Opinion
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.”
Opinion
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.”
Insight
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…”
Opinion
Walker: Atlanta is the most important city in the US right now
“Atlanta I think, is the most important city in the country right now.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Walker: Walker & Company ran on 3-to-6-month cycles versus 2-year industry norms
“I think that was the thing that was differentiated in a CPG industry that operates on two year cycles. We operated on three to six month cycles.”
Insight
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.”
Insight
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.”
Assertion Contradicted
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Opinion
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.”
Assertion Supported
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tristan Walker: Walker & Company's daily online sales grew 3x to 4x
“In fact, we're probably three, four X our daily sales online up since the start of this, right?”
Insight
Tristan Walker: Innovation requires physical activity and disconnecting from digital devices
“Innovation doesn't really happen sitting in a kitchen and hoping for the best. The way I think about it requires some physical activity, right? I walk around kind of the block around my house multiple times without any phones, without any music, and things may…”
Opinion
Tristan Walker: Top 1% leverage technology for productivity unlike the 99%
“Folks at the top are leveraging technology in ways to make them a hell of a lot more productive, right? While folks in the 99% are not.”
Assertion Partly supported
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Walker: Ben Horowitz initially pushed for a hair extensions startup
“Well, in fact Ben really wanted me to do the hair extensions idea.”
Opinion
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?”
Disclosure
Walker: Walker & Company pitched 50 to 60 VC firms
“And we pitched, gosh, 50, 60 VCs.”
Disclosure
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 …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Walker: Over half of Walker & Company customers come organically
“Even today, well over half of our customers come organically.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Opinion
Walker: Launching products too quickly was his biggest mistake
“Now, my biggest mistake is launching each of those things too quickly.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Walker: Retail sales make up the majority of Walker & Company's business
“Retail now is the majority of our business.”
Disclosure
Walker: Walker & Company Could Not Raise Venture Capital in 2018
“2018 was a crazy year. Couldn't raise money.”
