Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Alexis, thanks so much for being with us, Thanks.
Speaker 3: For having me. How are you. I'm doing well? Yeah,
Speaker 3: doing well.
Speaker 1: I'm coming off the high of this business a women's
Speaker 1: sports summit.
Speaker 3: It's been a good, good forty eight hours.
Speaker 2: Well, this is what I want to ask you. You tweeted,
Speaker 2: I think just a few days.
Speaker 3: I love sports.
Speaker 2: Have you always loved sports?
Speaker 3: Always?
Speaker 1: I did not always love women's sports though, To be clear,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I jumped on this bandwagon really when I
Speaker 1: met my wife. That was the first time I even
Speaker 1: ever watched tennis as a sport. Yeah, but then really
Speaker 1: went whole hog in twenty nineteen, so I'm new to it.
Speaker 2: Well, talk to us about Angel City in terms of
Speaker 2: how it came on your radar. I mean there's a
Speaker 2: lot of well known actresses. Mia Ham's involved, There's a
Speaker 2: lot of incredible women behind it.
Speaker 3: What was it?
Speaker 2: I don't know the conversations you had within that said
Speaker 2: I want to be a part of this.
Speaker 1: Well, so back in twenty nineteen and I dug up
Speaker 1: these old tweets, it was March. I was just you know,
Speaker 1: reading the news the US women's national team was fin
Speaker 1: for pay equity, and I started looking at the numbers
Speaker 1: and I realized women's sports, and chiefly soccer, was being
Speaker 1: so so undervalued. And again I only just come with
Speaker 1: this as a businessman, as an investor, and you know,
Speaker 1: seeing the amount of attention that team was able to capture,
Speaker 1: seeing the number of follows their biggest stars had on
Speaker 1: social media, right, this is these are facts over feelings.
Speaker 1: This is just the democratic nature of social media, which
Speaker 1: says you are someone I want to pay attention to,
Speaker 1: I will click follow. Showed that these women were incredibly popular.
Speaker 1: They were individually capable of generating, you know, millions of
Speaker 1: dollars in brand deals. And yet the league, the NWSL,
Speaker 1: was still kind of a mess. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: it existed. I think a lot of sports fans didn't.
Speaker 1: It was showing its matches on Lifetime Lifetime. No offense
Speaker 1: to Lifetime, but come on, you're not watching sports on Lifetime.
Speaker 1: And at the time a team had sold for like
Speaker 1: three million dollars and it was the same team that
Speaker 1: Megan Rappino played on. And you don't have the smartest
Speaker 1: guy in the room to realize Megan Rapino can generate
Speaker 1: at least a few million dollars a year in brand deals,
Speaker 1: and really she is worth at least that much and
Speaker 1: soon money her entire team is only worth three millions.
Speaker 1: Someone was epically messing up, and so I started tweeting,
Speaker 1: and I just said, I was like, look, this is
Speaker 1: a huge opportunity. I want to buy a team. Who
Speaker 1: do I talk to? I want to start a team?
Speaker 1: Who do I talk to? And you know, Twitter showed
Speaker 1: up in a big way. The diehard women soccer fans
Speaker 1: were like, all right, you know, don't just talk about it,
Speaker 1: be about it.
Speaker 3: And then there were also trolls who were like, you're going.
Speaker 1: To waste all your money. This is stupid. No one
Speaker 1: cares what womin's sports. So I started talking to existing owners.
Speaker 1: I realized pretty quickly I didn't want to inherit someone
Speaker 1: else's team. I needed a blank slate. And because I
Speaker 1: was so proactively honestly tweeting about it, one of the
Speaker 1: owners of La FC, the men's club in la introduced
Speaker 1: me to Kara Julian Natt created, who at the end
Speaker 1: of I think twenty nineteen, were out to market and
Speaker 1: couldn't find anyone who wanted to invest, and so I said, well,
Speaker 1: look I'm doing this and getting connected to them. You know,
Speaker 1: they shared a similar vision and you.
Speaker 3: Know I wrote the check off and running.
Speaker 1: That's yeah, it was. It was kismet. And I think tweeting,
Speaker 1: I mean seriously, and it's it's.
Speaker 2: This shows like it can work. It's like incredible and
Speaker 2: connecting people.
Speaker 1: Yes, and look, I'm also the kind of person who
Speaker 1: likes being early and right. So I love calling my
Speaker 1: shots on Twitter because I love having those receipts later
Speaker 1: when everyone's like history, right, Yeah, bring the receipts, baby.
Speaker 2: Well okay, god, I feel like there's a million places
Speaker 2: I could go. Well does that show to you? Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to take a sidebar here, go for it.
Speaker 2: So social media Twitter, Yeah, TikTok. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: things that are on you know, everybody's radar about usefulness,
Speaker 2: the problems that are created, you know, Elina, Twitter is
Speaker 2: a whole other story. What's your take on social media?
Speaker 2: Has it run its course?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: We and I love a lot?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, Look, it has transformed the world. There have
Speaker 1: been good outcomes, there have been bad outcomes.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: I very publicly left read it in protest a few
Speaker 1: years ago, and I was thrilled they did in response.
Speaker 1: You know, they did finally ban hate communities, They did
Speaker 1: replace me with a black directory. They made changes as
Speaker 1: a result of my resignation that I was so happy
Speaker 1: with at the end of the day. But I realized,
Speaker 1: for me, I think social media is very much going
Speaker 1: to occupy a space that our children's generation will look
Speaker 1: back on with a raised eyebrow. I mean, that's a
Speaker 1: big part of the reason I left. I got a
Speaker 1: she was three at the time. Now she's five and
Speaker 1: a half, a daughter who I think is going to
Speaker 1: grow up with a very different experience on social media.
Speaker 1: And so I think part of that is cultural. You're
Speaker 1: seeing a generation of young people and their parents who
Speaker 1: are like yo. Actually, maybe this was pretty terrible for
Speaker 1: you know, going through adolescents where everyone has a little
Speaker 1: like button and follower account floating above their heads, right,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: Adolescents measure.
Speaker 1: It's hard enough to go through that time, and then
Speaker 1: you now productize and weaponize it.
Speaker 3: Probably not great long term.
Speaker 1: So I think you can already see the culture shifting, right,
Speaker 1: You can already see this generation looking to other platforms.
Speaker 3: I'm not an investor. You know, the ascent in companies like.
Speaker 1: Be Real that are more about not living on your
Speaker 1: phone chasing hearts, but just sharing with people you actually
Speaker 1: care about, like what's going on in your life. I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna see that cultural shift and you're gonna
Speaker 1: see more technology. So I social media's not going anywhere,
Speaker 1: but it will evolve in the way that we use it.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 2: I'm curious how your daughter and your wife influence you
Speaker 2: in terms of you know, equities, equality women. Your daughter
Speaker 2: is an investor.
Speaker 3: Yes, I made sure so.
Speaker 2: I the owner of a professional sports team.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: I set aside a few bucks to personally invest. I
Speaker 1: mean it was via her trust. She doesn't know this,
Speaker 1: by the way, so hopefully she's not listening to the podcast.
Speaker 3: Sorry.
Speaker 1: I mean, she has five and a half when to wear.
Speaker 1: But it was important, right. I wanted her not just
Speaker 1: to be the youngest center in pro sports, which is
Speaker 1: kind of cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know, like any.
Speaker 1: Parent, you want to create, you want to give your
Speaker 1: children something and a legacy, and frankly, also I wanted
Speaker 1: to give her what she was doing. So it was
Speaker 1: because of Olympia. That really galvanized this in many ways
Speaker 1: because during the final the Women's World Cup that year,
Speaker 1: we were all watching at the home we were staying
Speaker 1: in in Wimbledon, and I'd gotten Olympia and alex Morgan
Speaker 1: jersey and She's running around kicking her ball, and I'd
Speaker 1: commented to my wife, like any proud dad, it wouldn't
Speaker 1: it be nice one day if she played on the
Speaker 1: Ones national team?
Speaker 3: Wouldn't that be cool?
Speaker 1: And without missing a beat, Serena says, not until they
Speaker 1: pay her what she's worth. And I said, okay, challenge accepted,
Speaker 1: like all right, And so so you know this, this
Speaker 1: little three year old was part of the reason why
Speaker 1: I finally was like, no, I really this needs to happen.
Speaker 1: And so the least I could do is give her
Speaker 1: her due. And so yeah, look, I'm very aware of
Speaker 1: the fact that I am a now wealthy but but
Speaker 1: a white dude who occupies space his entire life very
Speaker 1: differently than my wife has and my daughter will. And
Speaker 1: so it has given me perspective. But I want to
Speaker 1: stress it is nothing about the moves I make or
Speaker 1: the things I do are.
Speaker 3: Charitable.
Speaker 2: What do you mean, what are you think because you're
Speaker 2: an investor.
Speaker 3: What I mean is none of this is none of
Speaker 3: this is because of charity. This is what I believe
Speaker 3: is going to lead to the most effective outcome long term.
Speaker 3: One of the I really believe, and.
Speaker 1: This is something I talk about with my team all
Speaker 1: the time at seven seven six and with CEOs that
Speaker 1: I counsel now is I really believe the long term
Speaker 1: greedy mindset is just a very different way of thinking
Speaker 1: about building businesses, being more intentional about everything from the
Speaker 1: way you build teams to the way you deploy capital
Speaker 1: to the.
Speaker 3: Partners that you decide to have. And I actually, like,
Speaker 3: I worry.
Speaker 1: The one thing I don't want people to hear is like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: this dude has you know, a black wife, a black daughter,
Speaker 1: and now he cares about these things, right, Because I
Speaker 1: don't think you should need to have those things in
Speaker 1: order to care. You shouldn't need to have a daughter
Speaker 1: to care about women's sports.
Speaker 2: But if you didn't, do you think, oh, they've gotten to.
Speaker 3: This point probably a lot slower, if at all. So no,
Speaker 3: I can't.
Speaker 1: So yes, it absolutely played a huge role in helping
Speaker 1: build my perspective.
Speaker 3: In the same way, you know, it's a kind of education.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to Harvard Business School, clearly, but my
Speaker 1: you know, I had a different kind of very formative
Speaker 1: education that's come from being in a relationship and then
Speaker 1: a marriage to someone like my wife, and having the
Speaker 1: lived experience of a daughter.
Speaker 2: But some would say much richer and much more real.
Speaker 3: Understand I think so, oh one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: So I think so yes. I can't deny how formative
Speaker 1: it's been. But I just want to stress that it's
Speaker 1: not Do not take away from this that that has
Speaker 1: to be the reason why it's exciting. Women's sports is
Speaker 1: not exciting just because a bunch of dudes have daughters
Speaker 1: and now feel like, oh we got to support this. No,
Speaker 1: Like women's or is exciting because it is a massive
Speaker 1: business opportunity that men and women, even dudes who don't
Speaker 1: have daughters, are going to be excited to pay attention to. No.
Speaker 2: I agree with you, and I mean your audiences, the
Speaker 2: people coming to the matches, like you see it gross.
Speaker 1: We have look in our first year, Angels City FC
Speaker 1: has more season ticket holders than the LA Galaxy, which
Speaker 1: is a men's club that has been around for twenty
Speaker 1: six years, and they're a great club, but in one
Speaker 1: year we got more.
Speaker 3: Season ticket holders in them. So again that's not that
Speaker 3: those aren't. That is just data.
Speaker 1: That's not like, oh, women's sports should be more supportive. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's just the data.
Speaker 3: They're not.
Speaker 1: And one of our challenges is a salary cap, which
Speaker 1: separately I bring up at every Board of Governors meeting.
Speaker 3: It's a salary cap that's not high enough. We've raised it,
Speaker 3: which is good. It's it's on its way up, but it's.
Speaker 1: Not nearly high enough. So we're actually limited by the
Speaker 1: league on how much we can commentate our players. And
Speaker 1: part of this speaks to the bigger problem, which is
Speaker 1: this is a legacy of underinvestment in the women's game.
Speaker 1: All right, we're still carrying the water from decades of underinvesting.
Speaker 1: When the league is only ten years old. It's barely
Speaker 1: survived in those ten leagues ten years. And when you
Speaker 1: look at the one alternative, and this is this is
Speaker 1: the really unfair advantage having a front row seat to
Speaker 1: my wife's experience. Like I said, I literally never watched tennis.
Speaker 1: I thought tennis was like a boring country club.
Speaker 3: Hobby, incredible to watch.
Speaker 1: I've watched. So I had never watched tennis before my hous.
Speaker 1: American football was the only sport that mattered. That's what
Speaker 1: I played, that's what I watched. That was the only thing.
Speaker 1: And so then I finally get this education about tennis.
Speaker 1: A little late, but back in twenty fifteen. And one
Speaker 1: love the sport. It's an amazing sport. Two I realized, Okay,
Speaker 1: here is a precedent, right thanks to Billy Jean King,
Speaker 1: thanks to a couple girls from Compton. Women are paid
Speaker 1: the same as men and large, let's use the US
Speaker 1: Open as example, are marketed and reported on equally as men.
Speaker 1: So should it surprise anyone that, again, you just look
Speaker 1: at the data. Even if there isn't a William's sister
Speaker 1: in the final US Open, the women outperformed the men.
Speaker 3: More people watched. Go look at the last run the numbers.
Speaker 1: See what ESPN says the last US Open final more
Speaker 1: Americans watched the women.
Speaker 3: Than the men.
Speaker 1: And that's not because it feels good or it's socially
Speaker 1: just it's because it's just more interesting. So what if
Speaker 1: we had applied the same principles that we've applied to
Speaker 1: for instance, tennis at the US open across the board
Speaker 1: in these sports. Why like the saddest part of this
Speaker 1: is when we look back, we will not just see
Speaker 1: a legacy of sexism and a certain extent racism. We
Speaker 1: will see a legacy of business and competence. See a
Speaker 1: bunch of dudes, old white dudes. Let's be real, who
Speaker 1: missed on a huge business opportunity. The women of college
Speaker 1: basketball had to beg for a decent training facility a
Speaker 1: few years ago, remember that Cliplin virl I remember they
Speaker 1: could not get access to even using the branding of
Speaker 1: the NCUBLEA final four. That was just a few years ago, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this past March madness, we're just a month out from it.
Speaker 1: The only thing we were talking about in American sports
Speaker 1: were the women of college basketball, Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 1: They dominated the zeitgeist. That's the attention is everything in sports.
Speaker 1: I don't even know who won the men's side. Also
Speaker 1: because UVA lost in the first round, which I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about it.
Speaker 3: The women. The women dominated.
Speaker 1: So now you got to think, NC double A, what
Speaker 1: the hell were you missing for decades when you did
Speaker 1: not give these women a fraction of the support they deserved.
Speaker 3: It's how stupid were you? It's just business?
Speaker 2: You'repplomberg, where like you know, we follow the money.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's all I care about. Like you were, you're leaving.
Speaker 1: And now here's where it's getting awkward because now the
Speaker 1: numbers are in and now people got to be ruffling
Speaker 1: papers and getting a little nervous and sweaty because they're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, we just barely started supporting the women
Speaker 1: of college basketball and and they're they're putting up bigger
Speaker 1: numbers than the men, Like people care more about these
Speaker 1: women than the men. It gets worse because now that
Speaker 1: nil exists again, the dollars. So we talked about the viewers,
Speaker 1: we talked about the culturals like geist women crushing it
Speaker 1: in this last college basketball tournament. Now the dollars, those
Speaker 1: nil dollars, those dollars are there because the women have
Speaker 1: followers on social media. Again it's a democratic platform where
Speaker 1: people say I'm.
Speaker 3: Going to follow and give you my attention. Now they're
Speaker 3: making millions. Okay, so hard conversation to have when you're
Speaker 3: not paying them.
Speaker 2: I you're you're preaching, you're preaching the choir. Since I
Speaker 2: have I'm going to get in trouble. Fin I ask
Speaker 2: you if your question Sorry, well we did souchial the media.
Speaker 2: I know you talked about this with our TV cogs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: artificial intelligence. You knew I was going to ask.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Sure, that's fine, I'm using it every ding.
Speaker 2: What's more interesting right now?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: Okay, so what has better investment opportunities AI?
Speaker 1: But interestingly enough, if we assume let's go down, let's
Speaker 1: I just think in ten year terms a gift and
Speaker 1: a curse. But so ten years down the road, AI
Speaker 1: continues to ascend. Like you can now spin up anything.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the ability to generate. Let's say, content
Speaker 1: is trivial. Right, we could sit here, you could have you.
Speaker 1: You could say you want a birthday song sung by Beyonce,
Speaker 1: naming you and your favorite puppy, and like you could
Speaker 1: customize everything and mention like I don't know, pizza.
Speaker 3: Because you love But that's cool.
Speaker 2: Is that valuable?
Speaker 3: I think so? And so you need to figure out that.
Speaker 1: You need to figure out the dollars so that artists
Speaker 1: get paid and all that stuff's going to get sort
Speaker 1: of investment.
Speaker 3: But okay, imagine content is everywhere, and anyone can create
Speaker 3: all the content they want.
Speaker 1: It actually now comes full circle back to why having
Speaker 1: a decentralized global ledger is so important, because with a blockchain,
Speaker 1: you can now prove the prominence and authenticity of the original,
Speaker 1: the day one content, And so weirdly, I think in
Speaker 1: the long term, the proliferation of AI actually makes a
Speaker 1: strong case for the blockchain because blockchain.
Speaker 3: But what about crypto.
Speaker 2: You've invested in crypto, how do you feel about that
Speaker 2: at this point after the carnage of the last six.
Speaker 1: Tierson so I seeded coinbase in twenty twelve. I have
Speaker 1: been through every winter, and every winter I put on
Speaker 1: my parka and I go talk to people building and
Speaker 1: they build, and it's it's actually the best time to
Speaker 1: be investing in crypto because well, every cycle is the
Speaker 1: best time to be doing my job because when you're early,
Speaker 1: you know, this is when the noise is gone. This
Speaker 1: is when the builders are building things people actually want.
Speaker 1: They're not worrying about what the ETH price is today.
Speaker 1: They're just building, they're shipping. So you're investing, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And AI are you investing?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: And so in another two three years will come out
Speaker 1: as criptocycle. It'll probably be I think gaming will be
Speaker 1: a big thrust of It'll be very consumer facing as
Speaker 1: well as infrastructure, and it's not going to use any
Speaker 1: of those words. You're never gonna hear about NFTs, nor
Speaker 1: should you never gonna hear about crypt It's just going
Speaker 1: to be dope software.
Speaker 3: That happens to be on Chaine.
Speaker 2: Alexis, you are such a mentor for everyone. I've seen
Speaker 2: Ted talks, I've watched some I make too much content. Well,
Speaker 2: you make a lot of content, but it's a good content.
Speaker 2: But you really inspire. And it's not just talk, its action,
Speaker 2: and you're doing it with your climate fellows. You're looking
Speaker 2: at ways to make the world more equal in so
Speaker 2: many different ways. Who who inspires you? I'm assuming your wife,
Speaker 2: I'm assuming your daughter, you above and beyond. Is it
Speaker 2: an individual, a company, a book?
Speaker 1: The worst answer I can give you it's my mom
Speaker 1: and dad, because I know that's not no one's going
Speaker 1: to be like.
Speaker 3: How can I learn more about them? I mean you can,
Speaker 3: but you know, but honestly, it's.
Speaker 2: But in the world that like me play in.
Speaker 3: I'll give you and then I'll tell you.
Speaker 1: Look, it's not really anyone in tech, which is probably
Speaker 1: part of my problem. It's part of why I think
Speaker 1: I'm so unpopular in Silicon Valley. I have never felt
Speaker 1: totally at home there, despite obviously having created Reddit and
Speaker 1: being a tech entrepreneur and investor in my whole life.
Speaker 1: When I think of folks who motive to be one
Speaker 1: of my favorite conversations happened like three or four years ago,
Speaker 1: five years ago now, jeezs with Melinda Gates and I
Speaker 1: was so, I still haven't met Bill. Bill is an
Speaker 1: avid redditor.
Speaker 3: Yeah not.
Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, But like, meeting
Speaker 1: Melinda was who I really wanted to meet because she
Speaker 1: very obviously was setting out early philanthropic goals in her career,
Speaker 1: in her life. I think her ultimate legacy is going
Speaker 1: to be one that is just spectacular as a result
Speaker 1: of that. And so I talked to her early because
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, I'm not ready yet. I've still
Speaker 1: got a few This was like five years ago, so
Speaker 1: I didn't have any liquidity events yet. But I was like, look,
Speaker 1: I want to start putting the pieces in place for this.
Speaker 1: How do I think about a foundation? Like what advice
Speaker 1: would you give to someone who's just starting to think
Speaker 1: through this? And it was an amazing meeting, and we've
Speaker 1: stayed in touch and she's been a great resource as
Speaker 1: I've started the seven to seven sixth Foundation, And I
Speaker 1: want you know, I'm at a point in my life
Speaker 1: where I went from creating a company where I cared
Speaker 1: so much what hundreds of millions of strangers on the
Speaker 1: Internet thought, because that was my job as a founder
Speaker 1: and a CEO of Reddit. But I now really only
Speaker 1: care about what my wife and daughter think, which is nice.
Speaker 1: It's very simplifying in life, and so when I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about what I'm doing, it's through the lens of frankly,
Speaker 1: making my daughter proud and obviously always you know, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I get to work come things that
Speaker 1: I genuinely love. But through that lens, it's very clarifying
Speaker 1: what to do and what not to do. And when
Speaker 1: I think about the legacy of seven seven six yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to be the best investor on the planet,
Speaker 1: and I also want to be the best deployer of
Speaker 1: capital for you know, nonprofits, for philanthropic work as well.
Speaker 2: You asked her to ask you a big question at dinner. Yes,
Speaker 2: very quickly, we got like a minute last what's the
Speaker 2: big question? We should all be asking ourselves right now
Speaker 2: in this world. No pressure.
Speaker 1: Well, okay to put it in context though. Her last
Speaker 1: big question so at dinner, not last unfortunately, I was
Speaker 1: she's back home last night, but the night before was
Speaker 1: where do rocks come from?
Speaker 3: So I got to be like, okay, well, so.
Speaker 1: There's igneous rocks. There's only sedimentary rocks and the metamorphic.
Speaker 3: I had to look up that one was metamorphois asking herself,
Speaker 3: so you should ask you? No, I think the bigger
Speaker 3: question we should be asking you.
Speaker 1: So I just want to put in context. She's not
Speaker 1: asking like the heaviest questions like where rocks come from?
Speaker 3: But still a good question. I love it.
Speaker 1: No, it's good we get to learn together. Yes, it's dope.
Speaker 1: She's amazing. The question, the big question was you asking ourselves? Is?
Speaker 1: Is you know if you're if you get to spend
Speaker 1: time listening to a dope Bloomberg podcast, you're probably in
Speaker 1: a place. I hope you're in a place where you
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of the like deeper existential dread
Speaker 1: that a lot of folks have, you think globally right,
Speaker 1: we're we're so so fortunate even just to be here
Speaker 1: in the States. Obviously this reaches worldwide, but but for
Speaker 1: folks who are tuned in, you're probably thinking on a
Speaker 1: different wave length because you've got you know, you're you're
Speaker 1: making moves, you're moving shake, you're doing dope stuff, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So so I would I would lean into
Speaker 1: Thinking through who the people are you actually care about
Speaker 1: when it comes to their opinions and the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing and the reason you're getting up and living
Speaker 1: because if for no other reason, I think you'll just
Speaker 1: be happier and uh, and that's not bad.