Sep 30, 2019 · 1h 1m · how-i-built-this
Live Episode! Walker & Company: Tristan Walker
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Recorded live at the Lincoln Theatre, this episode of 'How I Built This' features Tristan Walker recounting his journey from public housing in Queens to founding Walker & Company and Bevel. Walker details how he overcame systemic venture capital skepticism to build a pioneering grooming brand for consumers of color, culminating in a historic acquisition by Procter & Gamble.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 26.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.1 Guest teaching 2.4 Guest disagreement 1.2 Guy pushing back 1.0
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 43:48 Regretting raising venture capital
Walker forcefully repudiates conventional Silicon Valley wisdom by stating he wishes he had not raised a single cent of the $39 million in venture capital.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 51:45 Questioning P&G buyout vs building an independent giantRaz presses Walker on whether selling to Procter & Gamble contradicted his stated ambition to build an independent consumer goods conglomerate.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 30:18 Educating VCs on demographic buying power and packaging complacencyWalker breaks down how people of color represent the global majority and outspend other demographics in personal care despite being treated as afterthoughts in dusty retail shelves.
Guy holds their own ▶ 45:56 Contextualizing brand storytelling alongside Glossier and AwayRaz demonstrates industry knowledge by identifying how Bevel's editorial platform (Bevel Code) mirrored modern direct-to-consumer media strategies used by leading brands.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early Childhood in Queens and Mother's Discipline | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Guy Raz sets a warm, supportive tone as Tristan Walker recounts his humble beginnings in Queens and his mother's strict discipline. The dialogue is strictly biographical and harmonious. | |
| Boarding School at Hotchkiss and Competing with the Elite | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Raz guides Walker through his transition from Hotchkiss boarding school to Wall Street trading. Walker shares his realization that finance was unfulfilling without any friction between speaker and host. | |
| Arriving at Stanford and Discovering Silicon Valley | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Raz prompts Walker to share his spontaneous flight to New York and bold audition for Foursquare. The exchange is lively, enthusiastic, and admiring. | |
| Scaling Foursquare and Operating on the West Coast | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Walker explains his time as an EIR at Andreessen Horowitz and Ben Horowitz's counterintuitive rule about good and bad ideas. Raz provides gentle framing questions. | |
| The Genesis of Bevel: Solving Shaving Irritation | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Walker educates Raz on the dermatology and physics of shaving curly facial hair, explaining why multi-blade razors cause bumps while single-blade safety razors cut flush with the skin. | |
| Developing Prototypes and the Initial Seed Deck | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Raz asks about prototyping the physical product and formulations with zero upfront capital. Walker describes scrappy deals with ex-IDEO designers and an Oklahoma lab. | |
| Pitching Sand Hill Road and Confronting VC Skepticism | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Walker passionately details the widespread VC dismissal of health and beauty products for people of color and the neglected 'ethnic aisle' in retail. Raz asks clarifying questions about investor blindness. | |
| Mid-Show Break: Razors, Retail, and Representation | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raz summarizes the launch context and asks detailed questions about the double-edged safety razor mechanics, unboxing aesthetics, and cold-weather manufacturing glitches. | |
| Organic Word-of-Mouth, PR Strategy, and Code2040 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Walker explains how non-transactional relationships with reporters and his leadership at Code2040 provided authentic earned media rather than paid ad acquisition. | |
| Venture Capital Pressures and Rapid Product Expansion | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Walker candidly critiques venture capital misalignment, noting that raising $39 million pressured the company to expand into too many product lines too quickly. | |
| Building Bevel Code and Cultural Storytelling | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Raz highlights Walker's savvy content marketing strategy (comparing it to Glossier and Away), and Walker shares the emotional breakthrough of landing on Target shelves. | |
| Acquisition by Procter & Gamble and Redefining Ambition | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Raz challenges whether the Procter & Gamble acquisition meant giving up on building an independent mega-brand. Walker explains capital realities and becoming P&G's first Black CEO in its 180-year history. | |
| Relocating to Atlanta and Building an Enduring Brand | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raz and Walker discuss moving company headquarters from Silicon Valley to Atlanta to be centered in Black culture and commerce. | |
| Reflections on Faith, Difficult Seasons, and Gratitude | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | When Raz asks the classic 'How I Built This' question about skill versus luck, Walker politely reframes the premise entirely around faith, therapy, and enduring hard seasons. |
Statements from this episode (25)
Walker: Mother worked three jobs simultaneously while raising him in Queens
“So my mom worked three jobs, mainly New York City Housing Authority administrative assistant. She spent some time working for Time Warner Cable and she did some retail, all at the same time within seven days.”
