Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power collive
Speaker 1: in Silicon Vallet and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily Jay. I'm Emily Tanging in San Francisco and this
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Technology. Coming up in the next hour. We
Speaker 1: are live at the Port of l a after fiery
Speaker 1: comments from President Biden on soaring inflation and what he
Speaker 1: calls the exploitation of oil companies that spiking gas prices,
Speaker 1: Plus developing news out of Tesla. The company is asking
Speaker 1: shareholders to authorize a three for one stock split, and
Speaker 1: there's a surprising departure from the board of directors. Plus
Speaker 1: a culture clash at Disney Drives the TV chief out,
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the future of the entertainment giant
Speaker 1: undersea out Bob Cha Peck. I want to get back
Speaker 1: to those inflation numbers now. President Biden paying a visit
Speaker 1: to the Port of Los Angeles and talking about surging
Speaker 1: prices as inflation hits a forty year high, including some
Speaker 1: of the biggest jumps ever in gas prices. The President
Speaker 1: going after Exxon, which is seen not only record profits
Speaker 1: but also a record rise in its share price. Take
Speaker 1: a listen to what the President had to say, Exxon
Speaker 1: made more money than God this year. And by the way,
Speaker 1: nothing's changed and they're not by the one thing I
Speaker 1: want to say about the old companies. They talked about
Speaker 1: how we have they have nine thousands permits to drill,
Speaker 1: they're not drilling. Why aren't they drilling? Because they make
Speaker 1: more money not producing more oil. Joining us now from
Speaker 1: the Port of l A. Bloomberg's Atlin Law, so walk
Speaker 1: us through the President's message. He got pretty heated at
Speaker 1: times he did, and it was interesting. He started on
Speaker 1: hit port of Los Angeles is the work they've done,
Speaker 1: the coordination between the different tentacles of the ports system,
Speaker 1: the truckers, the operators, the shipping companies. But he also
Speaker 1: talked a lot about the broader problem around supply chains,
Speaker 1: which included impact from the war in Ukraine. He didn't
Speaker 1: just have kind of ire for the oil companies, where
Speaker 1: he basically wants oil production to increase so prices come down.
Speaker 1: But he also talked about foreign shipping companies. And the
Speaker 1: reason he did is that a big driver of inflation
Speaker 1: has been the rate that retailers in this country, Walmart's targets,
Speaker 1: Amazon's pay to move goods from A to B and
Speaker 1: he essentially said those rates are unpalatably high. He called
Speaker 1: on Congress to do something to bring them down. But
Speaker 1: you know, we tracked this data at Bloomberg. Of course
Speaker 1: I do. On my Bloomberg terminal, I see that since
Speaker 1: September shipping rates have come down. So he kind of
Speaker 1: did this rapid spray. Look at what's happening. The underlying message, though,
Speaker 1: things here have improved them. So let's talk about the
Speaker 1: role of technology here. Obviously tech companies have been acutely
Speaker 1: in pacted by the supply chain delays. What does this
Speaker 1: all mean for check? So we're on a tech show.
Speaker 1: You and I talked about the cutting edge of say
Speaker 1: drones and and ask fishal intelligence, et cetera. But in
Speaker 1: this case, it's the lack of technology. It's a very
Speaker 1: manual process. A container gets lifted off a ship by
Speaker 1: a crane, put down on the bottom of a truck cab,
Speaker 1: and they're driven off to his destination or he gets
Speaker 1: moved onto a rail. The message I'm hearing over and
Speaker 1: over from executives and officials is rail is letting us
Speaker 1: down because they have cranes that take the containers of
Speaker 1: ships directly onto rail lines, but there are no rail
Speaker 1: carts to meet them, so they just pile up and
Speaker 1: left idly. A positive is Friday. Let's end on a positive.
Speaker 1: I think the sports system, the executives, I suppose to
Speaker 1: you throughout the day are really happy about the administration
Speaker 1: getting out their checkbook putting money into the ports system
Speaker 1: to the tunes of billions of dollars to modernize that.
Speaker 1: We can get more automation. We can have software systems
Speaker 1: that get all of these folks talking to one another,
Speaker 1: and so we prove and what we saw in the
Speaker 1: lost happening eighteen months from happening again. Ludlow. Thanks, We're
Speaker 1: going to see you a bit later in this show
Speaker 1: when we talk about the president's push for electric cars
Speaker 1: and the role Tesla plays in all of that. I
Speaker 1: want to continue this conversation on inflation and the broader
Speaker 1: market implications and bringing Tim Sullivan, the CEO of Oceanic. Tim,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. What do you make of the
Speaker 1: notes that the President struck today? Um? I think there's
Speaker 1: you know, a lot more to inflation that includes monetary
Speaker 1: policy and demand pull and cost push. I think the
Speaker 1: manufactured demand by you know, strinkling five trillion dollars out
Speaker 1: of the economy over COVID, UH created you know, kind
Speaker 1: of a virtual demand. UM supply in fact diminished some
Speaker 1: of the things that were shut down during COVID haven't
Speaker 1: haven't restarted and and may never restart, So diminished supply
Speaker 1: and and manufactured demand that's now decreasing. The combination is
Speaker 1: leading to inflation that's kind of at a runaway pace
Speaker 1: right now. Obviously the Feds got a lot to do.
