WEBVTT - Mobile Voting as a Solution to Prioritizing Democracy 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:08.600 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to Bloomberg 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.960 BusinessWeek with Carol Messer and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.640 Well, judges are racing two resolve fights, many in swing 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.680 states over how Americans will cast ballots and tally results 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.960 in the November fifth presidential election. As absentee and early 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.080 voting is poised to start. All these legal fights brewing 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.320 in the memory of the wait to know the results 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.200 of the twenty twenty presidential election raises the question of 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.840 whether it's time for America to innovate how we vote. 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:36.640 I know our next guest is going to have some 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.800 thoughts on this. Bradley Tusk is political strategist and founder 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.160 of Mobile Voting. He's got a new book out, Vote 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.120 with Your Phone, Why mobile voting is our final shot 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:47.200 at saving democracy. Bradley, by the way, he has worked 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.400 on a few democratic political campaigns. He served as campaign 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.960 manager for Mike Bloomberg's two thousand and nine mayoral race. He, 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.840 of course, Mike is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:01.040 the parent company of Bloomberg Radio and also Burg Philanthropies. 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:03.400 Probably great to have you here with us. Thanks for 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:05.839 having me first up before we get into your book, 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.280 and how we can maybe make it simpler. This political 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.000 race lots of twist and turns already top of mind 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.280 for you, and what you find kind of fascinating. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.360 I mean, one is it's fifty to fifty, right, you're 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:17.160 gonna have a fox and just come out and that 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:18.880 Harris is up to and another one come out. The 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.679 Trump's up too, It doesn't really matter. The truth is 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.000 it's fifty to fifty. And the truth is we're talking 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.800 about one hundred to two hundred thousand people. Probably that 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.760 number is even dwindling every day in six or seven states, 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.759 and then kind of core base turnout in those states 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:37.199 as well, and it's really whatever appeals to that specific group. 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:38.360 So, like I'll give you an example. 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:40.600 I was on a podcast earlier today and the host 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.640 was throwing a theory at me that the cats and 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.440 eating cats and dogs thing was good for Trump because 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:48.400 immigration is the number one issue for a lot of 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.320 voters and therefore it reminds them of it. And I 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.040 was like, I think you're being too too smart here 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:54.640 by half. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:56.040 To me, it's pretty simple. 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.800 If Harris were to win, it's because she is not 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.680 Donald Trump, and she is not Joe Biden. And that's it, right. 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:03.760 It's not like she was successful in her twenty twenty 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.720 race or that popular as vice president. But all people 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.160 want to know is is she not either of those guys. 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.400 And the more that she can show that she is 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.079 lucid and sane, which are the things that those two 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.520 guys can't necessarily claim, that's her path to victory. 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.639 So yeah, we had Steve Eisman on this morning, and 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.679 last time I had him on when Biden was still 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:26.280 in the race, he said one hundred percent chance that 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.480 Trump wins. Now he thought they were going to be 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.079 like massive protests in Chicago, is going to look like 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:33.920 nineteen sixty eight that didn't turn out, never open. But 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.840 he now says with Harris and the race, it's a 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.919 completely new game and it's a coin toss. He has 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:45.160 no idea who's going to win, but he says that 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.280 markets are going to be happier if Donald Trump wins. 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.560 Do you get that, you know, yes and no. 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.840 I mean I think that there is a kind of 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:56.239 immediate reaction of the Republican who is sort of more conservative, 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:57.840 is therefore more pro markets. 0:02:58.400 --> 0:02:59.680 At the same time. 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.880 For mainly Democrats, right, Chuck schu I have although your 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:05.640 boss and my one time boss, we actually we were 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.079 the Republican candidate from her at the time, that's true. 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.600 So yeah, I actually I am an independent. I've been 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.359 independent for a long time. So what I learned is 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.440 to not trust either party. But at the end of 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:20.600 the day, there was a lot of chaos between twenty 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.640 sixteen and twenty twenty, and markets tend to not like chaos. 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:25.120 Markets like predictability. 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.600 And you know, Harris, what I don't see her doing 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.440 is saying maybe we should sort of change the independence 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:31.880 of the FED. 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:32.320 Right. 