Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power collive
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily Jay. I'm Emily changes San Francisco, and this is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Technology. Coming up in the next hour. With Russia's
Speaker 1: invasion faltering, could Putin be about to get more brazen
Speaker 1: even make a nuclear threat. We'll speak to a security
Speaker 1: expert who says it is time for a no fly zone,
Speaker 1: plus a tech founder who's helped a hundred thousand people
Speaker 1: flee Ukraine with a single Google doc. Plus more and
Speaker 1: more women are flooding into crypto and most of them
Speaker 1: are hoddlers. How women are making their way into the
Speaker 1: biggest new tech trend to make sure they get a
Speaker 1: piece of the pie. And the NBA presents its first
Speaker 1: game in the metaverse. While they call it the net
Speaker 1: a verse, was it a slam dunk? We'll take you
Speaker 1: to the virtual report. I want to continue this conversation
Speaker 1: now with security expert Jamial Jaffer. Jamille, I have to
Speaker 1: get your reaction to what Jody just had to say.
Speaker 1: There this quote from the U. S. Devents Intelligence Agency
Speaker 1: Director Scott Barrier saying that Putin will increasingly rely on
Speaker 1: its nuclear deterrent to signal the West. How serious is
Speaker 1: this to you? Well, look, I think it is obviously
Speaker 1: a serious concern. Any time you're dealing with a nuclear
Speaker 1: weapons state that is engaged in aggression towards another nation,
Speaker 1: you've got to measure are they going to rely on
Speaker 1: their nuclear capability? But I think the main point take
Speaker 1: away from from general barriers point is that it's a signal. Right,
Speaker 1: it's nothing they're gonna use nuclear weapons. Is they're making
Speaker 1: a point that hey, we have new clew weapons, don't
Speaker 1: mess with us. The problem, of course, is that if
Speaker 1: that's always our position, we can't do anything. You can't
Speaker 1: respond to the Russians that essentially because they have nuclear
Speaker 1: weapons that is suchually gives letter prudent clear one way
Speaker 1: to do whatever he wants where that's in Ukraine or elsewhere.
Speaker 1: We can't be afraid to engage and show military sturtch
Speaker 1: the Russians when they were begun crossing lines, they crossed.
Speaker 1: They crossed the line back in fourteen Crimea. They didn't
Speaker 1: stop there. Then we thought well maybe if they just
Speaker 1: take donascan luhance that would be enough. They didn't stop there.
Speaker 1: Now they're going to keep Where are the Russians gonna stop?
Speaker 1: And we've seen them escalate civilian buildings, schools, hospitals, tremendous
Speaker 1: number of casualties increasing over time. We can't always be
Speaker 1: afraid of the Russian nuclear to turn to prevent us
Speaker 1: from stopping the kind of killing is taking place here. Emily, Well,
Speaker 1: why shouldn't we be afraid to meal because we see
Speaker 1: the escalation continuing to happen. You are now calling for
Speaker 1: a no fly zone, which President Biden has clearly said
Speaker 1: we'll lead to World War three. Why is that a
Speaker 1: risk work taking in your view? Well? Look, I think Emily,
Speaker 1: the challenge here is that we're not necessarily gonna avoid
Speaker 1: World War three by doing nothing right. We've seen that
Speaker 1: every return when we have not shown strength, and latter Reputin,
Speaker 1: he's tried to take the next thing right, whether that
Speaker 1: was Crimea, whether that was the Eastern provinces, and now
Speaker 1: we see him doubling down on his rhetoric and his
Speaker 1: actual actions against Ukrainians. The Ukrainians of all know about
Speaker 1: the esculatory dynamic with vander Putin, and they're the one
Speaker 1: saying no flies and will bring this conflict to a
Speaker 1: more rapid and what we're doing now, supplying more weapons
Speaker 1: and the like, will absolutely help Ukrainians, But it's like
Speaker 1: this continue the conflict at the cost of more civilian life.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure America is showing strength actually leaves
Speaker 1: the World War three. It might actually get Putin realized
Speaker 1: he's gone to conflict he doesn't want and cause him
Speaker 1: to come to a peaceful resolution this sooner rat and later.
Speaker 1: Why don't you think it's gonna get to that nuclear level? Though?
Speaker 1: Why don't you think it'll mean World War three? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I think there have always been talking about
Speaker 1: if you get in a conflict the nuclear weapons state,
Speaker 1: right he is there always a chance to go in
Speaker 1: nuclear Of course, that's true. But the real situation is
Speaker 1: that I think we've seen now or the course of
Speaker 1: at fifties, sixties, seventy years, that nuclear weapon states don't
Speaker 1: actually use nuclear weapons because they recognize the catastrophic consequences
Speaker 1: of engaging in such activity. And so if the US
Speaker 1: where to begin enforce your no flies him, it's much
Speaker 1: less likely in my view, that we're going to go
Speaker 1: to a nuclear consept and more likely we come to
Speaker 1: a conventional resolution. Look, letter Puttin doesn't want war with
Speaker 1: the United States, he doesn't want nuclear war. He wants
Speaker 1: to get his prestige back. He wants to get some
Speaker 1: deal in Ukraine that gives him a win, and he
Speaker 1: wants to be out of this. He doesn't want me.
