Speaker 1: In recent years, people all over the world seem fascinated
Speaker 1: to learn more about their family history. One of the
Speaker 1: companies helping people do that is Ancestry, a company now
Speaker 1: led by Deblu, a technology expert previously working at PayPal
Speaker 1: and Facebook. I had a chance to sit down with
Speaker 1: her to learn why it is that people are so
Speaker 1: interested about their ancestry. So tell me this. What does
Speaker 1: Ancestry do for its customers.
Speaker 2: Ancestry has over three point six million active subscribers, and
Speaker 2: these subscribers come to learn more about their history, building
Speaker 2: their family tree. They're discovering new content, They're actually building
Speaker 2: their family story every single day on our platform. We
Speaker 2: also have a business in consumer genomens. So twenty three
Speaker 2: million people have taken in their DNA test and we
Speaker 2: can show you a little bit more about your family
Speaker 2: history through genetics, really where you're from, your communities, ethnicity.
Speaker 2: But we can also show matches such as distant cousins
Speaker 2: you might never have discovered.
Speaker 1: I suppose I go onto your webs site and I say, okay,
Speaker 1: I want to learn about my ancestors. Do I send
Speaker 1: an email to you saying I want to subscribe, and
Speaker 1: do you actually do the searching, or do they do
Speaker 1: the searching based on the records that that you make
Speaker 1: available to them.
Speaker 2: We consider this a collaborative process. So let's say you
Speaker 2: go to ancestry dot com and you sign up. The
Speaker 2: first thing you do is put in a little bit
Speaker 2: about yourself. You can put your name, your birthday, where
Speaker 2: you're from, and then we start helping you build that
Speaker 2: family tree, so you know a little bit about your parents,
Speaker 2: your grandparents, and as you go further further in your history,
Speaker 2: we might actually suggest ancestors that you didn't know about.
Speaker 2: So maybe you don't know the names you were great grandparents,
Speaker 2: but you might know where they're from, or you might
Speaker 2: not know that much about you know, your great aunts.
Speaker 2: We would actually say, hey, this might be a potential
Speaker 2: ancestor of yours, and then we actually unfold their history
Speaker 2: as well, so maybe it's your grandfather's draft card or
Speaker 2: your grandmother's immigration papers. We start helping you kind of
Speaker 2: put together the story of their lives.
Speaker 1: So, but if somebody calls up or sends an email
Speaker 1: and says I want to use the service, they pay
Speaker 1: a fee and then you have somebody that works with them,
Speaker 1: or you just give them their records and they can
Speaker 1: dig through it. But then if they need help, they
Speaker 1: can maybe pay a little a bigger fee or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so if you come, it's really the automation and
Speaker 2: technology that we've built. You know, we have over one
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty million family trees that are already been built,
Speaker 2: and using that we can help derive a little bit
Speaker 2: about your cousins, your second cousins, your third cousins, something
Speaker 2: about your grandparents, your great grandparents as well. And so
Speaker 2: using technology, this assist of technology allows us to help
Speaker 2: you build out your tree for yourself. Now, if you
Speaker 2: need an additional help, we actually have what we call
Speaker 2: pro genealogists that can actually do research projects specifically for
Speaker 2: you as well.
Speaker 1: So why do people want to know so much about
Speaker 1: their genealogy? Because, like in my case, I'm afraid I
Speaker 1: might have some horse thieves in my background and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to know that. So tell me why do
Speaker 1: people want to know so much about their background?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we actually surveyed folks and three quarters
Speaker 2: of Americans actually want to learn more about their family history.
Speaker 2: But a lot of that is we call it journeys
Speaker 2: a personal discovery because you know, what brought you here today,
Speaker 2: what brings your children here? Is a history of lots
Speaker 2: of people migrating throughout the world, you know, having impact
Speaker 2: in so many different ways, and so so many people
Speaker 2: want to go back and understand where they came from
Speaker 2: so they can understand who they are today.
Speaker 1: Typically people can go back one hundred years, two hundred years,
Speaker 1: two hundred years. Sometimes in Europe people say I can
Speaker 1: go back a thousand years or so. Is that realistic?
Speaker 1: You can trace your ancestry back a thousand years?
Speaker 2: Definitely, especially of European heritage. We have those records. We
Speaker 2: have worked with archives and governments throughout Europe to actually
Speaker 2: gather those documents so that you can trace yourself. And
Speaker 2: so many people say, hey, I trace myself to a
Speaker 2: sixteen hundred royalty.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: And what's really amazing about that is that journey is
Speaker 2: actually helping unfold so many stories, not just the most
Speaker 2: famous royal that you have, but also all the people
Speaker 2: in between.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I've heard of people, some friends of mine, who
Speaker 1: have done ancestry or equivalent on some other method and
Speaker 1: they find that their parent isn't really their parent or
Speaker 1: their biological parent. So that happened a lot.
Speaker 2: We do see occasionally surprises in your DNA in particular,
Speaker 2: so when people take a DNA test, you'll find some
Speaker 2: relatives that you knew about who've already done the test.
Speaker 2: But sometimes we do find folks who get new information
Speaker 2: about their family. We actually have a dedicated team that
Speaker 2: helps folks who experience that so that they can talk
Speaker 2: them through that experience.
Speaker 1: So how many people here go on to your website
Speaker 1: and say I want to learn my genealogy.
Speaker 2: Actually millions of people come even every month every year
Speaker 2: to actually learn about the genealogy. As I said, we
Speaker 2: have three point six million active subscribers, but we have
Speaker 2: millions of people come. And you know, we have twenty
Speaker 2: three million people who have done their DNA as well,
Speaker 2: So we have millions of people coming to discover something
Speaker 2: new about themselves.
Speaker 1: So today, if somebody wants to use your service, they
Speaker 1: become a subscriber. But a subscriber means you pay a
Speaker 1: one time fee or an ongoing monthly fee. How does
Speaker 1: that work?
Speaker 2: So ours is a subscription service, so you pay an
Speaker 2: ongoing monthly fee as you continue to access your tree
Speaker 2: and access the records. We have new records coming in
Speaker 2: all the time. So not only do you know you're
Speaker 2: not just finishing your tree, there's actually new records that
Speaker 2: are coming to help you on your journey. So you know,
Speaker 2: we have over forty billion records already on our platform.
Speaker 2: This year actually we're adding fifteen billion, so there's more
Speaker 2: discoveries to be had all the time.
Speaker 1: So the average person who is a subscriber, they are
Speaker 1: subscriber for three months six months a year. How long
Speaker 1: does somebody typically subscribe.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, people come for various reasons and there's
Speaker 2: actually different tenures. Some people are doing it for a
Speaker 2: single project where they want to discover one thing, maybe
Speaker 2: for a fiftieth anniversary party. Others are really here to
Speaker 2: you know, we have subscribers who've been here ten twenty years,
Speaker 2: and so it's really important to really think about what
Speaker 2: it is that they're trying to do.
Speaker 1: When did this company start?
Speaker 2: So this year we celebrate our fortieth anniversary. Surprisingly has
Speaker 2: been it's been such a journey over the four decades.
Speaker 1: So who helped start it?
Speaker 2: So you know, there was a group of people actually
Speaker 2: in Provo, Utah who started this as a publishing company.
Speaker 2: So this was not always a technology company or subscription company.
Speaker 2: It started as a publishing company, publishing records and genealogy
Speaker 2: to help people discover their past.
Speaker 1: So you've obviously risen up to run a publicly traded company.
Speaker 1: And what's the market value of this company today?
Speaker 2: So we're actually privately owned by Blackstone and the transaction
Speaker 2: was at about close to five billion Dollarsay, it was public,
Speaker 2: It was public about ten years ago, and now.
Speaker 1: It's privately owned by Blackstone.
Speaker 2: That's correct.
Speaker 1: Okay, So presumably Blackstone, since I know that business reasonly, well,
Speaker 1: they'll probably try to sell it at some point or
Speaker 1: take a public but not in the media future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think, look, you know there are owners,
Speaker 2: and I think you know our partnership with them is
Speaker 2: very very close.
Speaker 1: Right, So how are you going to grow the company?
Speaker 1: The company is now the biggest in the United States certainly
Speaker 1: maybe the biggest in the world. But everybody wants growth.
Speaker 1: So how are you going to grow the company? Or
Speaker 1: we have new lines of activity you're going to get
Speaker 1: into or something like that.
Speaker 2: Well, as I said, you know, seventy five percent of
Speaker 2: the United States has said that they're interested in family history,
Speaker 2: and you look at globally, actually in many key countries
Speaker 2: that we're in that's very similar as well. There's so
Speaker 2: many more people interested than are in the category today
Speaker 2: and part of that is pretty intimidating. And come to
Speaker 2: our site. You know, you're trying to figure out how
Speaker 2: to make it work. We want to make it simpler.
Speaker 2: And one of the things we're doing is on top
Speaker 2: of ancestry for all, we have something we call me
Speaker 2: to we so how do we actually take genealogy from
Speaker 2: this kind of solo activity where one person's doing it
Speaker 2: for the family and bring your family together so that
Speaker 2: as we're doing with my cousins, we're adding photos together,
Speaker 2: we're talking about those things. We're actually collecting family history,
Speaker 2: your one piece at a time.
Speaker 1: So what about your DNA and your ancestry of you
Speaker 1: to check that out?
Speaker 2: I have, I have done my DNA and no surprise,
Speaker 2: I am Southern Chinese and so my family is from
Speaker 2: guangzhel I.
Speaker 1: See, let's talk about your background for a moment. You
Speaker 1: grew up where.
Speaker 2: I grew up? Well, I was born in New York
Speaker 2: and when I was six, I moved to a small
Speaker 2: town in you're Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: And why did you do do that.
Speaker 2: So my dad actually was discriminating against at work, and
Speaker 2: my parents really felt like there wasn't a future for
Speaker 2: them in New York. And so his friend in Indianamerican
Speaker 2: family said, come down to Charleston. I work at the
Speaker 2: Charleston Naval Shipyard and the government doesn't discriminate. So my dad,
Speaker 2: I have no idea what he was thinking, picked up
Speaker 2: our whole family. We drove to a place he had
Speaker 2: never been, and we moved and became South Carolina.
Speaker 1: And were your parents immigrants from China or were they
Speaker 1: born here?
Speaker 2: So my parents were both immigrants from Hong Kong and
Speaker 2: they actually met and married here.
Speaker 1: And so you grew up in Charleston, right, yes? And
Speaker 1: so where'd you go to high school?
Speaker 2: I went to school. It's a place called Hanahan High School.
Speaker 2: So it's a small town about thirty minutes from Charleston.
Speaker 1: And then you went to Duke University I did. And
Speaker 1: were you an engineer student?
Speaker 2: I was. I studied civil and environmental engineering at Duke.
Speaker 1: Were there a lot of women in engineering at that time?
Speaker 2: Not at that time and probably still not as much
Speaker 2: as it could be today.
Speaker 1: And then after you graduated, what did you do.
Speaker 2: So I graduated and went to Boston Consulting Group. And
Speaker 2: then right after that, after a couple of years of
Speaker 2: being in the Atlanta office, I went to Stanford for
Speaker 2: business school.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you graduated from Stanford, and then where did
Speaker 1: you go?
Speaker 2: So it wasn't sure what I wanted to do with
Speaker 2: my life. We thought we wanted to move back to
Speaker 2: the South, and so we were looking for jobs, but
Speaker 2: the economy was terrible, and so I stumbled on the startup.
Speaker 2: It's called PayPal. Is actually fairly large today, but obviously
Speaker 2: when I was there, there were about three hundred people
Speaker 2: in Mountain View working at that company. And I joined.
Speaker 1: She joined PayPal, and what was your responsibility at PayPal?
Speaker 2: So I joined as a product manager. Back then, there
Speaker 2: weren't a lot of product managers, and I wasn't one
Speaker 2: hundred percent sure what the job was. When I showed up,
Speaker 2: they asked me, well, just tell us what you think
Speaker 2: we should build. And I thought, as an advid eBay seller,
Speaker 2: I was a power seller at one point. I I
Speaker 2: had all these things to make the selling experience better,
Speaker 2: and so I led the seller experience for a time
Speaker 2: and eventually led the integration between PayPal and eBay.
Speaker 1: Right, So after PayPal, where did you go?
Speaker 2: I finished up at PayPal after a few years. I
Speaker 2: had had my son, I was working part time. I
Speaker 2: was thinking about quitting tech. I was really struggling and
Speaker 2: feeling like I was making a difference. And I got
Speaker 2: a call to lead the buyer experience at eBay, where
Speaker 2: I spent a couple of years.
Speaker 1: And then after that, did you join Facebook at some point?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I got a call when I was actually on
Speaker 2: attorney leave with my daughter. So and my friend had
Speaker 2: joined Facebook and said, I have the perfect job for you.
Speaker 2: You need to come interview. And I thought, I'm nursing
Speaker 2: a newborn, I have a toddler, It's probably not the
Speaker 2: time to do another startup. And at the time Facebook
Speaker 2: was a startup, but I just had to see where
Speaker 2: it was going to go. And I joined Facebook when
Speaker 2: it was about nine hundred employees.
Speaker 1: And what was your job at Facebook?
Speaker 2: So I was in product marketing. So I was really
Speaker 2: there to build what we call consumer modization, so the
Speaker 2: alternative to ads. So is there a different different products
Speaker 2: we can do modization with outside of ads?
Speaker 1: Right? So how many years were you at Facebook?
Speaker 2: Eleven years? I was there for over a decade, right,
Speaker 2: so over.
Speaker 1: A decade and then somebody calls you a headhunter and says,
Speaker 1: how about Ancestry.
Speaker 2: Yes, I did actually get an email that said, Hey,
Speaker 2: there's a tech company looking for CEO. Do you want
Speaker 2: to talk to us? And at first I I had
Speaker 2: deleted a lot of those emails over the years, but
Speaker 2: I thought, I'm really interested, So you know.
Speaker 1: All right, So when was that?
Speaker 2: That was twenty twenty. It was during the lockdown, lots
Speaker 2: of things going on, but it is really interested in
Speaker 2: learning more.
Speaker 1: So that was about three years ago. So you've been
Speaker 1: the CEO for three years?
Speaker 2: Yeah, about two and a half years. Yea.
Speaker 1: So what is your biggest challenge now at anceftire? What
Speaker 1: are you trying to do that wasn't done before?
Speaker 2: Well, what's been amazing about Ancestry is it's been such
Speaker 2: a resilient company over so many generations, and yet there's
Speaker 2: so much more to do. And what I'd say is,
Speaker 2: you know, one of the things I really wanted us
Speaker 2: to do was really make Ancestry for all. How do
Speaker 2: we make the product not just amazing if you have
Speaker 2: European heritage, but across any heritage and so part of
Speaker 2: the work that we've been doing is really diversifying our product,
Speaker 2: making sure we're bringing in new communities, new content, to
Speaker 2: make it more possible for people from different backgrounds to
Speaker 2: have a great experience.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you have competitors who else competing with Ancestory.
Speaker 1: You don't have to mention their names if you don't
Speaker 1: want to, but I assume they're competitors.
Speaker 2: But I think a bigger competitor is really time. Right,
Speaker 2: this is a hobby where you're spending time on discovering
Speaker 2: your family history, so you know, things that compete for
Speaker 2: your time and attention is really our biggest competitor. The
Speaker 2: other thing is people learning about their family history. They
Speaker 2: use pencil and paper and research and we you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of what we're trying to do is bring
Speaker 2: digitize all of that and make it a lot easier.
Speaker 1: And so in the business of genealogy genealogy research, are
Speaker 1: you the biggest company in the United States?
Speaker 2: We are the biggest company in the United States, in
Speaker 2: the world, I believe in the world too.
Speaker 1: So in China, there's a lot of interest in genealogy historically,
Speaker 1: and I think it's the case that you can trace
Speaker 1: your genealogy back many hundreds of years, not a typically
Speaker 1: the case. There is there an equivalent in China of ancestry.
Speaker 2: Well, we do partner with a company called my China Roots,
Speaker 2: which does a little bit of you know, expat genealogy
Speaker 2: in China as well, and I've used them for my
Speaker 2: own family.
Speaker 1: When you did your own genealogy, what was the most
Speaker 1: surprising thing that you learned about your own genealogy?
Speaker 2: Well, what's really fascinating is, obviously, you know, beyond and
Speaker 2: point the records are from China and so I don't
Speaker 2: have access to those records. But what's fascinating is really
Speaker 2: seeing my cousins all come together and actually pull together
Speaker 2: photos from our family. Each of us have sections of
Speaker 2: the family photos from our parents' childhoods, and we realize
Speaker 2: that each of us only had a portion of them,
Speaker 2: and we've all been scanning them and actually putting them
Speaker 2: together onto ancestry.
Speaker 1: Now do you do the ancestry of let's say, presence
Speaker 1: of the United States? Have you've ever done that? Or
Speaker 1: Presence ever call you up and say can you chase
Speaker 1: my ancestry?
Speaker 2: We do have some well known people's ancestry on there's
Speaker 2: public trees that we have put out, and it's something
Speaker 2: that we have done for folks.
Speaker 1: And do people ever call you after they get their
Speaker 1: research down and they say, I'm not happy with what
Speaker 1: I learned.
Speaker 2: Actually, a lot of people it's really a journey sometimes
Speaker 2: what they learned for the first time and how they
Speaker 2: feel the first call versus the second, versus the third.
Speaker 2: People are processing new information about themselves that they might
Speaker 2: never have known, and so part of that is part
Speaker 2: of what we do is try to help them along
Speaker 2: in that journey. I don't think that it's about discrimination,
Speaker 2: and like my dad faced, it's much more about kind
Speaker 2: of what societal expectations are. I have three kids, I
Speaker 2: want on three maternity leaves. You did to slow my
Speaker 2: career down during those six years. I wasn't promoted at all.
Speaker 2: In fact, I took a demotion to go to Facebook.
Speaker 2: And so I don't think it's as easy as pointing
Speaker 2: to one thing and saying, hey, this was a circumstance,
Speaker 2: like what happened to my father. It's much more of
Speaker 2: how do we build workplaces where it makes it possible
Speaker 2: for everyone to rise together.
Speaker 1: You've written a book about how women can maybe get
Speaker 1: ahead in their careers. So what prompted you to write
Speaker 1: that book, when did you have time to write it,
Speaker 1: and what are the main lessons that somebody who hasn't
Speaker 1: read the book yet might learn from you? Right now?
Speaker 1: About the book?
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, I started this book Journey actually several
Speaker 2: years ago. It was actually a four year process, and
Speaker 2: when I was working on it, it was because I was
Speaker 2: coaching a lot of women. So at that point I
Speaker 2: had coached maybe one thousand women over the years. I
Speaker 2: do these fifteen minute calls to help and help them
Speaker 2: through their careers, and I realized a lot of the
Speaker 2: themes were so similar, and so I pulled them together
Speaker 2: and a lot of the advice I put in the
Speaker 2: book was based on those conversations that I had over
Speaker 2: that eight year period, and I was able to pull
Speaker 2: it together into ten rules for new Women, ten new
Speaker 2: rules for women at work. And those rules are really
Speaker 2: to help women take back their powers, I say, which
Speaker 2: is you know every day, you know there are so
Speaker 2: many circumstances where you don't have a lot of power,
Speaker 2: But when you do taking advantage of those opportunities and
Speaker 2: really leaning in and making things happen, that's really what
Speaker 2: the book is about right.
Speaker 1: I suppose I don't want to spend the money to
Speaker 1: buy the book, but I'm thinking about buying the book,
Speaker 1: and I'm a woman. Can you give me one tip
Speaker 1: or something or one thing that you would say somebody
Speaker 1: should do if they want to rise up there a
Speaker 1: woman in a business environment.
Speaker 2: Well, give you an example, you know, don't give yourself
Speaker 2: a free pass? Right, how many times before you turn
Speaker 2: on that zoom meeting, before you show up to a meeting,
Speaker 2: do you tell yourself, well, I'm just going to show
Speaker 2: up and not say anything. I'm not going to have
Speaker 2: any impact. I'm just going to sit in the back.
Speaker 2: Like my friend caroliz Azaki, who's a leadership coach, calls
Speaker 2: it ridiculous, unintentional, ridiculous strategies that we employ. But then
Speaker 2: how many times, you know, do you actually even meaning
Speaker 2: when you just did that where you didn't have an impact?
Speaker 2: So what if you walked in every meeting every day
Speaker 2: with intention? What do I want to accomplish today? How
Speaker 2: do I want to show up and just made those
Speaker 2: choices and the things that don't matter, just cut those
Speaker 2: things away? Really kind of no longer giving yourself a
Speaker 2: free pass and saying, you know what, I'm just not
Speaker 2: going to get that done. That's really critical.
Speaker 1: So did you write this when you were at Facebook
Speaker 1: or so.
Speaker 2: I wrote it over for your period and partly when
Speaker 2: I was at Facebook.
Speaker 1: And there was somebody else at Facebook that wrote a
Speaker 1: book about women leaning in. You're probably familiar with that book.
Speaker 1: Did she say, Hey, look, this is my territory. You
Speaker 1: don't write a book about this.
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you the definitive answer. She wrote
Speaker 2: the forward to my book, So you can watch the book.
Speaker 2: You you could read her thoughts on it.
Speaker 1: Okay, any more books than the works, I.
Speaker 2: Think I'm good for book writing for now. I actually
Speaker 2: write a weekly newsletter though, where I share some thoughts
Speaker 2: that I'm having top of mind.
Speaker 1: So you've been in the technology world for most of
Speaker 1: your professional career. Where do you think the tech world
Speaker 1: is going as artificial intelligence is going to eat up
Speaker 1: the rest of the tech world, and where do you
Speaker 1: think the future of technology is going in Silicon Valley
Speaker 1: and elsewhere over the next five or ten years.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that one thing we talk about when
Speaker 2: we talk about technology is we have this kind of
Speaker 2: monolithic idea of what it is, but actually Technology is
Speaker 2: changing different industries at different paces in so many different ways.
Speaker 2: And if you think about the things, you know, what
Speaker 2: was technology like twenty years ago before the iPhone, for example,
Speaker 2: and where it is today. The ability to have you
Speaker 2: know answers in your pocket Jenai is going to make
Speaker 2: it easier to access more information faster. How do we
Speaker 2: think about all those things and where is that going
Speaker 2: to go beyond this? I actually very bullish on technology
Speaker 2: because technology is an underpinning. It's not its own industry,
Speaker 2: it is a part of every industry, and it's actually
Speaker 2: going to increase productivity and actually make our lives better.
Speaker 1: I see. So do you think technology is still going
Speaker 1: to be centered in the United State it's largely around
Speaker 1: the Silicon Valley area, or is it going to change?
Speaker 2: I think that what's amazing about what technology has done
Speaker 2: over the last twenty years also is that you know,
Speaker 2: now you can start an app anywhere in the world,
Speaker 2: you can live anywhere, you can have you know aws,
Speaker 2: and you can set up and not have to have
Speaker 2: a system ANDAs administrator or a server that you have
Speaker 2: to build. You know. Now, it's made it so much
Speaker 2: easier with these tools to actually look at a problem
Speaker 2: that you have and solve it anywhere, and so I
Speaker 2: actually think that distributes the ability for us to bring
Speaker 2: technology together any place.
Speaker 1: So artificial intelligence AI has changed the world and is
Speaker 1: changing the world dramatically. People believe, what is AI going
Speaker 1: to be able to do for you or not do
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 2: Well, I think one of the most incredible things about
Speaker 2: AI is gen AI is coming and it's changing the
Speaker 2: way we're doing things. But what you have to remember
Speaker 2: is so much of what we do every day actually
Speaker 2: is already involving AI. I'll give you an example. So
Speaker 2: last year, nineteen fifty census came and you know you
Speaker 2: have these you have millions of pages of these records
Speaker 2: that are handwritten, just people, you know, going door to
Speaker 2: door and writing it down. And you know, we had
Speaker 2: done the nineteen forty census ten years before that. It
Speaker 2: took us nine months to digitize it, people typing things,
Speaker 2: indexing it manually this time in nineteen fifty. So last
Speaker 2: year it took us nine days to do the same thing.
Speaker 2: And it's because we had built AI around handwriting recognition,
Speaker 2: and it allows us to accelerate so much of the work.
Speaker 2: That's why we can go from forty billion records to
Speaker 2: another fifteen billion in just one year because of the
Speaker 2: technology that we have built over the years. Jenai is
Speaker 2: the type of AI that's coming that's really helping people
Speaker 2: to discover things in a different way. So AI is
Speaker 2: a very vast field, and jenai is one subset of that.
Speaker 2: JENAI is really helping to understand storytelling. So, for example,
Speaker 2: you know, my parents immigrated in the sixties, what was
Speaker 2: it like and why were Asian Americans coming in such
Speaker 2: large rates in the nineteen sixties. A lot of that
Speaker 2: has to do with such a history around the Chinese
Speaker 2: Exclusion Act and those types of things. And with genai
Speaker 2: in line, we can actually answer that question. We can
Speaker 2: answer questions of you know, the experience your grandparents might
Speaker 2: have had with the Spanish flu in Chicago, you know,
Speaker 2: these types of things, and we think that that's going
Speaker 2: to engage people to really learn more about how their
Speaker 2: parents came to America, how their grandparents lived through various
Speaker 2: world events, and it's going to be really powerful for people.
Speaker 1: But most of what you do, or a lot of it,
Speaker 1: I think, is based on public records that exist, but
Speaker 1: sometimes public records don't always have the full story. So
Speaker 1: do you have people Sometimes if you have a service
Speaker 1: where you say, okay, the public records shows A, B
Speaker 1: and C. But if you want to know about DEE
Speaker 1: and F, you have to do more legwork. You have
Speaker 1: to go out and talk to people, or you don't
Speaker 1: do that well.
Speaker 2: So you know, if you actually think about our record collection,
Speaker 2: seventy percent of our forty million, forty billion records are
Speaker 2: actually proprietary. So you know, just what public records are
Speaker 2: available is available on our site, but we have so
Speaker 2: much more records that we have gotten from archives and
Speaker 2: partnerships over the years. And then beyond that, we have
Speaker 2: people who are every day organizing those records, augmenting them.
Speaker 2: They can comment on them and actually makes them richer.
Speaker 2: They're actually attaching it to people, so that a record
Speaker 2: might not look like it's related to your great uncle,
Speaker 2: but actually somebody has put it on their tree and
Speaker 2: you can actually explore it as well. And so it's
Speaker 2: really kind of both the what is available in our archive,
Speaker 2: but then the work that humans have put in as
Speaker 2: subscribers to really make their experience great. That's put that
Speaker 2: together that allows us to make that experience.
Speaker 1: Good for you. I made a speech not long ago
Speaker 1: at a genealogical society in New England, and as a
Speaker 1: gift to me, they gave me my genealogy had some
Speaker 1: things in there I prefer not to know. But okay,
Speaker 1: but they were based on public records. But if I
Speaker 1: went to your service and became a subscriber, would I
Speaker 1: learn a lot more?
Speaker 2: Yes, you could potentially learn a ton more because there
Speaker 2: might be records you're not seen. One thing we have
Speaker 2: is the archive of newspapers dot com, where you might
Speaker 2: be all the newspaper mentions. We might have trees that
Speaker 2: other people have built, so it goes even deeper than
Speaker 2: maybe what you were able to somebody one individual can do.
Speaker 2: We actually have the power of the community that helps
Speaker 2: build better and deeper experiences.
Speaker 1: So if somebody doesn't know much about ancestry and they
Speaker 1: are watching this, what would be the best reason why
Speaker 1: they should go on to your website and become a subscriber.
Speaker 1: What is it that you have that is unique and
Speaker 1: why somebody should know more about their background?
Speaker 2: Well, so much of our our lives is shaped by
Speaker 2: decisions made by our ancestors, right the choice of my parents.
Speaker 2: I talked to my parents about when they came to America.
Speaker 2: They just picked up, went to a country with two
Speaker 2: suitcases and a few hundred dollars and said, I want
Speaker 2: to start a new life, not knowing whether they would
Speaker 2: ever make enough money to even return home. That journey
Speaker 2: is so incredible, and yet that journey is something I
Speaker 2: know about because it was so approximately, so close to
Speaker 2: what happened, because it happened in nineteen sixty, but that
Speaker 2: happened with sixteen hundred, seventeen hundred and eighteen hundreds that
Speaker 2: brought people all of the world that make you who
Speaker 2: you are today. And I think that that journey is
Speaker 2: so important to understand because it makes you who you are.
Speaker 1: Well, very interesting business, and you expect to stay running
Speaker 1: this for quite some time, I assume absolutely.
Speaker 2: I love it and it's so interesting every day to
Speaker 2: feel like we're helping so many people really discover things
Speaker 2: about themselves.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
Speaker 1: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen.