Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Let's head out to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Now check in with Sue Decker. She's the founder, chief
Speaker 1: executive officer of rafter. It works in the higher ed
Speaker 1: technology space. You'll know Sue's name, I'm sure from her
Speaker 1: tenure at Yahoo, as well as a number of other
Speaker 1: very prominent boards and whatnot that she sits on. She
Speaker 1: worked on Wall Street back in the day. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about all of it, but we got to talk
Speaker 1: about colleges to start. First of all. Sue, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being with Carol myself. Yes, I can.
Speaker 1: It's it's nice to be here. Thank you. Great, um,
Speaker 1: great to hear your voice. So tell us what's going
Speaker 1: on in the world of higher ed. You've got a
Speaker 1: window like a few others, because you guys are providing
Speaker 1: uh technology to colleges and universities at a time when
Speaker 1: they are very reliant on technology no school. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: it's in a really challenging time in many ways for
Speaker 1: many people all over the world right now, and I
Speaker 1: think universities and students in particular are facing a reality
Speaker 1: that no one really anticipated. You have to commend the
Speaker 1: universities for how quickly they were able to get people
Speaker 1: and students home and faculty transition to online learning UH
Speaker 1: in such a short amount of time. But I think
Speaker 1: it's been a lot of triage and weekly, daily emergency
Speaker 1: meetings trying to figure out how to make that work.
Speaker 1: Most of them are, that I speak with, our focused
Speaker 1: the first time getting through the spring semester, spring quarter,
Speaker 1: depending on how they organize themselves. And then the next
Speaker 1: focus is how they handled the summer and UM and
Speaker 1: will be finding out in May how many people are
Speaker 1: enrolling and sending checks in. That's going to be important.
Speaker 1: And then for the next phase will be during the fall,
Speaker 1: do they do they need a plan B that is
Speaker 1: starting school online again, UM and many of them are
Speaker 1: talking about that right now. We're going to continue this conversation.
Speaker 1: So many industries are being impacted. We just want to
Speaker 1: mention a headline crossing the Bloomberg terminal pork in airlines
Speaker 1: to get four point one billion dollars in direct support
Speaker 1: from the government. It includes it looks like UM or
Speaker 1: maybe in addition a one point seven billion dollar alone.
Speaker 1: This is again that a chord that we just reported
Speaker 1: on that the Treasury reach with the airline industry shares
Speaker 1: of American are up about five point six percent. Here
Speaker 1: in the after hours um Our conversation with Sue Decker,
Speaker 1: That's who we're talking with, founder and CEO at Rafter. So, Sue,
Speaker 1: you know, tell us a little bit about what what
Speaker 1: are some of the specific programs that or or some
Speaker 1: of the outreach that you've done with universities as a
Speaker 1: result or colleges as a result of the virus. What
Speaker 1: kinds of things are going on? Sure, well, we we
Speaker 1: announced in mid March that we would offer our platform
Speaker 1: and our our solutions for free for the rest of
Speaker 1: this academic You're recognizing that these schools are having to
Speaker 1: handle things that they've never planned on handling before and
Speaker 1: so having once you move online, it's more difficult to
Speaker 1: create a sense of community, to have a platform where
Speaker 1: people can find events, can connect with one another, can
Speaker 1: keep up the groups that they had in physical form
Speaker 1: on campus in an electronic form. So since that time,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of incoming and we've been hosting
Speaker 1: a webinar once a week with UM roughly twenty universities
Speaker 1: on it. Last week, we had two different ones, UM,
Speaker 1: primarily focused on how they're going to handle orientation coming up.
Speaker 1: Sometimes sometimes many of them in the summer are having
Speaker 1: to figure out an online way to orient parents and students. Uh.
Speaker 1: And as well if the faculty faculty has three needs.
Speaker 1: When they have to broadcast their lectures, which Zoom and
Speaker 1: Zoom equivalence can do, they also have to have a
Speaker 1: learning management system of electronically students can submit assignments and
Speaker 1: grades and there are systems like Canvas and blackboard that
Speaker 1: do that. And they also the third part is what
Speaker 1: rafter does, which is a communication um and an event
Speaker 1: hub so that one tap access to students can find
Speaker 1: their Zoom links to get into their classes, or they
Speaker 1: can find their lecture notes for tomorrow. Then the professor
Speaker 1: can set up a group or rafts so they can
Speaker 1: easy access to the students for online office hours things
Speaker 1: like that. So, UM, those are the kinds of things
Speaker 1: we've been offering to support the community. You know, it's funny, Sue,
Speaker 1: in part UH just serendipitously, I was connected earlier today
Speaker 1: with the dean of a of a journalism school, UH,
Speaker 1: and I was saying to her, you know it feels
Speaker 1: like university higher ed is going to be radically changed
Speaker 1: by this. And her response was interesting, and she said
Speaker 1: she said yes and no. She said yes obviously based
Speaker 1: on a lot of the technology that that you and
Speaker 1: your folks are are working on. But she said, on
Speaker 1: the other side, you know, we also have to appreciate
Speaker 1: that higher education is about convening students and sort of
Speaker 1: taking them through in a very personal way a really
Speaker 1: critical stage of their life, and so much of that
Speaker 1: happens in person, and so much of the community has
Speaker 1: to be, or at least traditionally has been in person.