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.000 To me, the greatest potential risk of anything that's come 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:36.960 out of the mouth that either of these two candidates 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.000 would be, you know, making Jerome Powell a political appointee 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.760 who serves as the pleasure of the president, because then ultimately, 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:44.720 if we can't count on the FED to make independent 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.680 decisions on rake cuts, then I think our economy is 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.240 in serious trouble. So it really just depends how you 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.720 look at it, you know, like in my business, Adventure Capital, 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.280 which is my day job these days, Biden has not 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.920 been great, But I think that whether it's Trump or 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.640 Harris will have a new CC chair, so Gary Ginsler, 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:02.880 it's been a disaster. 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:04.400 For Crypto, he will be replaced. 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.160 We'll have a new FTC chair, Lena Kahan, who has 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:08.880 been very very tough on M and A. 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:10.760 She will be replaced. 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:12.920 And so the good news is, I think we saw 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.080 the rake cut yesterday. I was very very welcome news. 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.320 And I think we're going to see new regulators in 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.400 place kind of no matter what happens on election day, 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:22.279 and both of. 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:22.880 Those things are good. 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:24.640 Do you think with Donald Trump, we've talked a lot 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:26.560 about you know, he's now come out and you know, 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:31.280 was in New York campaigning to reinstate salt right, the 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.719 state and local tax deductions we took away, which and 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:36.640 for those of us who live in like the New 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.640 York metro area, it's been you know, pretty painful. Cap 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.440 is killing me, as killing me as a political strategist. 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:43.640 Is that smart? 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:45.640 Look what does it do? 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:47.640 It doesn't do that much for him in the sense 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.840 that he's still not gonna win New York and so yes, 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:52.680 it will run up more votes on Long Island. But 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.440 what he is doing is he's helping those House candidates 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:01.120 on Long Island and the Hudson River Valley. Their elections 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:05.680 get more likely if Trump really stumps for them. And 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.240 if people think that, oh, if Trump is president and 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.760 if Mike Lawler or whoever it is is, my congressman 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.839 sat will now come back to me. That's that is 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.280 really helpful. So I would say he's almost taking one 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.760 for the team here and that he really should be 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:20.840 basically just be in the swing states. But I think 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:22.680 he's thinking, look, I want to win, but I also 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:24.400 want to have a Republican housel. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.200 Yeah, and that that's. 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.240 Why you would come to New York And very specifically, 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.960 it's the same reason why can'ty Hoko killed the congestion 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:37.400 pricing right? It was simply that those same congressional candidates 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.920 would have just been destroyed on that issue because it's 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:41.440 their party and. 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.760 Doesn't care about New York City. That they don't even 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:45.560 like New York City. 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:48.599 No, they probably care are any city but New York City. 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.200 Talk about your book, vote with your phone? 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:52.120 What you know? 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.160 I know I've been excited about this book and I 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:58.200 can't wait to get into the vote with your phone 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.000 aspect of it. But there's a question I don't understand. 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.880 Haven't understood the answer to For so long we live 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.320 in this you know, liberal bubble here of New York, Right, 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.839 everyone here thinks that the Democrats have it right and 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.920 the Republicans are crazy. But I've always thought it makes 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.320 perfect sense to show an ID when you're voting, like 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.440 you should be at least an American citizen. Yeah, right, 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.480 And for some reason the Democrats are pushing so hard 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:27.680 against that. I'm not understood why. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.440 Well, not only is it not smart to push against it, 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.240 because it really just turns off the average voter. It's 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:35.800 not like all of a sudden they're going to pick 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.800 up this extra cash of votes because illegal units can 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.440 be able to vote. Look, the mobile voting technology we 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:46.239 build allows for both facial recognition scans and biometric screening. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:48.039 Because I think that you should be able to ensure 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:49.440 that you're you, And so when you. 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.520 Log onto the app, there's multi factor authentication, just like 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:54.680 if you were, you know, at logging into Amazon or 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.240 Google or whatever it might be. And then it could 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.599 be a strict as let's take a facial recognition scan 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.440 your fingerprint, and then we know that Matt is Matt, 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.880 and then at that point you can go ahead and vote. 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:06.080 But yeah, I agree with. 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.280 The absolutely all right, so why isn't this happening? 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.800 So we're we're at the mobile bar already. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:11.400 Where you are. 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.440 Yeah, So we got the idea for it. 