Tristan Walker, an American entrepreneur and CEO, is best known for founding Walker & Company in 2013 and selling it to Procter & Gamble.
Walker serves on the boards of Shake Shack and Foot Locker in addition to serving as the CEO of Walker & Company. The non-profit CODE2040, which assists in connecting people of color with engineering internships, was also co-founded by him.
Tristan Walker’s Life and Education
Walker and his older brother were raised in Queens, New York. Walker’s mother encouraged her children to do well in school and was strict about their after-school activities because his father was killed when he was 3 years old and she wanted to give her children a safe future.
Walker received a scholarship to board and study at the exclusive Hotchkiss School, where he received his diploma in 2002. He earned his degree in economics from SUNY Stony Brook in 2005.
Walker was given the opportunity to intern at Lehman Brothers between his first and second years of college, working in the company’s back office before eventually getting to see their trading desks. Walker started working for Lehman Brothers as a trader after graduating.
Tristan Walker’s Career
Before starting as the third employee and director of business development at Foursquare, Walker served as an intern at Twitter and the Boston Consulting Group.
Walker served as the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence in 2012.
He co-founded Walker & Co. and CODE2040 there.
Bevel is a men’s grooming brand whose flagship item was a single blade razor and electric trimmer. Walker & Co. is the brand’s parent company.
Bevel expanded into “a full-fledged beauty and skincare company for men,” according to Vibe. The target market for the health and hygiene company’s founding was people of color.
Walker and Company raised $33.3 million in total by 2015, and John Legend, Magic Johnson, and Andre Iguodala served on the board. In 2015, TechCrunch nominated Walker for Founder of the Year, and in 2016, it stated that “Walker is becoming, if he is not already, a household name in Silicon Valley.”
Procter & Gamble purchased Walker & Co. in 2018 for an undisclosed sum.