Speaker 1: How do you sort of sent the size and rectify
Speaker 1: all of that as we look at this very uncertain future. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I would just say that makes total sense to me.
Speaker 1: I think when we when I started rafter, it was
Speaker 1: based on the experience I saw my daughter having when
Speaker 1: she started university. She's now graduated, but um, it was
Speaker 1: it was because of how I saw the communication happening
Speaker 1: on campuses that I felt there could be a much
Speaker 1: more authenticated network where like a Slack but for universities
Speaker 1: or next door. For universities, it's private, it's curated, everybody
Speaker 1: on it is at your school, you can discover things
Speaker 1: that it makes students feel like they belong and it's
Speaker 1: a more welcoming experience. So our product was designed as
Speaker 1: an online adjunct for an offline experience, and I think
Speaker 1: the offline experience is fantastic. UM. It's hard to know
Speaker 1: how long this will go. Some people I talked to
Speaker 1: think this is accelerating a trend toward online learning where
Speaker 1: only three percent of online learning three percent of curriculum
Speaker 1: was delivered online in the past, and some people think
Speaker 1: it'll move much more quickly to that UM than it
Speaker 1: otherwise would have. But I don't, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't have a crystal ball on that front. I think
Speaker 1: our our products sort of work to support physical communities. UM,
Speaker 1: but I think it becomes even harder to connect and
Speaker 1: stay feeling like a part of that membership if you're
Speaker 1: if you're away from your physical community. Our guest right
Speaker 1: now is Sue Deck, our founder and chief executive officer
Speaker 1: at Rafter, on the phone from San Francisco. And before
Speaker 1: the break, we were talking you know about you know,
Speaker 1: what are some of the lasting impact of online learning.
Speaker 1: You know, once we get on the other side of
Speaker 1: the virus, do I do wonder. You know, we've had
Speaker 1: some conversations Jason myself with guests about how times a
Speaker 1: crisis lead to a lot of collaboration, co ordination between
Speaker 1: kind of enemies in the corporate world UM and often
Speaker 1: lead to innovation. And I do wonder when we get
Speaker 1: on the other side of this, what do you think
Speaker 1: will be some of the biggest changes, our biggest impact
Speaker 1: as a result of the virus on our world. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's so hard to say. I think the I'm
Speaker 1: a believer that the crisis will in some ways it
Speaker 1: exaggerate trends that we're already in place. So at least
Speaker 1: as far as online learning goes, I think that's been
Speaker 1: an ongoing trend that more and more universities are offering
Speaker 1: online courses, both to extend their reach to students that
Speaker 1: are in a place where they can't afford to necessarily
Speaker 1: be on campus and don't have the UM to pay
Speaker 1: for the whole infrastructure, but can take classes one by one.
Speaker 1: So I think that that trend has been underway for
Speaker 1: a while, and I think this probably accelerates it. But
Speaker 1: I also think it's it's easy to assume that everything
Speaker 1: is going to change, and I don't think that. I
Speaker 1: think over time, you know, humans are largely social animals,
Speaker 1: and once we get UH the testing in place and
Speaker 1: the ability to trace people, over time, things will slowly
Speaker 1: come back to more social oriented culture. UM. It may
Speaker 1: take a while, but I think I think, UM the
Speaker 1: universities will continue to exist as they are and also
Speaker 1: offer a lot of online opportunities. I think they'll probably
Speaker 1: have to become a little bit more technology savvy. Most
Speaker 1: people don't go into administration of universities because they want
Speaker 1: to be on the forefront of tech and UM, and
Speaker 1: I think that many of the systems they have today
Speaker 1: are antiquated and integrated, and they have for rules about
Speaker 1: student privacy of GDPR rules as well, and so it's
Speaker 1: just it's made change slow on that front. But I
Speaker 1: do think that the universities may move a little quicker
Speaker 1: on the technology front going forward. Although, and I was
Speaker 1: listening to your Zoom your zoom comment that it's so funny,
Speaker 1: I think what I hear from from a lot of
Speaker 1: students is just because we can zoom doesn't mean we
Speaker 1: have to we have to do a video every single time.
Speaker 1: It's a cool technology. And although why can't we just
Speaker 1: chat or something where I don't have to be on
Speaker 1: the on this camera the whole time I had a
Speaker 1: number of dealing. Somebody text me today and say like
Speaker 1: when are we going to have a you know, like
Speaker 1: when are we going to get together on zoom? And
Speaker 1: I was like, wherever I could just call you? Like
Speaker 1: I'm to call you? Like that sounds great to me
Speaker 1: right now? So so I gotta ask you, you you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, It's like, you start your career on
Speaker 1: Wall Street. You you know, had a career at at Yahoo.
Speaker 1: You serve on the boards of Berkshire, Hathaway and and
Speaker 1: cost Go as well, I mean, as well as a
Speaker 1: number of other boards, including a survey Monkey and Veil Resorts.
Speaker 1: I mean, if there is one person who is sort
Speaker 1: of seeing the world very holistically right now and seeing
Speaker 1: all sorts of consumer behavior changing, it's you. What jumps
Speaker 1: out at you as you sort of go through your
Speaker 1: day and I can only imagine the emails and conversations
Speaker 1: that that you're having. What's surprising you right now? Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's uh surprising in some ways that we've
Speaker 1: all gotten used to this new normal. I think about
Speaker 1: three weeks ago most people I talked to felt like
Speaker 1: their world was upside down, like there was almost this
Speaker 1: um feeling of dizziness from one headline after another being
Speaker 1: so consequential and changing everything that we know in our world,
Speaker 1: like sports stopping and school stopping, people going home. And
Speaker 1: I think now, you know, I think people are like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can do this. I don't really want to do
Speaker 1: it forever, but I could, you know, I could. I
Speaker 1: could live like this. And I think as part of that,
Speaker 1: back to the prior conversation of accelerating changes that were
Speaker 1: already underway, I think the idea of um home delivery
Speaker 1: of groceries. For example, you know, I'm on the board
Speaker 1: of Costco and we have a two day delivery that
Speaker 1: we do internally in an instant delivery that instant art
Speaker 1: helps with. And uh, you know, I think all over
Speaker 1: people are I think we'll have a little more sensitivity
Speaker 1: to doing things like shaking hands in the future, and
Speaker 1: they have a greater demand for things being delivered UM
Speaker 1: just a higher level of dermophobia for a while. So
Speaker 1: I think there's certain trends that may not have been
Speaker 1: underway for that reason, but I think that they're likely
Speaker 1: to accelerate, and I think you can see that in
Speaker 1: the numbers of everything that you look at. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm on the board of Costco, of course, which has
Speaker 1: been indispensable for people during this period. And then as
Speaker 1: well Veiled Resorts, which I just shut down a month early,
Speaker 1: um in a in a business that's already season. Also,
Speaker 1: you know, there's an extreme Different companies are obviously being
Speaker 1: hit in different ways, but does everybody Does every company
Speaker 1: now have to have the virus playbook? Like is this
Speaker 1: just part of our society now in terms of fighting
Speaker 1: viruses as a you know, I don't know, is that
Speaker 1: part of it? I think I think having an online
Speaker 1: playbook is critical for your employees um and also for
Speaker 1: your customers in certain circumstances where your customers can be online.
Speaker 1: They can't really do that for availed resorts, but certainly
Speaker 1: for the employees. Is there needs to be an online playbook?
Speaker 1: And I think our government, I mean, this was this
Speaker 1: is an unprecedented situation, and no one was really ready.
Speaker 1: Everybody's pointing fingers and looking backward about whether we could
Speaker 1: have been or should have been, but the fact is
Speaker 1: we weren't. And I think it's very unlikely in the
Speaker 1: next ten years that we won't be very ready with
Speaker 1: testing and the ability to UM handle tracing contact tracing
Speaker 1: in a very different way. A friend of mine from Singapore,
Speaker 1: she sends me the daily reports and it's like unbelievable
Speaker 1: how they run that place. It just daily reports, emails
Speaker 1: the entire city and knowing exactly where each case came from.
Speaker 1: You know, we're nowhere near that, so UM and you
Speaker 1: know it has to work within our freedoms and our
Speaker 1: in our government, which is obviously very different from Singapore.
Speaker 1: But I think all governments around the world of major
Speaker 1: UM nations will be much more prepared and take it seriously.
Speaker 1: And Bill, Bill Gates, many people had said that this
Speaker 1: was going to come, and uh, it's nothing like having
Speaker 1: it happened to to really change the way preparedness will
Speaker 1: be looked at going forward. I mean, look, we haven't
Speaker 1: at nine and eleven, all the all the airport security
Speaker 1: that happens to stay and that stayed with us, and
Speaker 1: I think I think this is this virus will have
Speaker 1: elements to stay with us too. All Right, We're gonna
Speaker 1: leave it there. What a treat for us to talk
Speaker 1: to you. Thank you so much. We'll definitely keep in touch.
Speaker 1: We'd love to have you back. Sue Decker, founder, chief
Speaker 1: executive user of rafter h Jonius on the phone from
Speaker 1: San Francisco. Man, she's in the middle of a lot