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.080 I was running the campaigns around the US to legalize 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.080 Uber and at the time we were this tiny, little 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.800 tech startup, and taxi was this sort of big, powerful 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.000 industry and they had lobbyists and they had political muscle, 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:28.080 and we had to figure out how to compete with that. 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.920 And what we realized were our customers really liked us, right, 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.480 and our bet was if we make it really easy 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:38.120 for them to tell their elected officials, their city council members, mayors, 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.160 state reps, whoever was relevant, hey I want this thing, 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:44.920 leave it alone, that would have an impact and it did. Ultimately, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:49.080 millions of people told their elected officials leave you worlone, 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.200 I want to have it, and we wanted every single 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.760 market in the country. And what I started wondering was, 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.920 like these same people, I guarantee you they don't know 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.280 who their state senator is, they're not voting in city 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.880 council prime. But because we gave them something to care 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.640 about and we made it really easy, they were willing 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:06.720 to do it. So the question was what if they 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:08.840 could vote this way? And so I started the mobile 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:13.640 Voting Project in twenty seventeen and we funded elections in 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.600 seven different states were either deployed military or people with 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:20.640 disabilities voted in real elections on their phone. It worked, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.520 turnout increased significantly. Denver who did it did a poll 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.600 and not shockingly, one hundred percent of people participated said yeah, 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:29.480 I prefer pressing a button to going somewhere. 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.880 Yeah. Right, And then I got a right surprise. And 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:33.720 then I got a ton. 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:36.800 Of grief though from the cryptography community that oh, it 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.199 can't be safe. And my view was while the elections 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.720 that we had done were audited by the Natural Cybersecurity 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:46.280 Center and came back totally clean. I know politics, and 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.080 I know that politicians can hide behind an excuse like 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.360 it's not safe. They don't want to change the system 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.200 because they just don't want any way risk losing their 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:55.160 grip on power. So I feel like I had to 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.480 take that excuse away. So we started building our own 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:01.120 mobile voting technology, which we are now most of the 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:01.720 way done with. 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:03.520 We're in year four of doing this. 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:05.640 I've put about twenty million dollars in my own money 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.600 into this project that is totally filmthropic, and the tech 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:10.640 that we have built is and to end encrypted and 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.920 to end verifiable air gapped biometric screening, multi factor authentication. 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:20.160 Most importantly, it's open source code. And once we finish 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:23.080 it and we run it through various authorities, we're going 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:24.320 to put it up and it's going to be free 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:25.560 for any government to use. 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.160 And then the really hard work begins. Right. 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.280 So, yes, you know, funding those elections around the country 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.800 to see if the demand was there, you know, was work. Yes, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.920 building new voting tech a lot of work. But try 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.160 changing the rules on people who have power. That's going 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:42.960 to be the really hard part. And I wrote this 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.600 book to kind of begin making the case for it. 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.000 And we're going to have to build a movement because look, 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.240 there are plenty of times in American history where really 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:54.120 meaningful things have happened because people demanded it. You know, 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:55.800 they didn't want to give women the right to vote, 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.160 but eventually enough women demanded it that it happened. They 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.439 didn't want to pass the Civil Rights Actor Voting Rights 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:01.280 Act of the Americans. 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:02.840 So we need people saying this happen. 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:04.880 Yeah, people have got to say, look, I want this. 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.719 And the reason why it's so important is right now, 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:12.000 our politics are controlled by the extremes because of jerrymandering, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.720 which is basically guarantees that the general election will either 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.000 be a Republican or a Democrat based on whatever district 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:19.400 you're in. The only election that ever really matters is 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.520 the primary. Primary turnout is typically ten to fifteen percent. 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.000 And who are they They're the furthest left, they're the 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.600 furthest right, or they're special interests who can control money 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.920 and votes in turnout elections, and as a result, those 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.400 groups dictate not only who wins office, but then once 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:34.640 they do one. 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:35.320 They're in office. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.720 Right, So let's take you know, your boss and my 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.040 former boss, Mike Bloomberg has spent a lot of years, 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.440 in a lot of money trying to pass new gun laws. 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:44.560 But the problem for Mike, and one reason why I 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.240 think he hasn't gotten as far as he would like, 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.920 especially in Congress, is if you're a Republican congressman and 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.400 turn out in your primary is twelve percent and NRA 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.520 members are half that twelve percent, it doesn't matter that 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.280 terrible things are happening in schools and churches, in walmarts. 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.440 What matters is if you were to say, let's do 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.280 something about it, you would lose your next primary. But 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:05.400 imagine if in that same primary, because people could now 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.320 vote on their phone, turn out one from twelve to 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.280 thirty six, so still not even that much. Just by 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.240 the basic math of Republican polling, you would have to 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.240 be for something because the nri's vote share just went 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.720 from half down to sixteen. And so if we want 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:19.839 to move things towards the middle, we got to free 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.480 our politicians from the extremes, and that only works if 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:23.560 we can really increase turnout. 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:25.679 It makes sense to me because you get support from 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:26.199 both sides. 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:26.439 Right. 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.679 On the one hand, you get verified American citizens voting 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.080 and you can easily verify that on the legle. On 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:34.760 the other hand, you get access to a whole group 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:36.880 of young voters who wouldn't show up at a primary 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:39.679 voting place, but they have their phone, so they're gonna. 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:40.320 Want to vote totally. 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.080 So I dropped my daughter off at college a couple 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.240 of weeks ago, and it didn't hit me till after 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.360 I left. But we you know, she got her room key, 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.319 she got her bike, room key, and mail never came 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.280 up once and we get not gonna happen. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.600 Come back because fine, Bradley Tuss, thank you so appreciate it. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.920 Vote with your phone. This is Bloomberg, all right, everybody. 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.040 Earlier this year, Bloomberg reporting on how the world is 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.840 rapidly losing usable land for self inflicted reasons, ranging from 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.959 intensive agriculture and overgrazing of livestock to real estate development 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.960 and yes, climate change. The crisis is further fueling food 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.520 and water insecurity, as well as adding to more greenhouse 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.920 gas emissions. So our next guest is trying to work 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.000 on making it better when it comes to food production. 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.840 That's I didn't mean to be such a bummer there. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:27.560 I mean, but it's the truth. 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:28.520 It's the truth. 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.880 No, it is the truth. For example, in Germany, they 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.800 want the left they want to put a speed limit 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.640 on the autobond because they say, you know, the CO 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:44.360 two emissions are powering global warning, which is probably true. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:45.880 But I don't want to speed limit. So the first 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:48.400 thing I say is when you stop eating beef, then 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.240 we can talk about a speed limit, because it really 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.679 does have a huge effect on greenhouse gases. 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.360 I actually have cut back on the beef. Let's see 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.560 what Cirella Herada has to say. She's co founder of Simply, 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.800 It's generative organic food brand, and she joins us from DC. 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.000 I'm so good to have you here, Matt night and 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.120 go on forever like this. Tell us about your company 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:09.280 and your brand and what you're up to. 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:12.680 Absolutely well, thank you Matt and Carroll for having me 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:17.720 here today. Simply is the leading regenitive organic staples brand 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.640 in the industry, and we're in the mission of really 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.040 connecting people around the world through the joy of food. 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.240 And that really conveys from being able to source the 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.920 best ingredients from around the world, work directly with that 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:33.479 international farmer, and care not only about what you're harvesting, 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.959 but also what you're leaving behind, and that is the soil. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:39.680 And if you're able to heart of that soil, you're 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.559 going to be able to supquest their carbon and fight 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:42.439 climate change. 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.559 What is the so I've recently started looking into plant 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.480 a plant based diet good because I'm into this too 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.920 for the health for the health reasons obviously, but I'm 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:57.880 not immersed in the jargon enough to know what you 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.360 mean when you say regenitive organic food. 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:00.960 What is that. 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:07.120 Yeah, Regienda agriculture really is the highest gold standard in agriculture. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.240 And it goes back into the principles of not just 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.600 looking at the harvest, not just looking at what comes 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:17.040 out of the soil, but the soil itself and taking 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:22.280 certain practices to be able to have nutron density back 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.320 into the soil so you can sequester that carbon in 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.360 fight climate change. So that looks into rotational crops, minimum 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:33.240 tillage coverage of those crops, and that is going to 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.680 produce crops that are going to be more nutron dense 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.000 for you. So if you go into a plant based diet, 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.360 you're going to get the fibers and the proteins and 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.800 that you need from these plant based products like grains 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:46.400 and beans. 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:49.120 You know, it's funny. I did a lot of stuff 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:53.480 with Chipotle years ago under Stevels, who created the company, 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:55.720 and they certainly work on Sunday. 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:57.760 I hope you want to work with them on Sunday. 0:14:58.640 --> 0:14:59.320 They're closed on. 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:04.920 Sunday anyway, but really cared about where the food came from, 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.200 and they thought about food production in a big way, 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.120 and they only worked with certain providers, if you will. 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.560 Having said that in terms of regenerative farming. We've done 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.920 a little bit about this. How easy is it to 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.440 ramp up grand scale to really feed the masses? 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.680 Yeah? Absolutely, And Steve Ellis is a huge advocate of 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.200 simply he carries some of our Gigantevin products in his 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.400 new concept kernel in New York City. And because of 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.080 the value and the brain promise that it has behind, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:39.360 we believe that regentitive agriculture is scalable and that Big 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.320 AGG you see now, Big AGG and Big CpG really 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.800 making claims of moving some of their sourcing and supply 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:50.200 chains into regentive agriculture by twenty thirty or such. And 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:54.600 the way to really look at regenitive agriculture and scalability 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.600 perspective is being able to convert where food is being grown, 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:03.960 to fight monocross and really look into multi cropping, being 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:08.320 able to understand how the whole ecosystem supports each other, 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.840 and not just being able to grow once inprop year 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.400 over year and over year. Just like our diet, we 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:18.480 can't just eat one specific food item every single day, right, 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.360 We need different nutrients and soil is just like that. 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.640 That simply we have our internal regentive Pathway program which 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.400 we really focus on working with farmers and meet them 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:32.640 where they're at, if that is conventional agriculture or transitional, 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:36.720 and really help them, educate them and really incentivize these 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.960 practices to move them to that gold standard of regenitive 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:41.240 organic agriculture. 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.760 Did you already list all the accolades that she's gotten. 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.960 I didn't list all ink female founders. Two fifty list 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.440 Ey Entrepreneur of the Year in terms of their business 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:57.080 two nine hundred percent growth in retail placement over three years, 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.600 four hundred and ninety two percent year over year growth 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.040 at whole foods market specifically. So this is a business 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:10.240 that is kicking butt. Do you find getting financing easy? 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.399 I know that venture capital historically has done very poorly 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:15.760 with female founders. How has it been for you? 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.480 Well, we're fortunate that we're well capitalized today and we've 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:24.159 had investors as early on as a set Goldman founder 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.160 of honesty that really see that the industry is moving 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.360 this way. Consumers are the growth and the numbers you 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.680 just shared is because the new generation and Gen Z 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:38.480 are really reacting to finding value on maybe some of 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.800 these categories that you might have thought are boring and freshness, 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.120 didn't matter. We call ourselves the silent hero of every 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.480 healthy plate, and these are products that you need every day, 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:50.840 so you should care of where they come from and 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.240 the nutrient profile of that as well. So as we 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.560 continue to grow, we have we have a set of 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.199 investors that they're really able to believe the growth that 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.000 we have and and being able to see where the 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:02.840 market goes as well. 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.520 Sweet Green Chop, True Foods, Kitchen and just sell it. 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:07.240 I'll use your products. 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.880 It's good because I lunch. 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:13.680 Matt talked about the growth. You just talked about the growth. 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:14.639 Are you guys profitable? 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.800 We are. We don't really share our numbers. We are 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.480 a private company, but what we can say is that 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.639 we are just like we look at the environment from 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.520 a sustainability perspective, we also take care of a business 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.919 that way and really growth not at all costs, but growth, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:33.800 but growth at a sustainable pace. 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.280 Interesting, interesting stuff. It's making me so hungry. 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:40.880 Just well, you're always hungry. And I just dated banana, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:42.320 not that you were interested, but was. 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.520 It a regenerative organic banana? 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:46.800