Speaker 1: So are you saying that the President shouldn't just be
Speaker 1: blaming X on there are other factors at play. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's definitely other factors at play in as far as
Speaker 1: Exxon goes or any of their old companies for that matter.
Speaker 1: UM investments in energy over the last eight to ten
Speaker 1: years have have not been what they should have been.
Speaker 1: UM money has been kind of transitioned over to green
Speaker 1: projects under the things. And at this time when there's
Speaker 1: a war in Russia and we're basically reduced by three
Speaker 1: million barrels a day, the OPEC increase it's coming in
Speaker 1: July four and fifty thousand barrels a day is a
Speaker 1: drop in the bucket, and and we're going to obviously
Speaker 1: feel that as a country. So how long do you
Speaker 1: think this inflation and this general market funk is going
Speaker 1: to be with us? I mean, that's one of the
Speaker 1: toughest questions I think out there. I personally see my market,
Speaker 1: which is the private markets, uh, existing at least, you know,
Speaker 1: through the end of the year, it being a tumultuous,
Speaker 1: choppy at best, and recovery hopefully starting sometime next year.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about what it's going to take, you know,
Speaker 1: otherwise to get inflation under control. Are there are other
Speaker 1: things that the administration, in your view, could and should
Speaker 1: be doing to alleviate the pressure on consumers. That's a
Speaker 1: tough one. I think. You know, they're using every tool
Speaker 1: that they can to moderate inflation, and you know, using
Speaker 1: tightening and trying to manage the workforce and employment numbers
Speaker 1: things like that. So it's, you know, it's become a
Speaker 1: bit of a whip saw right now, and inflation numbers
Speaker 1: are obviously getting pretty tough. I see milk at the
Speaker 1: grocery store ten dollars a gallon here in California and
Speaker 1: gas over seven dollars um. It's it's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: for a lot of people to night. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's an instant panacea that the government has that they
Speaker 1: can employ. You're also a venture capitalist, and I'm curious
Speaker 1: what the impact is that you're seeing on the private markets. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we see what's happening in the public markets. We're hearing
Speaker 1: that companies are having trouble raising money, doing um down rounds,
Speaker 1: slashing their valuations, lay offs, hiring freezes. You know, what
Speaker 1: do you think the fallout from this period of time
Speaker 1: is going to be on all of these private companies
Speaker 1: that were, you know, living high on the hog for
Speaker 1: a while there. Yeah, I mean I've seen this in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two thousand and eight, and uh, it's
Speaker 1: to me, it's kind of like, uh, one of these
Speaker 1: California fires that we have. It. It's horrible and horrendous
Speaker 1: and and terrifying UM and a lot of companies will
Speaker 1: will be absorbed in. Other companies will just disappear UM.
Speaker 1: But at the end, typically a situation like this creates
Speaker 1: a lot of new growth. And in the private markets,
Speaker 1: we are really the public markets are leading indicator for
Speaker 1: the private markets. So a lot of the private company
Speaker 1: valuations are are pegged off of uh, you know, public
Speaker 1: company valuations on future value, and if the public company
Speaker 1: valuations decrease significantly, the future value of those few private
Speaker 1: companies that are buying to be number one. In some
Speaker 1: cases there's only two or three market leaders in the
Speaker 1: private company space, they are all going to take a
Speaker 1: huge hit. And so, like you said, we are seeing
Speaker 1: um difficulty, challenges with financing terms that are changing, liquidation
Speaker 1: preferences that are increasing, you know, from one to two
Speaker 1: to three to who knows what um, and and of
Speaker 1: course to manage cash flow, people are gonna get laid off,
Speaker 1: and it's it's going to be it is going to
Speaker 1: be a rough road for for everyone. Tough. Indeed, Tim Salivan,
Speaker 1: CEO of Oceanic, thank you for giving us your view
Speaker 1: there on what we're dealing with. Thank you well. Tesla
Speaker 1: shares are up in late trading as it plans for
Speaker 1: a three for one stock split, the ev maker joining
Speaker 1: other tech companies with lofty share prices that have taken
Speaker 1: similar steps to make ownership more accessible to individual investors.
Speaker 1: Tesla also announcing Oracle founder Larry Ellison will step down
Speaker 1: from the Tesla board. Will have more on this developing
Speaker 1: story later this hour. Stopping counter it luxury goods. Stock
Speaker 1: x has taken a leading role in this and as
Speaker 1: new data out on the rise of counterfeit items that
Speaker 1: are flooding the market. Joining me now, stock x CEO
Speaker 1: Scott Cutler. Scott great to have you back with us.
Speaker 1: So just how many more of these things are flooding
Speaker 1: the market now? Well, just taken a step back. If
Speaker 1: you look at the trends for consumers. Consumers are inspired
Speaker 1: by what they see with brands, and brands are going
Speaker 1: more directly to consumer, but they're also releasing product, their
Speaker 1: best product in scarce quantities and sometimes it's very difficult
Speaker 1: to get and so consumers are going to marketplaces to
Speaker 1: actually get product that they can't get in other channels.