Walker: Wall Street compensation locks workers in through escalating opportunity cost
“Is, you know, Wall Street had a good way of locking you in. They pay you more money, and they pay you more money, and they pay you more money, and at some point your opportunity cost gets so high.”
Walker: Stanford in 2008 Showed 24-Year-Olds Making Millions and Changing the World
“So, at Stanford, I got there, it was 2008, I was 24 years old and very quickly. I knew it was where I needed to be. Primarily because I saw the other 24 year olds not only making millions of dollars, but fundamentally changing the world.”
Walker: Foursquare had just two and a half employees when he joined
“There were two and a half. There was Dennis, Naveen, they were co-founders, and then Harry, who was leading engineering, but he wasn't quite full-time yet, but I guess theoretically.”
Walker: Foursquare scaled from two to 150 employees and raised tens of millions
“What does it look like to go from two employees to a 150 to raise tens of millions of dollars, to build something uniquely authentic, it was an education that I wouldn't have gotten alone.”
Walker: Entrepreneur-in-Residence roles force founders to think inauthentically
“Being an entrepreneur in residence, it's interesting, because I've never met one who's enjoyed it. That's myself included. But it's spending a lot of time to think about things in an inauthentic way.”
Walker: Ideas that look bad create value because good ideas face overcrowding
“Usually what looks like good ideas are bad ideas. And usually it looks like bad ideas are good ideas. The problem with good ideas is that everybody tries to do them. Right. And as a result of it, there's so many people working on the same things. There's no va…”
Walker: 80% of Black people suffer from shaving irritation and razor bumps
“I know that 80% of people who look like me, men or women, have this issue. I know 30% of people who don't look like me have this issue.”
Walker: Major brands avoided single-blade razors because patent protection had expired
“So this solution has existed for the past hundred years. Right? Just no one had the incentive to sell it because there was no more patent protection on it.”
Walker: Ben Horowitz initially pushed for a hair extensions startup
“Well, in fact Ben really wanted me to do the hair extensions idea.”
Walker: Launching a brand like Bevel required $2M in initial capital
“In order to kind of start what we did, you need like two million dollars to do it, right?”
Walker: Consumers of color outspend all demographics in health and beauty
“Folks of color spend more money in every single health and beauty category than anyone else.”
Walker: Bevel tested 10 to 12 packaging prototypes for unboxing suction
“We went through, like, 10, 12 different prototypes of the amount of suction that, like, comes up when people lift the top box from the bottom. It matters. When folks kind of lift it up, and it takes that kind of two and a half seconds to lift up, and they see …”
Walker: Adopting a subscription model was strictly to secure venture funding
“Subscription in the beginning. Yeah, that was the thing that actually got me to get the funding that I needed, because a lot of these VCs were subscription, subscription, subscription.”
Walker: Over half of Walker & Company customers come organically
“Even today, well over half of our customers come organically.”
Walker: Walker & Company grew 200-300% in year one and 200% in year two
“Between the first and second year, third year, I think our kind of growth rates, Two, 300% first year, 200% the second, and then we started to get into this world where we couldn't raise money, so it started to slow down.”
Walker: I wish I hadn't raised any of our $39M in VC
“Raised thirty nine million dollars, and the story goes, and I tell a lot of entrepreneurs this, I wish I didn't raise a cent of it.”
Walker: Launching products too quickly was his biggest mistake
“Now, my biggest mistake is launching each of those things too quickly.”
Walker: Mainstream magazines like GQ ignore Black men's skincare needs
“I still to this day do not know where to go, with the exception of Bevel Code, as a black man, to know what moisturizer to use for my face. GQ, Esquire, all that stuff. It does not exist.”
Walker: Retail sales make up the majority of Walker & Company's business
“Retail now is the majority of our business.”
Walker: Walker & Company Could Not Raise Venture Capital in 2018
“2018 was a crazy year. Couldn't raise money.”
Walker is the first Black CEO in Procter & Gamble's 180-year history
“Procter & Gamble's been around for a 180 years, and I'm the first black CEO in the company's history.”