Speaker 1: I'm Caroline Hyde of Rumberg's World headquarters in New York,
Speaker 1: and I made Lovelow in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Technology coming up a deep dive into the world of evs.
Speaker 1: We break down Rivian's earnings and we push your head
Speaker 1: to Tesla's and yesterday class. We'll speak to the CFO
Speaker 1: of Zoom as the pandemic, Darling rallies on a strong
Speaker 1: earnings forecast, and Bain Ventures it's raising nearly two billion
Speaker 1: dollars in two new venture funds targeting startups of all sizes.
Speaker 1: We sit down exclusively with Matt Harris, Bain Ventures partner
Speaker 1: for more. But before we go into the private side
Speaker 1: of the market, let's talk so much more about the
Speaker 1: world of earnings we've done Rivian. Let's push your head
Speaker 1: to what was really on the move today in trading,
Speaker 1: and it was Zoom. You must have seen it, of
Speaker 1: course after the bell yesterday released its fourth quarter earnings
Speaker 1: and they be shares rallied therefore as they reported better
Speaker 1: than expected results, in particular a strong outlook for adjusted earnings.
Speaker 1: Let's bring in the CFO, Kelly seckelberb for more. Kelly
Speaker 1: always great to have you on the show. Just tell
Speaker 1: us about the focus on profitability this new environment, how
Speaker 1: are you able to boost them so swiftly? Yeah, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. So, we are always focusing on opportunities
Speaker 1: to drive top line growth, but we want to be
Speaker 1: very thoughtful about our investments, and in Q four we
Speaker 1: took a very concerted effort of looking at our expenses
Speaker 1: in that period and being very thoughtful about prioritizing how
Speaker 1: we were spending those dollars. And then, unfortunately, we announced
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago that we were doing a reduction
Speaker 1: and that that would comprise about fifteen percent of our workforce,
Speaker 1: which some of that has already been impacted here in
Speaker 1: the United States, and then the rest of it will
Speaker 1: happen over time. And what that does is it sets
Speaker 1: us up very nicely for profitability for FY twenty four,
Speaker 1: which is what we gave guidance on yesterday, and we
Speaker 1: guided to profitability for the full year of FY twenty
Speaker 1: four of around thirty six percent, which was about twenty
Speaker 1: percent ahead of where consensus was. And we will certainly
Speaker 1: keep our eye on you making that profitability, but also
Speaker 1: looking for opportunities to reinvest if there are areas to
Speaker 1: innovate for our opportunities to add capacity in our sales organizations.
Speaker 1: So tell us why that innovation, why that investment comes from.
Speaker 1: Because I'm looking at Pipisona the analyst there, you say, look,
Speaker 1: you need to look beyond meetings and invest fast. You're
Speaker 1: already doing it in AI. Where else are you looking?
Speaker 1: So we are really excited about the continued growth of
Speaker 1: our platform. We certainly have already moved beyond meetings. We
Speaker 1: have Zoom Phone, which is our cloud PBF solution, and
Speaker 1: we announced on the call yesterday we've sold over five
Speaker 1: and a half million seats of that product, so really
Speaker 1: excited there. We also have Zoom Contact Center, which is
Speaker 1: also our natively built cloud based contact center, is our
Speaker 1: largest call, our largest customer to date on that platform yesterday.
Speaker 1: And then we have Zoom Mikeeper sales. And I should
Speaker 1: mention that both Zoom Contact Center and Zoomkeeper Sales are
Speaker 1: highly leveraging AI in their solutions to bring intelligent answers
Speaker 1: to our customers and our prospects. Kelly JP Morgan Similarly,
Speaker 1: you know they're talking about the new products when those
Speaker 1: gain traction balancing against execution risk, but they also want
Speaker 1: to know about when the macro picture improves and helps
Speaker 1: your top line is the CFO, what are you seeing
Speaker 1: in your end markets? What are you hearing about the
Speaker 1: health of your customers and the global economy right now? Yeah,
Speaker 1: certainly the economy has been a headwind for us on
Speaker 1: a global basis. We are facing currency pressures just like
Speaker 1: everyone else is as well as you know, customers just
Speaker 1: being very thoughtful about every dollar that they're investing, and
Speaker 1: that was lesilting in elongate sales cycles and more deal scrutiny. However,
Speaker 1: you know, a Zoom is very well positioned even in
Speaker 1: this market because we are highly priced competitive, and what
Speaker 1: we offer is the opportunity for our customers to consolidate
Speaker 1: more on this platform that they already know and love,
Speaker 1: and the change management is easy if they already deployed
Speaker 1: the Zoom client. And so what we see is that
Speaker 1: we have an opportunity to really bring more value to
Speaker 1: our customers and potentially upsell them even in an environment
Speaker 1: where they might be looking for cost savings themselves. Kelly,
Speaker 1: Zoom went there just like every other technology company. This week,
Speaker 1: Artificial intelligence took us through the strategy behind AI. Are
Speaker 1: you acting a bit opportunistically talking about AI this week. No,
Speaker 1: so AI is not new to the Zoom platform. We
Speaker 1: have had aspects of AI embedded in our solution for
Speaker 1: a very long time. We have things like transcription, so
Speaker 1: if you record a Zoom meeting, you can get an
Speaker 1: automated transcription, you know result after that. We also have translation,
Speaker 1: which is very valuable when you're working with multinationals. And
Speaker 1: then we do have some new products that we're announced
Speaker 1: in Q four. We have Zoom Virtual Agent, which is
Speaker 1: part of our contact center solution. It's our conversational AI
Speaker 1: solution that was accelerated by our acquisition of Salving, which
Speaker 1: was done a few quarters ago. We also have Zoom
Speaker 1: Iq for Sales, which uses AI to analyze meetings and
Speaker 1: help make them as effective as possible. So we have
Speaker 1: been leveraging AI. What I think you've heard of a
Speaker 1: call yesterday is Eric is really excited about continuing to
Speaker 1: do more and partnering with open AI. But it's not
Speaker 1: new for us Catty anything new in terms of acquisitions planned,
Speaker 1: So we are always looking for opportunities. You know. In
Speaker 1: the call yesterday, we highlighted a few areas that you
Speaker 1: could see potential growth from US in FY twenty four.