Speaker 1: So stock x has been at the forefront of being
Speaker 1: a marketplace that connects buyers and sellers and we've authenticated
Speaker 1: over thirty five million products that have gone through our
Speaker 1: rigorous authentication process and it's a service that we provide
Speaker 1: to our customers to essentially ensure that they're getting access
Speaker 1: to great product from brands at authenticated. So what kind
Speaker 1: of fake stuff are you seeing more of? Well, if
Speaker 1: you look at the last twelve months alone, we have
Speaker 1: protected customers by rejecting over three hundred thousand products worth
Speaker 1: more than a hundred million dollars. Those products range from
Speaker 1: sneakers to apparel, accessories, handbags, across a broad category of
Speaker 1: goods that today consumers are defining as a next generation
Speaker 1: asset class. But when we reject an item for being inauthentic,
Speaker 1: what's interesting When you peel back the report that we
Speaker 1: put out this week, you'll realize that the most common
Speaker 1: reason for us rejecting something as a manufacturing defect, it
Speaker 1: could be a glue stitching, it could be the way
Speaker 1: that product was manufactured, damaged, boxed, use product, and then
Speaker 1: fake product. So essentially we're looking at that end to
Speaker 1: end experience and want to be able to deliver for
Speaker 1: that customer, as you know, a legitimate brand experience that
Speaker 1: they quite frankly expect from us. So obviously we know
Speaker 1: what stock X does to keep these kind of things
Speaker 1: off the market. Is there something more broadly that you
Speaker 1: think should be happening to prevent these black markets, if
Speaker 1: you will, from flourishing. Well, if you look at where
Speaker 1: the consumer is today, as I said, going to places
Speaker 1: where they can't find product, and so they're going to
Speaker 1: other marketplaces that range from social networks to peer to
Speaker 1: peer marketplaces. And the challenge with these marketplaces is that
Speaker 1: there's a lack of quality. Uh, there's no certification around authenticity,
Speaker 1: and typically it's a bad user experience. And so when
Speaker 1: we started, we created the highest standard among the industry
Speaker 1: for marketplaces and quite frankly, revolutionized a process to authenticate
Speaker 1: every single product that's sold on our platform before it
Speaker 1: gets to the consumer. And so I think the cha
Speaker 1: challenge and quite frankly, I think the challenge to marketplaces
Speaker 1: is to stand up for your consumer, authenticate that product,
Speaker 1: and stand by the product that's being sold on your platform,
Speaker 1: and take responsibility as a platform, which is what we
Speaker 1: do every single day. Now, you've been in the midst
Speaker 1: of this ongoing legal battle with Nike. Nike suit you
Speaker 1: over an n f T series based on Nike shoes
Speaker 1: and then more recently accused sock x of selling counterfeits.
Speaker 1: You know what's your response to this response to this
Speaker 1: latest salvo. So from a from a legal perspective, we
Speaker 1: believe the original case has no merit. The additional amendment
Speaker 1: equally has no merit. We have the right to use
Speaker 1: any brand's name and trademarks when selling products, and that's
Speaker 1: well established under current law. I think as it relates
Speaker 1: to the experience, and that's the experience in the most
Speaker 1: recent recent claims is just backed up by the facts
Speaker 1: that we authenticate one of the products that are sold
Speaker 1: on our platform. And I think we have a really
Speaker 1: symbiotic relationship with great brands that are releasing great product
Speaker 1: because stock x you can see every single day what
Speaker 1: is this great product worth and what could it be
Speaker 1: traded for? And we provide an economic opportunity for those
Speaker 1: sellers that hold onto those assets and then sell them
Speaker 1: to buyers. But we stand in the middle of that
Speaker 1: transaction to authenticate every single one and so you know,
Speaker 1: to claim that we're not doing that is patently false.
Speaker 1: But most importantly for us, it's really about ensuring that
Speaker 1: user experience. So, if that's the case, what went wrong
Speaker 1: with the relationship with Nike, because I assume you have
Speaker 1: to maintain strong relationships with a lot of brands. Well,
Speaker 1: if you if you look at the platform itself, we're
Speaker 1: actually intermediary between sellers and buyers. Those sellers are typically consumers. Um,
Speaker 1: we do have relationships with brands that actually release product
Speaker 1: and sub product, but a vast majority of what transact
Speaker 1: on the platform is not coming from a brand directly,
Speaker 1: but it's coming from consumers to get access to that
Speaker 1: product over time. You know, we have partnered in so
Speaker 1: many different ways with the industry on on counterfeits. In fact,
Speaker 1: even Nike itself have come to us to say, we
Speaker 1: think you're among the highest standards in the marketplace. Partner
Speaker 1: with us with the Department of Homeland Security on other councils,
Speaker 1: participating in in preventing counterfeits for getting to the market,
Speaker 1: and so I think we work in partnership with the
Speaker 1: industry and hold ourselves to those standards. Now, you spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time at the New York Stock Exchange,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious what unique perspective that gives you on
Speaker 1: the market turmoil that we're seeing now, and you specifically
Speaker 1: oversaw listings, you know, you know, do you think this
Speaker 1: I p O window is shut? And what does that
Speaker 1: mean for stock X, which we were expecting to go
Speaker 1: public potentially soon. Well, you know, everybody is watching the
Speaker 1: headlines in the markets today. What I would say is
Speaker 1: for the market overall, today's headlines are rarely tomorrow's history,
Speaker 1: so we will get through this time. UM. It's certainly
Speaker 1: a very difficult time for the consumer. UM for us specifically,
Speaker 1: I can't comment on rumors speculation about us, but we
Speaker 1: are focused on executing our business, growing our business during
Speaker 1: these challenging times, and expanding into other exciting categories and
Speaker 1: areas to attract this next generation of consumer to our platform.
Speaker 1: Stock X also sells collectibles like trading cars, figurines. You know,
Speaker 1: talk to us about your plans for non shoe alternative
Speaker 1: assets and the kind of demand you see from gen
Speaker 1: Z and millennials, especially in the midst of a downturn.
Speaker 1: Well in two thousand and six, team we started with
Speaker 1: with this idea of creating a real time marketplace for
Speaker 1: high demand consumer goods. We started with sneakers. Our second
Speaker 1: category actually was in watches, and then handbags, and then
Speaker 1: we got into apparel and that's expanded now and to
Speaker 1: collect to bowls. It's all part of a big trend
Speaker 1: that I think includes digital assets, include some of these
Speaker 1: physical assets where the next generation consumer gen Z jen
Speaker 1: A actually looking at different things besides oil and commodities
Speaker 1: and even the market itself as a place to invest
Speaker 1: their time, their energy, their passions, and now you have
Speaker 1: opportunities to actually turn that passion into an economic opportunity.
Speaker 1: And so it's a big trend across all the things
Speaker 1: that trade into our platform that these are considered assets
Speaker 1: by this set of consumers. All right, Scott Cutler, CEO
Speaker 1: of stock X, Great to have you with us. Thanks
Speaker 1: Scott for stopping by. Coming up another stock split in
Speaker 1: the tech sector. This time it's Tesla. Why the e
Speaker 1: V maker is eyeing a three for one split? Up next,
Speaker 1: this is Bloomberg now today is on Tesla that broke
Speaker 1: just after the US market closed, the e V company
Speaker 1: saying in a proxy statement it is asking shareholders to
Speaker 1: vote on a three for one stock split. Joining us
Speaker 1: now on the phone for more Bloomware, Stata Hall, who
Speaker 1: covers Tesla Flora, So it works for Alphabet, it worked
Speaker 1: for Amazon, giving the stocks a bit of a jump
Speaker 1: when they did their own stocks. That's why is Tesla
Speaker 1: doing this? Dantum, well, Tessaly the stock split a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago that was wildly popular with retail investors
Speaker 1: because you know, fans of the company loved the company,
Speaker 1: loved the stock. But as the stock price rises, it's
Speaker 1: harder for them to get an entry point, and so
Speaker 1: Tesla wants to do this not just for retail shareholders,
Speaker 1: but also for its own employees. I mean, they give
Speaker 1: stock options to employees and it's a big part of
Speaker 1: the compensation. And um, you know, I think the last
Speaker 1: stock split was just wildly popular and there's no reason
Speaker 1: not to do it again. Meantime, Tesla also announcing that
Speaker 1: Larry Elson is stepping down from the board, which is
Speaker 1: interesting given that Larry is one of the big backers
Speaker 1: of Elon Steal to buy Twitter. What do you make
Speaker 1: of this? Yeah, that was a surprise. Larry has been
Speaker 1: on the board since lateen He is considered an independent director. Um,
Speaker 1: he just is not standing for re elections and his
Speaker 1: charm is up and he's not gonna, you know, be
Speaker 1: be reelected. The board is gonna shrink from eight members
Speaker 1: to seven. Um. You know, I don't know what is
Speaker 1: behind that. Um. I mean we know that Mr Ellison
Speaker 1: spends a lot of his time in Lamai, Hawaii. Maybe
Speaker 1: he just didn't have time to come to all the
Speaker 1: board meetings or wants to do other things. But he
Speaker 1: has been a pretty instrumental player on the board. And yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously is backing Elon's bid to buy Twitter. So I'm
Speaker 1: not entirely sure went what went on there. We were
Speaker 1: just covering Bloomberg's big takes focused on Larry Allison and Lanni.
Speaker 1: How does this change the constitution of the Tesla board
Speaker 1: in the meantime? Uh, well, Larry's departure just means that
Speaker 1: the board shrinks and um and so, you know, seven
Speaker 1: people is pretty small for a company of Tesla size.
Speaker 1: I mean most boards are going in the opposite direction,
Speaker 1: adding members, add more diversity. Tesla is kind of you know,
Speaker 1: shrinking its numbers even though it's become this massive company.
Speaker 1: All right, well, we'll continue to follow your reporting on this.
Speaker 1: Dana Hall of Bloomberg News, who covers Tesla for us.
Speaker 1: Thank you Dana for that update. Welcome back to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Technology and Emily Chang in San Francisco. This week, the
Speaker 1: Biden administration announced new steps to build out the first
Speaker 1: ever national network of five thousand electric car chargers along
Speaker 1: US highways and in select neighborhood. This is a key
Speaker 1: piece of the bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Let's get back to
Speaker 1: ad Ludlow joining us down from l A, where President
Speaker 1: Biden spoke just a few hours ago. So I talked
Speaker 1: to us about these new charging stations and just how
Speaker 1: much this could supercharge electric car ownership. This is a
Speaker 1: case of build it and they will come right. Biden's
Speaker 1: administration laid out seven and a half BI in dollars
Speaker 1: for charging infrastructure, and they were very specific in the
Speaker 1: wording of the rules. They basically want an America where
Speaker 1: the standards are the same. It doesn't matter if you
Speaker 1: drive yourself a Tesla, a Ford, Mustang, Marquis and Nissan
Speaker 1: Leaf that you should dependably be able to drive up
Speaker 1: to the nearest service station, plug in your e V
Speaker 1: and off you go. There's been skepticism that this money
Speaker 1: materializes in the numbers promised. There's been skepticism that it
Speaker 1: will be built in time. But there are also a
Speaker 1: number of private sector players. Right you have Electrify America
Speaker 1: charge point and they have all gone about, along with Tesla,
Speaker 1: building out these networks relatively quickly. The discussion around adoption
Speaker 1: is still a debate because the pre order numbers for
Speaker 1: the F one fifty Lightning for example, or a Riviewan
Speaker 1: or even the backlog that you see in Tesla shows
Speaker 1: that there's demand here in the United States, but the
Speaker 1: backward looking data speaks for itself. Basically, the ev adoption
Speaker 1: is just a few percentage points of all new car sales.
Speaker 1: In China, it's almost twenty percent. So that's why I
Speaker 1: say it's a question of building and will and will
Speaker 1: they come. That's what the Biden administration hopes that making
Speaker 1: this infrastruction more commonplace will make EVIED option more commonplace
Speaker 1: as well. Now, something really curious, and we've seen a
Speaker 1: rift grow between President Biden and Elon Musk, who you
Speaker 1: would think is a natural ally in this administration, and
Speaker 1: in this push to electric cards, we've seen barbs from both,
Speaker 1: you know, in in you know, towards each other. Why
Speaker 1: is this? Why haven't they been able to form some
Speaker 1: sort of alliance? You know? I remember very vividly when
Speaker 1: I sat in l a at CODE conference or RECO
Speaker 1: conference and Elon Musk sat in the chair and said
Speaker 1: that President Biden is leading the Russian quote Russian revolution
Speaker 1: in electric vehicles. We've known since early in the year
Speaker 1: that Elon Musk and the President don't have a direct
Speaker 1: relation ship. We know that When President Biden talks about
Speaker 1: the electrification movement, he is kind of primarily name check
Speaker 1: forward in GM's leadership in that despite Tesla dominating the
Speaker 1: sale of electric vehicles in this country and globally. Frankly,
Speaker 1: but there's the other side of the story as well.
Speaker 1: Elon Musk has an unwunusual way of doing things. Tesla
Speaker 1: is not a union shop. It does not have unionized labor.
Speaker 1: Biden is the president of the labor movement. He's very
Speaker 1: open about that. And now we see this shift where
Speaker 1: Elon must has shifted his politics. The thing is, Elon
Speaker 1: Musk is the world's richest man and he himself is
Speaker 1: incredibly popular, and we won't be able to quantify it,
Speaker 1: but it will be interesting as we approach November in
Speaker 1: the mid terms. Does Elon Musk take some votership away
Speaker 1: from Biden. That's a question I'm going to be asking. Fascinating,
Speaker 1: fascinating question. All right at Lunlow. Thank you from the
Speaker 1: Port of l I appreciate your reporting. Meantime, we continue
Speaker 1: to celebrate pride. This month of June, Bloomberg Television is
Speaker 1: focusing on a wide range of topics highlighting what equality
Speaker 1: means for the economy, companies and investors. Today, we're speaking
Speaker 1: with neuroscientists and entrepreneur Dr Vivian Ming, who founded SOCO Slabs,
Speaker 1: which uses AI driven research to address inclusion and gender
Speaker 1: in business. Dr Meng, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: You and I first met when I was researching my
Speaker 1: book pro Topia, and I'm so fascinated by a very
Speaker 1: unique perspective in this industry. Let's start with AI. How
Speaker 1: can I, or AI driven research, as you say, address
Speaker 1: some of these really deep seated problems. Well, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: what I believe we humans could potentially solve these problems.
Speaker 1: But AI is an incredibly powerful tool. I once had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to scratch an itch what drives wage gap?
Speaker 1: And we built UH. And I say we I built
Speaker 1: an AI that went out analyzed websites of sixty thou
Speaker 1: different companies, looked at their quarterly reports, analyzed the photos
Speaker 1: of the board and the leadership team, and we found
Speaker 1: the single biggest UH predictor of wage gap within a
Speaker 1: company all around the world was the number of male
Speaker 1: faces UH in those pictures. The more women, the lower
Speaker 1: the wage gap. A pretty unique finding. It took one
Speaker 1: day and as it turns out, one person in that sense,
Speaker 1: AI can be an incredibly powerful tool to explore questions
Speaker 1: of inclusion. Um. Although there's some pretty notorious stories of
Speaker 1: a going in the wrong direction, tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about your personal story and you know this perspective
Speaker 1: you have, unlike many other people, about how people in
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley, for example, are treated differently. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a funny thing. When I started my first tech
Speaker 1: company was an ad tech company. This was before Corsera
Speaker 1: and con Academy, and we're going out, my wife and
Speaker 1: I together to try and his money. And I remember
Speaker 1: this one case in factor was the first time we
Speaker 1: had an entire partner vote from a venture capital firm
Speaker 1: on us. And this one guy happened to be the
Speaker 1: oldest guy in the room. Uh, No tough questions, no
Speaker 1: questions at all. He literally just patted me on the
Speaker 1: head as I left the room and said, you should
Speaker 1: be so proud of what you built. And then he
Speaker 1: ended up being the one person who voted against fundings. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know, maybe this is an experience that could
Speaker 1: happen to anyone. It wasn't just that I was a woman,
Speaker 1: or just that I was a married women that were
Speaker 1: the founders. Except this wasn't actually my first company. My
Speaker 1: first company was years before, a film company, and I
Speaker 1: was a man, and in a decade in between, I
Speaker 1: had gone through transition. And let me tell you, it
Speaker 1: was extraordinarily more difficult raising money as a woman, despite
Speaker 1: the fact that in the inner reading years I'd gained
Speaker 1: a couple of PhD s. Uh. In the years since
Speaker 1: that I founded six companies, had five of them acquired
Speaker 1: I We had a good business plan. I truly believe
Speaker 1: what we were trying to build. The people couldn't see it.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you that if you've ever wondered
Speaker 1: whether it's truly different for men and women, for gay
Speaker 1: and straight, black and white, as someone that's seen both sides, yes,
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley can be a wildly different town. As someone
Speaker 1: who's seen both sides and perhaps has one of the
Speaker 1: most decorated resumes of anyone in Silicon Valley, how much
Speaker 1: progress do you think has actually been made over the years.
Speaker 1: Of course, we had um the Me Too movement, that
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter movement, Then we had the pandemic and
Speaker 1: concerns about backsliding in the pandemic, Do you feel like
Speaker 1: we've made significant steps forward or or not? Yeah? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm a hard number scientist in the end, and so
Speaker 1: I like to collect data. One of the projects we
Speaker 1: run at SOCO SLABS is called the Inclusion Impact Index.
Speaker 1: We collaborate with crunch Base, pitch Book, the US Patent Bureau,
Speaker 1: and the Census collecting data and we look at questions
Speaker 1: like do lgbt founders um raised as much as straight founders,
Speaker 1: how many jobs are created by women starting companies in
Speaker 1: the Southeast, And what we clearly saw, for example, during
Speaker 1: the pandemic is funding of non traditional founders read UH, women,
Speaker 1: ethnic minorities, lgbt Q went down substantially UM. Some of
Speaker 1: that is because many of them were starting companies for
Speaker 1: the first time, and funding for new companies dropped dirt
Speaker 1: with the uncertainty, but the drop for someone like me
Speaker 1: was pronounced lee larger, So there's clearly some backsliding going
Speaker 1: on UH. And that kind of data is incredibly useful
Speaker 1: because I'll tell you I have never talked with a
Speaker 1: VC that wasn't convinced they were the most rational person
Speaker 1: in the entire world. We are moving into an even
Speaker 1: more tech enabled world. You know, this future of the metaverse.
Speaker 1: Who knows if it happens, but you know a number
Speaker 1: of companies are certainly trying to push us in that direction.
Speaker 1: Do you see this posing or presenting more challenges or
Speaker 1: opportunities when it comes to creating a more equal world? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, let's be blunt, it's both. Uh. We look
Speaker 1: at some new research on the rate of data flow,
Speaker 1: how incredibly connected we are, how easy it is with
Speaker 1: my phone or online for to collect any piece of
Speaker 1: information I want to get, And paradoxically, it's actually slowing
Speaker 1: down innovation. And so in that sense, independent of diversity,
Speaker 1: technology seems to make us explore less and that's deeply problematic.
Speaker 1: But we can fight against that, and we can really
Speaker 1: lean into technology. For example, technology I built from my
Speaker 1: son who has autism, to help him understand people that
Speaker 1: don't have autism without cheering him. He's already got a superpower.
Speaker 1: He sees the world different than everyone around him. He
Speaker 1: just needs a little help and understanding other people. That's
Speaker 1: where technology can make a difference by actually celebrating what
Speaker 1: makes us different and even augmenting it, not just making
Speaker 1: us all sort of boringly the same. So what do
Speaker 1: you see it is next here in this discussion, In
Speaker 1: this conversation, I know there are so many things that
Speaker 1: we don't talk about that, don't you know, we don't
Speaker 1: shed enough light on what should we be talking about. Well,
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, as was mentioned in some of
Speaker 1: your earlier interviews, Uh, it's a change world in California.
Speaker 1: Their requirements about board representation. I have never gotten so
Speaker 1: many board inquiries. I mean, honestly, a transgender women with
Speaker 1: a multi racial disabled family, everybody is calling me up
Speaker 1: and asking if I'll join their board. Um, but I
Speaker 1: think it's performative. What we really need to do is
Speaker 1: see that there is value, uh, in arguable value and
Speaker 1: having people that think differently about problems. Gender, race, sexuality
Speaker 1: are certainly not the only ways in the world people
Speaker 1: think differently, but they are powerful ones. So for the
Speaker 1: last year two we've actually been looking at this fascinating space,
Speaker 1: the neuroscience of trust. Why it is that our brains
Speaker 1: process different people differently and we just need to accept
Speaker 1: in the end that we're human and we're imperfect and
Speaker 1: sometimes it's going to take extra effort to connect with
Speaker 1: someone that's different. Where our brains are just not set
Speaker 1: up to handle it. M Dr Vivian, men, you sharing
Speaker 1: your perspective with us today is truly a gift. Thank you.
Speaker 1: It is time now for our Crypto report and I
Speaker 1: want to talk about securing block change. Joining me now,
Speaker 1: Nko Sandrico, Janapolis. He is the CEO of Metrica, which
Speaker 1: provides monitoring and analytics for blockchain communities. He nicos, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us, So talk to us
Speaker 1: about the problems that you're trying to solve with your company.
Speaker 1: So Metric is trying to make blockchain networks reliable and
Speaker 1: performance so that the Web three world can be built
Speaker 1: on top. So think of it. We've got used to
Speaker 1: the resiliency and the performance of telecommunication networks. We are
Speaker 1: applying and we're building the same tools in the blogsain world.
Speaker 1: And that is very important because if we want to
Speaker 1: build applications for Web three applications that are required figher
Speaker 1: operational requirements. Think of it like the next Zoom, the
Speaker 1: next Facebook, the next Netflix on top of Web three.
Speaker 1: We need the blockchain networks to be performing really well.
Speaker 1: So we were building the tools end to end monitoring, analytics,
Speaker 1: operational intelligence so that anyone who runs infrastructure can run
Speaker 1: it reliably, and also the applications can get that visibility
Speaker 1: and can know how the network performs. The blockchain network
Speaker 1: performed underneath our network. Allergies and attacks on the blockchain
Speaker 1: more serious than they would be on other networks. I
Speaker 1: think they are. I think the the assets that exist
Speaker 1: on the blockchain networks are much more valuable than video
Speaker 1: or voice that exists on conventional telecom networks or the Internet.
Speaker 1: And I think we're putting our banking system, we're putting nuancets,
Speaker 1: We're putting digital assets on those networks. So I think
Speaker 1: both security and performance are much more important than what
Speaker 1: it were in the in the telecom world. And I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna see the highest value bids traversing the world,
Speaker 1: uh than we saw before in the web two world
Speaker 1: in the Internet. So chat to us that about how
Speaker 1: the scales in the future. If you know, these kinds
Speaker 1: of adages and attacks are more serious for blockchain technology. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, just to give you an example of what
Speaker 1: happens today when there is when there is an outage, UM,
Speaker 1: everyone runs a note on the blocks in network and
Speaker 1: they run some kind of local monitoring on those notes,
Speaker 1: and what happens is that everybody sees that their notice
Speaker 1: down and they try to figure out is it the node,
Speaker 1: is it the network, is it the application that is wrong?
Speaker 1: Nobody knows what is going on exactly. So everybody goes
Speaker 1: on social media, they go on Twitter, they go on discourt,
Speaker 1: and they start asking each other are you seeing the
Speaker 1: same thing? Are you experiencing the same things that we see?
Speaker 1: And then there is a long process of coordination for
Speaker 1: bringing a network back in order. So these are operations
Speaker 1: in the early days that we're experiencing. Now. We need
Speaker 1: infrastructure like the one that Metric is building, so that
Speaker 1: we can have monitoring, community monitoring, end to end visibility
Speaker 1: into the network, and so that those outages can either
Speaker 1: be prevented or when they happen, we can very quickly
Speaker 1: recover and the network can be can be back. So
Speaker 1: I think we're seeing things that as we build up
Speaker 1: infrastructure and as we build more tools in the space,
Speaker 1: will start becoming less and less frequent. We've been talking
Speaker 1: a lot about the market turmoil and crypto market terminal.
Speaker 1: Bitcoin still now below thirty dollars. What's your read on
Speaker 1: where this is all headed. I think definitely. The markets
Speaker 1: are in a turmoil and we're we're getting into a
Speaker 1: bare market. But I think for for crypto, this actually
Speaker 1: might be a good thing in the sense that people
Speaker 1: will focus a lot on building. And every time that
Speaker 1: we've seen in the past during burn markets, there is
Speaker 1: a lot of infrastructure being built. The foundations of blockchain
Speaker 1: and crypto are being built. In a movement further along,
Speaker 1: I would say investors also kind of change their appetite
Speaker 1: and they become much more focused on the value of
Speaker 1: what is being built rather than on financial engineering or
Speaker 1: on crypt economics. And I think that's that's a healthy
Speaker 1: kind of phase that we go through. When we've seen
Speaker 1: that in the past, it has never stopped the progress
Speaker 1: in building up more more things in the cryptal world.
