The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 31 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
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: 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: Atlanta is the most important city in the US right now
“Atlanta I think, is the most important city in the country right now.”
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.”
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: 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: 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: 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: 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 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.”
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?”
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…”
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.”
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: 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: 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: 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: Launching products too quickly was his biggest mistake
“Now, my biggest mistake is launching each of those things too quickly.”
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.”
Tristan Walker: Procter & Gamble backing helped Walker & Company avoid layoffs
“Oh yeah, we have.
you know, we're fortunate in our partnership with Procter & Gamble.”
Tristan Walker: Andy Grove's High Output Management is the best CEO guide
“It's probably only one business book that really helped me think about how to be a better, just CEO day to day. And it's High Output Management by Andy Grove. He's very good at distilling why you need quantitative And qualitative metrics in the assessment of y…”
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: 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.”