WEBVTT - Roblox CEO David Baszucki 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.360 So in real life you're the CEO of Roadblocks, but 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:08.600 on Roadblocks your builder man, you know that name. We 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.680 just thought it up when um is, maybe two weeks 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:14.720 after we launched, and we were all picking our own 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:19.360 user names and everyone picked one night. So you've had 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.520 the same avatar since two thousand four. That's right, that's awesome. 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.560 Do you still play? I do? I wish I could 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:27.639 play the whole day. I have to be a CEO. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.720 So how often do you play? I'm probably on every day, 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:33.640 but not as much as I would like. I have 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:35.360 four kids. I have a nine year old son who's 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.879 on Roadblocks a lot. He said his favorite games are 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:44.360 the Tycoon games. Oh, lumber Tycoon, theme Park Tycoon. I 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:47.120 love those. I love all of those. I have a 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.879 bit of a theory. I have four kids, and yeah 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.760 they're now they've grown up watching me do this and other. 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.080 They're pretty savvy social media people. But I'm optimistic someday 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.600 they're going to be using roadblocks for some other reason, 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.400 like communicating or more working or something like that, and 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.000 then they're going to be oh gosh, as like forest 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:14.920 to be Roadblocks. Hi, everyone, em Emily Chang and welcome 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.160 to this edition of the Bloombrook Studio One point Oh podcast. First, 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:24.000 a message from our sponsors. On this edition of Bloomberg 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.959 Studio one point Oh, we're speaking with Roadblocks CEO and 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:31.680 co founder David Bazuki, or as he's known on Roadblocks Builderman, 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.880 a portmanteau of robots and blocks. Roadblocks started as a 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:40.080 three D world where users could build, share, and play games. 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:42.880 Thanks to the pandemic, it has boomed into a global 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.959 online gaming juggernaut that kids are obsessed with, racking up 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:50.720 ten billion plus hours on the platform a quarter. It's 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.800 been a slow build. Roadblocks launched in two thousand four 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.080 and was building its version of the Metaverse long before 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:01.160 Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook's name to Meta. In this episode, 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:05.200 Bazooky paints his vision for the immersive and interconnected future 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.880 where users can not only play roller coaster games, but 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.160 attend town halls, go to school, industry conferences, concerts, and 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.160 even political rallies one day. Is this future really possible? 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.600 And how far out is it? And how do we 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:24.160 cultivate a civil digital society within it that keeps kids safe? 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.040 Joining me now on this edition of Bloombrook Studio one 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.640 point Oh. Roadblocks CEO and co founder David Bazooki, David's 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.200 so great to have you here. I really appreciate it. 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.239 It's wonderful to be with you. Well, I'm a parent, 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:38.960 I'm a mom, and so I've been really excited um 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.160 to have this conversation for parents and anyone out there 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.600 who still doesn't quite understand what exactly our kids doing 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:51.520 on roadblocks. Yeah, kids on roadblocks aren't just playing, they're learning. 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.120 They're hanging out together when they can't be together in 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.320 real life. They're hanging out on roadblocks. They could be 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.040 playing hide and go seek. They could be pretending they're 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.080 running a store or a pizza parlor. They could be 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.239 making the next big game or adventure. So it's really 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.640 a wide range of things, and it involves doing things together, 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.600 pretending you're together. So right now it's mostly games or 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.919 experiences four kids by kids. How old are these players? 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.799 How old are these developers? We have young players who 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.000 are getting interested in coding, who are getting interested in 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.200 designing things. But more and more of the community on 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:33.520 Roadblocks has blossomed into this super rich ecosystem, thousands of 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.760 developers making a living on the platform. Some of these 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.040 developers are making tens or twenties or fifty millions of 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.520 dollars a year. So how many of these developers are 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:44.920 really kids? And how many of these developers are now 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.800 grown ups? Yeah? Well I think two million plus developers. 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:51.920 A lot of them are grown ups, and more and more. 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.520 In addition to the natural organic people that started on Roadblocks, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.120 we're starting to have studios come in on the platform 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.320 as well. Professional game develop oppers who are developing on 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.200 other platforms starting to take a look at it. So 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:09.080 our developer demo naturally leans a little bit older, although 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:12.160 we've had kids as young as thirteen. Is there something 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.960 about preserving the ability for young kids to be able 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.320 to make games for other kids? I mean, because obviously 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:23.000 if you have you know, fancy studios muscling in um, 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.680 does that change the dynamic of the PLATF I think 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.680 it does. One of my favorite experiences as Natural Disasters, 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.080 that's been on the platform forever by one of our 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.760 early developers. It's not the kind of thing that I 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.440 