TARGET to carry BEVEL Shaving Products
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| Tristan Walker, CEO of Walker & Company |
Tristan Walker, 31 CEO Walker & Company
Walker, 31, who will be among four tech-world panelists at
USA TODAY's Change Agents Live event Sept. 29, says he's targeting a personal
care market worth billions that has been woefully underserved by the health and
beauty industry. Walker & Company Brands will roll out a new product as a
companion to Bevel next year. Walker declined to say what he has in the works.
"This is still page one of our story," Walker said in an interview. "Our road map is strong, our ambition remains significant and our desire to serve our customers is unwavering. Our funding and our relationship with Target shows this in a big way and sets us on our path to build the world's most consumer-centric health and beauty products company for people of color."
In 2012, Walker left the mobile app company Foursquare to
become the first African-American entrepreneur in residence at venture capital
firm Andreessen Horowitz. He rejected countless business ideas before seizing
on Walker & Co. Brands.
Even with his credentials in the tech world, investors did
not readily open up their wallets. As his friend, Yahoo executive Erin Teague,
put it: "Building a set of products targeted at people of color is not
something people in Silicon Valley do." He ultimately raised $6.9 million
in funding.
"Raising money for a start-up is hard in general, but
for us it was a little bit harder, particularly because a lot of the investors
that we were pitching had no context about the problems we were hoping to
solve," Walker said in an interview with USA TODAY last December. "If
you think about Bevel, it's (addressing a) problem up to 80% of black men and
women have. But the folks I was pitching weren't black men and women."
To read more on this Black Business article, please click the link below by USA Today
