Tristan Walker didn’t know anything about Silicon Valley until he was 24 years old. Today, at age 31, he’s gone through stints at Twitter, Foursquare and Andreessen Horowitz, emerging as a leader in efforts to boost diversity in tech.
Walker’s two-year old health and beauty startup, Walker & Company Brands, is growing fast. Much of that success comes thanks to Bevel, a shaving kit geared toward men of color. The company has attracted investment from celebrities including rapper Nas and venture capital outfits like Google Ventures. The firm’s products went on sale in Target stores earlier this year. Bevel is launching a new electric trimmer this spring, while Walker has plans to unveil a new brand aimed at women later in the year.
Walker has also served as co-founder and chairman of Code 2040, a nonprofit that helps black and Latino students land jobs at tech giants like Facebook and Apple.
TIME spoke with Walker to discuss his career, the companies he thinks are serious about diversity, and the challenges facing minorities seeking investors for their ideas. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TIME: Tell me about your journey to this point.
Walker: [There were] two views of the world that I had that few people in Silicon Valley knew about. The first is the idea that black culture leads to all global culture. I fundamentally do believe that: food, music, dance, etc. My biggest frustration was living in Silicon Valley, the earliest-adopting region on Earth, and its knowing very little about the earliest-adopting culture on Earth. That chasm is crazy to me. For a lot of the most popular technology companies out there, I argue that the reason they’re so popular is because it’s built on the back of this culture.
The second view of the world that I had, and this is more personal to me, is that all health and beauty companies are doomed. [Black people are] always having to be relegated to the second-class citizen experience at retail when we spend more money on that stuff than anyone else. We’re the most culturally influential demographic on the planet. If you look at Latino, Asian consumers, we’re the majority of the world, [but] people still talk about us like we’re a niche consumer . . . In 20 years, we’ll be the majority of this country.
I go to this store—a shaving store—and every time I walk in that store, I ask the sales rep, ‘I’m a black man, I’ve had to deal with these issues. What would you recommend?’ They have every incentive in the world to take me to their $300 multi-blade razors that they sell with the nice handle and all that jazz. They’ve always taken me to off-brand, single-blade, double-edged safety razors. Why is that the case? That discord and that tension, I was like, “now here’s a business.”
That’s how Bevel was born, quite frankly. Two years later, we’re growing like crazy.
Why is Bevel’s main business a subscription service?
Shaving just lends itself to that model. Why do you have to think about going to retail however often to re-up? One thing we care most about is customer satisfaction, and that means convenience. It’s a model that folks are used to, if you think about some of the most iconic folks like Proactiv.
Most important, I think there’s an efficacy in it too. A lot of our customers are shaving either for the first time ever or the second time ever because they’ve been dealt a false bill of goods in the past and they’ve written off razors forever. So we have a full system. For ideal results, you want to use the razor with the priming oil with the shave cream with the restoring balm with the brush. We wanted to show folks the importance of using them all, especially if they’re using it for the first time. We also tout our product education experience, and that’s a very important part for the kind of consumer we’re serving.
You have gotten a lot of venture funding from firms that mostly focus on tech products. How were you able to secure this funding as a health products company rather than a tech company?
I think it’s a bit of a misnomer that we’re not a tech company. I get this a lot. [Look at] our ability to communicate with our customers, our ability to educate those customers in real time, our ability to upsell to other products for those customers, our ability to adapt our merchandising experience to fit that customer’s needs.
The analogy I like to give folks is this duck analogy. It’s very beautiful above water, but beneath it the legs are flapping all crazy to get from point A to point B. I think about those legs as our technology infrastructure to get us to scale. As you’ll see over time as we launch new brands, you’ll see even more science, you’ll see even more technology, you’ll see even more product efficacy. The reason folks were so excited to support us is because I was able to take that technology and apply it to such an archaic industry.
I’m also wondering more generally about the challenges for people of color, especially black people, getting funding in Silicon Valley. Can you talk about how you navigated that and how many challenges still remain for people who are not from that world?
I think a lot of venture capitalists let their lack of context cloud their judgment. I always illuminate that through this specific example that came through my first pitch ever. It was with this woman I really respected. I had a slide that talked about Proactiv, and our system is fairly analogous to it. It solves an acute health and beauty problem people have had. She looked at me and said, “Tristan, I’m not sure issues related to razor bumps have as big a societal impact as solving issues related to acne.”
I’m like, I get it but I don’t. All you had to do was get on the phone with 10 black men, and nine of them would have said, ‘I’ve had to deal with this my entire life.’ This is why I think folks talk about the need for more partners, the need for more folks in the industry because those folks come with the context.
Now, that said, there are black investors who have turned me down too, because they also didn’t have the context. So I think it’s also unfair to say ‘only having more black folks will lead to more black folks getting more funding.’ Yes, more black folks with more context would get us a hell of a lot more funding. That’s an important nuance that I’d hope a lot more people really took to heart.
Tell me a little bit about Code 2040, which you’re a founder of. What progress have you made so far?
We’ve put between 80 and 90 fellows through the program. This will be our fifth year. We just announced some funding, about $1.3 million from Intel. We have a 90-plus percent full-time offer rate. Folks are saying they can’t find this talent. We’re finding it, why can’t you?
All of our partner companies are incredibly excited and that’s why they give us the money that they do and the support that they do. We really started it because I didn’t know about Silicon Valley until I was 24. That’s crazy. I’ll be damned if I let other people make that same mistake.
We’re finding kids that go to University of Maryland, Baltimore County, finding kids that go to Stony Brook University. We’re also finding the kids that go to MIT, Stanford, all that stuff, but who’s going to those other schools? So we also provide an outlet to help our partner companies scale their recruiting efforts.
When you look at the broader issue of diversity in Silicon Valley, what do you think are the actual reasons businesses don’t hire more people of color?
Some of it is laziness. There’s also potential lack of resources. I can understand why a startup might not be able to go to University of Maryland, Baltimore County. We just want to partner with them to help.
We found out that [some Code 2040 fellows] just weren’t comfortable doing white board interviews. [Companies] give you a problem, you’ve got to go to the white board, you’ve got to write the answers to the problem. So it starts to beg the question, are they not getting these jobs because they’re unqualified? Probably not. Our stats suggest otherwise. Is your interview process biased? Maybe. I can’t say yes or no, but that’s worth exploration. Is it the fact that implicit bias is actually blocking people? Most likely. We really want to partner with these [companies] and get to the heart of the issue and quantify it.
In the last couple of years most of the major tech companies have rolled out their diversity stats and announced plans for increasing their minority hires. Do you have any thoughts on if any specific company has the best strategy?
Pinterest, they’re doing really well. You can actually look at the makeup of their company and their intern classes. They’re actually investing the resources necessary to do it, so I respect what they’re doing a lot. A lot of the other folks, time will tell. To share your stats once isn’t enough. The true test of this will be five years from now.
Do you think the way people in Silicon Valley talk or think about diversity is different than five years ago?
No. I mean, it’s more public now, but they’re saying the same things. It doesn’t sound very different to me. Also, it doesn’t matter. The thing that I care about is output. You can say whatever you want. Quite frankly, because we weren’t seeing the output, that’s why Code 2040 really started. It’s one thing to say it, and it’s another thing to do it. So we did.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Zimbabwe rejects WhatsApp ban
Zimbabwe's government has rejected a proposal by mobile phone firms to ban Over The Top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp and Skype, a minister is quoted in the Herald Newspaper as saying.
The firms requested that OTT services be regulated, arguing they were knocking their profits.
"We did mention that as a progressive government, which promotes access to technology, we were averse to the idea of stifling these technologies or banning them," InformationCommunication Technology Minister Supa Mandiwanzira said, the Herald reports.
South Africa's lawmakers have also been considering a request from mobile phone companies to regulate OTT services, which are cheaper to use.
Bangladesh bank governor resigns after $81m hack
Dhaka, Bangladesh - The central bank governor submitted his letter of resignation on Tuesday after hackers allegedly stole $81m of government money from a US account and he failed to sound the alarm over the massive cyber-heist.
Central Bank Governor Atiur Rahman told reporters he was "ready to resign from my post for the sake of the country".
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| Rahman told reporters he was 'ready to resign' [Mahmud Hossain Opu] |
Preliminary investigations suggest that hackers accessed Bangladesh Bank's computer systems and stole key information in order to pull off the brazen electronic theft.
