Square Biz: The Silicon Valley Hustle of Tristan Walker, VP of Biz Dev at FourSquare

by Liz Burr

If you haven’t heard about mobile social startup FourSquare, then you must not be paying attention to the news, your TV or your local Starbucks. A location-based application for your phone, FourSquare is seen as the frontrunner among the crop of location-based services vying for your attention. In charge of business development over at FourSquare is Queens-bred Tristan Walker, a recent graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and former Wall Street oil trader turned tech shot-caller. Walker leads FourSquare’s partnership development with media, brands and retailers such as MTV, Bravo, American Eagle, CNN, The New York Times, Louis Vuitton, and VH1.

Walker talked with The Atlanta Post about what it’s like juggling a full-time exec-level position at a hot startup while simultaneously finishing up his MBA at one of the leading business programs in the country. Find out how he landed this position, how he became interested in the Silicon Valley hustle, and what he thinks about diversity in technology.
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Name:  Tristan Walker
Position:  Vice President of Business Development at FourSquare
Hometown: Queens, NY. (Born in Jamaica Queens, raised mostly in Flushing)
Located: Palo Alto, CA
Undergraduate School: Stony Brook University
Major: Economics
Marital Status: Married
Last Book Read: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Favorite movie: The Godfather
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Tell us a little bit about FourSquare.
[At Foursquare], we’re trying to make things that make cities easier to use.  What I mean by that is that we’re trying to get people out exploring the cities in which they live or visit and incentivize them to do so. FourSquare is part friend finder, part social city guide and it uses game mechanics to tie it all together and encourage people to check in and share their location with their friends.

What does your position as VP of Business Development involve and tell us about your journey to this position.

Before business school, I was an oil trader on Wall Street. Hated it. I did that for a year and half, almost two years. I started out with this ambition to get as wealthy as possible [laughs]. I grew up with humble means and thought, I am never going to live like this again. How can I get rich? I felt that there were really three ways you can do it: 1) Be a professional athlete 2) Work on Wall Street 3) Start your own company.

At the time, I thought I didn’t have the money to start my own company, so I couldn’t do that. The professional athlete thing was just not working out for me [laughs]. So I really hustled to get on Wall Street. I had the fortune to do so, but then I realized that it just wasn’t for me. So I said, now that two of the three [options] are gone, I might as well try this entrepreneurship thing.

I applied to Stanford Business School. It was the only place I applied and fortunately I got in. I knew Stanford had this appeal toward entrepreneurship, so I wanted to dive in with both feet first. I got out here and started exploring. I didn’t know much about the Silicon Valley tech thing until I got out here. Once I learned about it, I just started getting really obsessed [with] it. I tried to read every blog and book I could about technology in general. Then I started to narrow it down to social media and particularly how brands are starting to use it in interesting ways.

I hustled and got my way into an internship with Twitter. I did that in January of last year until June of last year. I helped them with what is now Twitter 101 for Business. Essentially my internship [involved] talking with a bunch of brands on how they use the service, and helping give Twitter ideas around how they can potentially monetize the engagement brands are having with their consumers.

Last summer, I had some experience at a consulting firm with a consumer retailer. I helped them think through their operations and so on. Then I got this fascination with retail brick-and-mortar in general. Transactions are something that have always fascinated me. I wanted to blend what I learned at Twitter (how brands engage consumers online), with how they engage consumers offline with brick-and-mortar. And I wanted to do something at the intersection of that.

With starting my own company I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to do something, so I kept researching. Then one day I heard about this thing called FourSquare back in June 2009 and right away I got it. They work perfectly at that intersection. That night I emailed Dennis [Crowley] and Naveen [Selvadurai], it was only them at the time, and I didn’t get a reply back. I think I emailed Dennis about six or seven times before he got back to me. And when he got back to me, he said, “You know what I just may take you up on some of this. Are you ever in New York?” And I said, “Yeah, coincidentally I’m in New York tomorrow.” When I got home I booked my ticket and flew out the following morning and hung out with him for a week.

What did your email say?

The more Dennis was busy, [the more] he couldn’t think through the business and locations. I was more fascinated by the transactions and the point of sale when people swipe their cards. I wanted to get as close to the point of sale as possible. When I heard about this thing called “the check in,” I thought, you can’t get any closer to the point of sale than that, right?

So I told [Dennis] all the implications of what this could mean for business. [I said] give me a chance, and I’ll work for free, I’ll do whatever it is. I get it and I want it. I kept reiterating that over and over again. I was a big fan of his from Dodgeball, which he started like 10 years ago, so he’s been in the space for a while. Then he let me in, [I] hung out with him for a week and we just brainstormed together, and a month later I was doing biz dev for the company.

