Tristan Walker, CEO of Walker & Company: The Problem with Sameness

In this View From The Top interview, James Yan MBA '23, speaks with Tristan Walker MBA ’10, Founder and CEO of Walker & Company.
In 2018, Tristan made a bold move, merging his brand with Procter & Gamble, becoming the first Black CEO under the P&G umbrella in the company’s 180-year history. He is also the Founder and Board Chairman of CODE2040, a program that matches high performing Black and Latino undergraduate and graduate coders and software engineering students with Silicon Valley start-ups for summer internships. Fortune Magazine named him one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders."
#gsbvftt #gsbpodcast

[@curchrwratv]

First black CEO of a P&G subsidy.

[@angelmatos9143]

Brilliant & grounded. A rare combination.

[@yahyabenmahane3959]

Great talk! I wish Tristan had a book to expand on many of the ideas he presented.

[@magicalpodium]

I am surprised about the viewership numbers on this video. This is a pretty dope conversation, especially for us colored young men. This guy is an inspiration. Very articulate. Humble. And vulnerable.

[@TerryJulianLive]

He's not well known on the streets of black america. Give it time. His name will get out there over time.

[@jonrite813]

Colored?

[@cldn2]

@@jonrite813 I guess some of these people are too blind to realize "caucasian/white" people literally have a color LMAO

[@imayeseekay]

Did you just step out of a time machine?

[@etf42]

he seems very disingenuous and trying way too hard to prove how ‘black’ he is

[@SADDIQ-ALI]

I respect him acknowledging how hard it is for entrepreneurs without his background.

[@ucukaoma4551]

What a guy! Tristan Walker ROCKS!!👏🏽🙏🏽

[@namasivayamnamas34]

His steely conviction is amazing...Great interview James Yan...You got your right questions and Walker got his life's answers.

[@cheickfall7399]

Best advice in life you could ever get.. Chase values in your work search, they are always infinite..

[@simeonquarrie]

This talk!! Big up to the interviewer for asking great questions. Dang…the responses are inspiring.

[@peaceinsightchannel5049]

The interviewer hats off for him really, so moment chnager to positive.

[@dianenn1]

So glad he talked about going to therapy.

[@kingjudah27]

Tristian, Bevel changed my life! I truly enjoyed this interview. He is so poised, intelligent, authentic & personable. I particularly resonated with his discourse on being a introvert that had to access qualities of extroversion to lead his company.

[@fsab00037748]

The host facilitate the conversation very well

[@erickariuki9992]

Huge fan of Tristan Walker since reading of him in Fast Company article about Bevel. He has done remarkable work and the bold amnbition to have Walker & Company exist for more than 100 years is incredible

[@MiningforGems]

Tristan is an incredible storyteller. It is very inspirational to a black founder and entrepreneur like myself. Great interview!!!

[@mrg3284]

Extremely Polished Brother!!

[@florenceflourish6367]

The value of your Name....What Value can your name bring.? Thank you for this!!

[@A....S....]

God bless brother Tristian. ✊🏾

[@nubianpwr]

Extraordinary interview❤

[@christiansantos7164]

Tristan is the entrepreneur that I find most relatable. He keeps it real on all levels and I appreciate that.

[@Sujata_Setia]

Such an incredible talk

[@sheles_wallace]

Great interview. I appreciate Tristan's transparency and sharing such valuable information.

[@press1to]

Knowing one's own essence and transforming it into a mission to prosper is a great lesson.

[@reneev1010]

And he does this with a beautiful sista by his side🥰

[@stephbli1337]

I love this, I love his values and how he tries to be so different, everyone is so very basic. I have made a promise to myself to be authentic to myself, it's still hard because all of our ideas intermingles sometimes but this is beautiful!

[@TheWriter86]

What a marvelous story and interview. Super inspiring. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@scionnole]

Thank you for this interview. Tristan’s story and mindset is a great inspiration for all entrepreneurs

[@richardredding9412]

I am so glad I found Bevel, years ago before the product was able to be purchased in stores such as Target. So, I like to think I was there from the beginning when you could only get the shaving products online. Thanks Tristan, for your vision for black men shaving innovations, now I am using other Bevel products as well (also great customer service)

[@forward_ever_ever2595]

Being Consistent....simple, yet hard...make it happen ya'll

[@TechSimplifiedAI]

Great lesson in entrepreneurship! Thank you for sharing this video!

[@ngomaibinda]

Excellent interview. Great and humble speaker.

[@georgejrobins]

What an awesome interview. So honest. How well he boiled things down to fundamental concepts was brilliant. Thank you.

[@funday8242]

Help me. How did get employed Lehman?? He worked there for years and hated out

[@funday8242]

Hope for good questions?

[@larelleclarke9923]

Excellent interview. I love his why. He’s very genuine, true to himself and humbly unapologetic.

[@DreamTeemRecords]

That was really good - one of the better talks ✅

[@AndrewChun791]

Respect ✊🏽

[@darrellmccall6100]

I applied to the Wharton Executive MBA program supported by JPMorgan, and they also laid me off in 2008. My acceptance was contingent on my employment . Obviously, Wharton did not work out, but life worked out extremely well.

[@snicholson8884]

Wow But what an amazing perspective. That kind of contingency is quite risky, but sounds like success was imminent in any circumstance. Care to share, how "... life worked out extremely well"?

