforced my passion for history, rigorously graded me, and pushed me,” Hetrick says.
Hubbard was not the first to show young Hetrick “tough love.” He says his grandfather, who grew up in Kansas during the Great Depression, used the old-fashioned “bash and raise” method of raising children.
“That was passed down to my father, who is a dentist, and he developed toughness in his kids in a similar way,” Hetrick said. “I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but I ended up taking a big chip on my shoulder to prove myself to him and everyone around me.”
Hetrick said this inspired him to pursue a series of “demanding and unrewarding” sports, including wrestling, which he started practicing in high school. At USC, he took up rowing, which he credits with teaching him teamwork.
He says these challenging sports became the theme of his life. Unknowingly, he was also laying the ideal foundation for acceptance into the Navy SEALs.
“We later found out that the best sports for SEAL selection were endurance sports with high misery index and low crowd support,” he said. “Wrestling definitely falls into that category. I’ve heard many wrestling coaches say that after wrestling, everything else in life is easier.”
Graduates looking to serve in the Navy SEALs
Inspired by his family’s tradition of military service dating back to the Civil War, Hetrick aspired to become a SEAL after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1987.
After surviving the harsh conditions of Hell Week, Hetrick was assigned to Bravo Platoon to continue his SEAL tactical training, building the advanced skills necessary to become mission ready. (Photo: Courtesy of Randy Hetrick)
“I wanted to set the bar so high that my only selection criteria, which is ridiculous in retrospect, was to find the special operations unit with the highest selection failure rate.”
When Hetrick learned that SEALs had an 85% turnover rate, he knew that was where he wanted to be. However, the path to becoming a SEAL was not an easy one.
“It involved a lot of knocking on doors. There was no e-mail in those days, so there were a lot of letters and phone calls, just nagging. I wanted to work as an executive, but there were very few opportunities. .”
As it turned out, it was the friendships he made through his fraternity at the University of Southern California that helped Hetrick achieve his dreams. “USC opened every door imaginable,” he says.
Hetrick attended Cadet School and began SEAL training in the spring of 1988, enduring the infamous “Hell Week.” Hetrick describes the experience as “a week of round-the-clock torture, with only 15 minutes of sleep a day for five or six days in a row.” ” Hetrick says, “I was able to get through it thanks to some dumb luck and a stubborn head.”
“You have to be lucky not to get hurt, and you have to have a big heart and a determination to not give in to your thoughts,” he says. “That’s my specialty and what I’ve continued to do as an entrepreneur. It’s my tendency to bite and grind my mouthpiece.”
Hetrick has an amazingly positive mindset, which allows him to forgive himself and keep moving forward even when things don’t go his way.
“I don’t really believe in failure,” he says. “I understand that, of course, because I’ve missed my goals so many times throughout my career. But I’ve never thought of it as a failure. It’s all a process of trial and error, improvement, and trying again. is part of.
“So I never considered that I might fail. That’s not how my mind works, and that’s carried over into my entrepreneurial career.”
From counter-terrorism to the Capitol to the invention of TRX
Hetrick’s philosophy also allowed him to have a successful career as a Navy SEAL. Hetrick began with platoon deployments to Southeast Asia and Africa before earning a master’s degree in national security affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School. After graduating in 1994, he was selected to join the SEALs’ elite counterterrorism unit.
Three years later, his career took a major detour when he moved to Washington, D.C., as chief lobbyist on Capitol Hill for U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). During his two-year term, he pursued funding for a portfolio of over $1.3 billion in significant SOCOM initiatives.
He returned to the military, and the birth of his first son, Harrison, inspired him to pursue his dream of attending business school, and he returned to Special Operations Forces as a company commander, ending his 14-year military career.
Hetrick started TRX Training out of his garage in 2004, a year after earning his MBA from Stanford University. The company has grown from a homegrown startup to the world’s leading physical training brand.
The idea behind Hetrick’s global fitness brand was born after he invented the TRX suspension trainer by tying a jiu-jitsu belt to leftover nylon webbing and throwing it over a door. “Possibilities blossomed,” he said. (Photo: Courtesy of Randy Hetrick)
The TRX Suspension Trainer was born out of necessity while Hetrick was deployed on counter-piracy operations in Southeast Asia without training equipment. Looking for a solution, he created a contraption using a jiu-jitsu belt and leftover nylon webbing. “I tied a knot in it, threw it over the door, and lifted myself up against gravity. Possibilities blossomed.” A global fitness brand was born.
Three years ago, Hetrick launched his second startup, OutFit Training. It’s a technology-enabled outdoor mobile fitness service, which he describes as “basically like a fitness version of Uber.”
What’s next? Mr. Hetrick, who regularly teaches entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Management and Stanford University, plans to step away from his day job over the next five years to include board roles, writing, and coaching entrepreneurs and other businesses. I would like to shift to teaching. While riding longboards at San Onofre State Beach in California, I got to know the leaders.
“I want to share the lessons I’ve learned, most of them the hard way,” he says. “If I can help people coming up the ladder avoid the potholes, learn what I did, and make it a little less painful, I’ll be happy.”
And what about Harrison Hetrick? The son is now following in his father’s footsteps. After graduating from USC Dornsife with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations (Global Business) in 2024, he graduated from Cadet School and received command to the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs with ambitions of becoming a Navy SEAL. I received it.