It’s interesting that you switched from oil trading to tech. When people think of Stanford, they think of a very tech-centered business program. How did you come about being interested in tech? You knew you didn’t like trading, but you could have done anything else.

It really doesn’t matter the industry to me. As long as it’s innovative, I’ll do anything from tech to a new type of toilet bowl. If it’s interesting and innovative I will become an expert. That’s truly how I feel. At the time, I was like, ”I’ll figure out some oil trading.” But when I came out to the Bay, I signed up for a Twitter account and I got it right away: this thing is going to be immensely powerful for the masses. I wanted to learn everything I could about this product. I got the opportunity to work [at Twitter] and learn more about it. At the time I began to think more and more about tech in general.

Growing up in New York the only kind of entrepreneurship that you hear about, whether it’s consumer goods, or apparel, were hard tangible goods. I never learned about this meta intangible texting. The amount of wealth out here? I thought that stuff only existed on Wall Street. But, depending on where you are and what you’ve done [in Silicon Valley], you can be 25 years old and surpass people who have been on Wall Street for 30 years.

Most importantly, it’s totally meritocratic out here. Maybe it’s just the location I’m in and people being so liberal, but the great thing about it is that no one underestimates anyone else. You could walk down the street, and you could be a billionaire and nobody would know. Whereas in New York you pretty much can tell who has made it and who hasn’t. So that’s why people don’t underestimate others out here, which I appreciate.

But back to your question. If making airplanes were an innovative industry in Silicon Valley, and it were interesting to me, I would have tried to learn as much as I could. I’m industry agnostic, but I’m partial towards great ideas.

How was it doubling as a grad student and a startup exec?

It sucks. I would not recommend it ever. Fortunately my timing was right. I’m in my second year about to graduate. Foursquare really didn’t get out of control until February or March of this year. So by that time it would have been stupid to leave school. So I just had to embrace it.

I’m doing 60-70 hrs a week at FourSquare, then still did the full time school thing. One thing that I realized, particularly in business school, is there are only three things you can focus on: academics, professional, and social. At any one time you can do two well, period. For me it was just academic and professional, and I knew that had to come at the sacrifice of a social life. So my social life hasn’t been as great as it could have been. But I’m ok with that because I recognized it early on. When you layer that on with my being married—I certainly have to spend time towards that as well. There are certainly some sacrifices. But it’s been great. I’m learning things in real time and applying them to school and vice versa. But it’s hard, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Why not take a leave of absence?

I felt I had something to prove. Stanford has a quasi-history of people who take leaves of absence after the first year. People have been successful when they’ve done it. For me, my first year had already passed. There were people who tried to convince me to leave school. But I thought, I can handle it. So let me see if I can and be some sort of shining light to others who may decide to do this at some point in the future. I kind of owed it to my wife to see it through. I brought her all the way across the country. I didn’t want to get all reckless again. I just wanted to finish. I spent a lot of money to do so, and I was learning a lot, and I had a lot to learn, so I wanted to go the entire way. And as long as I thought I could do it, I was going to do it. For me to drop out 3 months before my graduation? There’s nothing cool about that.

What’s next for you now that grad school is over?

FourSquare. Just more of it. I’m going to stay in the Bay Area. I’m just going to have more free time now that school is out, but it will be more of the same.

What are your thoughts about diversity in the tech space? I’ve observed the space for a while, and the comments I hear form my peers are that they don’t see a lot of people of color founding or managing startups. Most of the time the questions are, why aren’t there more people of color?

I think [diversity] is lacking in a very big way. A goal of mine is to help change that. A long-term goal of mine is to really help folks that were in my position who didn’t know much about the Silicon Valley game. I want to work to educate them on what this thing has to offer.

Potentially, one day I’d like to do my own angel investing solely for minorities. I think [the reason for the lack of diversity] is not so much discrimination but a lack of education. If folks of color could be educated on what this stuff does have to offer, then I think we will be put in an [empowering] position. There’s still some work to do. Hopefully in 5-10 years it will be different.

Our kids will be growing up in a new digital age. Look at Twitter’s [user composition] now. We’re dominating, which hasn’t been surprising to me. What’s surprising is nobody has been recognizing it and doing anything about it. But it’s up to us to recognize that stuff and make it appeal to the masses, because some day it will.

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Liz Burr is a new media consultant with Lizhini Media, specializing in advising startups and creating engaging experiences online.