Another $20m was transferred to an account in Sri Lanka, but that money has been recovered, officials said.
The US Federal Reserve Bank in New York transferred $81m from Bangladesh's bank account on February 4 into the accounts of four men in the Phillipines, after receiving what appeared to be legitimate transfer orders.
The governor has been strongly criticised in recent days for failing to inform the finance minister about the huge loss, which only came to light following news reports in the Philippines - one month after the money was illegally transferred.
"I am very unhappy about the handling of the matter by Bangladesh Bank - very incompetent," Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said on Sunday.
Bangladesh's government said last week it will sue the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for failing to prevent the theft.
But the bank announced on its Twitter account that "there is no evidence of attempts to penetrate Federal Reserve systems and no evidence Fed systems were compromised".
Deadly Car Bombing In Central Berlin
Police say they suspect a bomb caused an explosion that killed a man in a car in central Berlin.
Investigators are checking the vehicle for more explosives after the blast in the western district of Charlottenburg about 8am local time.
"Our investigators believe it was an explosive device that caused the vehicle to explode," said Berlin police on Twitter.
The scene has been sealed off and people have been told to close their windows and stay off their balconies.
Syria conflict: First Russian planes leave after Putin surprise move
Russian forces have started leaving Syria after Monday's surprise withdrawal announcement by President Vladimir Putin.
The first group of aircraft left Hmeimim air base in Syria on Tuesday morning, the Russian defence ministry said (in Russian).
Western officials cautiously welcomed the move, saying it could pressure Syria's government to engage in talks.
Peace talks aimed at resolving the conflict are entering a second day.
UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, who is mediating in the talks, welcomed the Russian decision.
"The announcement by President Putin on the very day of the beginning of this round of Intra-Syrian Talks in Geneva is a significant development, which we hope will have a positive impact on the progress of the negotiations," he said.
The Russian force reduction was announced during a meeting between Mr Putin and his defence and foreign ministers.
Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his office sought to reject speculation there was a rift between the two countries, saying the move was mutually agreed.
The Russian air campaign started last September, tipping the balance in favour of the Syrian government and allowing it to recapture territory from rebels.
No details have been given on how many planes and troops would be withdrawn from the Hmeimim base, in Latakia province, or a deadline for completing the pullout.
"The first group of Russian planes has flown out of the Hmeimim air base for their permanent bases on the territory of the Russian Federation," the defence ministry statement said.
Russian TV earlier showed aircraft being refuelled and crates being loaded with equipment.
Aircraft from the base would make the flight to Russia - more than 5,000km - in small groups each led by Il-76 or Tu-154 transport planes, the ministry added.
They would then go their separate ways to their own bases after crossing the Russian border, it said.
Su-24 tactical bombers, Su-25 attack fighters, Su-34 strike fighters and helicopters were returning home, the TV said.
Russia's military intervention bolstered president Assad's forces on key front lines where they were close to collapse.
Russia now wants to see an end to this war - and it is known to be concerned about the Syrian government's tough line on talks which have just resumed in Geneva, as well as president Assad's recent comments in an interview that he would one day take back, militarily, all the territory he lost.
That is not a war president Mr Putin can afford to be part of.
And he has a bigger game here - his wider relationship with the West and most of all Washington which is also anxious to find a way out of this crisis in Syria - as hard as that is.
It is not clear how many military personnel Russia has deployed, but US estimates suggest the number ranges from 3,000 to 6,000, AP reports.
Mr Putin, however, said Hmeimim and Russia's Mediterranean naval base at Tartus would continue to operate as normal.
Senator Viktor Ozerov, head of the Federation Council defence committee, said as many as two battalions - some 800 servicemen - could remain in Syria after the withdrawal to guard the two bases, Interfax news agency reported.
Military advisers training Syrian government troops would also stay, he added.
Russia had long insisted its bombing campaign only targeted terrorist groups but Western powers had complained the raids hit political opponents of President Assad.
In a statement, the Syrian government said the plan was agreed between the two countries.
What did Russia achieve in Syria?