Speaker 1: That includes continued expansion of the platform, so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, expanding into products, extending our products. What we've
Speaker 1: done to date has been acquisitions that have accelerated our development.
Speaker 1: We also talked about departmental applications, which I think lend
Speaker 1: themselves nicely to potential acquisitions. So we're constantly looking for
Speaker 1: those opportunities, and you know, it's a big part of
Speaker 1: how we think about our growth strategy and our capital
Speaker 1: allocation strategy as well. Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for your time. Zoom shares closing up a
Speaker 1: little more than one percent following that court's earnings. Tesla
Speaker 1: has just announced a new plant in northern Mexico. It's
Speaker 1: it's fifth factory so far, but it's first south of
Speaker 1: the US border. This as the electric vehicle makers trying
Speaker 1: to beef up its capacity, which already stands at one
Speaker 1: point nine million cars per year. It's also as Mexico
Speaker 1: in particular is lorn in more EV makers, the likes
Speaker 1: of BMWGM announcing investments recently. It's already a real hub
Speaker 1: for the making of combustion engines. It's a success for
Speaker 1: the President of Mexico Amlo, although his exact wish for
Speaker 1: the plant had been to be built in a southern
Speaker 1: state of Mexico, which is more economics and deprived, although
Speaker 1: he did manage to ring out some significant environmental commitments
Speaker 1: from Elon Musk, in particular the use of reusable water
Speaker 1: throughout the manufacturing process, because water is scarce in that
Speaker 1: part of the country and water is very heavily needed
Speaker 1: in the manufacturing of vehicles. And they're painting. Now, let's
Speaker 1: get on for time for talking tech, and we're going
Speaker 1: to start with Uber, which wrapped up at one point
Speaker 1: seven five billion dollars leverage loansale on Tuesday, becoming one
Speaker 1: of the latest companies to tap into demand four riskier debt.
Speaker 1: It will use proceeds from the seven year offering to
Speaker 1: refinance loans that mature in twenty twenty five s according
Speaker 1: to a person with knowledge of the matter. Meanwhile, Dish
Speaker 1: says some of its data has been stolen in a
Speaker 1: recent ransomware attack, including potentially personal information. The announcement sent
Speaker 1: shares slumping to their lowest level and more than a
Speaker 1: decade since. Of course, Table two thousand and nine in fact,
Speaker 1: that's while dish, sling, whiless and data networks remain operational.
Speaker 1: The company says in a filing that its internal communications
Speaker 1: customer call centers, internet sites they have been affected, and
Speaker 1: Apple supplies rushing to move production out of China far
Speaker 1: faster than observers anticipation. That's according to one of Apple's
Speaker 1: most important partners, Airport's maker, go a Tech, is one
Speaker 1: of many manufacturers actually exploring locations beyond its native China.
Speaker 1: It's trying to avoid fallout from escalating tensions between Washington
Speaker 1: and Beijing and ed. This is why I think it's
Speaker 1: really interesting because we know the expanding issues between the
Speaker 1: US between China. They began with the trade war, but
Speaker 1: it's really ramped up according of course, not only around
Speaker 1: the world of technology, but also chips and look, it's
Speaker 1: spurring the rethink of electronics industries that have had decades
Speaker 1: all supply chain. We went, of course to our audience,
Speaker 1: didn't We ask mickey question, Yeah, whether or not China
Speaker 1: needs to take backseat when it comes to supply chain?
Speaker 1: Should there be a shift? Eighty two percent of respondent
Speaker 1: saying yes, need to diversify. What's so interesting for me
Speaker 1: Kara is how quickly this is pivoted to the long
Speaker 1: term story. Remember, in the short term this was all
Speaker 1: about COVID and the disruption in Jong Joe and de
Speaker 1: risking from COVID. Now it's political, And isn't it interesting
Speaker 1: that we've sort of come off that discussion about Tesla
Speaker 1: trying to put another manufacturing unit in Mexico. So many
Speaker 1: people trying to enshore that little bit and make sure
Speaker 1: that it's a little bit closer to home. And we
Speaker 1: see perhaps in many ways the cost identification with China
Speaker 1: all used to be about the bottom line, and in
Speaker 1: an era where we are talking about companies having to
Speaker 1: think about profitability, they also have to think about the
Speaker 1: anxiety the geopolitics that they become consumed with. Yeah, now
Speaker 1: de risking and there's opportunity for emerging markets like India
Speaker 1: and Vietnam to take some of that supply chain. We'll
Speaker 1: keep tracking that now. Coming up, Luminar Technologies Wow, light
Speaker 1: oar maker one to watch exclusive partnership with Scale AI
Speaker 1: for its Luminar AI engine. Another piece they I use.