Speaker 1: This conflict need longer than he has to. We need
Speaker 1: to bring into a close. If we allowed to continue,
Speaker 1: there will be more civilian deaths, more schools, more hospitals,
Speaker 1: more unnecessary suffering. Now, we haven't necessarily seen cyber attacks
Speaker 1: on this scale that some expected. Why is that? And
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean the defenses are working or could the
Speaker 1: worst be yet to come, because obviously cyber attacks can
Speaker 1: also be fairly devastating, though on a you know, in
Speaker 1: a much different way. Yeah, no, absolute, Emily. Look, I
Speaker 1: think we have seen some cyberttacks in Ukraine. We've seen
Speaker 1: the the deployment of the whisper Gate malware. We've seen
Speaker 1: other mal were recently deployed in the Ukrainian theater um
Speaker 1: And of course remember what happened not pet in seventeen
Speaker 1: uh mal we're similar to Whispergate leaked out and spread
Speaker 1: and actually harmed American and other international Western companies to
Speaker 1: the tune of two to three million dollars each ten
Speaker 1: million dollars worldwide. So there is the potential for not
Speaker 1: only damage in Ukraine, but collateral damage the cyber activities.
Speaker 1: And I think we also have to assume that lighter
Speaker 1: Putent estimates that he can engage in at least some
Speaker 1: level cyber activity against US in our allies without incurring
Speaker 1: too big a cost, because he's done it year after year,
Speaker 1: you know, using proxies like criminal hacker games. Now, why
Speaker 1: haven't we seen it yet? I think he estimates it
Speaker 1: right now. He doesn't needed to play that capability. The
Speaker 1: US is largely stayed out of the fight directly, and
Speaker 1: they've only engaged in this supplying weapons. He is getting
Speaker 1: tired of it, he's getting tired of the sanctions. He's
Speaker 1: certainly under pressure at home. So there is a high
Speaker 1: likeli that if he's gonna turn to something, it's less
Speaker 1: likely to be nuclear or kem bio and it's more
Speaker 1: likely to be cyber and an escalation of civilian campaign.
Speaker 1: And that's the most troubling thing because you point out
Speaker 1: an attack of the cyber domain couz cod damage and
Speaker 1: so We've got to be cleared him not only that
Speaker 1: he should not do that, but if he does that,
Speaker 1: there will be a significant response. Right now, we're taking
Speaker 1: military options off the table. We gotta put those military
Speaker 1: options back on the table. Emily, all right. Jamal Jaffer,
Speaker 1: cybersecurity expert, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute, Jamil,
Speaker 1: thanks for sharing your perspective here. The war on Ukraine
Speaker 1: has showed the power of the kindness of strangers. Roughly
Speaker 1: three million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes and country,
Speaker 1: many with just the clothes on their back. My next
Speaker 1: guest helped create an open access Google doc that helps
Speaker 1: with every step of the way, from what to do
Speaker 1: when leaving the Ukraine, what resources are available and where
Speaker 1: to go, how to enter neighboring countries. Joining me now,
Speaker 1: Elena Vandenberg. She is also the co founder of the
Speaker 1: meeting software company Chili Piper. Elena, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. So this Google doc is incredibly detailed.
Speaker 1: Anyone can open it. You've got information about traffic, lights
Speaker 1: and traffic and transportation, medical aid, accommodations, food. What sparked
Speaker 1: the idea to do something like this? As tech companies. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's hard to figure out what we can do to
Speaker 1: stop something that of this great proportion a war. It
Speaker 1: is hard to stop when you're working on tech and software. UM.
Speaker 1: But as we saw the attack on Ukraine unfolding, and
Speaker 1: our own employees in these regions UM in such great distress,
Speaker 1: we started that Google document immediately to see what would
Speaker 1: be the best path to get them to save shelter. UM.
Speaker 1: We started sharing it with our partners and our community,
Speaker 1: and we realized that many more people needed it than
Speaker 1: we thought initially. UM. So it just started growing from
Speaker 1: there uh to the place where it's at now ninety
Speaker 1: pages or so UM, and it's access by tens of
Speaker 1: thousands uh um and and keeps growing. Now. I know
Speaker 1: when you started this it was just you and one
Speaker 1: or two other people. How many people are working on
Speaker 1: this now? How constantly are you updating it? It's a
Speaker 1: real time updates UM. A lot of people are contributing
Speaker 1: from different countries. UM. As new policies are being added
Speaker 1: in Australia or in Germany or in UK. You the
Speaker 1: policies are updated in the Google doc UM. There are
Speaker 1: thousands of contributors, and we look at every information that's
Speaker 1: being put to make sure that it's vetted. Obviously, it's
Speaker 1: very important that the information gets UM gets a veget
Speaker 1: so that they this is life in the situation, so
Speaker 1: it has to be accurate. We're actually looking at scrolling
Speaker 1: through this Google doc right now. Are there any stories
Speaker 1: that stand out to you of the people who have
Speaker 1: been helped by this. I'm sure you've got stories flooding in.
