01
Blackhawk Network
Founding team
Grew the Safeway business unit from $0 to $500M in under four years. Spun out as a public company unicorn.
CEO Coach for Bay Area Founders
Most CEO coaches have never been a CEO.
I've built and sold four companies, including a unicorn. Now I coach founders running $5M to $50M businesses, in the Bay Area and beyond.
Track Record
Four companies built. Four exits. One unicorn.
02
CardFact
President
Grew to seven figures at 95% margins. Clients included Shell Oil, CVS, Kohl's, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Ruth's Chris. Sold.
03
Redbox Gift Card Exchange
VP and GM
$300M+ in gift card transactions across 1,000+ kiosks. One patent. Sold to Blackhawk.
04
SkuLoop / Giiv
SVP Business Development
Acquired by Antuit.ai.
Who I work with
A few patterns I see in the founders who reach out.
The founder hitting the ceiling of what got them here
The instincts that built the company aren't the instincts that scale it. The work is figuring out which to keep and which to retire.
The CEO who needs a peer, not a cheerleader
You don't need someone to validate you. You need someone who's been in the chair and will tell you what they see.
The operator preparing for the next step
Whether it's the next round, the next hire, or the exit, the decisions get harder and lonelier from here. That's the work.
How I coach
One primary engagement. Two ways to go deeper.
The Core Work
1:1 CEO Coaching (Outgrow Method)
For founders who want predictable 15 to 30% annual revenue growth through proactive customer conversations. We work on the decisions only you can make: where to focus, who to hire, what to stop doing, and how to grow without breaking what already works. I bring the operator's lens, not the textbook.
Book a callVistage CEO Peer Groups (Palo Alto)
A confidential monthly room of founders. Vistage members grow 2.2x faster than comparable U.S. companies their size. I chair the Palo Alto group.
Learn about the group →Strategic Advisory (GO GROW AI)
Top-tier strategic rigor for middle-market companies, at a fraction of big-firm cost. Engagements run from focused sprints to ongoing advisory.
Talk about an engagement →
About Walter
I spent twenty-plus years building companies before I started coaching them. Founding team at Blackhawk Network. President of CardFact. VP and GM of Redbox's Gift Card Exchange. Co-founder and CEO of Alula Hydronutrients. Four companies, four exits, one unicorn, one patent.
In 2020 I started coaching full-time. In 2022 I took on a Vistage Chair role in Palo Alto. The pattern I kept seeing was the same one I'd lived: founders who had built something real and were now hitting the limits of what got them here. Most of the coaches available to them had never been in the chair. I had.
I work with founders in the Bay Area and across the country. If you're running a $5M to $50M company and the work has gotten lonelier than it should be, we should talk.
The work starts with a conversation.
Thirty minutes. No pitch. We'll talk about what you're building, where you're stuck, and whether the work is a fit.