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Good morning.
Tristan Walker is a rarity—a Black entrepreneur who successfully raised $40 million dollars from Silicon Valley to start his own company, which makes health and beauty products for people of color. He also earned a spot on Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders list in 2019. This week, he was Ellen McGirt’s and my guest on the podcast Leadership Next (Apple/Spotify), reflecting on the lessons he has learned during his entrepreneurial journey.
Studies show less than 3% of venture dollars go to Black or Latinx entrepreneurs. But being one of the few who successfully raised some of that money doesn’t make Walker a fan of the system. He told us how happy he was the day in 2018 he sold his company to Procter & Gamble:
“We announced our acquisition on Dec 12, 2018. On Dec 13, 2018, I had this epiphany moment where I realized I knew what freedom felt like. Freedom, to me, was not owing anybody anything. We had returned our investor’s capital, I didn’t owe them anything. I didn’t own P&G anything… I thought when I started the company, I wanted to build a $10 billion company, only to realize what I really cared about is ownership and autonomy.
“You have to remember, venture capitalists, it is their job to be wrong 90-95% of the time. And then you have to think, am I wrong 90-95% of the time? As a businessperson, I want to be around 100 years from now. Venture capitalists, they have to get their money back in 10 years.”
Walker became the first Black CEO of a P&G subsidiary, and also founded CODE 2040—a nonprofit dedicated to promoting Black and Latinx participation in the tech business. Its name is derived from estimates that Black and Latinx people will become the majority in the U.S. around 2040. “There are three things I like to focus on,” he told us: “The demographic shifts in this country, the importance of tech, and the power of great brands. Everything I’ve tried to do sits at the center of those three concentric circles.”
By the way, Walker thinks the pandemic could turn out to be good for Blacks and Latinx people in tech. Why? Because they no longer have to move to Silicon Valley. Walker, who is a graduate of Stanford business school and logged his time in the Valley, now lives in Atlanta.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Amsterdam boost
Amsterdam was Europe's largest stock-trading center last month, with London losing the crown thanks to Brexit. The British capital lost large volumes due to a ban on EU-based financial institutions trading there. It’s a big symbolic shift. Financial Times
Twitter in India
Twitter blocked hundreds of Indian accounts at the behest of the Indian government, which is facing off with protesting farmers over the issue of agricultural reforms. Following a public outcry, it restored the 250 accounts, so the Indian government issued a noncompliance notice and Twitter re-blocked the accounts within the country's borders. The Indian government is nonetheless dissatisfied with Twitter. Fortune
Tencent probe
Tencent executive Zhang Feng was held by Chinese authorities, who are investigating him for his role in a high-profile corruption case. Some confusing details in this one: a municipal government has referred to Zhang as a Tencent VP, but the companies denies he has held a senior executive or managerial post there; and the alleged offenses committed by former minister Sun Lijun, with whom Zhang is suspected of sharing WeChat data, remain unclear. Wall Street Journal
Flying taxis
The Palo Alto-based flying taxi firm Archer is listing via a merger with a SPAC, much as Blade Urban Air Mobility did in December (rivals Lillium and Joby Aviation are considering the same move). United Airlines and Stellantis are both backing Archer's new public company. Fortune
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Prepare now
Former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty writes for Fortune that it is time to prepare for the next national crisis. "The federal government must take the lead in defining and establishing clear lines of communication and coordination during crises, creating a network of state-of-the-art command centers for national emergency response and surge and supply efforts, and better leveraging technology, data, and analytics to power our response," she writes. Fortune
e-Privacy Regulation
The EU's new e-Privacy Regulation (a.k.a. the cookie law, which deals with the use of personal data by telcos, Big Tech and the ad industry) was stalled for years by the failure of EU countries to agree on a version of the text. That logjam finally broke yesterday, so the EU's institutions can now negotiate further before the law—which was supposed to enter into force alongside the GDPR three years ago—finally becomes reality. Politico
AstraZeneca promises
AstraZeneca blamed production problems at a Belgian factory for its failure to meet delivery commitments to the EU—while the EU suspected it was giving other customers priority. Well, the plant's owner, Thermo Fisher, now says it produced all the doses it told AstraZeneca it would produce. Reuters
EU and U.K.
The U.K. asked the EU for a reset in their relationship, starting with a delay to the border-check measures to which the two sides signed up a couple months ago—an issue with big consequences for Northern Ireland. The EU responded by saying those measures "urgently need to be fully and faithfully implemented." So no reset then; the deal really is the deal. Bloomberg
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