Speaker 1: We'll discuss next with CEO Austin Russell. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: LDAR Technology manufacturer Luminar is partnering exclusively with Scale AI
Speaker 1: for its Luminar AI engine. The company announced the partnership
Speaker 1: at its Luminar Day event and Investor Day, and says
Speaker 1: Scales technology will now be available exclusively to Luminar and
Speaker 1: no longer accessible to other lidar rivals. Joining us now
Speaker 1: is Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell. Austin, of course,
Speaker 1: you also gave us some financial guidance for this year.
Speaker 1: But let's start with that relationship. Why is an AI
Speaker 1: partnership relevant for a lidar maker light Luminar. I think
Speaker 1: we have some technological issues, as is sometimes the case.
Speaker 1: Ed Hey, yeah, I mean, look, we're still dealing in
Speaker 1: this world where we're going via zoom and we're training
Speaker 1: people remote. Look, it's interesting, right, think about the parallels
Speaker 1: between Luminar and maker of lidars and Tesla. Tesla uses
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence to basically train its system to detect the
Speaker 1: world around it. Tesla system does not use lidar, It
Speaker 1: uses camera only based inputs. Luminar is partnering with all
Speaker 1: kinds of automakers Mercedes Volvo because they think that actually
Speaker 1: lidar is the best input when it comes to autonomous driving,
Speaker 1: and it is interesting ultimately how many relationships they're forging
Speaker 1: with other autos. I mean, you saw the share move
Speaker 1: on the upside because of an interview you'd done with
Speaker 1: the Mercedes CEO as well. Yeah, so I was at
Speaker 1: Mercedes R and D Center in Sunnyvale last week. One
Speaker 1: of the announcements was that Luminar is going to be
Speaker 1: providing the lidar hardware which goes into their drive pilot system,
Speaker 1: part of their sort of level three autonomous system. Not
Speaker 1: yet available in US apart from Nevada, but a great
Speaker 1: deal for them. And as you said, the shares really jumped.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the US from them, and let's talk
Speaker 1: about regulation in the US. Said, while we get, of course,
Speaker 1: our Luminarile conversation back on track. Many have been discussing
Speaker 1: regulation of technology, big tech in the US. I've been
Speaker 1: talking about m and a overside hot topic across many,
Speaker 1: including founders who are considering, you know, where they should
Speaker 1: grow their startups. Is this country the best for culturing
Speaker 1: innovation now? I spoke with Romemo abbe is, founder of
Speaker 1: fintech ISSUSU about his focus on scaling that business and if,
Speaker 1: as an immigrant from the slums of Lagos in Nigeria,
Speaker 1: whether the US remains the best place to do just that.
Speaker 1: Take listen. It's always about this idea of giving people
Speaker 1: a fighting chance, because no one wants an hand out.
Speaker 1: We all just want a chance to show what capable
Speaker 1: of when this country. Sometimes that's fat fetched, and that's
Speaker 1: what gets us up at night. I don't get excited
Speaker 1: by thee and thirty million ore and forty five million
Speaker 1: dollars with racis and issuss inception. I don't get excited
Speaker 1: by the facts that we grew by three per last year.
Speaker 1: I get excited and in my all end score every month,
Speaker 1: we talk about the facts that look, someone just picked
Speaker 1: up the keys study at home because we helped them
Speaker 1: establish all beauty our credit scores. Someone just kept We
Speaker 1: just kept the roof over tens of thousands of people's heads,
Speaker 1: and they when I evicted during the pandemic, there was
Speaker 1: a gentleman called Scott Folk in New York City goes
Speaker 1: on the brink of eviction. A plumber lost his job
Speaker 1: because there's nothing to do. During COVID reached out to
Speaker 1: us hopeless because you heard us on local News. We
Speaker 1: called Scotts and paid for three months of his rent.
Speaker 1: Two months later, Scotts called us my co founder, and
Speaker 1: I see me away crying because Scott said, I don't
Speaker 1: know what would have happened to me, but you gave
Speaker 1: me an opportunity, and I have a job that's paying
Speaker 1: me over on jo and twenty thousand dollars. Wow, that's
Speaker 1: what America is all about. America gives you that chance.
Speaker 1: But I'm starting to talk to normal people about the
Speaker 1: worry that certain right relations, certain ways in which M
Speaker 1: and A is being pushed back on certain let's even
Speaker 1: say in the world of crypto, Yes, it needs to
Speaker 1: have rules of the road, but it's happening inforcement is
Speaker 1: the new regulation. Is there a worry that people are
Speaker 1: not going to see the US as that I think
Speaker 1: there's strength and numbers and their strength and our diversity.
Speaker 1: This country just attracts the story this country tells to
Speaker 1: the world of this idea of creating a more perfect union,
Speaker 1: this idea that if you walk I played by the rules,
Speaker 1: that you can get at it. But that's not true
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. It's not true for the
Speaker 1: African American communities that have built this country. But still
Speaker 1: today the average white family has ten times as much
Speaker 1: wealth than the average black family. It's not true for
Speaker 1: the Latinos. They have twelve times less worth than the
Speaker 1: average white family. So when we think about what's going on,
Speaker 1: what I encourage us to do, and that's what we
Speaker 1: did at issue. So from a pedigree standpoint is we
Speaker 1: went to policy makers and say, look, but we we are doing.
Speaker 1: The only thing we're going to plead initially is to
Speaker 1: plead their for credic role. Do no hand when we
Speaker 1: report rental data at the SUS, so well report no
Speaker 1: negative data. So as you're thinking about innovative ideas, don't
Speaker 1: wait for the SEC to struck down your innovative idea.
Speaker 1: Don't wait for Congress, you know to say things I'm working.
Speaker 1: Don't wait for the FTC to say this M and
Speaker 1: A won't work right, Be proactive and just say look,
Speaker 1: these are some of the ideas we have, These are
Speaker 1: the pieces we have in mind, and this is how
Speaker 1: it's a creative to this country. At the SUSI were
Speaker 1: very very clear if people establish their credit scores, they
Speaker 1: are forty five million people in this country. They don't
Speaker 1: have a credit score or have a thing for our
Speaker 1: The average debts in America is over ninety two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: If you do that math and unlock the capital and
Speaker 1: people can get access to don in two thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: you can unlock close to four trillion dollars in capital.
Speaker 1: That's not only good for the us GDP, right, it's
Speaker 1: good for you know, the policy makers were by their
Speaker 1: constituents who would also have the opportunity to build wealth
Speaker 1: and will probably vote for them again. So we got
Speaker 1: to go back to what I call the bad A
Speaker 1: Kien days Eugene Bader policy. One on one, if you
Speaker 1: want to make sure things work, you got to get
Speaker 1: a village to get on boarded with it. It's not
Speaker 1: the wild wild West. You don't build it and break
Speaker 1: things and come back and ask for forgiveness. You go
Speaker 1: to policy makers and say I'm interested in pleading April
Speaker 1: credic rule and we're going to do no m to
Speaker 1: the best of my abilities and control for that and
Speaker 1: be just as capitalist and say we're going to do good,
Speaker 1: make money and we all win. I cannot tell you
Speaker 1: how inspiring that conversation was with the usu COO CEO
Speaker 1: Bromemo Abbe, who's speaking at a Cornell Bloomberg technology event
Speaker 1: last week. Welcome actively med Technology. I'm Caroline hard in
Speaker 1: New York and Love in San Francisco. Now, Bain Capital
Speaker 1: Ventures CARA raised nearly two billion dollars across two new
Speaker 1: venture funds targeting startups of all sizes across technology and software,
Speaker 1: including fintech, infrastructure, apps and commerce tech. And I'm delighted
Speaker 1: to say joining us now for an exclusive interview is
Speaker 1: Baying Capital Ventures partner Matt Harris. It's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: It's a record for the firm. I think I'm right
Speaker 1: in saying should we be surprised at the timing of
Speaker 1: an announcement of two new funds to this scale, We'll
Speaker 1: also we're gratified by it so well. It's a nice
Speaker 1: vote of confidence from our investors and some new investors
Speaker 1: who joined us, and I think it should be a boost,
Speaker 1: frankly for the ecosystem. I think there is not, in
Speaker 1: my view, or retreat from technology investing. I think technology
Speaker 1: is moving very quickly, and I think what we found
Speaker 1: is that investors are still very interested and this may
Speaker 1: be in fact that buying opportunity versus anything else. There's
Speaker 1: a wide remit. So it's all stages early through growth.
Speaker 1: You know software broadly, but you're really more focused on
Speaker 1: the end markets. What's the thesis behind that strategy? Sure,
Speaker 1: well the thesis is broadley B to B, so I'll
Speaker 1: start there, Okay, you know, that's what we think we're
Speaker 1: best at. Where bank capital we manage one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty billion dollars, We have ownership positions and hundreds of
Speaker 1: multibillion dollar companies, and so what we bring it to
Speaker 1: the table often is those first B to B customers
Speaker 1: and that can range across commerce, financial services, application software
Speaker 1: and infrastructure software. And then in terms of stage, you know,
Speaker 1: we build our expertise in these domains and that allows
Speaker 1: us to range widely in terms of from seed straight
Speaker 1: through to the later stages of venture. What's so fascinating,
Speaker 1: course is your own background, and in particular you've got
Speaker 1: a background in fintech. I'm looking at some portfolios and
Speaker 1: then thinking go Cardless is definitely one that used to
Speaker 1: report on back in the UK. What was notable in
Speaker 1: your statement was how people have recently been questioning due
Speaker 1: diligence being done on some companies and the ability to
Speaker 1: really help your portfolio companies. Is that a slight dig
Speaker 1: of what's been occurring largely in the world of crypto.