Speaker 1: You know, people who you know who wouldn't maybe wouldn't
Speaker 1: know what to do. It's heartbreaking. UM. I UM am
Speaker 1: part of thousands of what's up groups and telegram groups
Speaker 1: where people are asking left and right for help on
Speaker 1: how to get to certain borders, how to make sure
Speaker 1: that they're UM, they're not in their lines of fire,
Speaker 1: and that they get shelter. On the other sides, most
Speaker 1: people in Ukraine, as you can tell, have UM stayed
Speaker 1: behind to fight, including our own employees. The ones that
Speaker 1: are going out and looking for shelter are mostly women
Speaker 1: and children and elderly UM. So it's harder for them
Speaker 1: to access something like a Google doc because they're not
Speaker 1: typically that used to just to kind of format. So
Speaker 1: what happens is that there's one leader out of three
Speaker 1: or four groups that tells them, Okay, there's this document,
Speaker 1: we can rely on it to find shelter, and that
Speaker 1: person usually leads them to their way. UM. I was
Speaker 1: family recently. They just got with twelve kids in Romanian
Speaker 1: hotel and they send me a picture with them being
Speaker 1: crowded on mattresses. Um. It's it's constant outpouring of of
Speaker 1: of messages like that you yourself grew up under a
Speaker 1: dictatorship in Romania, where now so many Ukrainians are fleeing.
Speaker 1: What are you hearing from family and friends in Romania
Speaker 1: about what that's like seeing all of these people come
Speaker 1: across the border. Ukraine and Romania are quite similar in
Speaker 1: that they've lived under some oppression of some kind from Russia,
Speaker 1: and at the same time there's there are some friendships
Speaker 1: that have formed. I don't thing that anyone feels like
Speaker 1: there's a war between Russia and Ukraine. Um, it's mostly
Speaker 1: that there's a war between Puttin and Ukraine. Um. Everybody
Speaker 1: is at Everybody who's um on the more educated front
Speaker 1: on on Russia feels that, even though they're not allowed
Speaker 1: to talk about it, that this is not a sentiment
Speaker 1: that they share that they should be attacking. And in
Speaker 1: Romania there's this looming fear that is reminiscent of communism,
Speaker 1: of dictatorship um, where everybody was afraid to speak out,
Speaker 1: everybody was in a state of fear um and and
Speaker 1: constantly propaganda played on TV. So it's a it's a
Speaker 1: that's familiar with Well. Grateful for the heart and Sawyer
Speaker 1: putting into this document that is now helping so many
Speaker 1: people in Vandenberg, co founder of Chili Piper, thank you.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we're gonna be talking about software. Page your
Speaker 1: Duty shares soaring after their results. CEO Jennifer Tahatta is
Speaker 1: with us. Next, this is Bloomberg. Pagere Duty is seeing
Speaker 1: a big boost after reporting a better than expected outlook
Speaker 1: for the year, but the stock still struggling. You're to
Speaker 1: date along with the rest of software, joining us now
Speaker 1: to discuss page Duty. CEO Jennifer ta Hatta Jennifer shares
Speaker 1: jumping here. What do you think it's going to drive
Speaker 1: the next year of growth as we come out of
Speaker 1: a pandemic but are facing all of these macro economic headwinds. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for having me, Emily, And first of all,
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of our results. We saw accelerated growth
Speaker 1: in the last year, ending the year growing revenue at
Speaker 1: thirty and we see a lot of momentum coming into
Speaker 1: the new year on the back of really strong performance
Speaker 1: in our enterprise mid market segments with customers spending over
Speaker 1: a million in a r are with US growing sixty
Speaker 1: and customers spending over a u K growing UM. You know,
Speaker 1: the macro is has been really challenging over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years and that continues. If you had asked
Speaker 1: me five years ago did I think I'd be dealing
Speaker 1: with a new crisis almost every quarter as a CEO,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have you know, I would have thought that
Speaker 1: was a crazy question. And now here we are, I
Speaker 1: will say that, UM, in the macro environment, we are
Speaker 1: not seeing a change in what so far as a
Speaker 1: pretty strong buying signal because a lot of our long
Speaker 1: term tail winds are still in play. We see customers
Speaker 1: adopting the cloud, We see DevOps transformation happening all over.
Speaker 1: Digital acceleration in particular still going on. It's not just
Speaker 1: a COVID thing, as as companies realize that the primary
Speaker 1: way they're going to engage with their customers is through
Speaker 1: a digital experience, and increasingly we're seeing inflation and some
Speaker 1: of the broader macro and certainty we can talk about Europe,
Speaker 1: we're seeing that as a potential driver for increased appetite
Speaker 1: in automation, which has been a big part of our platform.
