Tech Layoffs Starting to Hit Silicon Valley Hard — Transcript

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1. 0:00So much has changed since I started covering Silicon Valley.
2. 0:03Now I'm just wondering where you were 12 years ago when Bloomberg Tech launched.
3. 0:08Oh, guys, I was a software engineer working on my startup posthumous, which
4. 0:13was a NYC company. I hadn't even become a partner at Y C
5. 0:16yet. And 2008 we actually closed our
6. 0:20seven hundred thousand dollars seed round the day Lehman died.
7. 0:24So we know for people who are watching right now who might be affected, you
8. 0:28know, I really do feel for you because you had this type of day.
9. 0:32It's such a shock. But also, 2008, 2009 was such an
10. 0:38incredible time to start companies and that you have to take the good with the
11. 0:43bad. Eleven thousand people laid off at
12. 0:49Meadow alone today. How bad does this get, in your view?
13. 0:55You know, I really feel for those families.
14. 0:57I feel for every single person who is going through that type, that magnitude
15. 1:02of layoff. But one of the things that I'm sort of
16. 1:07excited about, that, you know, there is a silver lining in that these are really
17. 1:10smart, really dedicated people. You know, Facebook has an incredible
18. 1:15hiring bar. And I think about a lot of human
19. 1:19capital, a lot of human heart and minds that now can be applied to, frankly, all
20. 1:25of these other problems that, you know, are sort of facing society and humanity.
21. 1:31And I'm excited about what gets unlocked
22. 1:34here, because, you know, for for practically, I don't know, three, five
23. 1:39years, the number one thing that, frankly, startups really faced was how
24. 1:43do we find people who are as smart as, you know, a Facebook engineer or almost
25. 1:48any of those roles. And so, you know, on the one hand, this
26. 1:51is a sad day. On the other hand, you know, I'm kind of
27. 1:54excited to see where all of these people are going to go.
28. 1:57And some of those people are going to start new companies that actually become
29. 2:01the next Facebook, the next matter. And, you know, I think that that is
30. 2:06something that I'm excited to see. There are some people saying Silicon
31. 2:11Valley is turning into a wasteland, that San Francisco is over and they were
32. 2:16saying this before these layoffs even started to happen as a result of the
33. 2:19changes from the pandemic alone. I know you're very steeped in the
34. 2:24culture of San Francisco and I'm guessing you disagree, but what do you
35. 2:28think? Yeah, I think San Francisco from time
36. 2:32immemorial is a place for dreamers and doers to come and try to, you know, try
37. 2:37their hand at their own future. But, you know, there's something very
38. 2:40special about technology in San Francisco, which is we've brought
39. 2:45together some of the smartest minds and then they go on to create products and
40. 2:50services for a billion people. And, you know, we might have gone
41. 2:53through our big wave over the last decade, but there's a new wave.
42. 2:58You know, I keep meeting new, you know, 25 year olds, 30 year olds like, you
43. 3:02know, people who are sort of just starting their career.
44. 3:05And some of them might be sort of leaving some of these tech giants.
45. 3:09And they're we're realizing that, hey, we can start a company, we can create a
46. 3:15product or service. And it comes from actually solving real
47. 3:18problems for customers. Right.
48. 3:19And so, you know, whether it's crypto or, you know, SAS software sort of
49. 3:24across the board, you know, even though this is a time of sort of destruction,
50. 3:28there is creation that is growing out of, you know, sort of the ground from
51. 3:35the wreckage of some of these, you know, quite regrettable situations right now.
52. 3:39The seed is in there and it's growing. And we were we were going to hear about
53. 3:44the next Yvonne Man, the next billion dollar or decade corn company.
54. 3:49That is sort of starting. Exactly.
55. 3:51Like, you know, a startup like my startup started the day Lehman died.
56. 3:57So what does this actually mean for early companies right now and for
57. 4:01investors like yourself at the earliest stages?
58. 4:04How do you make decisions about where to put your money and whether to put money
59. 4:08in anything at all, given the way the economy is going?
60. 4:13Yeah, I think the very special thing about early stage is that, you know, you
61. 4:17are starting from small numbers. You know, a startup, as Paul Graham
62. 4:21wrote in his famous essay, A Startup Equals Growth.
63. 4:24And when you're small, you can outrun any macro situation.
64. 4:29You know, the macro situation might be the heights of 2021 when we were
65. 4:34starting to tell people, hey, you know, beware, there might be this recession
66. 4:39ahead. And, you know, that was something that
67. 4:41we started seeing towards the end of last year, you know, or we might be all
68. 4:45the way down on a day like this where I think all of us are sort of trying to
69. 4:49figure out, like, what does this mean and how much lower does it go.
70. 4:53But in that in that time or this time, there is the ability for a small team to
71. 5:00build a product or service and grow 2 x 4 x 10 X per year.
72. 5:05And so if the Mac, even if the macro situation goes down 20, 30, 40 percent
73. 5:10from here. Like if an individual company can show
74. 5:13that it can grow 3 X 5 X 10 x 100, it's over 100 X over several years like that,
75. 5:20that will outrun the worst or even a Great Depression if you can do it.
76. 5:25And the thing is, this is impelled by technology.
77. 5:28There are new problems and things like generative A.I.
78. 5:32right now are just blowing people's minds.
79. 5:35And I think that the the fruit of the next great companies, it really comes
80. 5:41from that technology and from the builders who are being unlocked right
81. 5:44now. Well, speaking of building and
82. 5:48disrupting, Elon Musk taking over Twitter, you're a Twitter power user.
83. 5:53I'm curious what you think of what he's done so far and what the plan seems to
84. 5:57be and maybe if as a power user, you have any advice for Elon Musk.
85. 6:03That's a great question. I mean, I love Twitter and, you know, I
86. 6:07think the number one thing is I'm also feeling for my friends over there who
87. 6:10are, you know, sort of sleeping under their desks, you know, working through
88. 6:13it. So all I can say is, you know, take care
89. 6:16of your people and, you know, take care of us as users.
90. 6:21And, you know, I know that he's much maligned by certain people right now.
91. 6:26But, you know, I I'm rooting for them. I'm rooting for Twitter as a company and
92. 6:30as a user. I spoke with Representative Roe Connor
93. 6:35earlier, you're going to hear part of that conversation in a moment.
94. 6:38But he called for more regulation of big tech, which may be more unlikely
95. 6:43depending on how the votes shake out. I know you're heading to the White House
96. 6:47next week with one of your portfolio companies.
97. 6:50What do you think the role of Washington should be in the next generation of tech
98. 6:56innovation and perhaps not repeating some of the mistakes or lack of action
99. 7:01that we've seen in the past? Yeah.
100. 7:03So I'm headed to D.C. with a beeper, it's one of our
101. 7:06initialized companies that's creating a universal chat app, and one of the
102. 7:09things they really want to do is sort of take away the green bubble, blue bubble
103. 7:14problem. And, you know, that's just kind of a
104. 7:16silly example in one instance. In one sense.
105. 7:18But it is actually emblematic of a much bigger problem.
106. 7:22And those are things that we hope to solve with the Innovation and Choice Act
107. 7:26online and the Open Up Markets Act, which frankly, we really hope Senator
108. 7:30Schumer will actually bring to the floor.
109. 7:32You know, he's claimed that the votes aren't there, but we're pretty sure
110. 7:35there are more than enough votes. And, you know, for me, when I look at
111. 7:39early stage, it's really about making sure there's a fair and level playing
112. 7:44field. And it's really clear to me that we
113. 7:46don't have that right now. Apple and Google certainly mean well,
114. 7:50but they're still looking out for their main interests.
115. 7:53And we want choice and freedom and we need to protect the ability of founders,
116. 7:58you know, perhaps in a garage in San Francisco, in Mountain View, wherever
117. 8:01they are in the world, even we want them to be able to create something that
118. 8:05touches a billion people. And, you know, that's really what we
119. 8:08want with these two bills. We want a fair and open dialogue and a
120. 8:14way for consumers to actually win. I have a minute left, Gary, and I'd love
121. 8:21to get your advice now for the folks who were let go today.
122. 8:24What would you say to them? I mean, go home and hug your kids.
123. 8:29Yeah. If you got them.
124. 8:31But at the same time, you know, maybe if you've been playing it safe like this
125. 8:36whole time in your career, it might be time to go out and find some
126. 8:42frontier tech, something that you're interested in.
127. 8:45And your research, the startups research what you think might change the world.
128. 8:50And, you know, you don't have to take a job offer, but interviewed a bunch of
129. 8:54them and figure out, you know, is there a fit?
130. 8:57Is this place right for me? And you're building equity and helping
131. 9:02build new things that have never existed before.
132. 9:05It is the most exhilarating experience that I've ever had professionally.
133. 9:09And I just really hope, you know, I think that.
134. 9:13It's just a hard moment right now. The future is a little bit uncertain in
135. 9:17terms of what might whether there's a recession or not.
136. 9:21You know, the macro picture doesn't look that great, but I just want people to
137. 9:24remember that that their new technology is still being built and there are
138. 9:29companies big and small that are still fighting that fight and yet they need
139. 9:35your help. So, you know, dust yourself off and you
140. 9:39know, we're going to go build the future.