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'm Emily Chack in San Francisco, and this
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Technology coming up in the next hour. Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram officially banned in Russia. A Russian prosecutor calling
Speaker 1: the meta platforms extremist organizations. The war on disinformation about
Speaker 1: a war plus discontent at Disney a planned walk out
Speaker 1: Tuesday over what some call Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill
Speaker 1: is causing some to question the future of Disney CEO
Speaker 1: Bob J. Peck and what Serena Williams takes from the
Speaker 1: court to investing the Tennis Are joins us to talk
Speaker 1: about her first venture fund and talks about everything from
Speaker 1: Tom Brady to her own thoughts about retirement and what
Speaker 1: the Serena Slam of business might be. Russia is ramping
Speaker 1: up its ban on information of court, banning both Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram. The metal platforms now officially blocked across the country.
Speaker 1: This is the first time Russia's sweeping extremism law has
Speaker 1: been used against a foreign tech company, joining me now
Speaker 1: bluem Works. Kurt Wagner, as well as David Kirkpatrick, founder
Speaker 1: and editor in chief of Teconomy. Kurt, I want to
Speaker 1: start with you here, Facebook and Instagram, we're already banned
Speaker 1: in Russia. How is this different? Yeah, as you pointed out,
Speaker 1: they were blocked, Um, I believe Instagram was just last
Speaker 1: week and Facebook has been a couple of weeks now.
Speaker 1: And and what this does, is my understanding, is that
Speaker 1: makes it actually um an issue. It's a crime if
Speaker 1: you are working for one of these companies, If you
Speaker 1: were supporting one of these companies, you'd be considered supporting,
Speaker 1: you know, extremist behavior or an extremist corporation. And so
Speaker 1: I think it's clear if you're an employee that would
Speaker 1: be a problem. Facebook says that they don't have employees
Speaker 1: in Russia right now. UM. But I think that raises
Speaker 1: some questions around what happens if you're an advertiser on
Speaker 1: one of these platforms, what happens if you're a an
Speaker 1: investor who owned stock in one of these platforms? Is
Speaker 1: that considered a financial support of of a meta um
Speaker 1: in this case? And I think that's somewhat confusing still,
Speaker 1: but ultimately, you know, it just makes these um the
Speaker 1: band much more official than just a simple block. A
Speaker 1: lot of interesting questions there, David, curious for your take
Speaker 1: on this. It seems to be a rather rare example
Speaker 1: of Facebook coming off looking like a good guy. It's true. Uh,
Speaker 1: I think this is the first time I've been on
Speaker 1: your show in a long time where fundamentally I have
Speaker 1: to say Facebook is the good guy. Facebook was providing
Speaker 1: genuine information in Russia. Yes it was banned, but this
Speaker 1: new legal ruling is turning the screws even tighter. Although
Speaker 1: we have to be aware, in Russia there really is
Speaker 1: no legal systems of the type that we know. The
Speaker 1: courts are simply a rubber stamp for whatever the government decides.
Speaker 1: So yes, it's true that advertisers or even users or
Speaker 1: Facebook could be in jeopardy, but given the nature of
Speaker 1: the way Russia works, if the country, if the government
Speaker 1: wanted to come down on those people, it could do
Speaker 1: so for whatever reason it chose. But Facebook, look, the
Speaker 1: best thing that could happen to them right now would
Speaker 1: be another AIRBS ring, which would basically show the world
Speaker 1: that they actually can be used for good things. Because
Speaker 1: they're in the doghouse for all kinds of reasons. Otherwise, Karl,
Speaker 1: what are the chances this could lead to criminal charges
Speaker 1: against Facebook and Instagram employees? I think that's the idea.
Speaker 1: I believe that if you are, you know, an employees
Speaker 1: working at the company, um, you could then be accused of,
Speaker 1: you know, aiding this extremist considered extremist activity right um.
Speaker 1: Now again, I talked to someone on Facebook earlier this morning.
Speaker 1: I was told that they don't have employees in the
Speaker 1: country right now. But it does raise some questions around
Speaker 1: perhaps Russian nationals who work for Meta or Facebook um
Speaker 1: in other countries right if they're seen to be working
Speaker 1: for Meta, maybe they don't live in Russian now, can they?
Speaker 1: Can they return to Russia at some point? Maybe they
Speaker 1: have family there? What happens there? So it's definitely a
Speaker 1: complicated issue, um that is creating, you know, some questions
Speaker 1: at Meta today. So far, what's up met which is
Speaker 1: another meta platform, doesn't appear to be blocked, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't appear that that Twitter and YouTube have fallen under
Speaker 1: this this law either. David, what do you make of that? Well,
Speaker 1: I would probably say it's just a matter of time
Speaker 1: probably in all three cases. Uh, certainly What'sapp has virtue
Speaker 1: of being invisible to the authorities because it's entirely encrypted,
Speaker 1: so they can't really see what's happening inside it. Um
Speaker 1: But I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were
Speaker 1: later decided that What'sapp constituted a threat. All they have
Speaker 1: to do was see evidence that it's causing problems for them.
Speaker 1: Like I said before, the government of Russia can act
Speaker 1: by FIAT on anything they want any time. And in
Speaker 1: terms of YouTube in particular, there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: speculation today that YouTube might be very shortly to experience
Speaker 1: something very similar to what Facebook and Instagram I've seen Twitter.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously Twitter would be a very logical candidate
Speaker 1: for shutdown as well. Karl, what do you make of
Speaker 1: the fact that Russia hasn't appeared to take official action
Speaker 1: on these other platforms yet. I would agree with David.
Speaker 1: I feel like this is just probably a matter of time.
Speaker 1: But I think the fact that Meta has been so
Speaker 1: kind of aggressive in policing and cutting off state backed
Speaker 1: media from Russia. You remember, Emily last week they had
Speaker 1: this kind of change in policy where if you're in
Speaker 1: Ukraine you can actually post things kind of wishing violence
Speaker 1: upon invading Russia forces. I think that alone, that policy,
Speaker 1: that kind of loophole where they said, hey, normally this
Speaker 1: would be against the rules, but if you're in Ukraine
Speaker 1: you can do this. Um. I think that really angered uh,
Speaker 1: you know, authorities in Russia, and they pointed to that
Speaker 1: as being a real issue that they seem to be
Speaker 1: taking a firmer stance on Meta than they are in
Speaker 1: these other companies. David. Obviously, the bigger question here is
Speaker 1: what does Russia's Internet start to look like over the
Speaker 1: long term? Does is this the beginning of a digital
Speaker 1: iron curtain that will remain down for years? Will there
Speaker 1: be a totally separate Russian Internet as we have seen
Speaker 1: in China. Well, actually the answer to that is unequivocally yes. Um,
Speaker 1: there is a digital iron curtain that has been slowly dropping. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I think what could result would be even worse than
Speaker 1: the kind of system that the China has, because at
Speaker 1: least China is a digitally savvy country at the national level. UM.
Speaker 1: Russia actually had been re searching in recent years the
Speaker 1: possibility of changing the way that you are l's actually
Speaker 1: work so that you wouldn't necessarily be able to type
Speaker 1: in the same thing. You could type in here and
Speaker 1: have it go to the same place. That would really
Speaker 1: be the ultimate example of a different sort of Internet,
Speaker 1: because even in China, the U r L is all
Speaker 1: work the same way. But that is where Russia is headed.
Speaker 1: You can't completely shut down information and still have an
Speaker 1: Internet as we know, and they are shutting down all
Speaker 1: information flow to their people. Kurent What are the business
Speaker 1: implications of this? Obviously, China is such a massive market.
Speaker 1: Russia is a much smaller market, but certainly still an
Speaker 1: important one. Yeah, I believe the CFO of Meta, Dave Wayner,
Speaker 1: said last week at a conference that the total business
Speaker 1: in Russia between you know, advertisers in the country but
Speaker 1: then also advertising out of the country trying to reach
Speaker 1: people within Russia was something about one point five percent
Speaker 1: of Facebook's total advertising revenue. Now, that's a lot of money,
Speaker 1: but it's not a massive amount of money. And I
Speaker 1: wrote in our newsletter last week that I don't know
Speaker 1: if Meta has the financial incentives to try and you know,
Speaker 1: bend over backwards to get back into Russia, right whereas uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they might be willing to make concessions in
Speaker 1: other parts of the world. I just don't think they're business.
Speaker 1: Their business is big enough there for them to sacrifice
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff that they've been willing to
Speaker 1: do up till now, and so that's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons I again agree with David. I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: if this might be the beginning of a totally different
Speaker 1: version of the Internet for Russian citizens moving forward. Certainly
Speaker 1: a fascinating and evolving situation. Kurt Wagner for Bloomberg to
Speaker 1: Economies David Kirkpatrick, thank you both. Tuesday, Disney employees planned
Speaker 1: to put their discontent on full display, planning to walk
Speaker 1: out in protest of Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill, or
Speaker 1: so It's called, which Governor Ron De Santis hasn't signed
Speaker 1: yet but is expected to. This bill essentially bands schools
Speaker 1: from discussing gender issues with children. Disney CEO Bob Kapec
Speaker 1: initially refused to release an official statement on the bill
Speaker 1: until last week. Many cast members have been doing mini
Speaker 1: walkouts every day during their breaks. This will be a
Speaker 1: much bigger walk out Tuesday, however. Disney hosting a town
Speaker 1: hall today to try to quell some of this anger internally.
Speaker 1: For more on what it all means for the future
Speaker 1: of Disney CEO Bob Kapeck. I'm joined by Lightsheed Partners,
Speaker 1: Rich Greenfield Rich. Disney is now holding this meeting today
Speaker 1: to try to cut some of the tension here. What
Speaker 1: do you make of the fact that Disney employees have
Speaker 1: been so vocal about their their unhappiness with how Disney
Speaker 1: CEO Bob Kapec has handled this. Look, We've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of voicing of feelings among employees of over the
Speaker 1: course of the last couple of years. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you think about sort of the furloughing of employees and
Speaker 1: sort of the layoffs that occurred around the pandemic, I mean,
Speaker 1: this has been a very difficult couple of year period
Speaker 1: um for all consumers, are all employees around the world,
Speaker 1: but certainly for Disney employees, this has been especially challenging. Look,
Speaker 1: I think the reality is executives and management teams are
Speaker 1: going to make mistakes. I think the real um hallmark
Speaker 1: of long term success is whether they recognize those mistakes
Speaker 1: and pivot quickly. And I think that's what you're seeing
Speaker 1: here by Disney is pretty rapid change. You know, this
Speaker 1: is not letting this drag on and sort of addressing
Speaker 1: the issue very quickly. I can't speak to why the
Speaker 1: original decision was made and what the logic was, but
Speaker 1: I think it is comforting that the speed of changing
Speaker 1: their minds what was swift, because I think that's what
Speaker 1: really matters. And again, Disney is at this really critical
Speaker 1: crossroads as Tiger has left at the end of last
Speaker 1: year and now shape because in full control. I think
Speaker 1: we're all waiting to see who is Bob Chapick? What
Speaker 1: is his long term Disney plan? And I guess to
Speaker 1: your question, Emily, will we get to see it because
Speaker 1: he's got a year left on his contract, will we
Speaker 1: get to see Schapick really put in in motion his
Speaker 1: long term plan? Well? And I guess what I wonder
Speaker 1: what your answer to that question is, Are these staffers
Speaker 1: upset enough that this should should should should should give
Speaker 1: Bob Speck some serious concerns about his job. Look, I
Speaker 1: think the he must have heard loud and clear how
Speaker 1: broad based the fear was or concern was around this
Speaker 1: issue for them to reverse course so publicly, so quickly.
Speaker 1: Um not to mention the internal meetings and everything that
Speaker 1: you've seen, but look, Bob Schapick's long term future is
Speaker 1: going to be most likely judged on the big strategic
Speaker 1: decisions he makes. What is their plan for Disney Plus?
Speaker 1: Is it being merged with Hulu? Are they creating one
Speaker 1: service and really going after or Netflix and trying to
Speaker 1: become a massive streaming company. Are they really going to
Speaker 1: focus on just Disney content? Might they sell ESPN and ABC?
Speaker 1: Like why are they in the sports business? You know,
Speaker 1: sports is not a business that you can scale. You
Speaker 1: can't own the content. You know, the NFL owns the NFL,
Speaker 1: not Disney. Uh. You know, if you think about the UFC,
Speaker 1: which has been the biggest piece of of ESPN Plus
Speaker 1: that's owned by Endeavor E d Er public company. So
Speaker 1: you sort of get back to, like, why is Disney
Speaker 1: in some of these businesses and what is this long
Speaker 1: term strategy? There is no doubt Bob Iger set in
Speaker 1: motion and tremendous you know, ramp in Disney Plus subscribers.
Speaker 1: But as you look at where we are now and
Speaker 1: look out over the course of the next five to
Speaker 1: ten years, the question is is what does Disney want
Speaker 1: to be when it grows up in streaming? Does it
Speaker 1: want to be something for everyone? Like Netflix, or does
Speaker 1: it really want to stick to its core franchises and verticals,
Speaker 1: which is probably a smaller but also very successful and
Speaker 1: very profitable busines. This if you scaled that, what do
Speaker 1: you make of the Eiger side of this story? You know,
Speaker 1: the fact that Iger doesn't disagree with doesn't agree with this,
Speaker 1: this position, that SHAPEC initially took that thing, reportedly no
Speaker 1: longer talk Oiger and Spec. I mean, the speculation going
Speaker 1: so far. You know, some I'm saying I could replace
Speaker 1: Bob Speck, which I believe Bob Iger has has said
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous. Um, But you know, we're in a rapidly
Speaker 1: evolving situation here. Look, this has been a relatively challenging,
Speaker 1: you know, couple of years, I think for any executive
Speaker 1: going through the pandemic, a lot of layoffs, a lot
Speaker 1: of change, closing down operations. I mean, look even I
Speaker 1: think Shanghai Disney World just closed down again just today.
Speaker 1: I believe, so this is sort of a never ending
Speaker 1: saga that impacts employees and creates a lot of emotion.
Speaker 1: We're obviously living in a social media world where people
Speaker 1: can express their views about how they feel very visibly.
Speaker 1: Look in terms of Iger verse a pick. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't really know what to say other than you know,
Speaker 1: Bob Iger's gone, Shaping is now in charge, and the
Speaker 1: question is going to be I don't think what Bob
Speaker 1: Iger feels or doesn't feel anymore matters. I think what
Speaker 1: really matters is what does the board think and what
Speaker 1: does shareholders think? You know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: the stock obviously is down a lot. Investors are concerned
Speaker 1: that they don't really understand what the strategy is. You know,
Speaker 1: are they going after Netflix or is this more of
Speaker 1: a Disney focus service. I mean, we've been Disney has
Speaker 1: effectively been dragging its feet on Hulu. Comcast owns a
Speaker 1: third of it. What is the Hulu plan? Is it
Speaker 1: all about being rolled in and creating one mega service
Speaker 1: or are they going to continue to run three streaming service?
Speaker 1: Remember there's Disney plus, there's Hulu, and there's the ESPN plus.
Speaker 1: It seems from a consumer standpoint, having multiple log ins,
Speaker 1: multiple different interfaces seems suboptimal. Obviously part of that is
Speaker 1: Comcast fault and sort of battling over price. But if
Speaker 1: you think about what I did when he came in,
Speaker 1: he made a very important strategic decision that shaped the
Speaker 1: entire future of his run as CEO. He bought Pixar,
Speaker 1: and that was a tremendous acquisition that completely changed how
Speaker 1: investors thought about the Walt Disney Company and the content
Speaker 1: and the I P and the rest is obviously history.
Speaker 1: The question for Shapeck is, you know, do you KEEPSPN?
Speaker 1: Do you keep ABC? Do you want to be in
Speaker 1: the general entertainment business? Do you emerge huluin with Disney plus?
Speaker 1: The KEEPESPN plus? Like, all of these are these big
Speaker 1: strategic decisions. I think we're gonna get a lot of
Speaker 1: answers about all of this over the course of the
Speaker 1: next nine months. But I think the stock is somewhat struggling,
Speaker 1: and I think we're struggling with the stock not knowing
Speaker 1: exactly what Shape's gonna do. So we'll be seeing just
Speaker 1: how big this walk out from employees is Tuesday. But
Speaker 1: do you think this blowback could spread to consumers? Obviously
Speaker 1: there's been some discontent with the Genie reservation system, the
Speaker 1: sky high pricing um, the star Wood Star Wars hotel.
Speaker 1: Could assumers revolt? Look, you know, my partner Brandon Ross
Speaker 1: at Lightshed covers the live entertainment in business, you know,
Speaker 1: like you think I think you had. Michael Roupino's been
Speaker 1: talking pretty openly Live Nation about just the incredible demand
Speaker 1: for concert tickets even with rising you know, gas prices.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've just seen incredible demand for experiences. Disney
Speaker 1: World is literally packed to the gills. Margins are moving
Speaker 1: to levels we haven't seen in years, if ever eventually,
Speaker 1: and so like, look, there's always risk. I think if
Speaker 1: Disney probably hadn't reverse course and sort of addressed the
Speaker 1: concerns of employees very quickly, sure, I think anything was possible.
Speaker 1: I think the real issue is going to be right now,
Speaker 1: they're raising pricing and taking advantage of this environment. I mean,
Speaker 1: inflation is obviously rising, and I think they're literally looking
Speaker 1: at demand. They can't keep the parks, they can't handle
Speaker 1: the demand, and I think that's partly why they're taking
Speaker 1: advantage and raising price. But investors, they're not worried emily
Speaker 1: about the parks. Investors have one concern. They're only worried
Speaker 1: about Disney Plus and what is the streaming long term strategy.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're gonna be hoping to hear from
Speaker 1: Shape when he holds an analyst meeting later this month, right,
Speaker 1: and of course we'll see how long of a chance
Speaker 1: he gets to prove himself rich. Greenfield of Light Shed Partners,
Speaker 1: thank you as always for Wayne. And now to a
Speaker 1: MC flipping the script, the entertainment Giant announcing it's buying
Speaker 1: of a golden silver mining company, an unorthodox move for
Speaker 1: the world's largest movie theater chain and a past darling
Speaker 1: of meme stock investors, bloomber Quick takes aux Web explains
Speaker 1: why is Cinema Chain investing in gold During the AMC
Speaker 1: it was a big meme stock last year. The market
Speaker 1: capitalization jumped from a four billion dollars to more than
Speaker 1: thirty billion dollars in the space of just a few weeks. Well,
Speaker 1: the CEO Adam Artan has just announced plans to invest
Speaker 1: about thirty million dollars in a gold mine, and it
Speaker 1: says something quite interesting about how he perceives his own
Speaker 1: company's prospects. You see, the role of CEO is often
Speaker 1: to do with capital allocation. In other words, how you
Speaker 1: spend your investors money in a way that will generate
Speaker 1: the best possible returns for men. And usually you can
Speaker 1: do one of three things. You can either invest in
Speaker 1: the existing business by opening new locations, investing in innovations,
Speaker 1: adding new headcount. You can think about acquiring a company
Speaker 1: that will then play well with your existing companies and
Speaker 1: the two firms work better together than they would on
Speaker 1: their own. Thirdly, you can just return that money to investors.
Speaker 1: Now he's not opting to do any of those things.
Speaker 1: Returning money to investors would be a strange choice because
Speaker 1: he only raised from them last year. And besides, a
Speaker 1: MC trades at a considerable premium to its competitors, so
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily buying shares at a sable christ when
Speaker 1: it comes to investing adjacent dials or the existing business.
Speaker 1: He's sort of telling investors that I can't find a
Speaker 1: way of generating as good a return as I could
Speaker 1: by investing in this gold mine. In other words, the
Speaker 1: implicit suggestion is cinema business is not very good and
Speaker 1: you should put your money elsewhere. He's just cutting out
Speaker 1: of the middleman and doing it himself. Are Alex Web.
Speaker 1: They're coming up from the tennis court to VC. We're
Speaker 1: gonna hear from Serena Williams about how she plans to
Speaker 1: find the next generation of startup Champ, Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Bloomore Technology and Emily Changes in San Francisco. Let's get
Speaker 1: back to the markets enter at Ludlow's taking a look
Speaker 1: at Chinese tech companies, which have had another rough day
Speaker 1: in US trading. I take it away, Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: if there was a pocket of pain on Monday, it
Speaker 1: was in the US listed shares of Chinese technology companies,
Speaker 1: in other words, a d R S. And for everything
Speaker 1: going on in the world right the outlook for the
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve and rates, what's happening in Ukraine and the
Speaker 1: conflict with Russia, and global commodity prices, you have to
Speaker 1: remember you have a bit of sympathy for those investors
Speaker 1: out there that like Chinese tech companies because they've also
Speaker 1: got a track what's going on with policymakers in China.
Speaker 1: These stocks have been fluctuating all over the place. Another
Speaker 1: down day Monday, down four percent, really underperforming broader indices
Speaker 1: here in the United States, broadered moves in technology. So
Speaker 1: where we've been left, Mrs Director, to bring up the
Speaker 1: next table, please, is a situation where Wall Street and
Speaker 1: Cellside analysts aren't getting it right on their forecast for
Speaker 1: the price of these US listed Chinese companies. We're talking
Speaker 1: about big names here, right, Ali Barbera, j D dot Com,
Speaker 1: Billy Billy, ten Cent Music. And what this board shows
Speaker 1: is the percentage difference from the current price where the
Speaker 1: share prices are actually right now, versus the highest price
Speaker 1: target and the lowest price target on the street. So
Speaker 1: let's just take Ali Barbara as one example, versus the
Speaker 1: price of where we are on our on Monday. The
Speaker 1: highest street target is a hundred and sixty three above
Speaker 1: where those shares closed, the lowest below where we are now.
Speaker 1: And it was all about a change of tone from policymakers.
Speaker 1: And you and I have been talking for a year
Speaker 1: about Chinese regulators clamping down on technology and internet companies
Speaker 1: in that country. What happened last Wenday Wednesday? Bring up
Speaker 1: the next board that the Golden Dragon Index, that kind
Speaker 1: of basket of U S s is Chinese stocks massively
Speaker 1: underperforming and then wash thirty gain in a single day.
Speaker 1: Why because policymakers came out and said that they were
Speaker 1: going to be more supportive these companies and make a
Speaker 1: real downward push in the stock market. So I have
Speaker 1: a bit of sympathy and have some sympathy for these
Speaker 1: Wall Street names that are really struggling to get it right.
Speaker 1: I'll try to muster something sympathy and thank you, Tennis
Speaker 1: legend that Serena Williams has raised a hundred eleven million
Speaker 1: dollars in her inaugural venture capital fund, the goal to
Speaker 1: find the next generation of champions from underrepresented backgrounds. Williams
Speaker 1: has been investing in earliest start up for nine years,
Speaker 1: but this is the first time she has raised outside capital.
Speaker 1: I caught up with Williams and her partner Alice and
Speaker 1: Rappaport Stillman to talk about where they think a new
Speaker 1: class of startup stars can be found. Take a listen,
Speaker 1: we don't check just one box. We really are looking
Speaker 1: forward to well well health and wellness, film tech as
Speaker 1: well as fintech. Obviously we're the crypto space and the
Speaker 1: Web three space and n f t s are something
Speaker 1: that is on everyone's mind. And um, I don't think
Speaker 1: you can really have a VC firm and not have
Speaker 1: some really big part of that into into big car
Speaker 1: your fum into that part of the Web three space.
Speaker 1: So um, we're kind of like looking in those particular areas.
Speaker 1: Now you've been the greatest of all time in tennis
Speaker 1: for so long, but in venture capital, you've kind of
Speaker 1: been in stealth mode or under the radar, and a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of celebrities and athletes don't necessarily
Speaker 1: get taken seriously here unless they're investing directly in the craft.
Speaker 1: Is there something motivating or energizing about trying to prove
Speaker 1: yourself at something new. Yes, And honestly, that's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons I have been investing so long, and I
Speaker 1: have been in stealth mode for so long, because I
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, whether it's an entertainer or it's
Speaker 1: an athlete, when we try to do something different, it's
Speaker 1: seen as more of an opportunity as instead of a passion.
Speaker 1: This is actually a passion of mine. I wake up
Speaker 1: every morning thinking, oh my gosh, I cannot wait to
Speaker 1: open my computer and look at decks or just talk
Speaker 1: to the company, or just see how what we're gonna
Speaker 1: do today. Um. And it's something that is I'm super
Speaker 1: passionate about and I just genuinely have so much fun
Speaker 1: with it. Um. But yeah, that's also another reason why
Speaker 1: I was operating in stealth. I really wanted to build
Speaker 1: my portfolio. I wanted to build my track record, So
Speaker 1: when people have questions, I would say, you know, we
Speaker 1: can just go to our track record, to go to
Speaker 1: our data room and kind of see what we've done
Speaker 1: in the past, and it gives you a glimpse of
Speaker 1: when we do have bigger fund and being able to
Speaker 1: write those big checks, what will actually you do in
Speaker 1: the future. Now, Alison, there's a lot of money flowing
Speaker 1: into the venture capital ecosystem, a lot of competitors out there,
Speaker 1: and vcs often claim they have a unique network. Your
Speaker 1: network with Serena's would seem to be unparalleled. How does
Speaker 1: that come to life on behalf of your startups? Are
Speaker 1: there any examples you can share? Yeah, one of the
Speaker 1: great things we're able to do is leverage the network
Speaker 1: that Serena's built for the twenty plus years in her career.
Speaker 1: UM for behind the scenes connections obviously has lots of
Speaker 1: followers and being on Instagram or something like that is great.
Speaker 1: But when we can connect someone to the head of
Speaker 1: you know, the head of E. S. G At Nike,
Speaker 1: or we can kind of connect someone to someone at
Speaker 1: Amazon or Procter and Gamble, those are people that she's
Speaker 1: in partnered with for a really long time, but are
Speaker 1: either business development opportunities, potential acquirers, or long of them
Speaker 1: are investing themselves in startups in the space. So we've
Speaker 1: been doing a lot of work with that. You said yourself, Serena,
Speaker 1: you don't like to lose. What do you take from
Speaker 1: the court to investing, So that's a good question. You know,
Speaker 1: it's really about having a winning attitude and really just
Speaker 1: about um understanding that you have to put a lot
Speaker 1: of time into this, you know, and you have to
Speaker 1: put a lot of effort into learning. And for me,
Speaker 1: I'm the kind of person that I like to really
Speaker 1: do my homework and really do my due diligence and
Speaker 1: really just kind of figure out exactly so I can
Speaker 1: be the best at it because you know, I know
Speaker 1: what that takes. I know what it takes to be
Speaker 1: the best at something in the world. So I'm bringing
Speaker 1: that to the table and not many people have that.
Speaker 1: But at the same time I understand that the hard
Speaker 1: work and the dedication and then also that champions mentality
Speaker 1: of like, I like winning, So if you do, what
Speaker 1: does it take to win? And it's really just figuring
Speaker 1: that out and applying it into this This part of
Speaker 1: our of my life Allison, speaking of the track record,
Speaker 1: Serena Ventures has backed thirteen unicorns six exits to date.
Speaker 1: What is the advice you're giving the founders right now
Speaker 1: about the macro economic environment given what we're seeing with
Speaker 1: inflation and interest rates and GIA political uncertainty. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: obviously a lot of risk right now in the world.
Speaker 1: We think about what that means, but we've also seen
Speaker 1: in times of kind of great economic distress some of
Speaker 1: the best companies coming out of that. People are looking
Speaker 1: at new opportunities, whether they wanted to or not. Also,
Speaker 1: with interest rates going up, we have you know, debt's
Speaker 1: going to start getting more expensive, so there's more opportunity
Speaker 1: for different forms of financing. And when we're doing at
Speaker 1: the early stage, it's still the same course. It's make
Speaker 1: sure you have enough capital to get you to your
Speaker 1: next stage. How can we help you, What are the
Speaker 1: things that you need to build to get to that
Speaker 1: next level, and what are the tools that you need.
Speaker 1: So for us, it's it's it's kind of business as
Speaker 1: usual because there's a lot of opportunity happening right now,
Speaker 1: a lot of great companies that we are seeing and funding,
Speaker 1: but also thinking about kind of making sure you have
Speaker 1: a little bit saved away for a rainy day, because
Speaker 1: no one knows what's around the corner, Serena. The New
Speaker 1: York Times ran a story about your fund and mistakenly
Speaker 1: printed a photo of your sister instead of you. You
Speaker 1: tweeted about this saying, no matter how far we come,
Speaker 1: we get reminded that it's not enough. How did you
Speaker 1: process that mistake? Um, Honestly, I've been through a lot
Speaker 1: in my career and in my life, and I don't
Speaker 1: let one thing tick me off too much. For me,
Speaker 1: I process process it as an opportunity to use it
Speaker 1: to let other people know that you're not the only
Speaker 1: one being overlooked, and let people know. This is why
Speaker 1: I'm raising Serena Adventures. You know, this is why I
Speaker 1: want to make an impact because we can. We need
Speaker 1: people like me and people like Alison and like our
Speaker 1: team at Serena Adventures to be writing the big checks
Speaker 1: to change that narrative so we don't have to be
Speaker 1: overlooked and just just thought on and just you know,
Speaker 1: just say okay, let me just write right, let me
Speaker 1: just post this as fast as I can. I'm not
Speaker 1: even going to think about it because it doesn't really
Speaker 1: matter to me, and so it's really about changing that narrative.
Speaker 1: And it's UM, I think that's so important because if
Speaker 1: you have a platform to talk about and to discuss it,
Speaker 1: then it needs to be discussed. And UM, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's important for other women and other people of
Speaker 1: color to see that you're not the only one struggling.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been number one for I don't know
Speaker 1: EON's and m one more I can even find. And um,
Speaker 1: the fact that that can still happen, it's just and
Speaker 1: and and the truth that this is why we have
Speaker 1: Serena ventures. Serena speaking of other great athletes. Tom Brady
Speaker 1: on retiring, what's your take on that? Um, I think
Speaker 1: everyone is happy about it, or most people were. I
Speaker 1: know I was, so it was definitely mixed feelings about
Speaker 1: him retiring, and then kind of felt pretty good about
Speaker 1: the unretirement. I was like, oh, that's exciting. So well,
Speaker 1: like Tod Brady, you've accomplished seemingly everything possible on the court,
Speaker 1: and you've now started this second career and investing and
Speaker 1: you've got other business trist how much longer are we
Speaker 1: going to see you playing tennis, and are you thinking
Speaker 1: about the R word more often? I mean, I think
Speaker 1: every tennis player thinks about the R word as soon
Speaker 1: as they hit five years because sinness is so intense.
Speaker 1: It's literally eleven months out of the year. Um. But
Speaker 1: I don't know. I you know, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm living for the day. I always tell people
Speaker 1: I'm not planning for tomorrow. Only in business, and when
Speaker 1: it comes to tennis, I'm planning to spread it, all right,
Speaker 1: So what's the Serena Slam for business? What does that
Speaker 1: look like? Um? I have never been asked that question,
Speaker 1: and I've never thought about it. And I think that
Speaker 1: is such a good idea, Like what a good way?
Speaker 1: Because I have I have a Serena Slam in tennis,
Speaker 1: So what a good idea. I absolutely love that. I'm
Speaker 1: going to think of something and come back to you
Speaker 1: on that. I love that. And you just challenged me.
Speaker 1: I love being challenge. We're going to your trouble. I
Speaker 1: got work to do today. You just gave you. Um.
Speaker 1: You have on that note, you have broken so many barriers.
Speaker 1: You have proved so many people wrong who didn't believe
Speaker 1: in you or support you. So I have to ask
Speaker 1: you about what what happened to Naomi Osaka at Indian Wells.
Speaker 1: What's your reaction to this, especially given your own experience. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought that, you know, I thought that everyone is different.
Speaker 1: I always say this, I always say everyone is different. Um,
Speaker 1: it's sport. I know a lot of people in sport,
Speaker 1: whether it's football. I know in basketball, I mean, shooting
Speaker 1: a free throw with all the noise and all the
Speaker 1: angry words and the fans. It's it's interesting, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's a part of sport, unfortunately, and you have
Speaker 1: to be able to, you know, keep going in those
Speaker 1: times because it's like it's not going. Unfortunately, people can
Speaker 1: be really mean and that's terrible. And I've been around
Speaker 1: when people have been really mean and you just kind
Speaker 1: of have to understand that that's their opinion and just there.
Speaker 1: It's a free world and they're able to have that opinion.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that, you know, from my opinion
Speaker 1: is like, okay, I'm not gonna have that meanness when
Speaker 1: you know, it's like okay, how do I do I
Speaker 1: do that? And so unfortunately I hate that. It's a
Speaker 1: part of sport, but it's part of sport and it
Speaker 1: will probably always be a part of sport and so um,
Speaker 1: but everyone's different. Serena Williams and Alison Rappaport still been
Speaker 1: there from Serena Ventures. You can watch the full interview.
Speaker 1: We had a lot more fun at Bloomberg dot com.
Speaker 1: Coming up, crypto and national security. We're going to speak
Speaker 1: with the co founder of chain Analysis, also the chief
Speaker 1: security officer, Jonathan Levin. Out there new tool to monitor
Speaker 1: russ and sanctions and how they picture the role of
Speaker 1: crypto in national security going forward. That's next. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Time now for our crypto report. This now week
Speaker 1: four of the war on Ukraine and it's been a
Speaker 1: wild ride both for financial markets and cryptocurrency. I want
Speaker 1: to bring in our next guest to talk about uh
Speaker 1: this and more. Ch Analysis co founder and chief security officer,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Levine. Jonathan cha Analysis is actually releasing a new
Speaker 1: tool that would help users identify whether as I understand
Speaker 1: that the people they're interacting with our sanctioned entities. Can
Speaker 1: you explain a little bit how this works? Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having me. So Essentially, what we've
Speaker 1: seen in sanctions in the US come out you know,
Speaker 1: recently and over the past few years. Is it as
Speaker 1: it comes back to cryptocurrencies, is that o FAK, the
Speaker 1: regulator that oversees all of sanctions, actually lists addresses from
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency blockchains like listed on the screen. Uh, and that
Speaker 1: actually helps people understand whether they're interacting with people that
Speaker 1: are sanctioned individuals that they're prohibited from interacting with. And
Speaker 1: so you know, what we have released out there is
Speaker 1: an ability for anyone in the world, free of charge,
Speaker 1: to actually screen transactions that they're processing against that API
Speaker 1: or against our smart contract oracle to see whether they
Speaker 1: are hitting up against one of those listed addresses by OPAK. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm wondering what you think, Jonathan, of the role of
Speaker 1: intermediaries here, exchanges and the necessity to work with lawmakers
Speaker 1: and regulators. Do you think that there's more of a
Speaker 1: role that they need to play in order to make
Speaker 1: sure that the rules are being followed. Yeah, I think that. Well,
Speaker 1: the industry has been preparing for this moment a really
Speaker 1: long time, and you've had exchanges and financial institutions really
Speaker 1: you know, as they step into the space and mature,
Speaker 1: all of their risk and compliance programs really go into
Speaker 1: business as usual. They know what the scenarios are, they
Speaker 1: know what they needed to do, and they've been sort
Speaker 1: of adapting to all of the latest actions bio fak
Speaker 1: and and regulators around the world that have taken steps
Speaker 1: to broadened sanctions. So yeah, I think from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: it's the sort of business as usual or be a
Speaker 1: little bit busier than usual in a lot of the
Speaker 1: sanctions teams in those financial institutions. Right, So, Jonathan, how
Speaker 1: much evidence are you seeing of Russians potentially using cryptocurrency
Speaker 1: to circumvent these rules? So currently we are tracking very
Speaker 1: closely the macro environment, right, We're looking at all of
Speaker 1: the entry points and exit points from the Russian economy
Speaker 1: into cryptocurrencies and tracking sort of changes in liquidity, changes
Speaker 1: in volumes, different patterns of transactions to really understand has
Speaker 1: there been a systemic change in the way in which
Speaker 1: people are using cryptocurrency in Russia and potentially abating sanctions
Speaker 1: and and you know, so far we're not seeing sort
Speaker 1: of the systemic level of crypticocurrency being used to evade
Speaker 1: sanctions that people were worried about sort of at the
Speaker 1: beginning of this. How do you think about the role
Speaker 1: of cyber attacks in this war more largely, is there
Speaker 1: evidence that this can become a bigger issue here and
Speaker 1: what's the role here of folks in the crypto community
Speaker 1: who are also thinking about this at scale. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's a great question because really what we've seen
Speaker 1: in this war in general is that you know, cyber
Speaker 1: is a domain as part of this warfare. Um you're
Speaker 1: seeing sort of increased cyber attacks on Ukrainian internet infrastructure,
Speaker 1: and we've seen sort of activity to do with CONTI
Speaker 1: ransomware really increase. As you know, there have been some
Speaker 1: leaks and and some re establishment of Quanti as sort
Speaker 1: of the dominant ransomware family out there. And so really
Speaker 1: it's incumbent on everyone in the industry to work really
Speaker 1: closely with government and you know, share information about the
Speaker 1: attacks that are happening so that there can be sort
Speaker 1: of indicators and shared intelligence across geographies and across business. UM.
Speaker 1: So I think that there's a lot more partnership to
Speaker 1: be done, and you're seeing a lot of the development
Speaker 1: of these task forces and a reprioritization of that in
Speaker 1: the US. You believe the war in Ukraine is a
Speaker 1: key inflection point for the crypto industry. How do you
Speaker 1: see this playing out? I think that one thing it's
Speaker 1: done is it's really surfaced that cryptocurrency can be used
Speaker 1: for humanitarian purposes, you know, with a distinct example here
Speaker 1: of the speed by which money was able to go
Speaker 1: from donors in all these different countries around the world
Speaker 1: into the hands of the Ukrainian government and then for
Speaker 1: them to purchase military equipment and emergency food supplies to
Speaker 1: be able to actually finance some of the defense of
Speaker 1: their country. So that is a really sort of tangible
Speaker 1: example that you know, is now in the minds of
Speaker 1: a lot of people around the world. You know. The
Speaker 1: other thing here is that it is actually possible to
Speaker 1: have you know, sanctions compliance for cryptocurrency businesses around the world.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I think the combination of you know,
Speaker 1: the legitimacy and the utility of cryptocurrency coming like to
Speaker 1: the forefront, as well as this increased focus and scrutiny
Speaker 1: on the regulatory piece, you know, is going to breed
Speaker 1: sort of an inflection point in how regulated cryptocurrency businesses
Speaker 1: able to function in in Western economies. Alright. Chinalysis co
Speaker 1: found er chief security officer Jonathan Levine along with our
Speaker 1: Shinali Bossic. Thank you. We don't think of it as
Speaker 1: a race at Blue Origin. Um. We are in this
Speaker 1: for the long term. And by long term, I don't
Speaker 1: mean five years, I don't mean ten years. The vision
Speaker 1: of Blue Origin is generation spanning. I will not see
Speaker 1: it happen in my lifetime, maybe not even in my choice.
Speaker 1: It's lifetime. That is how long the horizon of the
Speaker 1: Origins vision is. And I'm very excited to be part
Speaker 1: of these this early step, but it will keep on going.
Speaker 1: Chief architect of Blue Origin suborbital rocket there Gary lie
Speaker 1: back in July when Jeff Bezos made history on the
Speaker 1: company's first manned rocket to space. Now Live will follow
Speaker 1: in bezos is Its steps and join Blue Origins flight
Speaker 1: on March twenty nine. He'll be taking the place of
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, who dropped out of
Speaker 1: the flight when the company announced the dates had been changed.
Speaker 1: No additional reason given, and that does it for this
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Technology. Join us tomorrow. We'll be joined
Speaker 1: by Bradley Tusk of Tusk Ventures. He'll talk about crypto
Speaker 1: investing and who will run the metaverse. That's tomorrow on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Technology. I'm Emily Chang. This is Bloomberg