[@forward_ever_ever2595]

Praise God for that. Keep pushing

[@xebechemorpheus8814]

Life is funny. So first, it’s important to know I am rich. I as a millionaire when I met Tristan in Silicon Valley. I am a Black Male. Uber had just launched and I decided to drive to meet people. Only well educated business executives trusted Uber early on. Tristan was at FourSquare. He got in my Prius and was hesitant about talking assuming I was a poor Black Uber driver. I started a conversation and he said I am going to visit a school for my kid. My kids are highly gifted and I knew a lot about schools. He didn’t ask if I knew about schools and we arrived at our destination. Later I read he thought the Silicon Valley was racist and he moved to Atlanta per the advice of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is correct that ideas are share by skin color here but he missed the lesson that older means information and wisdom.

[@dosesandmimoses]

Well done!

[@natinspires]

Really informative and inspiring 💯

[@MyLatinLife]

This dude used to be everywhere... first time hearing from him in 5+ years

[@nicoleguindo2884]

Excellent Interview

[@stevenmukasa8829]

Great story of entrepreneurship

[@sacredflowspace]

yasssssssss thank u for this talk

[@kofiamoahlarbi1174]

Amazing interview 👏

[@BSPoK]

Great interview. 🎊 🎉

[@iamloveiam]

Awesome and inspiring interview 🙏❤️🌞

[@nileharper6658]

This is the video I needed to see today

[@corteydmusic]

Great!

[@randy4ii411]

Amazing conversation gentleman, I learnt a lot.

[@sbh4722]

Great interview. Keep going. 😊

[@fromthecapsule4624]

Great interview

[@aquickstory2196]

excellent...

[@simbarashebepete407]

Great story

[@rasheedahhaneef2380]

💥❤️🔥💯

[@joelmudavadi177]

The irony about this is his company's name is based on his ancestors' slave master's name......just had to point that out.

[@fromthecapsule4624]

When he recognizes his privilege …great way to resonate with the audience

[@caspianhall]

Lol what privilege?

[@nightlifeking]

@@caspianhall top boarding school, four square, stanford, etc.

[@prodibig237]

Man I don't even comment like that. But this is such a bs comment.

[@myfreedomblueprint]

Are you being sarcastic? Because if you are then you clearly missed the gems he shared. Did you notice what helped him to have his vision acheived? Did you notice the questions that were asked to help get the answers? Yall just cone here to troll...

[@caspianhall]

I mean the pale faces are the biggest cryers these days that goes without saying. They cry so much they made Candace Owens rich 😂😂😂

[@user-hs7sh3bx1g]

nice

[@debasmitamanna6166]

I found you hooman.

[@Ishbikes]

I wished he would’ve opened up more about the lawsuits. I’m building my business as-well. Can someone sue you for using certain ingredients? Surely not..?

[@sarah117]

He been thru all of because of stress

[@Outta12]

What shoes does he have on?

[@DanielBoa7]

Looks like some white leather chelsea boots

[@Outta12]

@@DanielBoa7 I think you are right. Thanks for the reply

[@KP-py5ih]

who is the interviewer ?

[@bryangibbons8560]

Maybe I missed something I heard u said u got into shaving biz cause I had adverse reactions from shaving an d shaving company didn't help everyone knows if u reuse unclean shavers u will get razor bumps simple bio. So am wondering what product u created to avoid this

[@Bruingebak]

12:00

[@jaizrox]

Definitely have to change the host. been seeing the same person MC'ng these events. Have to give opportunity to other students.

[@judysamaniego1606]

I am new to the stock market. Every stock that I bought so far, I was out of luck because I bought them when they were expensive. I feel I missed out on all the stock opportunities so far for the tech stocks. I believe having 75K yearly income would be a good investment so I want to plug all my savings into the stock market. I know this sounds a bit dull but I would like to know if I should learn investing or let somebody else (more capable like a FA) do it for me? Please share your thoughts. I am kind of tired of searching for a good stock to buy and losing all the good opportunities

[@brianboogie9700]

Even with the right technique and assets some investors would still make more than others, as an investor, you should've known that by now, nothing beats experience and that's final, personally I had to reach out to a stock expert for guidance which is how I was able to grow my account close to a million, withdraw my profit right before the correction and now I'm buying again

[@judysamaniego1606]

Hi, please who is the expert assisting you and how do I reach out to them?

[@adeobadebayo-doherty7635]

psalm 21

[@funday8242]

Didn't answer how he git to wall street

[@ianmcintosh6457]

Was you motivated by Dollar Shave club whom your V.C was an early investor? 😉

[@javiervalle9004]

7

[@254Kenya]

SAMENESS

[@denismwiti]

Please take note..victim of bad culture.The african/african american culture is not a very good culture.In kenya we have been groomed to be good employees,rank and file.Entrepreneurship is seen as a side hustle.Once you are an employee,its partying friday,saturday and sunday.This is a very very bad culture!

[@xiangyusi3160]

The only thing this brand school is good at: jump out of Z

[@arifulislamleeton]

Introduce myself I'm Arif Khan harry I'm software engineer and website development and students funding United States and investors and members of the democracy and celebrate United States

[@etf42]

there is something so disingenuous about this guy.....

[@02nupe]

We say the same about some of the commenters…..

[@etf42]

@@02nupe how so?

[@Zakariah1971]

Black history month interview. First, “walker” is a slave surname. Learn your true Hebrew history sir. Not the Hellenized bill of goods u have been sold! Ban Yadah or LaYasharahla will do. Isaiah 45:4.

[@alexandermaseka6463]

I needed this thank you

[@nae_petey_son]

#janaejavan we hope to inspire young black entrepreneurship! Sister and brother dynamic duo.

[@homanasiri843]

Lady boy