Speaker 1: All right, Metrica CEO Niko Sanrica Jannapolis, thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us coming up. A clash of styles over at
Speaker 1: Disney led to a veteran, Peter Rice's dismissal, and it
Speaker 1: took CEO Pop j Pack just seven minutes. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about what happened next, Mrs Bloomberg. Peter Rice has one
Speaker 1: of the longer resumes in the entertainment industry, but when
Speaker 1: his time at Disney came to an end. It was
Speaker 1: over in seven minutes. That is how long it took
Speaker 1: Disney CEO Bob J Peck to fire the head of
Speaker 1: his TV division this week and what insiders say was
Speaker 1: a clash of styles at the world's largest entertainment company,
Speaker 1: blooms Chris Paul Mary joins us Now to discuss. So, Chris,
Speaker 1: what happened and why did it only take seven minutes?
Speaker 1: Ha ha ha. Well, this is one of those things
Speaker 1: where we'll look back at this as a data point
Speaker 1: and if you know, the tenure of Bob Kause CEO
Speaker 1: is ultimately a successful one, we'll say, well, there's a
Speaker 1: guy who made quick decisions and uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: wasn't afraid to make hard choices. Uh If if ultimately
Speaker 1: he's not successful, and you know, and it could go
Speaker 1: either way at this point, Uh, people will say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, boy, there's a guy who had really no
Speaker 1: people's skills and uh, you know, didn't behave the way
Speaker 1: Hollywood normally behaves when it terminates very senior executives like
Speaker 1: Peter Rice. J Peck has obviously been facing some pretty
Speaker 1: tough and kind of public battles what does this say
Speaker 1: about his leadership at this point? Well, in a white
Speaker 1: bigger news this week, uh than Peter Rice, was the
Speaker 1: fact that the Disney's Board of Directors put out a
Speaker 1: statement on Thursday saying that Japec and his team Habits
Speaker 1: have their full support. Uh. And that's significant because this
Speaker 1: guy has definitely been under fire. Stocks down by more
Speaker 1: than a third this year alone. Uh. He had that
Speaker 1: pr debacle in Florida that's ongoing over the school's bill,
Speaker 1: and had a you know this, you know, municipal district
Speaker 1: taken away from them. He had plenty of problems before that,
Speaker 1: internally not popular, moving a lot of US to Florida
Speaker 1: Scarlett Johansson lawsuit last year. If you recall so so,
Speaker 1: Shafick's had more than his share of struggles. Shares are
Speaker 1: way down. I mean, how long though, do you think
Speaker 1: the board is going to put up with this? Well? Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, his contract runs for another few months. I
Speaker 1: would say for certainly he's given the statement that they
Speaker 1: put out just yesterday, he's certainly safe this year. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's coming at a time where you know, Netflix had
Speaker 1: those bad subscriber numbers. The whole media sector is down
Speaker 1: in a big way. So Disney isn't alone. You know,
Speaker 1: the theme park says we've talked about before, are really
Speaker 1: killing it and that's been a savior. That was where
Speaker 1: Speck sort of last served. And uh and and that
Speaker 1: business is doing great, so uh, it's a big test time.
Speaker 1: They're rolling out Disney Plus in a number of new
Speaker 1: markets this summer all over the world. And and Speck
Speaker 1: has promised that the second half of the year will
Speaker 1: show even stronger subscriber growth than the first half, So
Speaker 1: those data points is still to come. Has bot Biker
Speaker 1: had at all a role in the aftermath of all
Speaker 1: of this, I mean, I know there's been some speculation
Speaker 1: of him coming back, which he has said is totally ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Just curious what Eiger is up to. H He hasn't
Speaker 1: publicly commented on SHAPEX leadership, but people have tried to
Speaker 1: read between the lines and some of his public statements
Speaker 1: um people have argued, For example, he tweeted out retweeted
Speaker 1: a statement from President Joe Biden on the Florida Schools
Speaker 1: bill that's sort of in a way made people ask
Speaker 1: what Disney's official position and set in motion that whole
Speaker 1: chain of events Uh. He's also commented public on on
Speaker 1: the decision, uh, saying essentially was a no brainer for
Speaker 1: Disney to oppose the bill, uh, something that SHAPEC had
Speaker 1: initially been reluctant to do so. In a way indirectly,
Speaker 1: he's offered his opinions on the I think so going
Speaker 1: on interesting? All right, Chris Paul Mary, who covers Disney
Speaker 1: for us. We'll stay tuned for the next twist in
Speaker 1: this very dramatic story. And that does it for this
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Technology. My colleague David Weston is coming
Speaker 1: up next with Wall Street Week former Treasury Secretary Larry
Speaker 1: Summers there. He's got some harsh words for the FED,
Speaker 1: calling them delusional on inflation. And don't forget to check
Speaker 1: out our podcast wherever you get our podcasts. Have a
Speaker 1: wonderful weekend. Everyone. I'm Emily Chang in San Francisco. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg