One of Foursquare’s earliest and best-known employees, Tristan Walker, Foursquare’s Business Development VP, is leaving the company and is headed over to Andreessen Horowitz where he will take a position as “Entrepreneur in Residence.” The update was posted to his personal blog just moments ago.
Walker has led partnerships between Foursquare and several high-profile brands, including MTV, Bravo, CNN, the New York Times, the NBA, Starbucks and others, all of which helped to establish the service as a notable contender in the social networking space as well as a household name.
Writes Walker on his blog about the change:
WHAT’S NEXT.
Once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky, you nail your dream job. It happened to me a little over two and a half years ago when I walked onto the 5th floor at 36 Cooper Square. From day one, the opportunity at foursquare enabled me to think big, take risks, re-imagine what’s possible … and following an incredible journey, I have decided to resign from foursquare to pursue my next big dream.
The past two and a half years spent with the foursquare team have been nothing less than life-changing and it has left me incredibly thankful and inspired. It’s been an amazing experience to watch us grow from 3 to over 100 and my love for the company runs deep – it always will.
I am extremely proud of the hand I had in shaping foursquare’s future and helping us with a bunch of first-evers for the company and industry as a whole. I thank Dennis for his incredible support, partnership and friendship every step of the way.
As for what’s next, I have accepted an offer from Andreessen Horowitz to be an Entrepreneur in Residence, a spot where I can work with a blank slate, people are encouraged to think big, and the opportunities are endless…
I’m excited.
Walker has a great story about how he ended up at Foursquare – he wasn’t recruited, he actually reached out to them. In fact, he emailed CEO Dennis Crowley about ten times before Crowley responded. After meeting up in NYC, they hit it off, and a month later, Walker landed the Biz Dev position.
In an early interview back in 2010, Walker says that he wanted to work at Foursquare because he was so passionate about the company. “I was just so inspired by what these guys were doing,” said Walker. “It was just Dennis and Naveen at the time, they had just hired Harry, and I was already an admirer of what Dennis did with Dodgeball and the product there.”