Speaker 1: What are the global trends that stand out to you,
Speaker 1: because in general, it certainly seems like we're seeing a
Speaker 1: reset on big tech, on enterprise software, and I wonder
Speaker 1: if if this is something that's going to continue for
Speaker 1: the foreseeable future, or if we get back to the
Speaker 1: multiples that so many tech investors had gotten used to
Speaker 1: ordainitely seeing some you know normalization. You had some multiples
Speaker 1: that were very very high and hard to rationalize, and
Speaker 1: then you had some companies that were not playing in
Speaker 1: the same range. What I would tell you is every
Speaker 1: company is becoming a software company. That's a reality. So
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think software is going away anytime soon,
Speaker 1: and I do think that investors are going to continue
Speaker 1: to look for, you know, a path to profitability. And
Speaker 1: you know, we were we were chilled to share with
Speaker 1: our our investors this week that we intend to be
Speaker 1: profitable by f y twenty four that you know, we're
Speaker 1: going to continue to gain operating leverage as the company scales,
Speaker 1: and we see that as you know, a way to
Speaker 1: become true durable grower um from from a broader perspective.
Speaker 1: But I think you know, if you look at what's
Speaker 1: going on in the macro, one thing that is certain
Speaker 1: is that the way customers and the way employees work
Speaker 1: has changed. Is a lot more interrupt work, unpredictable, unstructured
Speaker 1: work coming at employees now, and some of the more
Speaker 1: traditional platforms to getting queues, etcetera don't serve that type
Speaker 1: of work very well. Page Your Duty is designed for
Speaker 1: technical crises, to start incidents, and increasingly we're seeing it
Speaker 1: be used for crisis management, which you know is unfortunately
Speaker 1: becoming a really important practice in most companies today. So
Speaker 1: what do you think this will all mean for Page
Speaker 1: Duty stock? I mean, obviously we've seen the stock under
Speaker 1: pressure despite these strong results. What's what's next? Quickly? Well,
Speaker 1: I I you know me, I'm a long game player.
Speaker 1: I have been at the company for six years. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have to carry me out in a box. And
Speaker 1: I actually have a lot of confidence in both the
Speaker 1: team and the company, and we have very sticky customer base,
Speaker 1: you know, or our gross retention has been consistently above
Speaker 1: a dollar. Retention has been above twenty percent. We expect
Speaker 1: to keep that pace going. So I actually think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of upside and growth. And you know, we're
Speaker 1: very focused on our purpose and our mission to revolutionize
Speaker 1: operations and we think this is what modern companies need.
Speaker 1: And you know, frankly, if you look at what's going
Speaker 1: on in the backdrop, that that remains true. So I
Speaker 1: feel good about the direction. Jennifer had a CEO of
Speaker 1: Page Your Duty Always good to have you on the show, Jennifer,
Speaker 1: and thank you for stopping by. Welcome back to Bloomer Technology.
Speaker 1: I'm emily changing in San Francisco well, between inflation and
Speaker 1: rate hikes, the war on Ukraine, the pandemic, the consumer
Speaker 1: landscape has changed dramatically over the last few months and years.
Speaker 1: Here to talk with me about where the consumer is
Speaker 1: going and more. Kirsten Green, founder of four Runner Ventures.
Speaker 1: Kirsten is great to have you back here on the show.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. You've spent to you decades
Speaker 1: focusing on the consumer. Walking through malls in the early
Speaker 1: days of your career as an analyst. I'm curious where
Speaker 1: you think the consumer is going now, facing all of
Speaker 1: these shocks, all of this uncertainty, higher gas prices, What
Speaker 1: does that tell you about where they're going to be
Speaker 1: wanting to spend their money. There's a whole new list
Speaker 1: of things on the macro level that are impacting us today,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about the economy and the last two
Speaker 1: years has been probably the unprecedented time of change and disruption.
Speaker 1: So this consumer has really been through a lot the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, and I think, you know, as
Speaker 1: much as anything we've been, it's been demonstrated that they're resilient.
Speaker 1: People are resilient, consumers are resilient. UM. We definitely have
Speaker 1: had you know, kind of higher savings rate, lower spending
Speaker 1: during this time period and sentiment kind of fluctuating and
Speaker 1: going up and then most recent period down again. So
Speaker 1: here we are back on another leg of the roller coaster.
Speaker 1: And I think that, like you know, as we entered
Speaker 1: this year, UM, I really was looking forward to seeing
Speaker 1: like what are the new norms people are establishing, And
Speaker 1: that's where we're trying to keep our focus on, which
Speaker 1: is out of this period, what is kind of re emerging,
Speaker 1: like it's not going back to where we were before.
Speaker 1: It's obviously not being where we've been for the last
Speaker 1: two years, but it's really thinking about what is the
Speaker 1: future look like and how are people going to be
Speaker 1: impacted by the recent events going forward. Now you throw
Speaker 1: in you throw in a war, you throw an inflation,
Speaker 1: you throw an interest rate increases, and that's just a
Speaker 1: lot of uncertainty, and you're seeing that show up in
Speaker 1: lower consumer sentiment and consumer confidence numbers. So what does
Speaker 1: that mean for the next leg of the roller coaster
Speaker 1: and where you are going to be putting your money
Speaker 1: because your job is to figure out those early bets
Speaker 1: that none of us right don't. So we've been we've
Speaker 1: been investing, and we've been looking at a consumer who
Speaker 1: has been, you know, cautious for the last two year.
Speaker 1: Savings rates have been highered, spending has been lower, They've
Speaker 1: been more particular about what they're buying, when they're buying,
Speaker 1: how they're buying, just like they are with their time.
Speaker 1: I think that continues. If we thought this year was
Speaker 1: going to be the year to re emerge and for
Speaker 1: everything to kind of come back on, I think now
Speaker 1: you've got a whole other host of reasons for people
Speaker 1: to be a bit cautious. That being said, people are
Speaker 1: fully healthy. This is you know, some of that. We're
Speaker 1: we had higher savings rates definitely over the last two
Speaker 1: years than we've had in decades. Um. While peep spending
Speaker 1: has started to take back up, savings rates are still higher.
Speaker 1: The job market is incredibly it's favorable to people looking
Speaker 1: for jobs, so there's kind of a counterbalance to some
Speaker 1: of the things that feel threatening out there. And I
Speaker 1: think you just see people proceeded with caution, but also
Speaker 1: feeling like they want to get out and spend a
Speaker 1: little bit more and get out and do things again.
Speaker 1: What's happening in the venture capital environment? Because there has
Speaker 1: been a ton of money flooding into the ecosystem and
Speaker 1: valuations have been high. I'm hearing that valuations are starting
Speaker 1: to come down given this uncertainty. What are you say
Speaker 1: that that is the hearing. I don't know how many
Speaker 1: people have seen it yet, but I think it seems
Speaker 1: like the practical or the expected thing to have happened,
Speaker 1: you know, I think everybody's life has been different for
Speaker 1: the last two years. We talked about the consumer's life
Speaker 1: being different for the last couple of years, investors have
Speaker 1: been too. I think we we went home on March
Speaker 1: and thought like, we can't do our jobs because it's
Speaker 1: such an in person type of job, and we learned
Speaker 1: how to do that in a remote environment. Last year
Speaker 1: was a record year for investing in the venture ecosystem.
Speaker 1: It was almost more than two x the year before,
Speaker 1: and so it was just like people at work focused
Speaker 1: and just cranking, you know, cranking out making new investments.
Speaker 1: And so I think this year, end of this year,
Speaker 1: and you have a lot of new investments to navigate
Speaker 1: in an uncertain environment, it's a good time to sort
Speaker 1: of take a pause, make sure people are set up
Speaker 1: for success, think about how you are going to set
Speaker 1: priorities for this year. And the changing landscape. UM and
Speaker 1: thing were frothy last year on a lot of levels.
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's never all across the board. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of innovation and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: newness driving opportunity. So but the pause moment does give
Speaker 1: people a chance to kind of reset a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I think that you know, that's probably healthy. It's
Speaker 1: healthy for everybody. It's healthy for the ecosystem in general.
Speaker 1: But it's more of a conversation right now and sort
Speaker 1: of like how do we expect that to play out
Speaker 1: than it is I think actual deal pricing. You've now
Speaker 1: raised over a billion dollars in our last fund, and
Speaker 1: you are celebrating the ten year anniversary of Forrunner Ventures. Yes,
Speaker 1: what if the next ten years going to look like?
Speaker 1: How do you put those hundreds of millions of dollars
Speaker 1: to work? Yeah? I actually, um, you know, I feel
Speaker 1: so invigorated to be entering this next decade with ten
Speaker 1: years of experience working together as a team and still
Speaker 1: being as excited about what we do and as ambitious
Speaker 1: in the face of a tremendous amount of opportunity. So,
Speaker 1: you know, you've been covering the tech industry for two
Speaker 1: a couple of decades. I've been investing in it, but
Speaker 1: in so many ways like it is out of place
Speaker 1: now where it is ubiquitous, it is part of not
Speaker 1: just business but people's lives, and we're really seeing a
Speaker 1: lot of more useful cases for it and really shaping
Speaker 1: people's lives in different ways. I think there's been this
Speaker 1: happened because of because of technology, because of connectivity UM,
Speaker 1: and it was sort of catapulted forward, I think in
Speaker 1: the face of the pandemic, which is this idea of
Speaker 1: like I want to do, I want to be more
Speaker 1: self reliant, I want to take more things into my
Speaker 1: own hands. UM, maybe I want more flexibility in my life.
Speaker 1: So people are changing their career paths, or they're changing
Speaker 1: how they make money or how they seek opportunity, and
Speaker 1: that is feeling like a whole new landscape of potential
Speaker 1: across the board and UM and that's also shifting how
Speaker 1: people are spending money. So I think there's just a
Speaker 1: lot of opportunity happening. I think there's more conversation about sustainability,
Speaker 1: about kind of like how to do good in business
Speaker 1: for the future. There's obviously a lot of conversation about
Speaker 1: Web three or crypto and how that's going to influence things.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, our team feels definitely like
Speaker 1: we're entering this year executing into a tremendous amount of
Speaker 1: opportunity and change. What are you most excited about when
Speaker 1: it comes to crypto and web A lot of people
Speaker 1: still don't understand it. Yeah, I mean, I you know,
Speaker 1: I think we're all on a really steep learning curve.
Speaker 1: Um we have made some early investments. I think the
Speaker 1: area where we're focusing the most on is how do
Speaker 1: we think about making it something that's more approachable and
Speaker 1: more kind of you know, practical to people and to business,
Speaker 1: so that it's not just a kind of a subsector
Speaker 1: of the economy. It's like, Okay, it's a new it's
Speaker 1: a new protocol, it's a new way of doing things.
Speaker 1: It will allow different kinds of access. How do we
Speaker 1: think about leveraging that in the context of what we're
Speaker 1: already doing. So does it you know, does it make
Speaker 1: business transactions easier? Does it change kind of some of
Speaker 1: the goods you buy? Does it change how you interact
Speaker 1: in some ways? And so really thinking about how do
Speaker 1: you make that an approachable experience? Now, one thing that
Speaker 1: is not changing fast enough is the representation of women
Speaker 1: in the tech industry. And the latest now here is
Speaker 1: this two percent that keeps getting thrown. Around two percent
Speaker 1: of venture capital funding last year went to women only teams.
Speaker 1: It's like when you look at mixed gender teams, but
Speaker 1: that still means more than of venture capital is going
Speaker 1: to only mail entrepreneurs. Something, isn't it? Changing faster what's
Speaker 1: going It's incredibly disappointing and frustrating, particularly because that is
Speaker 1: a downtick from the year before, and that's just unacceptable
Speaker 1: on all kinds of levels. I do think on the
Speaker 1: positive side, you have twelve percent of women, UM, twelve
Speaker 1: percent of partners at adventure firms are are women. That's
Speaker 1: up from two percent a few years ago. Women led
Speaker 1: firms raised seven billion dollars last year. That's up substantially
Speaker 1: from any year in the past. UM. And you know, I,
Speaker 1: I sincerely hope and believe that like that changing landscape
Speaker 1: is going to flow through to a more diverse group
Speaker 1: of founders being funded. And I don't want to get
Speaker 1: hung up on one year as a trend or as
Speaker 1: we can't accept that, right and so I, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm last year, let's call it an anomaly, and this year,
Speaker 1: let's say that the inputs are going to drive better output,
Speaker 1: because it is so obvious and clear when you look
Speaker 1: at results that multi gendered, multi ethnic teams are better
Speaker 1: company cultures. And after having invested in a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty plus companies private companies over the last decade, we
Speaker 1: could definitely say that one of the biggest indicators, if
Speaker 1: not the biggest indicator of between a company that does
Speaker 1: well versus a company that does really well, is the
Speaker 1: culture that they built. Yes, it's the ability to get
Speaker 1: the right people engaged and to give them the right
Speaker 1: opportunity to flourish and do their best work. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to take a little dose of your optimism
Speaker 1: and hope that you're right that things will get better.
Speaker 1: Kirsten Green, founder for Runner Venture. Is always good to
Speaker 1: have you here. It's good to see you in person.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me, for joining us. All right,
Speaker 1: coming up, talking about crypto, women in crypto. What block
Speaker 1: five's latest survey tells us about the role of women
Speaker 1: in the ever expanding blockchain ecosystem. They want a piece
Speaker 1: of that pie. We're going to talk to Flory Marquez,
Speaker 1: co founder of block Fi. Next, this is Bloomberg Bitcoin
Speaker 1: fluctuating after the FED signal, additional tightening and increasing interest
Speaker 1: rates making risk assets potentially less attractive to investors. Let's
Speaker 1: dive deeper into this with our crypto contributor Sinali Bossi Shinale.
Speaker 1: How much will that deter potential investors given that some
Speaker 1: people don't think of digital assets as a risk at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think to have this conversation, we really need to
Speaker 1: take a long term view here, Emily, we have to
Speaker 1: look at bitcoin over the last five years, because if
Speaker 1: you bought bitcoin in the last year, yes, you had
Speaker 1: a lot of volatility, but five years ago you've made many,
Speaker 1: many times your money. And you know, we're trading just
Speaker 1: over forty thousand. Now, just back in ten we were
Speaker 1: trading at like fourteen thousands, so you well more than
Speaker 1: doubled your money. The reason you have to bring this
Speaker 1: up also is in the context of you know, if
Speaker 1: you buy stocks or if you buy a house, the
Speaker 1: idea is to build your wealth over time. Let's look
Speaker 1: at the theory um, also a smaller by market cap
Speaker 1: than bitcoin, but even ethereum also yes, volatile in the
Speaker 1: near term, yes, down from its peak, but much much
Speaker 1: higher than if you bought it five years ago. So
Speaker 1: the question still remains, where does it go five years
Speaker 1: from now? Does it hit that five hundred thousand mark
Speaker 1: that Mike Novergrats is talking about, or does it just
Speaker 1: get a little higher than forty thousand. But either way
Speaker 1: you can see how people think the long term can
Speaker 1: be a good investment. All right, well, let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about where women think the curve is going.
Speaker 1: Shall I hang on? Joining us now at Block five.
Speaker 1: Co founder A Floory Marquez, also senior vice president of operations,
Speaker 1: out with a new report on women and crypto and
Speaker 1: Floory the big concern is that women are going to
Speaker 1: be left behind in another big revolution, that crypto and
Speaker 1: crypto companies are already very male dominated. What is the
Speaker 1: data telling you about the representation of women in crypto? I,
Speaker 1: Emily and Shannali, it's great to see both again, and uh,
Speaker 1: I am very very focused on making sure that while
Speaker 1: we are we are in the early stages of developing
Speaker 1: the technology behind crypto, we are paying attention to the
Speaker 1: demographics and inclusion. So apt blocked five we ran a
Speaker 1: survey where we asked a thousand individuals who identify as
Speaker 1: women what they think about crypto, and what we learned
Speaker 1: was very interesting, which is of women had heard of crypto,
Speaker 1: and one in four actually slightly higher than the statistics
Speaker 1: we saw from the Biden administration actually own crypto. And
Speaker 1: I think it's very important to look at the trend line.
Speaker 1: So the statistics are not where I would like to
Speaker 1: see them today. But we actually ran a survey six
Speaker 1: months ago and today to track how how women how
Speaker 1: many women knew to buy crypto? Did they know where
Speaker 1: to purchase crypto for the first time, And in the
Speaker 1: last six months that number has doubled to nearly forty
Speaker 1: percent of women. So it definitely the statistics are not
Speaker 1: where I'd like to see them today, but we are
Speaker 1: trending in the right direction, and I think there's so
Speaker 1: much more that we have to do to make sure
Speaker 1: that we're hitting an inclusion. Now. The majority of that
Speaker 1: women you talked to, I noticed are hoddlers. They they're
Speaker 1: they're planning to hang on. And I'm curious, do you
Speaker 1: think that crypto could be the great equalizer that some
Speaker 1: are heralding? It could be. I think it definitely has
Speaker 1: some promising aspects to it. So Shinali was just talking
Speaker 1: about the five year returns in crypto, and so I
Speaker 1: think that what we see with women and investors in
Speaker 1: general is that people who buy crypto do believe in
Speaker 1: its long term value. So the majority of women that
Speaker 1: we interviewed actually are buying and holding onto those investments,
Speaker 1: believing in the long term of turns and in terms
Speaker 1: of equalizing access to digital assets. I think this comes
Speaker 1: into play in two ways. One is there this is
Speaker 1: a brand new technology, no one's an expert, and so
Speaker 1: what that means is that we're all on the ground floor,
Speaker 1: and so we have a chance to bring inclusivity in
Speaker 1: from the ground up, and I do think that lower
Speaker 1: some barriers. The second aspect is just the fact that
Speaker 1: crypto is allows financial access on a global scale. For
Speaker 1: the first time in history. You can access US grade
Speaker 1: financial asset assets from overseas instantly on your phone, and
Speaker 1: that's extremely exciting. Flora, you came from a more traditional
Speaker 1: finance background, fintech and then private asset manager. So how
Speaker 1: this is a common critique that women don't manage risk
Speaker 1: the same way, they don't think about risk the same
Speaker 1: way as men. You know, that's constantly what we hear.
Speaker 1: So how then in crypto, one of the riskiest asset classes,
Speaker 1: do women start to think about risk, get comfortable taking
Speaker 1: it on, and also not just go with the assumption
Speaker 1: of things go straight up but could also hit some
Speaker 1: roadbumps along the way. I think that one of the
Speaker 1: interesting things that we found in our survey is that
Speaker 1: the majority of women. So about of women make financial
Speaker 1: investment decisions off of conversations with friends and family. So
Speaker 1: if you think about inclusivity from a structural perspective, if
Speaker 1: you have a demographic that historically has been excluded from
Speaker 1: the financial system and everyone's learning about their financial decisions
Speaker 1: from their communities, um, that's going to perpetuate exclusivity. And
Speaker 1: so the number one thing that we can do right
Speaker 1: now as women working in crypto is to talk about
Speaker 1: the statistics and perpetuate education to our communities and our peers,
Speaker 1: because I believe that for every single individual that I
Speaker 1: can convert into the space for the first time, we
Speaker 1: can bring that knowledge back to our communities and make
Speaker 1: an exponential change on who gets to play in this space.
Speaker 1: And beyond the people who are investing in crypto, can
Speaker 1: you speak to the companies themselves when you look around
Speaker 1: at these giant investment firms that have really done well
Speaker 1: over the last five years, do they have enough women
Speaker 1: at the top and are their skills that women should
Speaker 1: be presenting on the forefront and get themselves in those
Speaker 1: top roles at this time. So Creston that you just
Speaker 1: head On was talking about increasing representation, especially when you
Speaker 1: look at partners in vcs, and I do think that
Speaker 1: having women in leadership positions will perpetuate more inclusivity in
Speaker 1: the crypto space over time. And I think one thing
Speaker 1: that's really interesting about the crypto space that many people
Speaker 1: might not know is that you actually don't need crypto
Speaker 1: experience to move into the space. What we're looking for
Speaker 1: is people with traditional experience to come into Block five,
Speaker 1: for example, and bring their traditional experience into the space
Speaker 1: for the first time. We will teach you about crypto.
Speaker 1: And so I'm hoping that if there are women out
Speaker 1: there on the sidelines hoping to break into the space
Speaker 1: for the first time, that they can see me, hear me.
Speaker 1: And here you know, we have a hundred jobs posted online.
Speaker 1: There are many crypto companies out there hiring. You should
Speaker 1: definitely look at making the jump. How would you describe
Speaker 1: your own journey to this space and your experience rising
Speaker 1: up within this industry that, by many accounts has been
Speaker 1: so male dominated, even if it hopefully won't be so
Speaker 1: male dominated in the future. I think my experience is
Speaker 1: definitely um biased by the people around me, and I
Speaker 1: think what's so important about making a jump in any
Speaker 1: industry is making sure that you're surrounded by a team
Speaker 1: that lifts you up. And so I think what's so
Speaker 1: important in any interview process as you're looking at companies,
Speaker 1: as in those conversations, are you talking to people who
Speaker 1: can be your peer and who can propel you forward? UM.
Speaker 1: I think one thing that's really beautiful about the crypto
Speaker 1: industry is that because we're in the early stages, there's
Speaker 1: so much innovation to be had. And so my experience
Speaker 1: in traditional finance with some times that um, we were
Speaker 1: in a crowded room and there's a lot of sharp
Speaker 1: elbows to compete for new ideas. In crypto, everything's a
Speaker 1: new idea, and so there's a lot more camaraderie and
Speaker 1: support in terms of being able to propel your own
Speaker 1: career forward faster. Floory Marquez Block five co founder along
Speaker 1: with our own Shinneli Bassik, thank you both for the
Speaker 1: first time a live virtual broadcast of an NBA game.
Speaker 1: It was a peek into the future of what the
Speaker 1: metaverse and sports could look like. An executive Disney calling
Speaker 1: it a video game come to life. That's how many
Speaker 1: viewers felt as well. For more, I want to bring
Speaker 1: in a Bloomberg's Mark German, So some people thought this
Speaker 1: was a slam dunk, others did not. Mark. What was
Speaker 1: your take, Well, first of all, I'm glad to be
Speaker 1: on here, Emily talking to you about the NBA and
Speaker 1: it is not a Lakers game. I you know, I
Speaker 1: pledged to no longer watch Lakers games this season because
Speaker 1: they're doing so terribly. It was the Nets Mavericks game,
Speaker 1: two great teams. I thought it looked like a video game,
Speaker 1: like you said, straight out of NBA Live or NBA
Speaker 1: two k it, but it really didn't look so great.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what the advantages for consumers. I think
Speaker 1: it looks like a gimmick. I think it looks like
Speaker 1: something you would play with the video game. That's when
Speaker 1: you want to see it. When you're watching a game
Speaker 1: on TV, you want to see it completely in real life.
Speaker 1: So I don't think this presents any benefits. Now, if
Speaker 1: you watch t NT through their Apple TV app or
Speaker 1: some of their TV stations, what you can actually get
Speaker 1: is you can watch the game live view, not through VR,
Speaker 1: with multiple angles. And I think that's really what the
Speaker 1: future of watching sports is, being able to see four
Speaker 1: or five different angles. Simultaneously versus watching it through VR.
Speaker 1: Now we have companies that are approaching this apple. For instance,
Speaker 1: Spot a company two years ago called next VR, and
Speaker 1: they develop technology that does just this what you're seeing
Speaker 1: right now from ESPN. With that nets Mavericks Games. So
Speaker 1: it's clearly a direction that some companies are heading. I
Speaker 1: don't see the benefit though. This was a partnership between ESPN, Disney, NBA,
Speaker 1: Canon as I understand, it's six separate feeds. I guess
Speaker 1: you know. The question is how could some of this
Speaker 1: technology spice up the future of of of the game experience.
Speaker 1: I mean, I agree I want to see players playing
Speaker 1: in real life, but is there something here that could
Speaker 1: make it cool? I think the future of live sports
Speaker 1: is probably augmented reality right where you're wearing a R
Speaker 1: glasses or your normal glasses of a R features to
Speaker 1: a game right and you're able to see stats or
Speaker 1: other information while watching the game right. Some TV networks
Speaker 1: have a feature now where on top of the players,
Speaker 1: you'll get a little overlay that tells them what percentage
Speaker 1: based on past history, is it like it? They'll make
Speaker 1: the shot based on where they are standing with the
Speaker 1: ball at that particular or second right. So I think
Speaker 1: that is where you're getting real helpful in formation in
Speaker 1: an A R or VR sense in terms of actually
Speaker 1: watching this content in virtual reality. It looks cool, but
Speaker 1: clearly there's some work to be done on the cameras,
Speaker 1: on the angles and such. People are pointing out that
Speaker 1: it really doesn't look so great. Books chopped up. It
Speaker 1: looks like players running into each other when they're not
Speaker 1: so it's not looking so hot. Maybe in a couple
Speaker 1: of years of the technology advances, it will look better,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure why anyone want to substitute real
Speaker 1: life for virtual reality, especially in sports. Mark German, thank
Speaker 1: you fun to talk about the NBA, even if it's
Speaker 1: not the Lakers. Always appreciate you taking the time to
Speaker 1: join us. That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow we're gona have Colleen McQuary of a Credit Carma
Speaker 1: talking about the gender pay gap. Also, please re listen
Speaker 1: to our show on the new Bloomberg Technology podcast. Download
Speaker 1: it for when you're on the go. It is great.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg