How daddy ended up joining Walker & Company
Well Madison. It started with a tweet.
After my first day at Walker & Company, I came home with a smile. I told Mimmie I loved the new gig and she looked at me and said:
Babe. You should record how you came about Walker & Company. One day it’s going to be huge, and you’ll want the story down pat to tell our daughter (Madison) how it happened.
Well Madison. It started with a tweet.
Before we talk about Walker & Company, let’s take a step back in time.
Tristan probably doesn’t remember this, but I actually met him briefly a few years back. It was SXSW 2012, March 11th to be exact. How do I remember? Well, it was at the foursquare court, and I happened to check in…using foursquare.
Jason Shellen and I were making stops at different locations and when we got to the foursquare court, he introduced me to this dude who was posted up, swag relaxed ( is that a thing? ). Jason introduced me to him — it was Tristan Walker. The conversation, if that, was very brief — but that’s the first time I met Tristan.
Fast forward 2 years later.
While working at ThisLife in downtown Palo Alto, I thought I saw Tristan sitting in Fraiche but I wasn’t for certain it was him — especially since I thought he lived in New York. I tweeted my thoughts anyhow, and it turns out, it was most definitely Tristan:
He followed me back on Twitter and that’s when we started talking about another startup idea he had. I won’t talk about what the idea was since it was Tristan’s thing, but I’ll leave this as placeholder so I can tell you all about it one day. After all, this is for you. ☺
Now, we’re back in the present, and in comes Walker & Co.
Like I said, it started with a tweet:
To be honest, I thought I’d be with Shutterfly a little longer since I joined as part of the ThisLife acquisition. But when a good guy is working on something that piques your interest, you owe it to yourself to at least check out their jobs page.
So I did.
They had a Product Manager opening, but I noticed there was a slight discrepancy with one of the candidate requirements. I emailed the discrepancy over to Tristan and he got back to me quickly. In fact, he cc’d Walker & Co’s lead architect, Tom, who jumped in and fixed the issue right away.
Win #1: A founder that responds back quickly and a tech lead willing to turn around an issue on a dime
That thread which had a subject line of “A little something I noticed on Bevel’s Jobs page”, quickly morphed into, “Interested in chatting more with us?”, to, “Definitely. Let’s chat next week.”, and finally, “I’ll be in NY next week, but I don’t want to derail anything. Tom, can you setup some time with him?”
Win #2: A founder that won’t let his schedule impede progress
Long story short, I chatted with Tom, then Mari ( Creative Director ), and some of the other members in the coming days.
Win #3: The people I chatted with sounded like down to earth people I’d really enjoy working with
Win #4: Bourbon came up a few times
Win #5: And by Win, I mean Lose. When Mari asked me what kind of bourbon I liked, I said, “Well. A lot of people like Bulleit as do I, but I think it’s over hyped.” To which she replied, “I like Bulleit.”
About a week later, Tristan hits me up and wants to know if I’m down to catch a drink. I said yes, and so 2 days later, we meet up for dinner at Coconuts. Side note: When I came into the restaurant, I walked by an entire team of Shutterfly employees. I was still employed with Shutterfly… Awkward.
I chat with Tristan and we both think it’d be good for me to meet with some of the other folks at Walker & Co. He invites me to come visit the very next morning. I accept.
The conversations were awesome that morning. I met with Michael who leads marketing and Jaimel who rocks customer success. In fact, I chatted with Tom again and this time he ran me through some things on his computer.
Win #6: Their lead architect is willing to get his hands dirty and show me real things
Win #7: The team’s diversity
Tristan walked me out after my last 1:1 and told me if the rest of the group gave their thumbs up, he’d get me an offer before the next day. By the time I got to my next destination I had a text message telling me to check my email. Actually, it was more like, “You’ve got mail.” It was a play on my past as an AOL employee. Text messages like this from Tristan are something I get regularly — more on that later.
I checked my mail and sure enough, I had an offer awaiting my reply. I told Tristan I wanted to let the offer sink in overnight before accepting. Tristan took this literally…
At around 8 AM…SATURDAY MORNING, I get a text message from Tristan asking me if I was in and ready to Turn Up!
Win #8: Yes. This negotiation is really taking place at 8 AM on a Saturday morning
Before noon that day I signed with Walker & Company, set to start 3 weeks later. Tristan sent a note to the team welcoming me, and Tom was kind enough to take me out for drinks that night as a celebration.
Yup. All the goodness above started with a tweet.
Bonus Round: Here are some things I’ve experienced/observed at Walker & Co. in just the past couple of weeks.
- My grandfather hasn’t been doing so well. Tristan asked me about him the day before my official start date. I told him I’d tell him more about it in person because I didn’t want to be a buzz kill. He replied with, “Ha. Stop it. Family first at the W&Co!”
- Team culture is really valued at Walker & Co. In fact, even after I signed, I was still asked to meet with others on the team to build relationships before my actual start date. I remember my initial meeting with Li, and all she wanted me to do was be like Silicon Valley’s Erlich Bachman (this was probably the toughest expectation asked of me).
- Team wins are celebrated. Send a note to the team about something good and don’t be surprised if you get hit with a bunch of “w00t!” replies.
- The main Walker & Co page calls out company values: Courage, Inspiration, Respect, Judgment, Wellness, Loyalty. It’s refreshing to know first hand that these values are real, as opposed to a list things that sound good on paper, but aren’t really practiced. In just a week, I’ve seen Walker & Co live and breathe these values.
- Speaking of Wellness, there are dancers and exercise nuts on the team. Tom said he wanted to pick me up to hit a 7 AM bootcamp… Help.
- On day 1, Walker & Co. made me feel like I’ve been part of the team for ages. And by the end of the week, I was already talking to someone from “the press” as if I’ve been with Walker & Co. from their day 1.
- Usually early text messages on a day off means something is blowing up. Well, that wasn’t the case on the 4th of July. Instead of telling me servers were blowing up, Tristan was sending me Vine videos of people getting Turnt Up!
Moral of the Story: Madison, when you feel the urge to do something positive, don’t hesitate to do it. Your life can change completely after a simple hand shake, a hello, or a thank you. Or even a tweet.
Oh, and always be down to Turn Up.
Love,
Daddy