think a normal studio would ever think of, but when 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.120 developed by young creator, you know, we're gonna be We're 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:43.880 gonna be hanging out together and there's gonna be a 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:45.880 hurricane and we've got to like run away from it, 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:48.320 or there's gonna be a lightning storm, like that kind 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.240 of stuff. We see a lot of that creative gameplay 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.080 coming from the younger developers. What were you into as 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:56.560 a kid? Were you a gamer? I was kind of 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.799 a nerd when I was a kid. I was studied 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.960 really hard. I luckily grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.920 At the time, it was out in the boonies from Minneapolis, 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.279 Minnesota's there were sand pits and so we did a 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.440 lot of model rockets, and we built go carts, and 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.400 you know, it's kind of one of these idyllic childhoods. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.400 The one key thing that happened to me very early 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:21.760 on as we had a computer lab in the school, 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:23.920 and then my parents bought me an Apple two at 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.400 the time, and that kind of got me interested in this. 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:28.680 I also heard you were the captain of your high 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:32.760 school TV quiz team. Yeah, so think of think of 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:38.440 Minnesota in the nineteen seventies and eighties, where every weekend, 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:43.280 two different schools compete for students from each school, you know, 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.440 in a really funny four by four configurations on a 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.479 quizzble thing, and so yeah, Eden Prairie had a pretty 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.440 good quizz Bowl team. You eventually made it to Silicon Valley, 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.560 went to Stanford. You started a company called Knowledge Revolution 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:00.560 in the eighties where users could create and test physics experiments. 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.719 That's right. So the science kid in you coming to life. Yeah, 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.080 you know, went to school, had a couple of hard 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.440 years with jobs that weren't really that exciting. Took a 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.200 few months off and I got really excited about there's 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.440 this whole blossoming educational software marketplace at the Macintosh had 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.760 just been introduced, and it was just really interesting, exciting. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:22.640 I did a survey of all of that, and a 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.040 lot of the educational software was very pre canned. So 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.239 when we looked at physics, it was a whole different idea. 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.320 Could we make a wide open laboratory where you could 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:36.159 build anything, any physics experiment, bring it to life, measure it, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.920 see what it feels like. You sold that company, made 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.200 some money, You became an investor, and you invested in 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.120 friends stirre. Oh yeah, wow, I I had a friends 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.440 Store account. I'm dating myself a little bit here, but 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:51.960 I had a Friend's Store account. I'm curious what you 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.680 learned from the early days of social media. Yeah, so 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.360 one thing I learned is it was really fun to invest, 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.039 but it's not my sweet spot. My sweet spot is 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.360 trying to build and create things. I remember I think 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:09.040 having account number seventy nine on Friends there and just 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.400 seeing that wonderful thing of finding other people friend of friends, 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.000 playing around with that early user interface. It's a little 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:20.160 bit almost thinking of interactive physics, where we were simulating 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.800 the world and then friends they're seeing how important social is. 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.040 Those are a couple of the components that have come 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.480 together in Roadblocks. So when you started Roadblocks in two 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.080 thousand four, what was the idea? Back then, the feeling 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:37.679 of this new category for me started feeling almost inexorable. 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.440 It's a category that people have been talking about in 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:44.360 sci fi for many, many years. We've seen futurists talk 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.320 about it. We've seen a lot of movies. We were thinking, yes, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:52.280 immersive three D co experience. Kids flocked to Roadblocks during 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.960 the pandemic. You went public in the middle of the pandemic. 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.600 Dollar market cap we spoke on that day. Even you 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.160 have said that kind of growth won't keep up. What 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.239 kind of growth can we expect from Roadblocks in normal times. 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:08.800 We believe every it's gonna be a part of all 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:10.280 of our lives. It's going to be the way we 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.320 communicate how people get to go to school when they 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.000 can't get into school, how people they're going to go 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.320 to school in roadblocks. If I happen to be taking 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.120 my science class and I can't get into the classroom 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:25.520 and we're dissecting a frog, will probably dissect the frog 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.200 in something like Roadblocks on a simulation, which I think 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.240 is going to be very very powerful, and for our company, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:33.839 where there's a lot of people that are going to 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.440 end up working all around the world, some of us 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.400 will be in the office, some won't. Having a common 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.840 three D place where we can have those water cooler 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.280 conversations where everyone has a desk, but we get that 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.160 serendipitous thing where we both happen to go over and chat. 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:59.120 I think also is going to be very big coming up. 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.640 Roadblocks is on a mission to build what they call 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.920 the next generation of human co experience, but that comes 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:10.040 with some serious content moderation challenges. More on that next. 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.000 Everybody is talking about the metaverse as something that's going 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.040 to happen in the future. But there's an argument to 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.840 be made that Roadblocks has already built a metaverse. What 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.920 do you think, I think we've started And Um, it 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.560 goes back to how exciting it is to have a 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.880 company in this space that I think is ultimately got 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:41.960 so many years of growth to it and is a 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:46.800 new category following other types of technologies. There's still so 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.040 much innovation to be done, and there's so much invention 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.120 to be done in this category that's mind boggling. The 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:56.880 critics think that metaverse the term is just marketing. How 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.400 do you respond to that? This type of technology is 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.960 much more difficult than the net or the web, which 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.360 was another huge thing that we saw predicted and has 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.520 started to come. But but I think we're seeing early 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.480 signs of it. When Mark Zuckerberg announced his plan to 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.880 own the metaverse and change Facebook's name to meta as 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:21.400 if it was something new, did that kind of bother you? Um? No, 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.000 of course not. It's really hard to predict in five 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.920 to ten or twenty years, where are the companies that 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.160 really figure it out, And there's so many elements of 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:35.120 innovation that are needed. Um. Having a u g C 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.360 community one of our strengths we think that's like a 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.080 huge starting point for us, but we're early in our 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.200 quest for innovation here. Roadblocks has built a huge business 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:48.800 selling row bucks. Does this evolve into a much bigger marketplace? 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.360 It was this revelation that people would ultimately make a 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.960 living on platforms like this that started this digital currency 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:59.559 is very Roadblocks centric in that where a systems company 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.880 or you hility, so it has formed this robust economy. 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.720 It's allowed us to keep robox. You know, Roadblocks is 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.000 free for the vast majority. Would Roadblocks have a partner 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.680 with some of these other companies working on the metaverse, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.880 whether it is Meta or Unity or Epic or Microsoft. 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:18.960 The core technology of you know, how are we going 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.240 to ultimately support fifty people in real time on a 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.640 phone going to a concert together and waving it your friends. 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.400 I think that's gonna be a lot of engineering work 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.439 that each company is going to be working on, and 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.400 it's going to be really hard. As far as ultimately 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.439 can an avatar go from one place to another, I 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.800 think they'll be lightweight ways of starting to think about that. So, 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.640 what role do you think Apple and Android should play 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.720 in the metaverse and what their policies need to change 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.360 to really support this vision. The biggest thing we would 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.520 take advantage of if it were to happen, is a 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.800 change in those store fees. We we stay out of it. 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.800 We let Google and Apple kind of run our businesses. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.240 But when we think about more and more developers making 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:08.240 a living on platforms like us and having to build stuff, 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:10.640 if those store fees were to change, we would move 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.280 most of that money back to our developers. Your goal 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:18.160 is to build an entirely new category of human co experience, 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:23.760 the next phase of human interaction. How do you moderate 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.800 that on such a massive scale and are you doing 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.559 a good enough job. In the third week when we 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.640 were live, you can go imagine Eric and myself back 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.400 in our small office. Eric and I said, oh my gosh, 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.160 safety and civilities, we're going to have to do it. 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.640 We had maybe a hundred people at the time chatting 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:47.200 on roadblocks. We saw a few not that egregious, but 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.400 early signs, and we just made the call, this is 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.600 going to be the foundation of what we do in 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:56.600 the early years of roadblocks. As we've gotten bigger, we've 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.200 gotten to the point where there's thousands of moderators. Every 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:04.240 image that goes on our platform gets human reviewed. We 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:09.360 filter texts very stringently, especially for thirteen and under players. 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.120 We use a lot of AI and mL to help 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.880 do this. We're always getting better, um, but it is 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.160 a key thing for us. How optimistic are you about 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.880 AI and tech being able to do that? I'm really 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:25.240 actually optimistic. We would never compare to the real world 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.600 because our standards are so much more stringent. But I 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.400 do believe this will just keep getting better and better, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.200 and I think over time it will get to the 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.359 point where if a six year old is on our platform, 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.000 it's literally as if the parents wanted to be there 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.400 with them, watching everything. We'll be able to offer that 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.920 type of thing. Now, a lot of parents are terrified. 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.520 They're terrified of a future metaverse. They don't understand the 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.840 parental controls. Do you understand that feeling? We do. We 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.880 actually have to. I think it creates a higher standard 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:01.720 for us because I think we can assume every parent 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.040 is going to get that involved with their kids. There 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:08.400 have been some serious content challenges, you know, stories about 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.200 roadblocks being a playground for virtual fascists. There was just 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.959 this story about Kim Kardashian's own child seeing an ad 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.920 for a game that claimed to have a sex tape 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:23.080 of her. What happened there? That was very unfortunate. There 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.960 was a text blurb very shortly that very very few 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.840 people saw. We took the place down, We moderated that user, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.400 and they're off our platform. It was not the video 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:35.960 was never on our platform. There was no imagery on 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.880 our platform. It was a very short mention, but very unfortunate. 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.040 And UM, well, you know, our vision is to be 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.320 the most civil place for everyone. I asked him our Bechiv, 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.840 the CEO of alphabet and Google, this question about kids 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:50.680 and tech habits and screen time, and he said it's 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:52.840 something that even stresses him out. You know, this is 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.400 the guy who runs one of the most powerful technology 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.960 companies in the world. UM, I have four kids. You 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.400 have four kids. Did it stress you out? Like? How 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.080 did you deal with your kids? I think it highlights 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.400 how much Um it's a responsibility of both platforms like us, 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:09.840 as well as parents. You know, we're all trying to 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.160 figure this out. I think the one thing that we're 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:16.000 very encouraged is that the time spent on roadblocks tends 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.800 to be more like hanging out together or being on 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.360 the phone together or doing stuff together, and a lot 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:28.520 less of it is isolated, either consuming content by myself 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.400 or grinding away at something by myself. So we do 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.120 like the fact that most of this is either social 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.360 or involved in creation. You've been investing in high fidelity graphics. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.520 What is the endgame here for you know, more human 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:47.760 more realistic avatars. I'll look way out like a science 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.560 fiction writer and talk about it, and what I'm talking 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.960 about now super difficult the end game. Sometimes we talk 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.480 about we would go together to a rock concert or 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.480 whatever concert you like. Um, we would be there with 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.960 fifty thus and other people. It would feel like a movie. 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.120 It would feel like real life. So are you pushing 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:11.880 towards something like meta Horizon worlds? Does that found you know, 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.800 more experiences like that? For adults? We sometimes think of 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.760 roadblocks ultimately as fading into the background, as a utility 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.200 like the electric grid. Um, even though it's photo realistic 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.560 and there's all these awesome avatars and connection and identity 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.520 around the world, the things we start seeing built on 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.320 this are a wide range of things. So you imagine 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:35.320 this not just for kids but for everyone adults absolutely, 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.760 What about entertainment would roadblocks ever make a Netflix show. 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.320 We would love it if one of our developers made 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.400 a Netflix show, so we would we would feel much 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.160 more authentic if one of the creators on Roadblocks who's 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.600 coming up with avatars and stories and ideas and characters 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:53.560 like that, we want them to be in the limelight. 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.920 Roadblock Shares took a dive on the back of Netflix results, 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:02.120 which obviously plum did our investors reading too much into 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.520 the connection there. I think our company is somewhat unique, 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.159 and what is very exciting to go to work and 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.760 be the CEO is being in a market like this, 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.199 you know where we think ultimately billions of people are 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.680 going to use this type of technology. And the other 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.800 exciting thing about this market there are so many big 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.400 inventions that still have to happen. It feels like we're 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.920 pretty mature, but inside our company we realize like there's 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:30.240 six or seven big inventions we need to make to 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.160 get to that next step. Would Roadblocks ever consider more 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.480 in game advertising? Yeah, there's a funny trivia note I 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.640 would share to all the Roadblocks fans out there. There 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.200 was a time the very first way we monetize was advertising, 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:45.679 And then there was also a time when we had 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.520 pre roll video on roadblocks, UM, that's all gone now, 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.560 and it's gone for a couple of reasons. We didn't 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.879 want it to interfere with the user experience, and also 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:58.320 our our virtual economy has become such a powerful way 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.159 to power this that we are able to take that 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.520 down in the future. Though, I think there's a certain 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:08.960 type of advertising that is kids safe, that is UM immersive, 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:11.240 that doesn't get in your way, and how do you 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.280 make sure that doesn't take away from the ethos of 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.959 what makes roadblocks grant? Yeah, I think are the people 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:22.240 on roadblocks, you know, they're they're to authentically connect with 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.400 their friends. And as long as UM what we're doing 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.800 with these brands is very clear, non deceptive, appropriate for 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.840 those ages, I think they'll they'll figure out the balance 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.320 of how much time do we go into a store 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.960 versus how much time do we go to a crazy 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.520 adventure tycoon and you know, build an amusement park together. 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.399 So either way, this could be a huge new revenue stream. 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.560 I believe it's an awesomely huge revenue stream, and at 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:48.959 the same time we've been very gentle towards it. So 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:50.919 as you look ahead, what do you think are the 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:55.360 biggest challenges roadblocks will face if our vision plays out, 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:57.159 which we hope it does, and we have people of 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.760 all ages on the platform and we're around the world. 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:03.840 I think maintaining that civility as we grow, as we 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:05.919 have older people who might want to go to a 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.920 political rally, thinking ways to do that in a systemic way, 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.240 that's a big challenge. It takes a lot of thought. 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:16.600 I think thinking through the technology. I really like we're 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.320 very technology driven company. So it's fun to be running 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:23.600 a company where we have to do these seven big 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.800 inventions and you know, what we're doing right now isn't 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:31.400 going to cut it. So knowing that technology challenges super interesting. 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:33.840 We do a little rapid fire section just to get 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:42.840 spontaneous as um. First question, what's your morning routine? Wake up, 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:48.120 go outside of my porch, do a CrossFit workout, take 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.440 a shower, go to work. Where are you most productive? 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:55.480 Home or office? Both? Um? Different types of productivity homes 0:19:55.600 --> 0:20:00.960 and state flow, state at time, office, connecting, being together, brainstorming. 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:02.960 What's your favorite show right now? What are you binging? 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.520 Oh my gosh, If if you look at my YouTube history, 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.959 it's it's this weird mechanical stuff off road vehicles and 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.959 rockets and ships and big waves, best life hack. I 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.439 think it all gets down to the joy of health. Really, 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:22.680 like if if I'm not you know, feeling centered, but sleep, exercise, 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:25.280 die and all of that, everything else just completely falls. 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.399 You used to have a talk radio show. Now that 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.120 I've met you in person, I get this. I see 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.040 how you you'd be. You'd be pretty fun to listen to. Yeah, 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.760 what was your style? Like? So my gam was, I 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.560 would say starting in college, when I would have insomnia 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.879 at two am, I would turn on talk radio and 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:48.000 you know all those famous KGO people, Bill Wattenberg, Retelia Pharaoh, 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:51.080 all that just listened to the people calling in. So 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.439 I um, after knowledge revolution was acquired and I had 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:56.840 a year, I had a little time to dabble. My 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:01.359 jam was really trying to talk about ray just topics, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.919 you know, gambling, other controversial things. It was in a 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.160 small market in Santa Cruz. I would typically it's really 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:13.160 hard to get people to call in, you know, It's like, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.320 so it's really scary if you're a DJ and no 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:19.639 one's calling inside. I made it really controversial. I have 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:22.840 people come on and debate interesting topic. If you could 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:26.320 have dinner with Steve Jobs or Walt Disney, who would 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:30.280 you pick both? You can't pick both. I guess I 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:34.600 would have to slightly lean Disney just because he was 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:37.600 not just the usher of the innovation, but actually was 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.159 kind of part of the sum of the innovation. But 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:43.320 I think Steve leaned much more on finding the people 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:48.400 to drive that innovation. Best advice for your twenties, Um, 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.760 don't freak out if between the age of twenty two 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:55.280 and twenty five everything is a disaster. Best advice for 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:59.760 your forties. Life is short. It's such a valuable come 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:03.720 on every day. What you do, your friends, your time, 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.119 your family is so important. So how do you define 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:10.160 work life integration? I don't like the word balance. Yeah, 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:16.240 I would say, can I make my roadblocks job better 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:18.880 than anything else I would do? Like? Can it be 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:21.560 better than retiring? Can it be better than a hobby? 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:25.400 Can I figure out what my unique job as a CEO? 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:28.919 Every CEO job is different, like I like doing it, 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:31.399 So can I figure out what my role is? You 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:35.439 mentioned your co founder Eric Castle earlier, who died tragically 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.240 of cancer. If he was here today, what do you 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:43.639 think he would think? Of the roadblocks that roadblocks has become. Wow, 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:48.359 I think he'd be proud. It's a good question, Like 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:50.840 I think he would. You know his both of his 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:54.640 sons have worked at the company a bit um, so yeah, 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:57.480