- Russian aircraft flew more than 9,000 sorties
- Destroyed 209 oil production and transfer facilities
- Helped Syrian government troops to retake 400 settlements
- Helped Damascus to regain control over more than 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) of territory
Source: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, quoted by Russian media
Most participants in the Syria conflict agreed to a cessation of hostilities, which has been largely holding despite reports of some violations on all sides.
Meanwhile, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria will present its report on war crimes committed by all sides in Syria's war to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday in Geneva.
In a phone call, Mr Putin and US President Barack Obama discussed the situation in Syria and the "next steps required to fully implement the cessation of hostilities" agreed last month, the White House said.
The Kremlin said both "called for an intensification of the process for a political settlement" to the conflict.
The Russian move has received a guarded welcome from Western diplomats and the Syrian opposition.
An unnamed US official quoted by Reuters said Washington was encouraged by the Russian move, but it was too early to say what it means or what was behind it.
Norway killer Breivik gives Nazi salute on return to court
Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has given a Nazi salute upon his return to court to accuse the government of violating his human rights by holding him in isolation.
He has previously compared his conditions in prison to "torture".
Breivik killed 77 people in 2011 when he bombed central Oslo before going on a shooting spree at a Labour Youth camp on the island of Utoya.
He was sentenced to 21 years in prison in 2012.
Entering the court in a grey suit shortly before 09:00 (08:00 GMT), he shook hands with his lawyers.
He made the salute after police removed his handcuffs. Breivik, 37, accuses the Norwegian government of breaching two clauses of the European Convention on Human Rights.
One of the clauses guarantees the right to respect for "private and family life" and "correspondence" and the other prohibits "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".
His lawyer, Oystein Storrvik, told AFP news agency that Breivik had been "very stressed due to his isolation" in Skien prison, about 100km (60 miles) south-west of the capital Oslo.
"One of his main things to do (in prison) was to study and he has stopped that now, and I feel that is a sign that isolation has been negative to his psychological health," he said.
Authorities say Breivik's correspondence is censored to stop him setting up an "extremist network". His visits are almost all with professionals across a glass partition.
The attorney general's office has insisted that Breivik's prison conditions are "well within the limits of what is permitted" under the convention.
The court hearing, which is being held in the gymnasium of Skien prison, is expected to run until Friday. Breivik is expected to testify on Wednesday.
If the court decides that Breivik's prison conditions are so strict that they cause him harm and violate his human rights, it could order an easing of restrictions.
Last September, Breivik threatened to starve himself to death in protest at his treatment in prison.
His cell at Skien prison has a TV and computer but he has no access to the internet.
letter to media outlets in Norway and Sweden, he said he was kept in almost total isolation, with time outside his cell limited to one hour a day.
He said the harsh prison conditions had forced him to drop out of a political science course at the University of Oslo.
Breivik was first held at Ila Detention and Security Prison near Oslo before being moved to Skien in 2013.
At Ila, he also complained of being held in "inhumane" conditions.
In a letter to prison authorities, he said his cell was poorly decorated and had no view. He also complained that his coffee was served cold, he did not have enough butter for his bread, and he was not allowed moisturiser.
Firefighters Tackle Wythenshawe Hall Blaze
More than 50 firefighters have been battling a serious blaze at historic building in Manchester.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to Wythenshawe Hall just after 3.30am when a fire broke out in the roof.
Ten fire engines were called to the 16th century former museum and art gallery and a cherry-picker style device was being used to get water into the roof space as quickly and effectively as possible.
The fire service said no-one was thought to be inside the building - but warned they expected it to be badly damaged.
Fire service area manager Warren Pickstone said: "We are doing everything we can to save as much of this building as we can. The fire is in the roof and is difficult to access but we have specialist resources at the scene and we are doing our best.
"The fire is in the main black and white traditionally-clad Tudor building with the historic clock tower, which was also on fire.
"So far we believe we have lost the roof and the first floor."
Wythenshawe Hall, set in 250 acres now known as Wythenshawe Park, was home to the Tatton family for almost 400 years.
It was built in about 1540 and was unsuccessfully defended by Robert Tatton against Oliver Cromwell's forces in 1643, during the English Civil War
It was donated to local people in 1930 was a museum and art gallery in recent years until it was closed in 2010 by Manchester City Council.
It reopened to visitors in 2012 with help from the Friends of Wythenshawe Hall volunteer group.
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