Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power Colli
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily jay I. Remember we check at San Francisco and
Speaker 1: this is Bloomberg Technology coming up the next hour. Twitter
Speaker 1: is shrinking Elon Musk, laying off half the workforce around
Speaker 1: thirty seven h people as he restructures the entire company. Meantime,
Speaker 1: brands continue to mull ads on Twitter, and Musk is
Speaker 1: doing away with policies like a once a month rest
Speaker 1: day and war plus self driving technology under the regulatory microscope.
Speaker 1: As we ached closer to a future with driverless cars,
Speaker 1: we talked about the challenging road ahead with Aurora, CEO
Speaker 1: of Chris Urmson, and another tough day for Peloton after
Speaker 1: revenue fell way short of expectations. Still, CEO Barry McCarthy
Speaker 1: is confident to turnaround plan will work sooner than expected.
Speaker 1: We will discuss all of that in a moment, but
Speaker 1: first I want to dig into those layoffs that Bloomberg
Speaker 1: has learned will happen at Twitter. Musk planning to lay
Speaker 1: off about thirty seven hundred people, half the current workforce.
Speaker 1: Our sources telling us he plans to tell the workers
Speaker 1: who will be affected on Friday. Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner of
Speaker 1: course critical along with ed to our reporting on all
Speaker 1: of these latest Twitter developments. Kurt, where are these jobs
Speaker 1: going to come from? What do we know? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: mean this is company wide. Um, it's not necessarily going
Speaker 1: to be in any particular area. Well, the one thing
Speaker 1: that Ellen has kind of stressed that the product and
Speaker 1: engineering seemed to be where his focuses. So it's possible
Speaker 1: that you know, that might be a little bit less
Speaker 1: impacted than something like, um, you know, trust and safety
Speaker 1: or policy legal things like that. But you know, this
Speaker 1: is a part of his strategy to try and get
Speaker 1: the company into a better financial situation. Right, he paid
Speaker 1: forty four billion dollars for Twitter. They now have these
Speaker 1: huge debt payments that they're going to have to start
Speaker 1: paying off for these interest payments. Um, and you know
Speaker 1: part of his plan is let's cut head count. So
Speaker 1: how are Twitter employees feeling right now? I mean, the
Speaker 1: acts is going to come down on Friday, and nobody
Speaker 1: knows if they're going to be cut yet. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1: And they're not only that, Emily, they haven't heard from
Speaker 1: Elon Musk at all since the deal clothes, they haven't
Speaker 1: heard from any other leadership, right. Everyone's kind of talking
Speaker 1: with their managers, but there's been no company wide messaging
Speaker 1: at all. All of the C suite um, you know, CEO, CMO, CFO,
Speaker 1: all of those folks were fired last week or early
Speaker 1: this week. So if you're employee at Twitter, you're getting
Speaker 1: your information from places like Bloomberg or from other media outlets, right,
Speaker 1: and that's where you're finding out what's happening at your
Speaker 1: own company. And so that's quite unsettling for a lot
Speaker 1: of people, especially when you're sitting around wondering, am I
Speaker 1: going to be employed by the end of the week.
Speaker 1: So this is a stressful time internally, to say the least.
Speaker 1: Um and a lot of employees we're seeing are sort
Speaker 1: of looking out for each other, trying to give best
Speaker 1: tips on what happens when you get laid off. Hey,
Speaker 1: let let me make references for you, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: You know, they're trying to to take care of each
Speaker 1: other because the company doesn't seem to be doing it
Speaker 1: for them. Meantime, we've just got this headline from Dow
Speaker 1: Jones at a number of pretty prominent advertisers are pausing
Speaker 1: ads on Twitter. I mean, do you think that this
Speaker 1: is going to become a bigger thing? I mean, we
Speaker 1: talked about the potential for a boycott. Does it get
Speaker 1: to that, Well, this is what I think we're talking
Speaker 1: about yesterday, and I think that the chance of a
Speaker 1: boycott not only seems possible, but I do think it
Speaker 1: seems like a really big deal. And again, it's because
Speaker 1: the time we saw this happen with Facebook, all the
Speaker 1: key executives that the todd the Sheryl Sandberg's and those
Speaker 1: at the top of the company on the business side,
Speaker 1: they went out and they did damage control for days, right,
Speaker 1: And we're just not going to see that at Twitter
Speaker 1: because all the people at the top of a company
Speaker 1: are gone. And so when you have these big advertisers,
Speaker 1: and Twitter is very much a relationship driven advertising business
Speaker 1: because they don't have that, you know, very intimate direct
Speaker 1: response type stuff. When you have these big advertisers really
Speaker 1: being cautious or putting things on pause, you don't have
Speaker 1: the people inside of Twitter to necessarily go to them
Speaker 1: and reassure them like some of these other big ad
Speaker 1: companies might. So I think it's a I think it's
Speaker 1: a dangerous thing that's happening here. And tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about what we know about how decisions are
Speaker 1: being made on the inside, who's making the decisions, and
Speaker 1: how things that are being communicated are actually being communicated. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we know that Ellen is making the decisions, right, and
Speaker 1: the best I can I can tell is that a
Speaker 1: lot of things are being done very quickly and sort
Speaker 1: of haphazardly. Right, I mean, even this change, they're going
Speaker 1: to raise the price of their subscription product to eight dollars,
Speaker 1: and they're going to add some new features, including the
Speaker 1: blue check verification. You know, we saw him sort of
Speaker 1: like work shopping this publicly on Twitter, right, He's like tweeting, Hey,
Speaker 1: would you pay for this? How much would you pay?
Speaker 1: What features would you want? And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: he just announced it the next day. And so we're
Speaker 1: seeing there's a very small group of folks, including some
Speaker 1: venture capitalists, who are sort of advising him here. But
Speaker 1: really it feels like Ellen is sort of um, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of making this up as he goes along. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned, there's not a lot of um messaging coming
Speaker 1: from the top of the company at all. So unless
Speaker 1: you're in a particular group working on a specific problem
Speaker 1: for him, you don't really know what's happening at the company.
Speaker 1: All right, Kurt, and I'll let you get back to
Speaker 1: work in the phone signal, your Twitter, d M s
Speaker 1: and all the ways you're breaking all this news. Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: Kurt Wagner, thank you for the update. Last month, a
Speaker 1: venture capital firm CRV announced one and a half billion
Speaker 1: dollars and funding across two funds, which means more dry
Speaker 1: powder to take advantage of low value tions. But how
Speaker 1: are firms thinking about how to deploy all that cash
Speaker 1: and potentially very long downturn. Kristan Baker Spone is a
Speaker 1: general partner at CRV and joins me now. Kristen, how
Speaker 1: is crvs strategy evolving in the midst of this downturn?
Speaker 1: What are you all talking about around the partner table.
Speaker 1: Around the partner table, we're talking about how we're continuing
Speaker 1: to play to our strengths. CRV has been in business
Speaker 1: for over fifty two years and focused on backing founders
Speaker 1: at the early stages. We raised one point five billion dollars,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, to continue to do that and invested
Speaker 1: the earliest stages, partnering with founders that are building game
Speaker 1: changing companies. So are you waiting for valuations to come down?
Speaker 1: And are you finding enough places to put that cash
Speaker 1: given so many companies out there are struggling. We're seeing
Speaker 1: valuations compressed across the board. You even just mentioned some
Speaker 1: books out in the public markets that are seeing valuations compress,
Speaker 1: and we're seeing that play out again across the private
Speaker 1: sector as well. That being said, at the early stages,
Speaker 1: we're backing founders that are in this journey for the
Speaker 1: long haul. And as someone who focuses on health tech,
Speaker 1: healthcare isn't completely recession proof, but it's definitely a defensive
Speaker 1: place to be in the market where there's continued to
Speaker 1: be spend an innovation and technology adoption. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about health tech because I know that's your focus. Is
Speaker 1: it as cool as it was in the middle of
Speaker 1: the pandemic or not? Well, I continue to think it's
Speaker 1: very cool. That being said, I think that there was
Speaker 1: a really interesting we had a watershed moment during the
Speaker 1: pandemic where there were a number of trends that were
Speaker 1: already happening across whether it's consumerism and healthcare adoption of
Speaker 1: technology bringing AI into healthcare delivery that the pandemic helped unlock,
Speaker 1: and that activation energy and that pent up demand was released.
Speaker 1: Now as the market has cooled, we're continuing to see
Speaker 1: those trends play out, but at a much more at
Speaker 1: a much more um reasonable pay ace of technology adoption.
Speaker 1: A few companies that a highlight, you know, one being
Speaker 1: a company Wheel. You just had the logo up on
Speaker 1: the screen. Weigel is in the health, telehealth and marketplace
Speaker 1: space where it's helping unlock telehealth for large tech companies,
Speaker 1: for large providers as well as for companies that are
Speaker 1: trying to put great care in the hands of consumers
Speaker 1: like you and me. So what is it about health
Speaker 1: tech that you know specifically? It's like to you. We
Speaker 1: have Apple coming into this, Google, Amazon trying to get
Speaker 1: in to health tech. Is that a threat that big
Speaker 1: tech giants want in or is that an opportunity? I
Speaker 1: think it's an opportunity. We're seeing a number of large
Speaker 1: players come into the space. You mentioned Amazon buying one Medical.
Speaker 1: We're hearing rumors of Apple getting into the health insurance game.
Speaker 1: We're seeing Google continue to play in the data space.
Speaker 1: I think it's a recognition of how technology has been
Speaker 1: in healthcare bit of a laggered into story um and
Speaker 1: there's so much opportunity to bring healthcare into the hands
Speaker 1: of not only clinicians but also individuals like you and me,
Speaker 1: in order to bring us the care that we need
Speaker 1: when we need it, so many of us. You know,
Speaker 1: for the very first time during the pandemic, did at
Speaker 1: home Diagnostics had our first telehealth visit. But there's also
Speaker 1: a huge opportunity to drive better efficiency in the care
Speaker 1: delivery system across the board. Meantime, more broadly, the world
Speaker 1: is falling apart and Silicon Valley is kind of crumbling.
Speaker 1: We've seen layoffs across the board. We just talked about
Speaker 1: thirty people about to lose their jobs at Twitter. Does
Speaker 1: this how broader ramifications on the startup ecosystem. They're definitely
Speaker 1: broad our immifications across the startup ecosystem, and that's why
Speaker 1: you know the breadth and depth of the firm like CRV,
Speaker 1: where we've partnered at the early stage, but also seeing
Speaker 1: a number of different ups and downs in the market.
Speaker 1: And this is where you know, we're seeing leaders make
Speaker 1: really tough decisions and the leaders are that are making
Speaker 1: tough decisions, are focusing not just on growth. Growth is
Speaker 1: necessary but not sufficient. How are they focusing and investing
Speaker 1: in their companies and in the future R and D
Speaker 1: as well as the growth to drive scalable business models
Speaker 1: and build the game changing companies that were excited to
Speaker 1: continue to back. So what advice are you giving startup
Speaker 1: founders right now given these tough market conditions. As a
Speaker 1: board member and a partner to many of the founders
Speaker 1: that I work with, I'm trying to help them see
Speaker 1: around corners and see what's coming down the pike. And
Speaker 1: I think one of the key things that founders are
Speaker 1: focusing on is not just how can they have clear
Speaker 1: eyes and continue to focus on their business but also
Speaker 1: make the tough decisions. You know, oftentimes, uh, it can
Speaker 1: be it can be tempting to continue to want to
Speaker 1: see the world play out. But what I see are
Speaker 1: those folks that are those founders that are making the
Speaker 1: tough decisions with clear eyes, with advice from their executive
Speaker 1: teams as well as their investor partners, are going to
Speaker 1: be the ones that cannot just weather the storm, but
Speaker 1: hopefully emerge even stronger. So talk to me a little
Speaker 1: bit then about the founders you think that will or
Speaker 1: can be successful at a time like this. I mean
Speaker 1: people are calling this, you know, dot com bust two
Speaker 1: point oh. I mean this could go down in the
Speaker 1: history books as a tectonic shift in you know, the industry.
Speaker 1: You know, the companies that survive and the companies that
Speaker 1: do not. We continue to focus on backing not only
Speaker 1: passionate founders, but Emily, you just mentioned how tough the
Speaker 1: times are. The word that comes to mind is grit.
Speaker 1: Are you founders and companies that can be gritty and
Speaker 1: not just as I mentioned, move through this time, but
Speaker 1: potentially emerge stronger. I also look for founders that are beacons,
Speaker 1: that are beacons for talent, that will continue to be
Speaker 1: beacons for customers and for capital even in the tough times.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to continue to see investment in
Speaker 1: really high quality teams and really high quality businesses. Those
Speaker 1: aren't going away. Um, what we're seeing is that flight
Speaker 1: towards that really high quality where there's growth but also
Speaker 1: efficient growth to building these companies. And I know you
Speaker 1: know you obviously you also worked in banking. You helped
Speaker 1: take some companies public. What is your sense of how
Speaker 1: long this downturn last? You know, how long are we
Speaker 1: in for here? Is it six months? Is it eighteen?
Speaker 1: Is it three years? Well, you know, I am continuing
Speaker 1: to be continuously optimistic that will will make our way through.
Speaker 1: That being said, planning for a bit of a stormy
Speaker 1: weather ahead. So, um, you know, your guess is as
Speaker 1: good as mine in terms of how long this will last.
Speaker 1: But I think we're continuing to invest in companies and
Speaker 1: work with founders that are seeing not just a brightness
Speaker 1: on the horizon, but hopefully continuing to work through these storms. Um,
Speaker 1: my guess is we're going to be in this for
Speaker 1: a considerable amount of time, and so having folks that
Speaker 1: are going to continue to focus on the fundamentals of
Speaker 1: their business, keep the main thing, the main thing, and
Speaker 1: build towards the future. Alright, keep the main thing the
Speaker 1: main thing. We'll remember that. Kristin Baker's phone, general partner
Speaker 1: at CRV, Thank you so much for stopping by. All Right,
Speaker 1: coming up, Peloton continuing to struggle, but the CEO still upbeat.
Speaker 1: We'll explain why next. This is Bloomberg Peloton rebounding after
Speaker 1: tumbling earlier with the company posting a weaker forecast than expected,
Speaker 1: even as the CEO declared it's meeting its own timeline
Speaker 1: for turning the fitness company around. Joining us now Bloomberg,
Speaker 1: Smart German Mark Uh talk to us about what's going
Speaker 1: on here. Investors clearly don't like what they see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we got this morning was the definition of a mixed
Speaker 1: earnings report or PR putting its fingerprints over some numbers here.
Speaker 1: So if you look at the numbers, things are not
Speaker 1: so great. You're seeing a revenue forecasts as a client
Speaker 1: about thirty seven percent UH in the current quarter. That's
Speaker 1: the second fiscal quarter for Peloton. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: you have a letter from Barry McCarthy, Peloton CEO, saying
Speaker 1: that the ship is starting to turn. That is my
Speaker 1: impression as well. You are seeing some positive direction happening
Speaker 1: in some of these numbers. Gross margins have improved over
Speaker 1: the past couple quarters. Free cash flow has improved, but
Speaker 1: we don't like our the revenue numbers, specifically for hardware,
Speaker 1: they're hard hardware revenue numbers continue to fall while their
Speaker 1: subscription numbers continue to climb. The good news there is
Speaker 1: you see usages continuing. Churn is very low. Subscriptions are continuing,
Speaker 1: but people are not buying the hardware. To me, this
Speaker 1: raises the question why is Peloton in the hardware business
Speaker 1: at all? Right? Why not completely pivot the company away
Speaker 1: to putting its tablet on third party bikes? As we know,
Speaker 1: Peloton probably has the best content, probably has the best
Speaker 1: software in the hardware bike in treadmill space. Why not
Speaker 1: us get rid of your failing hardware business and make
Speaker 1: a really big subscription business. So I think that's where
Speaker 1: the company may eventually go. So clearly some really bad
Speaker 1: news on overall revenue, but some good news in terms
Speaker 1: of how the company is framing what it's calling a
Speaker 1: turnaround and on the subscription front. How do we measure
Speaker 1: whether the company is really beating its own timeline? Do
Speaker 1: you agree? I mean, there's really no way to measure
Speaker 1: if it's beating its own timeline. We have to take
Speaker 1: their word for it, right. Barry McCarthy says his timeline
Speaker 1: was longer than the one year. He says that you
Speaker 1: know this has taken right. Remember he joined in February
Speaker 1: and he's really pulled the company apart. You've laid off
Speaker 1: thousands of people already, You've outsourced manufacturing, you've outsourced customer service,
Speaker 1: you've outsourced deliveries. Right, So they pulled every lever possible.
Speaker 1: They've run the company into the ground and really starting
Speaker 1: you know, trying to start over. But we don't see
Speaker 1: the positive impact there on the stock. Obviously their town
Speaker 1: you know, over at this point in the last year
Speaker 1: or so. But you are seeing some positive comments and
Speaker 1: positive momentum. They're really talking up subscriptions. Subscriptions are now
Speaker 1: well over six of their overall revenue, right, which obviously
Speaker 1: wasn't the case that there, you know, when they were
Speaker 1: high flying at the you know, the top of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: So I think if they continue to move the needle
Speaker 1: and subscriptions, they really try to compete with Apple Fitness Plus, Uh,
Speaker 1: they really try to integrate with bundles between hardware and
Speaker 1: software and ultimately maybe exit hardware, something that I speculate
Speaker 1: they should do, not saying they said they would do.
Speaker 1: I think they you know, could be on solid ground
Speaker 1: for a little while. Quick question, what about an acquisition
Speaker 1: Amazon Apple, Would they ever buy a Peloton? I don't
Speaker 1: think Apple whatever buy Peloton. They have Fitness Plus, they
Speaker 1: have the Apple Watch, and really you would be buying
Speaker 1: their hardware business, which is you know, failing at this point.
Speaker 1: Amazon maybe for prime. I really think Netflix has not
Speaker 1: done a good job in expanding beyond their core content.
Speaker 1: They've really failed in gaming. They should probably try to
Speaker 1: get into music as well, but fitness that could be
Speaker 1: a big way to lock people into Netflix subscriptions. All right,
Speaker 1: looks like some CEOs have some consulting to do with
Speaker 1: Mark German. Mark, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: I always appreciate you stopping by meantime, Jeff Bezos maybe
Speaker 1: buying another business in Washington. The NFL commanders, the Amazon founder,
Speaker 1: may bid for this team, according to folks familiar with
Speaker 1: the matter. The news was first reported by The Watchington Post,
Speaker 1: which Bezos also owns. Media entrepreneur Byron Island is preparing
Speaker 1: to sell the team. Amazon currently carries the NFL's Thursday
Speaker 1: night football package. Welcome back to bloom More Technology, Emily
Speaker 1: check in San Francisco. I want to get back to
Speaker 1: the markets and names across e V and mobility on
Speaker 1: the move. Here's at Ludlow back again, Yeah, Nikolas, where
Speaker 1: I was spending my morning and it was really interesting.
Speaker 1: The stock up as much as them percent and then
Speaker 1: ultimately closing down pretty reasonable performance in the corner, you know,
Speaker 1: very modest revenues, but what spoot the market was. In fact,
Speaker 1: they are not going to reach their original guidance as
Speaker 1: three battery electric semi trucks this year, and actually sort
Speaker 1: of downgraded the outlook for the rest of the year
Speaker 1: and next year, saying that performance is not going to
Speaker 1: be as good as they hope. Their expectations are being
Speaker 1: lowered because customers for battery electric commercial vehicles are pulling
Speaker 1: up back. They're basically saying that the cost is too
Speaker 1: high right now, the charging infrastructure is too high. You
Speaker 1: look at that chart and kind of the wild ride
Speaker 1: that we had for Nicola throughout Thursday's session to others
Speaker 1: in that space as well. Fiska also sliding after it
Speaker 1: reported a loss in RBC cut the stock to sector
Speaker 1: perform I think there's a lot of interest in Fiska
Speaker 1: given that they plan to start production of their SUV
Speaker 1: this month. Of course it's built by a third party,
Speaker 1: and then you have a raw innovation more focused on
Speaker 1: the autonomous driving space. This is a very much a
Speaker 1: pre revenue company, but with some fighting talk, they are
Speaker 1: capitalized to get in and Aurora telling investors that from
Speaker 1: they're on track to launch this commercial autonomous trucking business.
Speaker 1: Fighting talk. The stocks seem to like it is fighting
Speaker 1: talking up. I think there's a lot of questions in
Speaker 1: this space right now. All right, and hang on, I
Speaker 1: want to stick with Aurora and the future of autonomy.
Speaker 1: Aurora giving some funning talk about the real world prospects
Speaker 1: for self driving tech. But the industry is having a
Speaker 1: rocky patch with competitor Argo AI shutting down after Volkswagen
Speaker 1: and Ford walked away from backing that deal. Is it
Speaker 1: the first crack and a bigger fissure and self driving technology?
Speaker 1: Or as co founder and CEO Chris Urmson is with
Speaker 1: us now, So Chris, what do you think is it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think it's just normal. Right. What we're seeing right
Speaker 1: now is what happens in any industry that if you
Speaker 1: look at the automotive industry, at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century, there was two fifty car companies. By the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, there was three, and so we've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of companies kind of spring up explore this space,
Speaker 1: and some of they are going to succeed some of
Speaker 1: them aren't at Aurora. We positioned ourselves to be independent
Speaker 1: to have the capital we need, the people in the technology,
Speaker 1: and so you know, I'm actually more optimistic than ever
Speaker 1: before about the space and where we're going. Well, as
Speaker 1: do you say risk is normal, But if you look
Speaker 1: at what happened with Ourgo shutting down big investors or
Speaker 1: potential investors pulling out, is that a risk of our
Speaker 1: faces No, In fact it's been. It's part of our
Speaker 1: strategic advantage. Right from day one. We wanted to be
Speaker 1: an independent company because we knew we wanted to be
Speaker 1: able to focus on the thing that mattered, on delivering
Speaker 1: on our mission getting self driving technology into the market.
Speaker 1: When Jim Farley talked about shutting down their investment in Ourgo,
Speaker 1: he literally said, we want to place our bets somewhere else, right,
Speaker 1: So we don't want to be another bet. We want
Speaker 1: to be the bet uh And I think we If
Speaker 1: you look at our investor base, these are folks you
Speaker 1: get the opportunity, understand the quality of the team, and
Speaker 1: are excited about the journey. More on, Chris, is good
Speaker 1: to see you virtually at least you know you just
Speaker 1: said that what we're seeing in the industry is normal.
Speaker 1: But what VW and Ford were saying is that actually
Speaker 1: we're pulling out because this is a much more distant
Speaker 1: technology than we thought. It's too far away. Right now,
Speaker 1: what are you doing to ensure stability for yourselves in
Speaker 1: terms of raising money? Are you going to plan head
Speaker 1: count reduction to kind of preserve cash because you guys
Speaker 1: still have a little way to go as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I've been in the space for twenty years ish um,
Speaker 1: so kind of understand how hard the problem is. And again,
Speaker 1: we we engineered the company from day one to solve
Speaker 1: these important problems, realizing we were climbing a mountain. So
Speaker 1: the company we have amazing partners. We work with as
Speaker 1: you've got on the screen here Volvo Trucks. We work
Speaker 1: with pack oar to the top three truck manufacturers, who
Speaker 1: work with Toyota, the world's number one car manufacturer, Uber,
Speaker 1: the world's wonder one right healing platform, FedEx, Schneider Werner,
Speaker 1: some of these amazing trucking companies. So we feel like
Speaker 1: we're spring loaded on that front to go to market.
Speaker 1: So you know, yep, we we raised a lot of
Speaker 1: last year. We're in a very strong position with one
Speaker 1: point two billion dollars on the balance sheet at the
Speaker 1: end of the quarter. So we're we're really excited about
Speaker 1: the path forward here. Is it possible that Apple or
Speaker 1: Microsoft buys your company? Chris? We have so so I
Speaker 1: think you're alluding to a memo that leak that I
Speaker 1: drafted for a conversation with our board, and so I
Speaker 1: don't know whether it's possible or not. Um Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not going to comment on those kind of things,
Speaker 1: but it's I think for any company in the in
Speaker 1: the existing marketing conditions, you need to be exploring the
Speaker 1: span of options from um you know, as you said,
Speaker 1: headcount reduction, acquiring companies, using you know, like they talk
Speaker 1: about a crisis being the worst thing to waste through
Speaker 1: focus and as a company, that's what we've taken, right
Speaker 1: is the path. Okay, We're going to focus on getting
Speaker 1: the trucking product market. We're going to be more efficient
Speaker 1: where we can be with the capital we have on hand,
Speaker 1: and we're just going to execute through this. And we
Speaker 1: have the capital to do that, and we have the
Speaker 1: team and technology to make it happen. Chris, when you
Speaker 1: and I lost saw each other we were in Texas
Speaker 1: riding around in self driving semi trucks. Do you remember that?
Speaker 1: But you know, your regional ambitions for Aurora were broadened
Speaker 1: that It seems like very much the focus is on
Speaker 1: the the use case of trucking, delivery, haulage. Have you
Speaker 1: had talks with some of the big players in that space,
Speaker 1: like Amazon, like Walmart. So, so we are still building
Speaker 1: a platform that will drive all kinds of vehicles. The
Speaker 1: right first place first to deploy the technology is in trucking.
Speaker 1: We see the opportunity, the market need is there, the
Speaker 1: economics are there, the market scale is there. Right, it
Speaker 1: is just the right place to deploy this first. But
Speaker 1: we have those partnerships with Toyota and Uber that thus springloaders.
Speaker 1: When we get to right healing, which will be our
Speaker 1: second product in the space, we expect to be you know,
Speaker 1: to to go charge into that, and yes, we have
Speaker 1: amazing partnerships. Or Anthetics is the largest carrier of lesson
Speaker 1: truckloaders loads in the US and it's also the most
Speaker 1: carrier most tractors and trailers of anyone in the US.
Speaker 1: So we're working with some amazing folks today. You know,
Speaker 1: talk to us about the longer term, you know, beyond trucking.
Speaker 1: Where could this technology go and how long is it
Speaker 1: really going to take because you know, you know, much
Speaker 1: of our coverage recently has been we've been talking and
Speaker 1: talking and talking about this. You said, you've been in
Speaker 1: this industry for twenty ish years, um, but still hasn't
Speaker 1: fully come to fruition. Well, we're at this point. So
Speaker 1: to one of the challenges of our technologies. We get
Speaker 1: to develop it like out in the public because we're
Speaker 1: on the roads and people see it. So I think
Speaker 1: you get to see a little bit more behind the
Speaker 1: curtain of what it takes to actually develop a game
Speaker 1: changing or world changing technology. I think it's really exciting
Speaker 1: to see some of our competitors and vehicles on the
Speaker 1: road with no drivers in in places like uh in Arizona,
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. We're on the road every day with
Speaker 1: our trucks hauling loads for our customers, and so that's exciting.
Speaker 1: And we're looking forward to the next two years. And
Speaker 1: we've been a leader in transparent orency. We've shared our
Speaker 1: roadmap from here to the launching the product with that operator,
Speaker 1: and we continue we want to continue to do that
Speaker 1: to build trust through what I think of as the
Speaker 1: current valley of disillusionment. Can you give me a number
Speaker 1: how long until long haul trucking is truly driverless? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we've shared a roadmap for us. At the end
Speaker 1: of Q one, we're working towards having the roar driver
Speaker 1: be feature complete, which means it does everything it needs
Speaker 1: to to be able to drive, just not yet well enough.
Speaker 1: By the end of next year, we're working towards having
Speaker 1: the roar driver be ready so that if we had
Speaker 1: a truck platform that had the was autonomy enabled, we'd
Speaker 1: be able to pull the operators out of those trucks
Speaker 1: and have them operate without anybody on board. And we
Speaker 1: expect to actually launch in the following year, in twenty
Speaker 1: four Chris, Look, you know, I know at asked earlier
Speaker 1: about the difficulty of the environment, but you know, have
Speaker 1: you thought about cost costs, have you thought about layoffs?
Speaker 1: It seems like everyone is thinking about it, but everyone's
Speaker 1: strategy is different. For example, Brian Chesky told us yesterday,
Speaker 1: UH to use a car analogy, he said, we're actually
Speaker 1: stepping on the gas, not stepping on the brakes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: For us, we've we continue to focus on being efficient
Speaker 1: with the capital we have. That will pushes the capital
Speaker 1: we have on hand pushes into mid We've looked at
Speaker 1: where can we be doing things sequentially rather than parallel,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the reasons why we're focusing so
Speaker 1: much on trucking. We're not uh not doing cars, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna kind of have that more streamline off the
Speaker 1: back of what we do in trucks. We've looked at
Speaker 1: through the organization, how can we restructure things to be
Speaker 1: more efficient. We've made changes to the way people report UM.
Speaker 1: We've looked for duplications and simplified those and move people
Speaker 1: in different parts of the organizations. And we've looked at,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things we need versus one
Speaker 1: of the things we want, and we're just getting the
Speaker 1: things we need. UM. So we're being thoughtful. We're extending
Speaker 1: the runway where we can. But but the opportunity is
Speaker 1: so exciting, the position we're in is so amazing that
Speaker 1: we just need to charge through this drive through alright,
Speaker 1: Aroor CEO Chris Urmson and our own let's thank thank
Speaker 1: you both very much. All right, coming up to major
Speaker 1: power players in Crypto just reported earnings coin Base and
Speaker 1: Square coming up. This is Bloomberg coin based and block
Speaker 1: chas reported earnings as headwinds for crypto persist Bossi dug
Speaker 1: through the report, Sinali, what are the highlights. It's a
Speaker 1: pretty good day when you're looking at these firms and
Speaker 1: you're looking at block for example, which had already sold
Speaker 1: off this year, We're coming in with gross profit above expectations.
Speaker 1: They're really growing their cash up there. I want to
Speaker 1: kind of hone in here as a pertains of crypto,
Speaker 1: because of course we have a very crypto friendly CEO
Speaker 1: in Jack Dorsey. Bitcoin revenue was one eight billion nearly.
Speaker 1: While that's down about three percent year over year, it's
Speaker 1: still up a hundred twenty eight percent on a three
Speaker 1: year compounded growth rate. So if you're looking at the
Speaker 1: crypto market and how what it means for these fintech firms,
Speaker 1: it's really not as bad as it could be. And
Speaker 1: of course that commitment is still there as they grow
Speaker 1: those other financial services really quickly. Pivoting here even the
Speaker 1: coin base, they have really highlighted a lot of headwinds here.
Speaker 1: You do see that jump here in subscription and services revenue,
Speaker 1: and that is even larger that jump, it would be
Speaker 1: two percent when you hold crypto prices constant, they're really
Speaker 1: benefiting from that interest incomes. So you're seeing these firms
Speaker 1: really leaning on the diversification emily of the businesses here
Speaker 1: in order to show investors what they're worth. Robin Hood
Speaker 1: we have to point out as well because revenue top
Speaker 1: to estimates, uh, and really they're the stockwise or the
Speaker 1: down there down the least of the group here. They're
Speaker 1: only downe about this year crypto decreased twelve percent, but
Speaker 1: options in equities were up and cost cutting is really
Speaker 1: helping them drop operating expenses down twelve percent, and you're
Speaker 1: seeing that helped them really come in with an adjusted
Speaker 1: profit number that is better than expected. They're coming in
Speaker 1: with adjusted profit that is rather than a loss. But again,
Speaker 1: can that can that hold when it's not just on
Speaker 1: an adjusted basis? You know, Jack Dorcy, of course, the
Speaker 1: CEO of Block, has been in the news all gear
Speaker 1: for a totally different reason, given the drama that's happening
Speaker 1: at Twitter. You know, did we hear from Jack on
Speaker 1: the call and you know, talk to us a little
Speaker 1: bit of Obviously he was really instrumental and and launching
Speaker 1: some of Twitter's early crypto projects. You tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit more about the connection, certainly because we know
Speaker 1: Jack himself has really supported a lot of companies in
Speaker 1: the in the Lightning network, for example, and really try
Speaker 1: to integrate it with Twitter. But no, he he was
Speaker 1: available in the block call, and we know he's focusing
Speaker 1: very much so on block and financial services. He did
Speaker 1: not discuss Twitter, a question I would have this kind
Speaker 1: of looming out there in the ether is as it
Speaker 1: pertains to block in Twitter. We asked Anthony Nodo yesterday
Speaker 1: a sofa a similar question, given his former Twitter background,
Speaker 1: whether these new fintech firms can partner with Twitter in
Speaker 1: order to expand financial services to create that great super
Speaker 1: app that loves to talk about so looming open a
Speaker 1: question and it's yet to be seen. But no, no,
Speaker 1: yesterday certainly did seem like they were open for business.
Speaker 1: Should that be something that Twitter would explore? All right,
Speaker 1: Bloomer Snelly Bostick, thank you on that note. We just
Speaker 1: got another headline on the Bloomberg that Elon Musk is
Speaker 1: asking Twitter to cut infrastructure costs by a billion dollars.
Speaker 1: This on top of more than thirty seven hundred employees
Speaker 1: that we've reported will be laid off at Twitter tomorrow
Speaker 1: and that they will be informed of whether or not uh,
Speaker 1: they're going to be laid off tomorrow. So again another
Speaker 1: headline coming from orders that Musk is calling on Twitter
Speaker 1: to cut infrastructure costs by a billion dollars. Pitch Book
Speaker 1: just released a report on women in venture capital found
Speaker 1: that women founders have posted the second highest deal value
Speaker 1: figures on record despite volatility, joining us now Sarah Chin Spellings,
Speaker 1: co founder and managing partner of Beyond the Billion UM.
Speaker 1: Sarah talked to us about UM the silver linings that
Speaker 1: you found for women run businesses. Here. Hi, Emily, so
Speaker 1: good to be here, Thanks so much for highlighting. I'll
Speaker 1: report once again, you know, the data continues to tell
Speaker 1: the same story. And I think you've heard this narrative before, Emily,
Speaker 1: that female founders continue to outperform no matter what the circumstances,
Speaker 1: despite market conditions, despite their turbulence in the markets, they
Speaker 1: continued to be resilient, and yet they continue to be
Speaker 1: under invested. So while we you're seeing higher numbers compared
Speaker 1: to one with with deal value becoming a lot higher
Speaker 1: UM in the recent months, what's not sort of on
Speaker 1: the upward trajectory that we're really looking forward towards is
Speaker 1: the proportion of deal value and deal count as a
Speaker 1: whole competitive to the whole venture capital. So really a
Speaker 1: lot to unpack here, you know, from exit value to
Speaker 1: their performance in general, from even looking at the burn
Speaker 1: rate of venture capital funding um. And there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of news as I think you've covered in your
Speaker 1: last couple of segments as well, right, you found that
Speaker 1: women founders had lower burn rates, greater valuation growth at
Speaker 1: the late stage versus companies founded by men. You're over
Speaker 1: a year. What do you think behind that? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know this data. You know, people always ask us, are
Speaker 1: you surprised by the numbers, and the reality is we're
Speaker 1: not because women continue to outperform in leaps and bounce
Speaker 1: And the reason for that is this good news venues
Speaker 1: they've not traditionally had a lot of funding and they've
Speaker 1: had to work with what they had, and that means
Speaker 1: that there are a lot more resilient. They've planned their
Speaker 1: cash management and they're able to weather the storm. And
Speaker 1: this you know, guess what, it is a little bit
Speaker 1: of a funding winter, and the storm is here and
Speaker 1: whiles you know, there will be winners and losers. I
Speaker 1: think it's clear that women have been smart about planning
Speaker 1: forward and their cash management is showing right now with
Speaker 1: the burn rais being a lot more manageable. And by
Speaker 1: the way, as you mentioned, you know, the drop in
Speaker 1: late stage funding in terms of median valuations that we saw,
Speaker 1: you know, the crash from from the valuations from turning
Speaker 1: to one which was really you know, Blockbuster year that
Speaker 1: they were starting to sort of see unraveled now was
Speaker 1: really showing how there were a lot of companies that
Speaker 1: had valuations that were not sustained. And with female founders
Speaker 1: there are always a lot more UM. I wouldn't call
Speaker 1: it conservative, but there are a lots smarter, a lot
Speaker 1: more UM realistic about their projections and what they can do,
Speaker 1: and therefore their evaluations are sustained. That sort of explaining
Speaker 1: the numbers of why the drop hasn't been as much
Speaker 1: as you've seen for the wider market. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to argue with those adjectives, Sarah about the sectors that
Speaker 1: are seeing the most growth. You know, we were talking
Speaker 1: about health tech earlier, self driving tech earlier, and the
Speaker 1: narrative is different for all of them. Yeah, well, Emily,
Speaker 1: you know, the good news is that women continue to
Speaker 1: innovate in all sectors, right, So of course we see
Speaker 1: the data where there's a lot of growth in retail,
Speaker 1: in B two B sas. In fact, you know, some
Speaker 1: of the top unicorns that have female founders at the
Speaker 1: HELM were women in health tech and women in stas
Speaker 1: as well. The two decacorns that emerge, so decacorns being
Speaker 1: for those who may not be as familiar, um multi
Speaker 1: billion companies valued at ten billion dollars and that's talk
Speaker 1: desk and deal that really brought the valuation up and
Speaker 1: and sort of the numbers and trends that we're seeing.
Speaker 1: So we're seeing a lot of growth in retail and
Speaker 1: health tech, in fintech and SAS and we're excited by
Speaker 1: as a whole, you know, for the that we do
Speaker 1: without consulting with funds over a hundred funds across the globe.
Speaker 1: Women continue to innovate across the sectors despite market conditions.
Speaker 1: Even if they're in a sector that's being hit hard
Speaker 1: right now with market conditions, they are pivoting and figuring
Speaker 1: out what next. How are dynamics between LPs and GPS
Speaker 1: changing in this environment, there's a lot of money sitting
Speaker 1: on the sidelines that venture capitalists have raised. There's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a place to put it all. Yeah, Emily, thanks
Speaker 1: for asking all of that. You know, the LP and
Speaker 1: GP sort of connection is one that we've focus a
Speaker 1: lot on, right, and I think you've picked that up rightly.
Speaker 1: Despite what has been said about the fundraising winter, it's
Speaker 1: clear that there is a dispersion right there, winners and
Speaker 1: their losers, and there are those multi billion firms that
Speaker 1: continue to raise billions of dollars and you know, we've
Speaker 1: got a lot of dry poutics standing on the sidelines.
Speaker 1: But he this is what's happening. You know, LPs are
Speaker 1: being a lot more cautious, right. The word is we're optimistic,
Speaker 1: optimistically cautious about the wave would and therefore, despite money
Speaker 1: in the bank um, a lot of them are being
Speaker 1: slow to deploy. So in fact, you know, whilst you're
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of money being passed onto gps, uh,
Speaker 1: this doesn't necessarily pass on to the founders, which is
Speaker 1: where they're feeling the crunch a little bit. But you know,
Speaker 1: the winners will emerge and I think it'll be more
Speaker 1: and more important to UH see founders really emerge in
Speaker 1: this crisis, right. I think a lot of the big
Speaker 1: names that you and I know, Uber, ARABNB all emerged
Speaker 1: from a time of crisis, and I think this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a good time for gps that are focused
Speaker 1: on what next, the next generation companies to really do
Speaker 1: the right thing, and LPs have a role to play
Speaker 1: here beyond the billions. Co founder sarag And Spellings, thank
Speaker 1: you for sharing all of that with us. Worth checking
Speaker 1: out the report and more depth if you'd like. Later
Speaker 1: on the show this week Friday XPED CEO Peter Kerrent,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to us about the travel rebound or lack there.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Baden,