WEBVTT - Former Personal Capital Chairman & Founder Bill Harris Talks Entrepreneurship

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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<v Speaker 2>Okay, you promised we talked to a serial entrepreneur who

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<v Speaker 2>has a ton of experience in the fintech space. I

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<v Speaker 2>want to bring in Bill Harris. He's a longtime fintech executive.

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<v Speaker 2>He's founded or led several personal finance companies, think from

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<v Speaker 2>companies such as into It, PayPal as well. He was

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<v Speaker 2>the founding CEO there. He ran TurboTax, he founded Personal Capital,

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<v Speaker 2>you remember just a few years ago that was bought

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<v Speaker 2>by Empower, Right, so he knows a thing or two about, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>how people are using these apps these days.

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<v Speaker 1>All right, good to have you here. I got some

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<v Speaker 1>time with you this morning, so it's good to have

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<v Speaker 1>you back with us now that the event is underway.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm just curious anybody you've talked to, any interesting conversations

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<v Speaker 1>that you've had so far?

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<v Speaker 3>Well, sure, you know. The most interesting fella here is,

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<v Speaker 3>of course, Michael Lowe. And I've known him actually for now.

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<v Speaker 3>I talked to him just a moment ago with forty

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<v Speaker 3>years Wow, how forty years ago? We worked together in

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<v Speaker 3>the magazine industry, which of course is no longer.

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<v Speaker 4>But they did a subscription business, right, that Time Warner bought.

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<v Speaker 3>That's right, But first we worked together at time Ink

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<v Speaker 3>and then he left to go build the subscription business

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<v Speaker 3>that he sold back to Time Ink.

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<v Speaker 4>Kind of fascinating. I just can we just go there

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<v Speaker 4>for a minute.

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<v Speaker 1>Media, the changes that we have seen in content production

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<v Speaker 1>where you get it, I don't know who'd thought. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>I used to do subscriptions right in terms of magazines

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<v Speaker 1>and various newspapers.

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<v Speaker 4>We don't do that anymore. What do you think it's

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<v Speaker 4>all going?

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<v Speaker 3>Well, it's you know, finance and media are the two

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<v Speaker 3>industries most profoundly changed by digital technology. Yeah, because they

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<v Speaker 3>are all just figments of our imagination and you can

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<v Speaker 3>create them with no assets, just your mind. And so

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<v Speaker 3>you know what happened though, is that media. The tsunami

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<v Speaker 3>of digitization hit media fast, and old media came crumbling down,

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<v Speaker 3>and new media obviously has just I've done nothing but

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<v Speaker 3>the upward tilt. It has not yet happened generally speaking,

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<v Speaker 3>in financials and services, and you still have the same

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<v Speaker 3>fifty year old, one hundred year old, one hundred and

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<v Speaker 3>fifty year old firms that dominate, and so that industry

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<v Speaker 3>is now ripe for digitization.

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<v Speaker 2>A lot of folks are working to digitize that industry.

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<v Speaker 2>You've been working in that for decades at this point.

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<v Speaker 2>But it's a very lucrative industry. It's also very sticky

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<v Speaker 2>when it comes to the way people manage their assets.

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<v Speaker 2>They don't want to move advisors, they don't want to

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<v Speaker 2>move firms. I think, especially high net worth individuals still

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<v Speaker 2>feel like they want somebody to talk to and that

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<v Speaker 2>service comes with fees eighty basis points one hundred and

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<v Speaker 2>twenty basis points. Those fees eat into returns. This is

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<v Speaker 2>something that you've been working on for years. You did

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<v Speaker 2>it at Personal Capital. What are you doing now at

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<v Speaker 2>Evergreen Wealth.

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<v Speaker 3>We're doing two things. We're doing wealth management. Wealth management

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<v Speaker 3>for people who have let's say, investible assets of a

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<v Speaker 3>million to and these are people who don't get the

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<v Speaker 3>kind of white glove service that people who have ten

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<v Speaker 3>twenty one hundred million dollars do. And so what they

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<v Speaker 3>need is somebody who can take the tax and investment

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<v Speaker 3>principles that the people who have more money utilize because

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<v Speaker 3>they have tax attorneys and all the rest, and then

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<v Speaker 3>look for someone who can use technology to make that

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<v Speaker 3>scalable and in fact precision engineering to make it even

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<v Speaker 3>better than traditional wealth managers deliver. If we do that,

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<v Speaker 3>we can give them better pre tax return and then

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<v Speaker 3>better after tax return, because that's the thing that everyone forgets.

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<v Speaker 4>Can everybody benefit by this?

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<v Speaker 3>Yes, absolutely, everyone who has sufficient resources that the tax

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<v Speaker 3>impact is meaningful, and so a couple of one hundred

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<v Speaker 3>thousand dollars to a couple of million dollars, Yes, you

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<v Speaker 3>should absolutely be managing your investment portfolio in a tax

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<v Speaker 3>way way.

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<v Speaker 2>You're the founding CEO of PayPal. We talk a lot

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<v Speaker 2>about the PayPal mafia, those folks we've spoken to Read Hoffman,

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<v Speaker 2>David Sachs. These guys really don't need any introduction. Elon Musk,

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<v Speaker 2>of course, is among them. To what extent are these

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<v Speaker 2>folks still in your universe right now?

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<v Speaker 3>Well, for the most part, we've gone separate ways. Even

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<v Speaker 3>many of the people within within so called mafia. I've

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<v Speaker 3>moved from Silicon Valley to Miami, so I have sort

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<v Speaker 3>of a new set of people that I'm.

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<v Speaker 2>Working them have too somehow, Yes, that's right. And some

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<v Speaker 2>of them have moved back to San Francisco too. There

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<v Speaker 2>maybe Texas some of them as well. Yeah, Okay, so

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<v Speaker 2>on that and sort of on payments. Yes, I thought

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<v Speaker 2>of you the other day because the crypto firm Kraken Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>is launching this competitor to Venmo into the cash app,

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<v Speaker 2>essentially using the blockchain to transfer money. And I'm wondering

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<v Speaker 2>how you look at that as somebody who really pioneered

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<v Speaker 2>technology for sending money over the internet. Is the blockchain?

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<v Speaker 2>Is crypto really going to disrupt that?

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<v Speaker 3>I think the blockchain is very good for some purposes.

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<v Speaker 3>I don't have much use for cryptocurrency because we have

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<v Speaker 3>plenty of currencies that are very good. But the blockchain

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<v Speaker 3>can do a heck of a lot, particularly on international

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<v Speaker 3>money movement, because we're looking at Swift, you know, which

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<v Speaker 3>takes at least a day, sometimes multiple days to get

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<v Speaker 3>significant money moved from America to Singapore. And with the

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<v Speaker 3>right crypto networks, you can do it like that, that easy, sure,

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<v Speaker 3>and that fast.

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<v Speaker 2>So that sounds like Western Union gets disruptive in a

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<v Speaker 2>situation like that. That's what it sounds like to me.

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<v Speaker 3>Not quite, because Western Union. Western Union is all about

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<v Speaker 3>the last mile, and Western Union is doing lots of

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<v Speaker 3>little payments and for most in most of the world,

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<v Speaker 3>it's actually agents physical agents who are who are taking

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<v Speaker 3>the money and giving out the money. So that's a

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<v Speaker 3>very different thing. But if you're doing bank and bank

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<v Speaker 3>payments or business to business plan.

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<v Speaker 4>The big guys, the big guys. Yeah, So does it

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<v Speaker 4>happen eventually?

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<v Speaker 3>Oh yes, yeah, yeah, there is no reason whatsoever. And

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<v Speaker 3>to day and age, it should take multiple days to

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<v Speaker 3>get money from here to there.

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<v Speaker 4>Amen.

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<v Speaker 3>But Amy we're doing twenty five years ago, we were

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<v Speaker 3>moving money instantly, skittering it around the world at PayPal.

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<v Speaker 3>It's not that hard.

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<v Speaker 4>So are there going to be big players in it?

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<v Speaker 3>I don't know. I don't follow. I don't follow what's happening.

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<v Speaker 3>You know, Ripple took a stab at it for a while,

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<v Speaker 3>but I haven't heard anything about that in a while,

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<v Speaker 3>So I don't know what.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, just got about thirty seconds here. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>AIS have obviously the trend that everybody talks about in

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<v Speaker 1>terms of its impact.

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<v Speaker 4>Is there anything else though outside of AI? Or is

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<v Speaker 4>it really just.

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<v Speaker 1>About artificial intelligence which is not a new thing but

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<v Speaker 1>it's certainly on a different level too.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 3>So I'll just say quickly, in what I'm doing Evergreen Wealth,

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<v Speaker 3>we're doing two things. First of all, we're using AI

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<v Speaker 3>to revolutionize how financial advice can be delivered. But the

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<v Speaker 3>other important thing we're doing is bringing tax considerations into

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<v Speaker 3>investment management, because it's not what you earn, it's what

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<v Speaker 3>you keep that counts.

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<v Speaker 4>Increasingly, right and really, yeah, no, it's huge. We always

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<v Speaker 4>talk about that in terms of the market.

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<v Speaker 1>You don't want to be Yeah, it's not just about

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<v Speaker 1>gain what you gain, but it's also making sure you

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<v Speaker 1>minimize your losses. Right, great, thank you so much. Thank

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<v Speaker 1>you really appreciate Bill Harris, former CEO of PayPal and

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<v Speaker 1>so much more. Currently founder and CEO of Evergreen Money,

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<v Speaker 1>which we talked about Evergreen Wealth as well. So delighted

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<v Speaker 1>to have him here an uncharted community summit.