Speaker 1: I think of the FTX fallout. I know that you
Speaker 1: have exposure previous funds to TCG. How are you thinking
Speaker 1: about really doing the diligence long companies in this new world,
Speaker 1: this new environment. I don't think there's anything new about
Speaker 1: the way we do due diligence now. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: being capital as a long legacy, I would say of
Speaker 1: being very careful, very analytical, and we didn't change anything
Speaker 1: about that. I think this market environment is better for us.
Speaker 1: We can do more due diligence in the way that
Speaker 1: we've always been accustomed to, because we have more time
Speaker 1: to make deals, more time to get to know founders.
Speaker 1: What was disorienting about twenty twenty one was frankly, how
Speaker 1: quickly everyone had to move, and that didn't play to
Speaker 1: our strengths. You know, we are known for taking our
Speaker 1: time and doing our work, and so this market environment
Speaker 1: is frankly much more comfortable for us in our style
Speaker 1: of investment. And where will you be doing the investment
Speaker 1: as well? I mean, are you looking at all geographies
Speaker 1: as well as all size as of companies we're Our
Speaker 1: team is split between New York and San Francisco. Probably
Speaker 1: seventy percent of our work in terms of investing is
Speaker 1: done in the US and the balance is done in Europe,
Speaker 1: and that percentage has been increasing we frankly, you know,
Speaker 1: I've been doing this twenty seven years, and a couple
Speaker 1: of decades ago, European venture capital was not that robust
Speaker 1: an area. And increasingly though in the UK, as you
Speaker 1: mentioned with Go Carlis and around continental Europe, we're seeing
Speaker 1: really interesting opportunities with fantastic multi time founders. So that's
Speaker 1: an increasing amount of our attention. Now. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for your reactions to whether you roll your
Speaker 1: eyes to this question, but I'll just say, artificial intelligence,
Speaker 1: I've heard about that. What is your vehicle and all
Speaker 1: official intelligence right now? And where do you see the opportunities?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been a big part of our investing
Speaker 1: for the last ten years. That's the thing. I think
Speaker 1: generative artificial intelligence to be brand new. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: think that's relevant because we have deep expertise in that.
Speaker 1: You know, Samanta Machines was we think the leading linguistic
Speaker 1: artificial intelligent artificial intelligence company that we were the largest
Speaker 1: Investeran sold to Microsoft, and we've gone on to invest
Speaker 1: in the modern data stack, you know, to this day,
Speaker 1: most recently a company called Unstructured, a company called high Touch.
Speaker 1: So to us, generative AI is the latest in a
Speaker 1: series of advancements in modern data analytics and strikingly useful.
Speaker 1: You know, we already see it in use in our verticals,
Speaker 1: in financial services, very much in commerce and in marketing
Speaker 1: and sales technology. So we're excited. Caroline touched on it earlier.
Speaker 1: But you know, the firm, you know, last April launched
Speaker 1: a crypto only fund, and I wondered what your assessment
Speaker 1: is around the hype with generative AI versus what we
Speaker 1: saw in crypto related companies in twenty twenty one through
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Are they analogous or are these two
Speaker 1: separate things entirely? Well, you know, human beings are prone
Speaker 1: to boom and bust cycles in their excitement, and we
Speaker 1: saw that in crypto. In fact, you know, we've seen
Speaker 1: it three or four times in the last decade. In crypto,
Speaker 1: things get overheated, things break, and so far they've always
Speaker 1: come back, and frankly, AI itself, which is a term
Speaker 1: that's been around for thirty years, has seen its own
Speaker 1: boom and bust cycles along the way. I have no
Speaker 1: doubt things will get overheated in AI, and there will
Speaker 1: be articles in nine months about the letdown and the
Speaker 1: unfilled promise, but we think the promise is quite durable
Speaker 1: as it relates to AI, and we also think that
Speaker 1: way about decentralization, and we're sticking to our guns on
Speaker 1: both those things for the long term. So looking for
Speaker 1: new opportunities in both those sphases now for sure. I
Speaker 1: mean we tend to go where the most passionate and
Speaker 1: talented founders are. That's really the leading lights for us
Speaker 1: in terms of where we devote our energies. And there
Speaker 1: have been a lot of sort of fly by nite
Speaker 1: and crypto founders who have left the field, and that's
Speaker 1: perfectly fine. But the founders that are dedicated to the
Speaker 1: ideas of decentralization, of leveraging blockchain technology to disrupt industries,
Speaker 1: they haven't left. And there will be some fly binite
Speaker 1: founders in AI as well, and we'll ignore those to
Speaker 1: focus on the really committed folks. So Yeah, we're very
Speaker 1: active in both sectors. We were just hearing from one
Speaker 1: fintech founder who was lucky enough to speak with it
Speaker 1: last week from a SUSU talking about, well, the over
Speaker 1: sights of regulation here in the United States as well.
Speaker 1: What are you making, what are the really infused talented
Speaker 1: founders in the moment that you're speaking to making of
Speaker 1: the enforcement in crypto, the focus on fintech, the evolution
Speaker 1: of regulation here in the United States, Well, I think
Speaker 1: one way to look at it is, actually it is
Speaker 1: quite striking the absence of regulation for a long period
Speaker 1: of time, and almost always, in my experience, that leads
Speaker 1: to a backlash. The pendulum swings, and it often swings violently.
Speaker 1: But these things tend to synthesize over time. We will
Speaker 1: end up in everly with sensible regulation. That has been
Speaker 1: the pattern, and this is the awkward adolescence. And we're
Speaker 1: going to see a number of fintech companies outside of
Speaker 1: crypto who also feel overregulated. I've never met a founder
Speaker 1: who didn't feel overregulated, but I've maintained the faith again
Speaker 1: having seen many of these cycles, that where we end
Speaker 1: up will be a friendly place for commerce, a friendly
Speaker 1: place for capitalism and a place where founders can get
Speaker 1: over these obstacles and prevail. So we're very confident. Actually, Matt,
Speaker 1: Caroline and I expect to be talking about bench capital
Speaker 1: more than ever on this program and as an asset class.
Speaker 1: For want of a better descriptor, I want to get
Speaker 1: into your LPs. You know, we talked so much about
Speaker 1: public market volatility last year about the FED, But I
Speaker 1: wonder who's coming to you and saying I want to
Speaker 1: be involved in this project across the one point nine
Speaker 1: billion that you've you've just closed. Well, I will say
Speaker 1: as an asset class, there were a lot of kind
Speaker 1: of tourists, tourists who came to the asset class in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and twenty twenty one with great amount of
Speaker 1: enthusiasm to invest in exciting technology. And what we saw
Speaker 1: in twenty two as the volumes adventure capital dropped dramatically
Speaker 1: was it was mostly the tourists leaving. And r LPs
Speaker 1: are not the Taurus. R LPs are endowments and foundations
Speaker 1: who've been with us for a long time and who
Speaker 1: know us deeply and know us to be committed players.
Speaker 1: They themselves are committed players. So I think that's where
Speaker 1: you're going to see in twenty twenty three is a
Speaker 1: return to folks who are the stalwarts of this industry,
Speaker 1: both on the LP side and the GP side, that
Speaker 1: is just terrific by forward and backward. Looking inside Banking
Speaker 1: Capital Venture's partner Matt Harrish, we're gonna dive yet further
Speaker 1: into earnings now medical tech in particular, and a company
Speaker 1: that's looking from hospital to the consumer that much more.
Speaker 1: Massimo Ceo is with us Jociani joining us on and
Speaker 1: earnings that is being in a raise in many ways.
Speaker 1: It looks like we're looking at full quarter revenue coming
Speaker 1: in ahead of two billion. We're looking at your look
Speaker 1: ahead for twenty twenty three two point four to two
Speaker 1: point four six billion, one ahead of the street's estimers.
Speaker 1: Just talk to us, Joe about what's the driving force here.
Speaker 1: Is it the hospital, the winning of new consumers, new clients,
Speaker 1: or is it the consumer that you want to be
Speaker 1: targeting more with products. Well, the growth currently that is projected,
Speaker 1: it is all about our growth in the hospital from
Speaker 1: the very successful year we had in attaining both new
Speaker 1: customers and keeping our existing customers. But then of course
Speaker 1: with the consumer business for projecting slightly lower growth, but
Speaker 1: that's because it's not including the consumer health part of
Speaker 1: our business. So hopefully if it starts taking off, we'll
Speaker 1: end up doing a lot better than we're projecting. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the technology that's underlying all of this. Many
Speaker 1: will know you, of course for oxygen manager from measurement
Speaker 1: in particular oxygen saturation. I think of what my daughter
Speaker 1: has just been to the doctor and put it on
Speaker 1: her finger. I'm interested though, as to what the consumer
Speaker 1: is going to know you for, in particular new products,
Speaker 1: a connected device of watch that helps you well fundamentally
Speaker 1: assess your health at home. Thank you, Caroline. As you know,
Speaker 1: we're the leading Paul section company in the world. In
Speaker 1: the hospitals, over two hundred million people are monitored withduct
Speaker 1: technology and our Paul Sacks technology has been proven to
Speaker 1: improve outcomes. No other Paul six cemetery has had that pedigree.
Speaker 1: So what will consumers see. They'll see a serious product.
Speaker 1: They'll see a product that's truthful with voracity that can
Speaker 1: make a difference in their lives. About a third of
Speaker 1: the population has chronic illnesses. They have serious problems in
Speaker 1: these serious products, and that's what we hope to give
Speaker 1: them so they can take better control of their lives. Joe,
Speaker 1: how much of that revenue guidance this year is carried
Speaker 1: over momentum from the pandemic. I was just at CS
Speaker 1: at the start of the year in Vegas and everyone
Speaker 1: is still talking about how focused the consumer particularies on
Speaker 1: health data coming out of the pandemic. Yeah, the pandemic
Speaker 1: is actually is what gave us the urgency. We all
Speaker 1: thought about consumer health tracking as either blood pressure ECG,
Speaker 1: but the pandemic made pauls a symmetry the star because
Speaker 1: people had these silent hypoxemias and if you weren't detecting it,
Speaker 1: you could end up, unfortunately dying from not the breeding properly.
Speaker 1: So at the time we were the only real thing.
Speaker 1: We within a month created a product that allowed hospitals
Speaker 1: that were overwhelmed with COVID patients to send those that
Speaker 1: didn't need immediate ICU care home and with our veracity
Speaker 1: and reliability, remotely monitored them. That ended up saving mortality
Speaker 1: by seventy percent and about eleven thousand dollars. And that's
Speaker 1: what's driving now hospitals saying, boy, it really worked. We
Speaker 1: want to now send our patients home sooner and monitor
Speaker 1: them remotely with the same or similar technology. I want
Speaker 1: to just zero in really quick, John, that EPs figure
Speaker 1: for four year twenty three. What is it allowed that's
Speaker 1: allowing you to boost that profit against expectations. Well, certainly
Speaker 1: one of the negatives of the pandemic was the supply
Speaker 1: chain problems. Costs went up dramatically everywhere, not just in labor,
Speaker 1: which is more permanent part of our expenditures, but in
Speaker 1: materials and supply costs and distribution costs. So as we
Speaker 1: now are coming out of the pandemic, those costs, most
Speaker 1: of them are going to normal and we should see
Speaker 1: that improve our margins into the year. Now. I want
Speaker 1: to dwell on the w one for a minute, and
Speaker 1: the watch, because as many people think connected devices and watches,
Speaker 1: they do think Apple. And interestingly, there was previous exclusive
Speaker 1: reporting coming from Bloomberg about how Apple is continuing to
Speaker 1: focus on consumer health and particular noninvasive, noninvasive glucose monitoring
Speaker 1: and smart watch. Now, I know you are currently tackling
Speaker 1: Apple on IP in particular litigation there where are you
Speaker 1: particularly concerned about your intellectual property? Well, Apple contacted us
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen said you're the platinum and non invasive Monitoring,
Speaker 1: will sign your confident SHRVY agreement and come meet with us,
Speaker 1: and we want to integrate your stuff. We did that. Instead,
Speaker 1: they began hiring our people, taking our ip and unfortunately
Speaker 1: we notice the launch of patents with our employees names
Speaker 1: on it, and then their watch with SPO two. So
Speaker 1: we sue them for trade secret there, which is by
Speaker 1: the way, going to trial this month or April. Secondly,
Speaker 1: we sue them in the International Trade Commission for patent infringement,
Speaker 1: which just one. We're waiting for the commission's ruling and
Speaker 1: hopefully sometime June July we should get the exclusion order
Speaker 1: so that they can no longer sell their watches with
Speaker 1: our technology in it. Come back discuss that with us
Speaker 1: winning Kanjo, we'll go out to Apple to get their
Speaker 1: comment on all of this. We thank you so much
Speaker 1: for spending some time with us, Massimo CEO, Joe Kani,
Speaker 1: and a lot for investors to dwell on with that
Speaker 1: particular company ed and I know that we're going to
Speaker 1: have plenty of investors acutely aware of a key investor
Speaker 1: day tomorrow of pretty important technology company, Tesla. Hey, yeah, Tesla,
Speaker 1: And what we're expecting is master Plan Part three. It's
Speaker 1: been six years since Part two. That man that we're
Speaker 1: sharing on the screen. Steve Wesley joined Tesla's board just
Speaker 1: after Elon Musk announced master Plan Part one, so I'm
Speaker 1: excited to get his take because this is about the
Speaker 1: evolution of a company that's now going to outline its
Speaker 1: next ten years for us and many remain deeply committed
Speaker 1: and bullish on this particular company, the way in which
Speaker 1: it can involve, all the way in which it can
Speaker 1: go into robotaxes. We're just throwing from Kathey Wooden last
Speaker 1: week on that commitment, right, Yeah, and she's still super
Speaker 1: boolish on Tesla winning that race. But it's also about energy, right,
Speaker 1: taking a kind of holistic look of how does Tesla
Speaker 1: get more vehicles on the road that are electric energy
Speaker 1: storage as well as a component. I'm excited and is
Speaker 1: happening during this show, which for you and I it's tricky,
Speaker 1: but for the audience fantastic. Anyway, coming up, Luminar Technology
Speaker 1: is unveiling an exclusive partnership with Scale AI for its
Speaker 1: Luminar AI engine. We're going to get back to that
Speaker 1: conversation with CEO Austin Russell. That's next. This is Bloomberg,
Speaker 1: so light Dart, Makar, Luminars having its capital markets investor
Speaker 1: day out in Florida are a big part of the
Speaker 1: roadmap for growth artificial intelligence. Let's bring CEO Austin Russell
Speaker 1: back into this conversation. Austin, I know Luminar as a
Speaker 1: light OAR maker. What are you doing in AI? So
Speaker 1: we've been actually investing in software and AI systems I
Speaker 1: think for for years at this point, ever since you know,
Speaker 1: company came out of stealth mode back in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: And part of all this is developing this holistic solution
Speaker 1: you know, for automakers and in conjunction with automakers as
Speaker 1: as part of you know, well uh full stack products
Speaker 1: as well as perception products and other capabilities you know
Speaker 1: that we have and are able to develop in conjunction.
Speaker 1: So part of the holistic luminary though, showing that it
Speaker 1: is a lot more than just the lighter literally all
Speaker 1: the way from the semiconductor level up through the whole
Speaker 1: stack through the lighter system software you know, OEM, consumer
Speaker 1: and consumer and even insurance as opportunities for what we
Speaker 1: have ahead as what's addressable. It is also an invest
Speaker 1: to day. You've you've talked about adding a billion dollars
Speaker 1: this year to your forward bookings. What is the driver
Speaker 1: of that grif? Who are you selling to right now?
Speaker 1: Who are you doing deals with? Yea, So it's largely
Speaker 1: autommajor automakers there too. So I think from an autonomous
Speaker 1: vehicle standpoint, you know a lot of people think of
Speaker 1: these you know, robotaxi type systems with these huge you know,
Speaker 1: roof racks or a supercomputer in the trunk or something
Speaker 1: to like get the driver out of the loop. Our
Speaker 1: whole thing is all about enhancing the driver, not replacing
Speaker 1: the driver, and being able to have practical applications of
Speaker 1: these systems over the course of you know, the relative
Speaker 1: near term here for production automakers, and that's who we're
Speaker 1: landing these major deals with. Like for example, just Mercedes
Speaker 1: last week, you know, announced that you know, they're collaborating
Speaker 1: with us to be able to expand luminar powered vehicles
Speaker 1: across their whole lineup. So they're now going to be
Speaker 1: m you know, transitioning for a number of those different
Speaker 1: vehicles or a broad range of different vehicle models, as
Speaker 1: they said. So that's that's what's happening, and we're getting
Speaker 1: to it. A lot of revenue growth being talked about,
Speaker 1: of course, at least one hundred percent for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Gross margin also something you're talking about keeping that positive
Speaker 1: into fourth quarter. How have you had really double down
Speaker 1: on profitability as investors just don't want growth at any
Speaker 1: cost anymore. Yeah, you know, it's it's a good question.
Speaker 1: It's probably more of the flavor of the month when
Speaker 1: it comes to, you know, how much you're investing in
Speaker 1: growth versus you know, profitability and that side of it.
Speaker 1: I think the reality is like if you wanted to
Speaker 1: flip a switch and become profitable you know what you
Speaker 1: know this year, or you could, but I think the
Speaker 1: smart thing to do is set ourselves up on a
Speaker 1: trajectory where we can be profitable holistically for our core
Speaker 1: business starting as soon as you know next year, you know,
Speaker 1: on a run right basis there too by the end
Speaker 1: of the year. And I think from a holistic perspective, though,
Speaker 1: we do have an opportunity to probably be the what
Speaker 1: would easily be the first uh, you know, profitable a
Speaker 1: ton of a vehicle company or equivalent, because like we
Speaker 1: really have product that's out there that's going into cars
Speaker 1: like the you know, the ones that you're showing there
Speaker 1: into consumers hands, and these are like you know, and
Speaker 1: for many of them, mainstream production vehicles. So we also
Speaker 1: said that we're now being embedded across over twenty different
Speaker 1: vehicle models from a number of different automakers globally. Also,
Speaker 1: what's the biggest risk you face this year? How what
Speaker 1: is going to stop you in your tracks if anything? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, sup probably changed for example, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean there's the execution focus for this.
Speaker 1: I think the key is just being able to make
Speaker 1: sure that we can get this, we get our high
Speaker 1: volume production facility up in Mexico running. We're successfully executing
Speaker 1: to that. We actually um it just said that. It's
Speaker 1: it's actually the Mexico facility is ahead of guidance for
Speaker 1: what we had, so we should expect that to come
Speaker 1: online in Q two versus you know in previously set
Speaker 1: in the second half. So that's that's going to be
Speaker 1: a huge driver of scale and what enables us to
Speaker 1: work with automakers. Said and then you know, started with
Speaker 1: these global production vehicle launches. I mean that's sort of
Speaker 1: that point were starting with with Bolvo for example, later
Speaker 1: this year, Lumina CEO Austin Russell coming to us from Florida, Orlando.
Speaker 1: No less, we thank he's so much for your time today. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: well that does it. From a sedition of Bloomberg Technology,
Speaker 1: we will bring you, of course, everything you need to
Speaker 1: know from the Tesla invested day tomorrow. Steve Wesley is
Speaker 1: going to be with us, as we've heard continuing, He's
Speaker 1: gonna be of course from the board initially to us
Speaker 1: with some really great conversation around the announcements coming from
Speaker 1: that company. Yeah, I'm excited for that conversation, Caroline, because
Speaker 1: he's worked with Elon Musk, He's heard from him about
Speaker 1: how you plan for the long term. What will he
Speaker 1: make of this latest master Plan Part three? We'll have
Speaker 1: to wait and see, but tune in for that and
Speaker 1: so much recap from this show. Of course, don't forget
Speaker 1: to check out the podcast wherever you get your podcasts
Speaker 1: on Apple, Spotify or iHeart so much to discuss in
Speaker 1: the world of global technology. From San Francisco, from New York,
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg