Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Really really excited about our next guest,
Speaker 1: Michael mo co founder of gs V Asset Management, long
Speaker 1: time thinker, investor, just all around good guy and full confession,
Speaker 1: full disclosure. A friend of mine joining us on the
Speaker 1: phone from Woodside, California. Michael, it's just great to hear
Speaker 1: your voice. How are you. I'm doing well, Jason, great
Speaker 1: to hear your voice as well. All right, well, I
Speaker 1: wish we were having this conversation at the Village Pub
Speaker 1: right next door to where you are, but uh, here
Speaker 1: we are. First of all, you know, what's it like
Speaker 1: out there? You're in California? Obviously, you know, before New
Speaker 1: York became the epicenter, you know, northern California really was
Speaker 1: where people's attention was focused. What do you make of it?
Speaker 1: What's going on around there? Well? I mean I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, clearly everywhere people are are UM
Speaker 1: a little bit of a shock, and I think you know,
Speaker 1: the fear of the virus, you know, has UM really
Speaker 1: kind of consumed many people's thinking and behavior, and when
Speaker 1: people get scared, and I think many a lot of
Speaker 1: people are scared. You know, it's hard to focus on
Speaker 1: much else, and so I think, jelly speaking, that's kind
Speaker 1: of it. It's a little bit eerie. It's you know,
Speaker 1: I live in a place where there is typically a
Speaker 1: lot going on, a lot of energy, and it's very
Speaker 1: very quiet. Yeah, and I think we do wonder, Michael,
Speaker 1: you know, how much of kind of how we're adjusting
Speaker 1: our lives at this point, how much of it once
Speaker 1: we get through this. I'm assuming we, of course, will
Speaker 1: you know that how much of it stays with us
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, concerns about viruses because there
Speaker 1: will be more viruses to come, but also how we're
Speaker 1: kind of adapting our work lives, a lot of us
Speaker 1: working from home and the ability to do that. I
Speaker 1: just wonder, you know, we had a conversation with someone
Speaker 1: who talked a well known investor, Cathy Wood, who invest
Speaker 1: in disruption, and she says, you know, when you see
Speaker 1: market disrupt and that's where you kind of get innovation
Speaker 1: and opportunity. So I wonder, you know, if you're looking
Speaker 1: at it in a similar way, that's clearly where the
Speaker 1: half is glass, the half the glasses half full. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've seen this over and over again, where you've had
Speaker 1: this location and disruption, you've also had huge opportunities, and
Speaker 1: so I think, what's exciting And then again, this is
Speaker 1: a very serious situation and and obviously the most important
Speaker 1: thing is health and safety, but you are seeing people
Speaker 1: in their creativity and the innovation thinking about what you know,
Speaker 1: what does this mean and where does this go? So
Speaker 1: I like to say, is we were it was? It
Speaker 1: was BC before, that's before Corona, and now we've got
Speaker 1: a d which is going to be after the disease,
Speaker 1: and these opportunities that emerge a d UM I think
Speaker 1: are going to be I'm very exciting. And so that's
Speaker 1: part of what we're doing is focus on what those
Speaker 1: opportunities might be and also understand what it means for
Speaker 1: kind of companies that UM grew up in the old world. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: one of the things I wanted to make sure we
Speaker 1: talked about Michael was you know, normally this time of year,
Speaker 1: you are like in the thick of planning this massive
Speaker 1: conference that you do in in San Diego and partnership
Speaker 1: with Arizona State. I believe you you bring together some
Speaker 1: huge speakers to talk about the future of education, education, technology,
Speaker 1: and tech specifically. I guess two things. It seems like
Speaker 1: you've made a big decision to do a lot of
Speaker 1: that virtually this year. Tell us about that. First, Well,
Speaker 1: we're shifting the physical conference to the fall UM with
Speaker 1: the hopes that things will be UM more or less
Speaker 1: back to normal by that. But we didn't want to
Speaker 1: lose the UM opportunity to convene people that we're gonna
Speaker 1: do it virtually, So we're gonna have a one day
Speaker 1: virtual event UM next Wednesday, April one, and we called us,
Speaker 1: you know, the dawn of the age of digital Learning.
Speaker 1: Because while digital learning has been you know, growing at
Speaker 1: a very healthy clip up until UM, you know this,
Speaker 1: the coronavirus has really been a major catalyst to accelerate this.
Speaker 1: And with whether you're a parent, whether you're a K
Speaker 1: twelve school you know, there's one point four billion kids
Speaker 1: around the world right now that that we're going to
Speaker 1: school now our home UM. You know, universities are scrambling
Speaker 1: to figure out what they do to UM, you know,
Speaker 1: to provide courses for for their for their college students,
Speaker 1: and corporations there are reimagining what they need to do
Speaker 1: to upscale reschool, their their work force. So it is
Speaker 1: as much of this is a a very difficult situation
Speaker 1: for society, for the economy, for online learning. Um, it's
Speaker 1: it's I think, you know, it's based an accelerant to
Speaker 1: the future. Well, and the same thing with like I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, using the virtual world in terms of distance
Speaker 1: and reaching out to our medical community, right in terms
Speaker 1: of telehealth. UM, I mean, I wonder if that is
Speaker 1: something that we look at very differently coming out on
Speaker 1: the other side, for sure. I mean again, I think
Speaker 1: this has been it has been a total shift in
Speaker 1: terms of how people you think about what you know,
Speaker 1: those sort of the realities of of an interconnected world,
Speaker 1: urbanization and uh and and globalization that that you know,
Speaker 1: the pandemics. You know, people that are you know, worry
Speaker 1: about you know, things that could happen in the future
Speaker 1: have been worried about pandemics for some time. But really
Speaker 1: this is the first time where it's been you know,
Speaker 1: basically relevant to everybody. And I think that kind of
Speaker 1: you know, mind shift is going to affect This isn't
Speaker 1: because the genie is not going back in the bottle.
Speaker 1: I think it's a permanent shift about how people think
Speaker 1: about UM activity and how they've done how they do
Speaker 1: things in the future differently than maybe they did in
Speaker 1: the past. Let's get back to our conversation with Michael
Speaker 1: mo He is out in California and it's co founder
Speaker 1: of GSV Asset Management. Michael, great to have you still
Speaker 1: with us. And you know you wrote a book a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago that I read. It's fantastic, and
Speaker 1: it's about Global Silicon Valley. This whole notion of the
Speaker 1: Global Silicon Valley is the Global Silicon Valley Handbook is
Speaker 1: the technical title. Um, but you have really explored this
Speaker 1: notion of this interconnected world and this notion that the ideas,
Speaker 1: the ethos of Silicon Valley is much wider spread than
Speaker 1: just the place where you happen to be sitting right now.
Speaker 1: Does this dent that ambition at all or does it
Speaker 1: strengthen it? Yeah, I think it's actually is going to
Speaker 1: strengthen it. And I think that's partially You've had this
Speaker 1: trend that's been going on for a dozen years. Oh
Speaker 1: you know, the front g s V stands for Global
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley and so to your point, you know, the
Speaker 1: mindset of innovation and entrepreneurship that's made Silicon Valley is
Speaker 1: such an amazing place and I've been fortunate to live
Speaker 1: in for twenty five years, is going, you know, spreading
Speaker 1: throughout the world. And you're looking at the ambition that
Speaker 1: exists with young people that want to not work for
Speaker 1: the large company but want to start their own business.
Speaker 1: And you know, in today's world, where you know you're
Speaker 1: gonna have more difficulated hiring is going to not be
Speaker 1: as robust as what we've seen the last five years,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see that likely accelerate because your opportunity costs
Speaker 1: to start a business is lower. And so what we're
Speaker 1: seeing is from you know, from Austin to Boston, from
Speaker 1: Chicago to Salpallo, from Mumbai to Shanghai. Do by this
Speaker 1: emergence of this global Silicon valley and just to put
Speaker 1: some meat on the bones. In terms of data, ten
Speaker 1: years ago, of all venture capitals the United States, and
Speaker 1: much of that was Silicon Valley. Last year, fifty of
Speaker 1: all venture capital was outside of the States. This shift
Speaker 1: has been dramatic, and it's excited. It's great. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, the US is excuse me, US is four
Speaker 1: percent of the world population, So spreading a democratizing entrepreneurship,
Speaker 1: you know, creating opportunities wherever you might be. You don't
Speaker 1: have to move to Silicon Valley to start an idea
Speaker 1: that could be transformed of I think that's very very
Speaker 1: positive vote for entrepreneurs, but also for society overall. Right,
Speaker 1: creates a competitive environment, and as Jason knows, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: competitive kind of person. But I think, but I think,
Speaker 1: but I think it makes all of us and he
Speaker 1: is too, and it makes the world or makes us
Speaker 1: all better. But I do wonder you've heard some of
Speaker 1: the conversations Michael about um you know kind of a
Speaker 1: tech you know war between uh China and the United States.
Speaker 1: How do you see does you look around the globe?
Speaker 1: Are we are we going to be entering that kind
Speaker 1: of phase? And is that a good kind of war
Speaker 1: to be having? If so, well, I think the war
Speaker 1: of creating better product and better technology is going to
Speaker 1: ultimately benefit UM, society and and everybody. I mean, when
Speaker 1: you go to China. I've been to China twenty times
Speaker 1: in the last three years, and the thing I know
Speaker 1: about China is the more I go, the less I know.
Speaker 1: But I also know the ambition of the people in
Speaker 1: China is remarkable. So it used to be the place
Speaker 1: that you know, was was a copier. You know, they
Speaker 1: were the imitator. Now they're the innovator. And so there
Speaker 1: is like artificial intelligence, it's gonna push you know, other
Speaker 1: geographies include the United States to compete and I think
Speaker 1: the you know, the kind of the noise with the
Speaker 1: with the China US trade war. You know, while that's
Speaker 1: created a lot of um, you know, some a lot
Speaker 1: a lot of noise, I think ultimately it should have
Speaker 1: a benefit to to level of playing field that ultimately,
Speaker 1: you know, benefits everybody that wants to compete on more
Speaker 1: a fair basis. So anyway, I think and there's no absolute, um,
Speaker 1: you know answer, but the but the but the overall
Speaker 1: gravity of this as I think it's it's going to
Speaker 1: accelerate innovation and technology. It's gonna benefit society, it's gonna
Speaker 1: benefit business. And so, you know, Michael, one of the
Speaker 1: reasons I love talking to you and especially like having
Speaker 1: dinner with you, is you just you can be so
Speaker 1: expansive in a lot of ways. And I've seen some
Speaker 1: very provocative presentations that you've given. As I was alluding
Speaker 1: to earlier You have a great historical perspective about the markets,
Speaker 1: about economies globally and domestically. Put this in perspective for us.
Speaker 1: We keep throwing around words like unprecedented, which it is
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, But help us give us
Speaker 1: some context here and maybe they'll make us feel a
Speaker 1: little bit better about this disruptive time we seem to
Speaker 1: be living in. Well, I think what we've seen. I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, anytime you've seen a number of times,
Speaker 1: anytimes you have a greater decline, eighty percent of the
Speaker 1: time that's followed by recession. So I think that's a reality.
Speaker 1: Do you have a V shape? You have a U
Speaker 1: shaped to have an L shape. I'm bullish that you
Speaker 1: have overall um platform in terms of business opportunity and
Speaker 1: activity that will when when you get the panic behind us,
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be back to normal, but I think
Speaker 1: you're going to see things that emerge. And to the
Speaker 1: earlier part of our conversation, I think you can see
Speaker 1: new areas or ears that existed, but all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you see this boom and acceleration. Obviously you know
Speaker 1: I mean zoom and slacker or two places is that um,
Speaker 1: you know, just it just it's you know that that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a mega way for a long time. Are
Speaker 1: the area that's personal, that's that's near and dear to
Speaker 1: your heart, personal fitness. You look at these, you know,
Speaker 1: the companies of the the Pelotons, the Tonals, the mirrors.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is you see more and more of innovation,
Speaker 1: you know, in in that in that world. And and
Speaker 1: and again with the great news about entrepreneurs, and they
Speaker 1: solve problems, they run to wait space, they're right to
Speaker 1: run two issues. And I think you're gonna see very
Speaker 1: exciting companies like we saw after the financial crisis. You
Speaker 1: had you know, you had Square, you had Stripe, you
Speaker 1: had Uber. You know, all these these are all in
Speaker 1: the in the rubble of the mess of the financial crisis.
Speaker 1: And again I think I'm hopeful, I'm optimistic like we've seen,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout history basically that new leaders emerged from
Speaker 1: disruptive times. All right, we're gonna leave it there. We
Speaker 1: can talk to you, Michael mo You're the best. Come
Speaker 1: see us in New York. Well see you in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: Once this is all uh said and done. Always appreciate
Speaker 1: the Village Pub. It's the Village Pub, and it's one
Speaker 1: of the best restaurants I've ever been to, and it's
Speaker 1: a great place to go and hang out with Michael
Speaker 1: mo have a nice glass of wine and a nice dinner,
Speaker 1: and hopefully solve some of the problems of the world.
Speaker 1: Michael Mo is the co founder of Global Silicon Valley
Speaker 1: GSV Asset Management. His books really worth reading Global Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley Handbook and finding the Next Starbucks. A fascinating uh
Speaker 1: career that he has had