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Wave of tech layoffs, Robinhood earnings, what makes a great CEO & more | E1603 — Transcript

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0:00hey everybody Welcome to Thursday
0:01Thursday we got a big show today the
0:04machetes have come out in the tech World
0:06there have been a lot of riffs
0:07reductions in force happening across
0:09Tech stripe Open Door lift and several
0:12others are all kinds of other stuff yeah
0:14and then there's Robin hoods uh one of
0:17the companies that angel invested in and
0:18I'm still a shareholder in reports are
0:20earnings and uh there's a lot of lessons
0:22in here for what's going on in the uh
0:24macro environment and for startups and
0:26Founders and it's a lot of the costs
0:29there and they're they're getting
0:30multiple revenue streams online always a
0:32wise idea I'm really starting to see the
0:35stratification in the companies who are
0:36gonna
0:37come through and the ones who are going
0:39to have a rougher ride after that we
0:41have a new segment Rachel reporting is
0:44out cool hunting for us and she comes on
0:46to talk about a new product monetized
0:49mood boards love it I love it very nice
0:52yeah it's gonna be a great show stick
0:54with us this week in startups is brought
0:56to you by micro acquire the startup
0:59acquisition Marketplace start the right
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1:52twist hey Molly it's Thursday what's new
1:55in your world oh hi hey uh well I ran
1:58out of half and half so you did I think
2:00that's pretty big news that's pretty big
2:01news I was getting a tweet about it and
2:03just put it out there oh cool yeah uh I
2:06gotta update the new I got I saw Twitter
2:08had a new update I gotta update that
2:10um yeah so I I got on Twitter today
2:13actually paradoxically and I was yeah
2:16um it's a good app I mean a great place
2:18to get news
2:19uh share your ideas and thoughts have
2:21conversations with important people in
2:23the world just an exceptional like
2:25product or service in the world it's
2:27just
2:28I mean honestly you know when you you
2:30try to think about where else you might
2:31go if if though if you were having that
2:34question or other people around you were
2:35having that question and you really
2:37can't come up with an alternative thing
2:39in Town Square
2:42I mean so many things could get better
2:43over there too I mean there's a lot of
2:44ideas swirling around uh but when I was
2:47looking at my new stream one thing I saw
2:50was stripe open door and lift I think
2:56all announced to this morning a round of
2:58layoffs which is not uncommon they
3:00typically occur at the end of the week
3:01for obvious reasons but maybe we could
3:03go through this and what percentage and
3:05then maybe unpack what we think is going
3:07on here yeah we uh this seems to be the
3:09we were sort of doing a little bit of
3:12historical analysis and there was like a
3:14big wave in June and July and now it
3:19does appear that in a big wave is
3:21starting and already occurring in terms
3:23of uh these riffs and and reduction so
3:26yesterday and today
3:28we had stripe uh do a 14 reduction in
3:32force a riff let go of a thousand
3:34employees so they had that 8 000 cut
3:37that down to seven thousand
3:39um in March 2021 stripe had raised 600
3:42million at a 95 billion dollar valuation
3:43in July stripe reduced its own valuation
3:47to 74 billion uh down 28 as part of a
3:51409a valuation that we covered at the
3:53time so they let go a thousand Lyft did
3:56a 13 riff and let go of 700 employees uh
4:00700 of its 4 000 Open Door did an 18
4:04Rift like of 550 chime the Neo Bank the
4:08mobile banking platform let go of 156
4:10employees that's about 12 and then
4:13Dapper Labs which is like the flow
4:16blockchain thing uh did a 22 riff and
4:20let go of 134 employees so yeah we had
4:24uh Rojo on episode 1197 from Napper labs
4:29so this is interesting there's a website
4:31called layoffs.fyi I guess somebody just
4:33put in you know like a notion table or
4:35something or code a table out with all
4:37the different layoffs and you're correct
4:40192 were recorded in June I think that's
4:42when they started recording the stuff
4:43158 in July 154 in August September and
4:46October 88. this is just like major
4:48layoffs kind of situation recorded in
4:50the press it went down and 18 in
4:52November yeah but these are significant
4:54and they all fall into this
4:56um what Bill Gurley says is the mistake
4:58only doing 15 10 because it's not enough
5:02to actually see the gains and it means
5:04you're probably going to do another one
5:05so I don't know if stripe and I think
5:07Lyft had done wait a second Lyft laid
5:10off people back in July so they're doing
5:12another rip and this is where this
5:14becomes like super challenging you know
5:16Bill Gurley who has you know been
5:18through this a number of times his
5:20advice is always
5:22you know you want to make the cuts once
5:24and then get culture back on track and
5:27make the cuts enough that it is material
5:28to your balance sheet and as we've seen
5:30the public companies
5:32that are not doing this
5:34are getting
5:36smashed by investors for over hiring
5:39notably I think Google and Facebook
5:41right
5:42yeah
5:43I think so I mean and and what we've
5:46seen from those companies is a freezing
5:49of
5:51hiring not necessarily they claim that
5:55um and we don't really know but yeah
5:58it's a well actually they did in the
6:00last quarter they did release
6:01that they had hired more but they keep
6:03saying they're freezing they keep saying
6:05they're freezing but then they keep
6:06hiring more yeah I mean the and these
6:07are the this is when this is when the
6:10worm will really start to turn like
6:11we're kind of looking I was sorting by
6:13number laid off on layoffs.fyi to sort
6:16of see like how it crossed over with
6:18recent like booking.com just had a big
6:20one
6:22um but I think we will know like
6:24certainly this is a sign of the tech
6:27sector feeling this pain that if you're
6:28a public company you're going to be
6:29punished for not doing some version of
6:31this and that price discipline uh sorry
6:33budget discipline has hit the tech
6:35sector yeah and it is to the good of
6:39some companies like we talked about
6:40Uber's earnings yesterday and other
6:42companies might be trying to dip this
6:44toe and then we will know
6:47that the zombie apocalypse has really
6:49arrived when Google and Facebook either
6:51actually freeze hiring because they
6:54don't say very difficult with their
6:55freeze right now right this is like I'm
6:57not eating any more Halloween candy
6:58but clearly yeah these two Reese's
7:01Peanut Butter Cups like those are the
7:02first to go I know everybody goes right
7:04in there gets those freezers peanut
7:06butter cups yeah and then they're here
7:07and then Snicker but yeah like there is
7:09a process here Google I go for Mr
7:11Goodbar early are you getting your candy
7:13well they you know when they have those
7:15minis the Hershey's minis always have
7:16those Mr good bars or the special darks
7:18I I kind of fish those out for myself I
7:20like them I'm a little weird but here's
7:21the alphabet and the and the meta uh AKA
7:24Facebook so here's your Google and your
7:26Facebook on the on the screen here and
7:27you see they're still going up they're
7:29doubling their number of Staff you know
7:31if you go back two or three years they
7:32had half the numbers half so this this
7:34is
7:34crazy the amount of hiring and they have
7:36tons of cash so they can do it the
7:38problem is if you have headwinds against
7:40earnings
7:41and you're continuing to spend like this
7:43well how do you make the earnings
7:44increase you got to cut spending because
7:47your revenue is not growing as fast so
7:49we saw a Google Google cloud and AWS and
7:53Azure that slow down yeah we're going 40
7:55or whatever and then they went down to
7:5630s and you'll see advertising have
7:58headwinds and that growth will go down
7:59as well so that will be when we know
8:03that this is uh when we will be in the
8:05end game when I think they actually make
8:06Cuts but they could also tell Wall
8:08Street to pound salt
8:11um and just keep hiring yeah
8:15really is taking that approach Google
8:17remember like we were talking about
8:19alphabet hiring into a Slowdown yes but
8:23just a few months ago we were saying
8:24like oh you know they're going to cement
8:26their position of strength here and so
8:28it's interesting how like the narrative
8:31might be shifting a little bit because
8:32of because of peer pressure so lots of
8:34companies are doing riffs and layoffs
8:36and and alphabet either could be growing
8:39into this downturn in a smart way that
8:42lets them lock up Talent
8:44or they're eating too much Halloween
8:46candy after promising that they were
8:48going to stop because it's November 3rd
8:49now and we need to like slow it down a
8:51little bit because the holidays are
8:52coming in the gut will just keep
8:54expanding if we're not careful
8:55it's a bit crazy it's like two it's
8:58almost like
9:00it's weirdly still I think too soon in
9:03the downturn to tell right if if
9:05alphabet and meta are making a mistake
9:07by continuing to hire in a downturn I
9:09haven't been watching the stock market
9:10all that much except for Uber uh go team
9:13but I'm just looking at meta I didn't
9:15realize it went under ninety dollars oh
9:17dude meta is on fire
9:21just it's an Ocean's rise Empire
9:23Empire's fall situation meta is in free
9:27fall
9:28in a bad way yes
9:29in the Boomer way
9:32yes on fire yeah not on fire like he's
9:34on fire he's shooting a lot of Threes
9:36like Steph Curry but this is on fire
9:37like the building's burning down like
9:39the building's running down yeah
9:42micro acquire is a startup acquisition
9:45Marketplace that cuts out everybody in
9:47the middle basically that means they're
9:49going to help startups get acquired
9:51efficiently if you're a Founder looking
9:53to sell your startup your project your
9:55side hustle well you should know micro
9:56acquire is free it's private and there's
9:59nobody in the middle to screw it up
10:01trust me I've seen so many times these
10:03brokers in the Middle Screw Up a deal
10:04you know why man they might be looking
10:06out for the buyers more than the sellers
10:08because you sell your company once maybe
10:09twice in a lifetime but the buyers of
10:11companies might be buying 10 companies a
10:13year it's the opposite of micro acquire
10:15micro acquire has already helped
10:17hundreds of startups get acquired this
10:19is such a great idea I don't know why I
10:20didn't come up with this and they
10:21facilitated hundreds of millions of
10:23dollars in closed deal volume their
10:24platform includes over a hundred twenty
10:26thousand buyers now these buyers have
10:28skin in the game because they pay 309 a
10:30year for access to the database and this
10:33Marketplace of companies looking to sell
10:35and these startups are all vetted so if
10:37you have thousands of vetted startups
10:38currently listed for sale and 120 000
10:41buyers what's gonna happen successful
10:43Acquisitions and the founders get free
10:45access and instant access to these 120
10:48000 trusted buyers who you know they pay
10:50for Access I pay for it and I'm
10:52interested in buying some newsletters
10:53right now and buyers like me can browse
10:55the listings for free and the platform
10:57of course is totally free for sellers
10:58sign up for a premium 390 a year access
11:02to all the dill info at
11:04try.microcquire.com twist once again
11:07try.microcquire.com twist and if you
11:09want to list your company go to the same
11:10URL in the case of meta this is going to
11:14be one for the ages like can he ignore
11:16react how long can he ignore reality for
11:18because their peo ratio
11:20according to google right now is 8.5 it
11:24should be 15. this company should be
11:26worth twice as much
11:27at a minimum yeah they are worth 236
11:30billion they've cut off 700 billion in
11:33market cap which is the market cap of
11:34like Tesla or something like I mean this
11:37is like the Brooklyn Nets here this is
11:39coming apart like the Brooklyn Nets the
11:42Brooklyn Nets of equities yeah talk
11:44about telling investors too
11:46like it's just yeah
11:49here's what's going to happen he's got
11:51no interest I predict yeah Smart
11:53Companies who have big cash balance
11:55sheets and I don't think this is a
11:57strategy but you can never tell if they
11:59were to make the cuts have massive
12:01amounts of money and then do a stock
12:03buyback at this low level they could
12:05literally reduce cost increase earnings
12:07while buying a depressed stock price
12:09there is no world in which buying
12:13you know Facebook stock back or Google
12:16stock back at this at these prices is a
12:18bad idea so
12:20there is a clear Playbook here if these
12:23companies want to make themselves more
12:25attractive to investors and the other
12:27thing I have to ask is what is stripe
12:30doing they didn't go public yeah when
12:32they could have they would have been
12:33worth 100 billion or yeah 70 billion
12:36something in that range you know and had
12:38a lot of capital to play with I know
12:39it's a river Airbnb club right like
12:42somewhere in that 50 to 100 billion and
12:45there are employees would have gotten
12:46all that Equity just a very short time
12:48ago it's like stripe was the everything
12:51it was a money printing machine it was
12:54totally Unstoppable
12:55it was inexplicable that they did an IPO
12:58and you can only assume that they just
13:00thought they could sort of keep growing
13:01and then IPO even bigger maybe the
13:04Collison Brothers
13:08employees yeah quote we were much too
13:10optimistic about the internet economy's
13:12near-term growth in 2022 and 2023 and
13:16underestimated both the likelihood and
13:17impact of a broader slowdown we grew
13:19operating costs too quickly buoyed by
13:22the success we're seeing in some of our
13:23new product areas we allowed
13:25coordination costs to grow and
13:28operational inefficiencies to seep in I
13:31like the ownership I'll be totally
13:32honest uh you saw this ownership I think
13:34from Brian to Airbnb you saw it from
13:37Toby at Shopify so taking ownership
13:40treat employees well on the way out you
13:42know a couple of months Severance
13:43whatever you got to do you know it's
13:44tough to do this kind of stuff but the
13:46company has to be healthy the good news
13:48is we saw the jobs print we added a
13:51million more jobs or something we had
13:52cut a million jobs in August and then we
13:54added a couple hundred thousand so there
13:55are our jobs out here for these folks
13:57and they'll land on their feed these are
13:58Tech workers they're going to be fine if
14:00this was happening at Walmart or
14:02Starbucks was shutting down you know
14:04lots of stores I would be really worried
14:06about Society economy we still have this
14:09record low unemployment I mean I know
14:11people hate Joe Biden or some percentage
14:14of people like Joe Biden and are
14:16attacking him for being up there in
14:18years but the fact is the recovery
14:20record low unemployment astonishing GDP
14:23growth yeah job growth I mean I mean I
14:27know the fed's a mess and the
14:28inflation's a mess but that's because we
14:30printed so much money and the other
14:31stuff in the economy seems to be going
14:32gangbusters you had today in the fact I
14:35think today in the financial times the
14:36chief Economist for UBS like not a fire
14:39brand uh by the way writing that like
14:42hey you know it turns out that um
14:44corporate profits
14:45also are a big driver of inflation
14:49like you know you want to it's just such
14:51a bizarre thing that everybody wants to
14:52blame presidents for inflation and
14:54that's not anyway
14:56marketplace right after years at
14:58Marketplace and watching this through
14:59administrations like yep you kind of can
15:01separate out what is the current
15:03Administration what is the behavior of
15:06the last three administrations or let's
15:07say terms which do seem to be like
15:10whoever comes into
15:12a booming economy is really like gonna
15:15probably catch a knife and uh if you're
15:17coming in when the economy is down
15:18you're going to get a lot of credit and
15:20the fact is
15:21doesn't matter Republican Democrat
15:23except
15:24Spenders right unless you spend on
15:26different things credit for this and for
15:28this recovery which is astounding yeah
15:32and combined the thing is too it's
15:33combined with these legislative wins
15:35that I mean is the most legislatively
15:37effective president we've had in like
15:39the last three I think
15:41and that looks like all of those things
15:43are investments that will take
15:4610 to 15 to 20 years to play out like
15:49you're literally unfortunately Joe Biden
15:51will probably be long gone when we're
15:52like oh wow that investment bill that
15:54was like a really big deal right all the
15:56chips chips act looks like a pretty
15:57Savvy move yeah I mean I think there's a
15:59couple of things in here that look
16:01really like could be in the best
16:02interest of America right I'm just I'm
16:04putting aside politics or whatever just
16:06for Americans and America's future like
16:08that's what I judge people on is like
16:09are these decisions good for Americans
16:11for the next hundred years will we look
16:13back on these in 50 or 100 years and say
16:15yeah that wasn't the best interest
16:16forget about party if we're gonna forget
16:17about the climate at the current time
16:20um well yeah but we will say we tackled
16:22the literal climate challenge we
16:24onshored Manufacturing in a way we
16:26haven't before and we freaking rebuilt
16:27our roads and bridges yeah some of
16:29that's good I mean literally Bridges
16:31fall down in America yeah I mean I mean
16:33here's the thing we we the somebody I I
16:36hope in the next Administration if it's
16:38the same one or just as we go forward
16:39here whoever's in charge we just start
16:42to get a little bit of discipline around
16:44spending doesn't mean not spend just
16:46means the increased discipline so we
16:48don't go more in the hole because these
16:49interest payments are going to get
16:50Bonkers and you know there are variable
16:52interest rates from what I understand
16:53there was a tweet storm somebody did I
16:55forgot who did it so I want to give them
16:56credit
16:57um but they said um you know adyan a
17:00publicly uh traded company out of
17:01Amsterdam who is Stripes uh contemporary
17:03it was uh George
17:06gurgly I've never actually heard that
17:09name
17:10g-e-r-g-e-l-y gurgling thank you am I
17:12really I'm assuming uh listen my uh yeah
17:16that's like really making my dyslexia
17:24it's like looking at a slot machine
17:26you're like whoa uh anyway tweets
17:30burglary yeah gurgling had 274 million
17:34of net income in the first half of 2022
17:35up 38 year over year they also had uh
17:37300 million of free cash flow in the
17:39first half and they did this on 593
17:41million probably in the first half of
17:4322.
17:44and then what's most important about
17:45this tweet storm is the number of
17:47employees compared to stripes
17:50we should clarify by the way is a direct
17:53competitor to stripe that's a publicly
17:55traded company in Amsterdam so we have
17:57this data so that we can say here's what
17:59they did speaking of operational
18:01inefficiencies right okay so he says
18:03stripe posted the message they sent to
18:04employees and it's hard to avoid
18:06comparisons to adyan which processes a
18:09similar volume to stripe but employs
18:10about half the people then stripe in
18:14lower cost regions Europe mostly and so
18:17he writes which is a better positioned
18:19business uh it's rare to see yes this
18:21reflection on where did leadership make
18:23the mistake this is I'm quoting from
18:25this tweet storm in addition uh writes
18:28gurgly idean employs 2200 people roughly
18:31so a third of stripe and is processing
18:35similar gross bookings
18:38yeah that's the key there and he says
18:40clearly we're seeing the higher first
18:42get to profitability later strategy
18:44backfire in the current economy it's
18:46like a weird
18:48this is a weird American consumption
18:50thing because that's interesting yeah
18:52there are a ton of companies I have
18:55friends in the media space who are
18:56grappling with us now where their
18:58companies massively over hired because
19:00times were good yeah and then now we're
19:02having to go like oh crap we massively
19:04over hired when times are good but it
19:05feels like the grasshopper and the Ant
19:07story like isn't this oh
19:10markets go up and markets go down yeah
19:14so so if you massively over hire when
19:16times are good aren't you logically
19:18always making a mistake
19:21here's the thing when you have free uh
19:24when interest rates are low as we've
19:25learned you know you can you can borrow
19:27a lot of money everybody starts looking
19:28at the Top Line and nobody's looking at
19:30you in economics to the bottom line yeah
19:31now that's flip everybody's looking like
19:33okay how much did it cost you to make
19:36that money yeah and this is quality of
19:38Revenue and again Bill gurley's been
19:40shouting about this for a decade he's
19:41literally been like you know shaking his
19:43fist you know at the moon like I shake
19:46my tiny fist at god well because it's
19:48not very fun right it's not very fun to
19:50be the best the grown up in the room I'm
19:52a bit familiar
19:54it's literally like he's like you know
19:56what 3 A.M maybe it's time to go to bed
19:58you know and uh maybe drink an
20:00Alka-Seltzer or something and you know
20:02have a glass of water or two and go to
20:03bed you have a little breakfast later
20:06and uh
20:07yeah it's an important meal of the day
20:09well now we're in Hangover territory
20:11because we we watched the sun come up
20:12and so yeah not wise and um yeah here we
20:16are and so but that this is what the
20:18conversation is going to be for the next
20:20three quarters I'd say Q4 on
20:24what's the least amount of people you
20:27could have to make that amount of
20:28Revenue and still grow and grow 20 a
20:33year over year 30 and we're just going
20:35to try that experiment that's why you're
20:36seeing all of these cuts
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21:51Robin Hood which uh full disclosure I
21:54was an angel in uh if you haven't talked
21:58to me for more than five minutes uh you
21:59wouldn't know that but it's just
22:02couldn't be self-aware he wears his wins
22:04on his sleeve people you will absolutely
22:06absolutely you would too well I'm you
22:09know I'm ride or die I like to I mean I
22:12just as a side if you see me like
22:14supporting my friends companies
22:16I in from where I'm from in Brooklyn
22:19that's what we always did is we
22:20supported our friends and we were like
22:22hype them up and give them a high five
22:24and when it's you know tough times you
22:26you kind of try to do that a little more
22:27so I know that not everybody not
22:29everybody's ride or die or like support
22:31your friends and hard times that's just
22:32who I am it's not being a suck up it's
22:34I'm not trying to Curry favor with my
22:36friends of 25 years or 30 years if I'm
22:39supporting them I've been friends with
22:40people for two or three decades you're
22:42gonna support them that's it what am I
22:43supposed to do don't call my friends if
22:45they make a mistake it's not gonna
22:46happen the end I'm sorry if like other
22:49people choose to dunk on their friends
22:51or or not show up for their friends you
22:53know when Travis is making mistakes or
22:54Uber was stumbling you know and plenty
22:57of mistakes
22:58you know I I actually watched some
23:00friends of mine in our Circle say
23:01nothing and I watched other ones
23:03literally publicly not close friends but
23:06you know other folks who were investors
23:07like publicly dunk on them like well
23:09that's not helpful like go see your
23:11friend and sit down with them and talk
23:12to them about what they could do better
23:13which people don't see me do that but
23:15that's what I do I sit down and I'll
23:17talk to my friends you know if sax did
23:20something stupid or I did something
23:21stupid Saks would tell me I would tell
23:22sex yeah that's it you know yeah the end
23:25but anyway Robin Hood which had a lot of
23:27problems obviously I had their results
23:29come out and I was delighted looking at
23:31my portfolio the other day because I'm
23:33holding my shares forever I said that I
23:35looked at my Robin Hood chairs and they
23:37were like just booming the last couple
23:38of uh months so what's going on with
23:40Robinhood they reported their earnings
23:42discipline seems to me what's going on
23:45with Robinhood yeah Robin Hood cut its
23:47net loss to uh by 87 year-over-year cut
23:51its net loss 87 year over year that's
23:54what we're talking about right like
23:56focus on quality of Revenue exactly
23:58bananas the stock is up around 10
24:01percent yeah we covered Robin Hood
24:03cutting 23 of its staff in August so
24:06doing a significant riff
24:08oh like good point the hopeful drib drab
24:11yeah so we'll get to that in a minute
24:13yeah five to fifteen percent doesn't
24:14move the needle as Bill Gurley says and
24:16here you have a 23 moving the needle
24:17number yep definitely Robin Hood's
24:20market cap is 11 billion dollars that's
24:21down 66 over the past 52 weeks down 32
24:24year to date but we will start with the
24:27Top Line Q3 total revenue 361 million
24:31dollars down just one percent year over
24:32year and up 14
24:34quarter over quarter so that even though
24:37on the surface the flat Revenue year
24:39over year doesn't look great there are
24:40some positive signs in here especially
24:42around uh that Financial discipline
24:44actually the revenue breakdown by
24:46category transaction based Revenue 208
24:49million dollars that's down 22 year over
24:51year up three percent quarter over
24:53quarter
24:54net interest Revenue 128 million up a
24:58hundred and three percent year-over-year
24:59end up 73 quarter over quarter and then
25:03other Revenue 25 million dollars down 29
25:06year over year and down 40 percent
25:08quarter over quarter so they're making
25:11the most growth in that net interest
25:13Revenue which is revenue generated from
25:15lending transactions and margin loans
25:17savvy
25:18Savvy you never want to be dependent on
25:21one Revenue stream right there are many
25:23businesses that are Advertising based
25:25and they make a lot of money on
25:26advertising and what happens if you have
25:29a lot of revenue from advertising and
25:31you have a down Market uh you have
25:33significant headwinds so you probably
25:34want to have a subscription business as
25:35well
25:36right and that's why you see some
25:38companies I'm not going to mention any
25:40specific trick to me I just literally
25:41like stumbled right into that like yeah
25:43totally you do wanna oh I see where you
25:45go here so if you were just to come up
25:47with but one example of a company
25:50by the way do you want me to say nice
25:52things about you on Twitter I mean I
25:54wouldn't have to nobody's saying nice
25:56things about me right now I know that's
25:58what I mean well I should today be any
25:59different
26:03ride or die
26:05um listen I people can dunk on me all
26:07they want my life is so great that when
26:11people dug on me I'm like I was gonna be
26:14I was like this close to joining the
26:16force
26:17uh I was gonna be on the job
26:19and if I had just made that one little
26:21decision it might it might not have been
26:23any coming back from that I might have
26:25just gotten into that gig and I'd be a
26:27lieutenant right now fine great I
26:29probably would have loved that gig
26:31and then just fate sent me in another
26:33Direction the internet happened I
26:35happened to be good at computers I'm
26:36super stoked with this life John got me
26:40all you want it doesn't get any better
26:41than this for me
26:42but back to this the New York Times
26:44Molly
26:45has focused
26:49said thank you for that DJ College
26:52I mean I do feel like a rap artist and
26:55that's what happens in your higher
26:56family right there is they deserve this
26:59I love it I'm dead exactly thank you
27:02Mitchell you know people don't know
27:04producer Rachel reporting
27:06she just drops emojis
27:09with a joke land she drops a dead Emoji
27:12today in our slack and I just I lose it
27:14it's very distracting let's get back to
27:16it let's get back on track okay we're
27:18focused New York Times New York Times
27:20New York Times tried unsuccessfully
27:25multiple times you were there Molly you
27:27were an employee of the New York Times
27:28Corporation they tried unsuccessfully
27:30over and over again to build a
27:31subscription business
27:34because the ad business they were so
27:36good at it and they were Their audience
27:38was so coveted but at a certain point
27:40they said you know what this ad business
27:42is a roller coaster we want to have we
27:45want to smooth out the roller coaster
27:47make it a you know I don't know what's
27:49analogy here but of a roller coaster
27:52that gets smoothed out but if you think
27:53of a roller coaster all those ups and
27:55downs and you were to just pull the
27:56tracks out a little bit you can make it
27:58like a nice little smooth ride maybe
28:00less volatile that's what subscriptions
28:02do to any business and it gives you two
28:03swings at bat you know who else is doing
28:05that right now
28:06you know it's a company that's pursuing
28:07the same strategy Molly
28:09I don't want you to guess I'll tell you
28:10Netflix
28:11that was the company you were thinking
28:13of wasn't it yes ABS New York Times and
28:16Netflix 100 you look at Netflix what did
28:19they do they were always subscriptions
28:21ride or die for the end of time yeah
28:23they added ads so that they would have
28:26stability the other way if you want to
28:28have a great business suggest having
28:30both of those I can't think of any
28:32others right now that would be doing any
28:35of that no but subscriptions definitely
28:38great add-on to lots of
28:40lots of you don't need everybody
28:42that's the other thing about
28:43subscriptions Molly if you get by 18
28:45just picking a random number if only 18
28:48as a potential Target
28:50let's say if 18 told you yes I would pay
28:53for a subscription and you get half of
28:55me at nine percent hey that's a heck of
28:57a start where where's Spotify where how
29:00many people have what percentage of
29:01users to pay for Spotify like that feels
29:03like correct researchers Spotify would
29:05be a good one to look at because they do
29:06have a free product I'm gonna guess
29:08right now because I think Spotify was
29:10I'm gonna guess it's 30 so one out of
29:12three I'm gonna say one out of three and
29:14hey that's a heck of a product
29:16that's a heck of a product yeah you pay
29:18for that product you get all the music
29:21in the world essentially at your
29:23fingertips in a beautiful interface that
29:25you use it for an hour a day half hour a
29:28day I mean I think any product you use
29:29more than 30 minutes a day you'd be
29:31willing to pay for it that's for me I
29:33will say I think the key is the specific
29:38desirable value proposition um
29:41need to be well defined so like in the
29:44case of Spotify I happily pay for
29:46Spotify because I can download music on
29:49the plane
29:50that's a great reason that's it and it's
29:51it's concise super easy to understand so
29:54if you are somebody that's trying to
29:55roll for me so if your company is going
29:58to roll out
29:59oh see I've only that's hilarious I've
30:01only ever paid for Spotify and I didn't
30:03even know it had ads yeah that's I can't
30:05see I'm the same way I didn't remember
30:06that it's a it's it's sponsored radio
30:09that's you know and so 59.8 we're at
30:12support of 42.7 a mouse Holy Ghost
30:15premium Subs yeah yeah so there's but
30:18ads must be really annoying well here's
30:20the thing about doing a subscription you
30:22uh what drives one person to do it might
30:25be different than the other and you're
30:26going to want to have a collection of
30:27features you know and for one person you
30:30know it might be not having ads for
30:31another person it might be downloadable
30:33for another person you know like uh I
30:35pay for YouTube premium and you didn't I
30:37think I may have talked you into that
30:39did I not yes I now pay for it and then
30:41now I paid for the family one and then
30:43the amazing the price of the family
30:46it was 15 and they went to 20. oh whoa
30:49whoa okay you got to pixelate though
30:51it's a family show double barrel CP of
30:54the franchises
30:57family show mad about that because
31:00that's not even like that's not even
31:01like I'm paying for YouTube TV I'm just
31:04literally paying for this to not have
31:05ads in your jacket cowgirl
31:11take it easy I got a solution for you
31:13yeah
31:15create a Gmail account
31:17get rid of the family plan create a
31:19Gmail account
31:20called our family one two three four I
31:23see where I see where you're going and
31:25then you can log into two or three
31:27YouTube accounts when you want to watch
31:29YouTube it's a little pain in the ass
31:30you're not on your personal account you
31:32don't want to be on your personal
31:32account anyway right no yeah you and the
31:35two people in your family looking at it
31:36are going to get a weird recommendations
31:38who cares yeah but who cares smart also
31:42YouTube please just roll premium into
31:43the YouTube TV bundle like YouTube TV is
31:45already really expensive it's just
31:47confusing premium boom and that's what I
31:49mean about the like the specific value
31:50proposition just has to be well
31:52articulated
31:53ideally your subscription is not
31:55duplicative of a thing that you already
31:57get for free right you have to add
31:59things to it you have to add things to
32:00it right and then maybe three things
32:03maybe like three things three things
32:06it's great three really good ideas
32:08really good ideas okay
32:12anyway Robin
32:13to pursue more subscriptions I know they
32:15have a subscription service I pay for it
32:16I don't know what it's called and I
32:18don't know what I get but I pay for it
32:21that's the bad kind exactly you have
32:23that is you have to be writer died Robin
32:26Hood gold or something I don't know
32:28that's adorable it's called I pay for
32:30gold but I don't know what I get yeah
32:32I'd like to know what I get I also pay
32:34for Uber one I know what I get for that
32:36I pay for Uber one it's so I can't
32:39remember what I get for that yeah
32:40discount yeah five percent like free
32:43delivery and stuff yeah you get lower
32:45delivery fees you get priority delivery
32:47better drivers and the thing that's best
32:51in Uber one is customer support uh you
32:54know some there's some Uber drivers who
32:56are like um I don't want to say Bad
32:58actors but they hack the system I called
33:00an Uber driver you know I listen I order
33:02an Uber black or whatever SUV because I
33:04get car sick I'm not you know same I get
33:06carsick so I treat myself I ordered this
33:08Uber black SUV comes and the SUV come it
33:12says it's gonna be 15 minutes at SFO and
33:14what's nice about SFO is they'll pick
33:15you up curbside not you don't have to
33:16walk to the lot yeah so he picks me up
33:19curbside I go out it says 15 minutes so
33:21I'm making my wife say hey I can hit the
33:23Lou so I hit the Lou uh yeah it's a good
33:25excuse to wash your hands and I get
33:27outside within 10 minutes and he's gone
33:29and I get charged 25 bucks cancellations
33:32and I said what and I realized what he
33:35did he got there earlier he knows I'm
33:37not there he you know it's at nine
33:39minutes and I look at the um I look at
33:41the log because it shows you the log now
33:43I see like this okay the guy arrived
33:45early so I put in like I don't want to
33:46pay that 25 fate yeah I can afford it
33:49but I know I know he was scamming me he
33:51was counting in the minutes right to
33:53Just Bounce to get because they know the
33:55cancellation fee and I guess for him
33:56it's like the cancellation fee I'll get
33:57another ride this is like a free 25
33:59bucks or whatever it is yeah customer
34:01support for Uber one you you click it
34:04before Uber one you know you had to like
34:06email and you would wait and you'd get
34:07on this like zendesk ticket or whatever
34:09remember the back and forth on email no
34:11but I believe you yeah you would get you
34:13would get into an email thread with a
34:14customer support person you know likely
34:16in Manila or something and you just are
34:18trying to beg them to explain your
34:20situation you don't get here it said car
34:22arrived early and canceled they
34:24literally had it as one of the trucks
34:26wow instantly refunded so they if you're
34:29uber one I think they just instantly
34:31refund and they just take your side as
34:33the passenger like you're right now I
34:35don't know who then pays the fee if they
34:37take it from the drivers or they split
34:39it with the drivers or Uber Eats it so
34:41to speak right but anyway interesting
34:44I'm all about sub life I'm all sub life
34:46subscription life I mean you just come a
34:50different terms so than something much
34:51yeah I would I would I would back away
34:54from that one it's a little bit of a
34:55just you know what
34:56as the words came out of my mouth
34:59I was like yeah I'm not yeah I'm into
35:02subscription yeah I'm a fan of
35:05subscriptions I'm gonna leave it at that
35:06there we go that's a you know what is
35:08your way to say it christian in language
35:10it's better to be clear than clever
35:12every time this is a really important
35:13product question because I like my mom
35:16is flying in today and so I sent a car
35:18to her for the airport yes you can
35:20schedule
35:21you can schedule can you do I didn't use
35:24it though because I needed someone to go
35:25get her she's not that mobile and so
35:27like I use my regular town car service
35:29where I can schedule a meet and greet
35:31and they will meet her with a sign with
35:32her name on it yes I think he needs a
35:34meet and greet product they might do
35:35that actually they might they do I don't
35:37really I think they do with yeah the
35:38other thing you can do now with Uber
35:40which I remember Travis talking about in
35:41the early days and they just never got
35:43to executing us you can rent an Uber by
35:44the hour
35:46so you know you got like an event going
35:47on yes and you're like I don't know when
35:49I'm Gonna Leave This party but I know
35:50it's gonna be hard to get an Uber so
35:52okay I'm leaving the Warriors game I
35:54just want an Uber for two hours I'm
35:56gonna Park them at Miller and Lux and
35:58when I get out after my steak I'm gonna
35:59just hit that you know good to know hit
36:02that Miller and Lux get that wagu that
36:04we get how great was that it's so great
36:07Molly and I went to Miller unlocks twice
36:09now both both the second time even
36:11better than first
36:14one fact about startups finding
36:17Engineers is time consuming and a
36:19expansive it's a pain in the neck it's
36:21one of the hardest things you'll do as a
36:23Founder well if you're looking for
36:24qualified International developers
36:26without the crazy time differences or
36:28you just want to scale without
36:29sacrificing on quality ravello is the
36:32answer they are a talent platform that
36:34matches you with vetted full-time remote
36:36developers in Latin America where I have
36:39my Engineers they work in U.S time zones
36:42which means your engineers can
36:44collaborate in real time you can have
36:45them write in slack you can talk all day
36:47long plus it's much more cost effective
36:50than hiring in the USA you're gonna get
36:52matched and vetted with candidates in
36:54just three days and ravello handles all
36:56the annoying stuff payroll taxes
36:58benefits all that legal stuff all of
37:00those regulations they abstract that
37:02away and they let you hire
37:03internationally without the headache
37:05revello's Engineers are full-time and
37:07embedded in your team just like your
37:09normal employees they're proficient in
37:11all the important stuff AWS rust Ruby
37:13react Python node.js and more ravello's
37:16customers include oh my Lord look at
37:18this list GitHub Foursquare Carta
37:21Indiegogo and Kickstarter go to
37:23revello.com twist and mention twist to
37:26get 20 off your first three months plus
37:28they offer a 100 risk free 14-day trial
37:32period if you're not satisfied you pay
37:34nothing so go ahead and go to rev
37:37elo.com twist and mention twist to get
37:41that 20 off the key takeaway here it's
37:44Robin Hood is diversifying Revenue hey
37:47payment for order flow if you don't have
37:48a lot of water flow because the Market's
37:50down and maybe people don't want to
37:51trade as much and you go from whatever
37:5220 million monthly actives down to 12 I
37:55believe you get a little pullback in the
37:57retail sector
37:58yeah you know uh having some other
38:01products and other revenue streams
38:02absolutely fantastic
38:04and I think this is why I
38:06had a real Advantage when Robin Hood had
38:10all these troubles in the down market
38:11and obviously they got hit quick because
38:12who's gonna get hit quick in a market
38:15like this crypto trading and then maybe
38:16retail trading stock trading all stuff I
38:19said that's not why I invested in Robin
38:21Hood as an angel and that's not why I
38:22own the stock as a public company and
38:24Jay trading it I'm just gonna hold for a
38:26decade because I trust management I
38:27trust Vlad I think he's smart I think
38:29he's gonna figure it out so when people
38:31told me when we distributed what are you
38:33doing jaycal what do you suggest I do I
38:36said you have to do your own research
38:37however my I will tell you my thesis I
38:41believe in the management more
38:42than I ever have
38:44because they're more seasoned
38:47they're battle tested Vlad is a wartime
38:50CEO now whatever he does for the second
38:52decade is with Battle Scars he's been
38:55through the war he really is he's gonna
38:58make better decisions and the same thing
39:01with Travis after getting through you
39:03know Uber and now he's doing Cloud
39:04kitchens like when people go through
39:05that Steve Jobs when he got kicked out
39:07of apple and came back
39:09Elon with the model three you know you
39:11in that disaster that almost killed the
39:14company when people go through the
39:15near-death experiences in their
39:17companies or they just get demolished
39:19that's what makes the entrepreneur and
39:21what what makes the entrepreneur it's
39:22not the upmarket and the flowers and the
39:25high fives and the IPOs and the stock
39:26records what's going to make Zuckerberg
39:28into a c a real CEO right now is this
39:31meta situation if he gets out of this
39:34that's going to tell you something if it
39:36turns out to be right or I don't think
39:37it just survives it yeah I think he's
39:39driving this thing off a cliff but
39:40absolutely and he's gonna have to shut
39:43this I think he's going to wind up you
39:45want my prediction here and nobody asks
39:46for it but I'm going to give it anyway I
39:47think he's going to wind up scaling back
39:49in another year the Stock's going to go
39:50to 75 people are going to start quitting
39:52and he's going to take the spend on meta
39:55down two-thirds yeah literally
39:58two-thirds half to two-thirds and he's
40:00gonna put somebody in charge of you know
40:02the the Facebook assets and and do a
40:04massive riff and run those for
40:06profitability and then he's gonna buy a
40:07stock back I think he's gonna he's gonna
40:09hit that Cliff like he's gonna have two
40:11he's going to have one of the wheels
40:12over the side of the cliff and he's
40:13gonna say I'm gonna use these other
40:14three wheels get this car back on the
40:15road I was wondering about that I mean I
40:17was having a lot of thoughts about meta
40:18this morning too and just thinking like
40:19you know he had much like stripe had an
40:22opportunity to IPO and probably really
40:25should have and it was over kind of that
40:28over competence and maybe even youth
40:31that kept them from doing that mm-hmm
40:33he should have taken his company private
40:37like they had the money to do it they
40:39had the market cap to do it he had the
40:40money to do it you know it was like if
40:41you were going to do this meta thing
40:44doing that as a public company that
40:46level of invest like nobody I mean just
40:49going even back to our inflation
40:50conversation just now we were like
40:51corporate profits are driving inflation
40:53that's how the you know I hate that
40:55that's how the market works that's how
40:57Wall Street Works shareholder value is
40:59the North Star and this guy lit
41:01shareholder value on fire on purpose I
41:04think the biggest uh take private was
41:06down and that was tens of billions yep
41:08hundreds of billions I'm not sure if
41:10it's possible but you know when I had
41:12Michael Dell on this week in startups he
41:14said uh doing an at scale pivot like
41:18we're talking about here you cannot do
41:20it's impossible as a public company you
41:22just can't do it yeah you're under too
41:24much scrutiny if you really want to
41:26change a company dramatically
41:28take it in private I'm trying to think
41:30of other examples
41:32there's Dell
41:33trying to think of another example of a
41:35company that was public one day going
41:37private and then making a lot of
41:39decisive changes yeah anyway if
41:42something comes to my mind and that
41:43might be like
41:45let's move on
41:48all right you know I mean it's like I'm
41:50just saying it's an option apparently so
41:53just two two quick charts Molly if I may
41:55yes uh for you to react to
41:58um here is the monthly active users for
42:01Robinhood and what you see here is Q2
42:042021 the height of
42:07um covid Market meme stock crypto frenzy
42:11everybody wants to get in on it 21.3
42:15monthly active users now 21 million
42:18might not seem like a lot when you
42:20compare it to like say Twitter Facebook
42:21Google you know uh hundreds of millions
42:24billions of monthly actives but these
42:26are people who have funded accounts who
42:28are transacting this is a whole
42:29different ball game right
42:31every one of those users directly if
42:34they're active makes money for Robinhood
42:36right as of course just like kind of
42:38showing up and leeching off it and maybe
42:39seeing some ads they're worth these are
42:41the equivalent I kid you not of
42:44maybe 50 to one of an Advertising based
42:47user right so if you were to think of
42:49the value of a trading whether it's
42:52crypto trading E-Trade Robinhood
42:54whatever but somebody doing Financial
42:56Service banking Bank of America whatever
42:58you could put these at 50 times the
43:00value right so these would be these 21
43:02times 50 would be the equivalent of
43:04having like a billion that's why
43:05Robinhood is such an important company
43:07but then
43:08you got uh the Great Recession or no I
43:11don't know what we're going to call this
43:12recession the um the inflation recession
43:13I don't know I don't know yeah exactly
43:15the rendo maybe slow down crypto
43:17recession growth recession there's gonna
43:19be something irrational exuberant crypto
43:21regression yeah recession is not bad
43:23let's call it the hard reality period
43:25yeah yeah that's not bad no it has
43:27something to do with a speculative asset
43:29it's the specific asset recession that
43:32uh SAR it's perfect the the speculative
43:35assess recession is upon us can we uh
43:37tweet that uh nick uh producer Nick and
43:39let's get that going this was really a
43:40speculative asset right people wanted to
43:42do be in stacks of companies that were
43:44pre-revenue they wanted to be in
43:46pre-revenue growth companies that were
43:47private and wanted to be in crypto
43:48assets nfts so I would say that q320
43:52number of 10.7 million if you're looking
43:54at the chart here youtube.com this
43:56weekend that's the real number and then
43:58when the when it's kind of disconnected
44:00from reality would be q1 2021 so if you
44:02think of continuity of q320 10.7 q420
44:0711.7 and then Q3 2022 12.2 that seems to
44:12me to be the Baseline case of Robin Hood
44:14users the reality everybody above that
44:16line
44:18we're probably looking speculators you
44:21know some number might get re-engaged
44:22over time but they were probably in it
44:24for the lulls and GameStop
44:27yeah two thoughts on this one if Robin
44:31Hood is diversifying away from sort of
44:33transaction-based revenues and becoming
44:34a trading lender and diversifying
44:37Revenue into margins there is risk there
44:41the interest rates are higher so it's
44:43going to be a better Revenue stream for
44:46them but it also does lead to
44:49potentially more scrutiny right all of
44:50the people who were like oh you're
44:51inducing these traders to make bad
44:53decisions by making it so easy and free
44:56are now going to say whoa whoa you're
44:59turning around and lending and letting
45:01these same Traders do all of this on
45:03margin which is an even riskier Behavior
45:05good point so just a just a little like
45:09note there that they want a story right
45:12they will want to to counter that
45:14narrative I think you know absolutely
45:16and uh I will still man it for you like
45:19should these are these people educated
45:20enough to have margin loans yada yada
45:22they have greatly reduced and tightened
45:24that and now like I was gonna start
45:26doing I I guess puts and calls and stuff
45:28like that and it gave me a roadblock I
45:30had to go through some process I just
45:31gave up I was like I I I I was just
45:34gonna you know start playing with them
45:35like with very small numbers like like a
45:37video game like 100 bucks or something
45:39flipping a coin I was gonna do flips and
45:42it it gave me a roadblock and I was like
45:44oh you know what I don't have time for
45:46this right now yeah so when you think
45:48about that I I'm I can afford to flip
45:51coins for 100 bucks and actually I've
45:53done that like literally after a poker
45:54game one time we played a game where we
45:56took our shoes and we threw it against
45:58the garage door and whoever got closer
46:01to the garage door would win the
46:01hundreds we had three guys and we're
46:03putting 100 bills on the ground like you
46:04know like people play dice why am I not
46:06at all shocked to hear this was three
46:07guys just three guys we're literally
46:09taking our sneakers off and through our
46:11shoes yeah the garage
46:13it was a fun game man you have to throw
46:16the cash on the ground and then you
46:17whoever gets to shoot closest you know
46:19you grab the 300. it was and then we if
46:22we learned you know and then you double
46:23double or nothing it was it was it got
46:25sick okay so second thought though
46:27second but anyway so but my point is
46:29they did Reign that in and so anybody
46:31who's trading on margin now it's a much
46:33smaller amount it's been rained in right
46:35and they've kept it very safe so I do
46:36think interest rates are higher so it's
46:38a smart it's a smart time to make money
46:40on lending and make money on margin
46:41loans right like that's I'm I my my mode
46:44trade boom this week I'm buying three
46:48month CDs nicely done because it's at
46:51four percent yeah like if you just sort
46:53of flip three month CDs as interest
46:55rates rise over you know a year like
46:58that's a pretty decent little return but
47:00the other note I was gonna make on this
47:02is I think coming up this week right are
47:04coinbase earnings
47:06and oh really we have talked about
47:08coinbase
47:10and trading volume being the way that it
47:14makes money yeah it's reporting today
47:15after the market closes today so I think
47:18coinbase earnings have been all about
47:22trading volume and I'm gonna be watching
47:24these very closely to see if it has
47:26figured out much like Robinhood seems to
47:27be doing how to diversify its Revenue
47:30boom marketplace-ish
47:33yeah so here's the thing with coinbase
47:35if this is the speculative asset
47:37recession which I love I think that not
47:41that it's happening you're the last to
47:42recover the headline yeah so they were
47:45first to get hit filo first in last out
47:48first into the party last out of the
47:51party right so you if everybody comes
47:54into the the theater and they get that
47:56first row seat yeah yeah in the last out
47:58so I do it on subways
48:01first and last out yeah so they're first
48:03in they got all of us capture all this
48:05value for the speculative asset boom
48:07they're gonna be the last out of this
48:08party and it's gonna be hard I think I
48:10would not want to own coinbase right now
48:12they're they're gonna bottom out in two
48:15quarters or something I would guess
48:16three quarters that's gonna be and it
48:18could be 50 down from here you know like
48:21another one Peloton right we've been
48:23watching this one Molly yeah right to
48:26this boom during covet cover boom
48:29they'll be the last out
48:30sadly and I don't know if they make it
48:31out Peloton I'm not really sure uh they
48:34offered we call it a quarter Outlook
48:37Peloton sank 14 investors do not buy
48:40that that's all happening this week this
48:42week this earnings week by the way is
48:43bananas telling me and other stuff going
48:46on that's distracted everyone from it
48:48but a lot of earnings some other
48:50trending story you know what we're
48:52supposed to talk about the trending
48:53starters you know here on the show but I
48:55guess uh we'll take a pause for the
48:56cause
48:58I'll tell you when the green line I'll
49:00do the checkered flag when it's time uh
49:02folks but for now
49:04so here is the uh bottom line this is
49:07important and remember I just uh I
49:09discussed uh we've talked about this a
49:10couple times in the show hey if Facebook
49:12were to make these riffs cut costs like
49:14Airbnb did like uber has like other
49:17companies have they've seen their stock
49:19go up if you take the medicine and you
49:21cut your expenses and you show a path to
49:24profitability Uber would be the
49:25canonical example I think I don't know
49:27what the word canonical means I just use
49:29it but I think it's like the the best
49:31example it's the it's the one that
49:33everybody turns to as a reference point
49:35great okay so I'm gonna use a fancy word
49:38thank you Molly defining it for me but I
49:40think it's a canonical example at this
49:41moment is Uber I'm not saying that just
49:43to track my book but maybe a little bit
49:4471 growth year of year getting to that
49:46free cash flow from a position where
49:48they weren't in that right and were
49:49spending too much money and they weren't
49:50making enough here's Robin Hood same
49:52Playbook burning cash at an alarming
49:54rate in q1 of 2021 1.4 billion losses
49:58then 500 million in losses then 1.3
50:00billion in losses and you're like oh my
50:02God if you were in there in 2021
50:05and you own the stock like I did
50:07you're sitting there and you're drinking
50:09Pepto from the bottle
50:10because your stomach is flipping
50:13and then all of a sudden oh flag gets
50:16the message management gets the message
50:18you want to see us be more disciplined
50:20okay we're gonna cut these losses and
50:23we're sitting on tons of cash so if you
50:25want to own us for the long term might
50:26be a great time to get on the train and
50:28that's what this chart shows you and
50:30that's what the chart from Facebook
50:31doesn't show you so for people who are
50:33capital allocators Jay trading or
50:35otherwise not investment advice
50:37there's a flight to companies that are
50:41being mature mature I love it yeah no
50:44absolutely that's what you should be
50:46looking for right now yeah that's what
50:47I'm looking for who could be more mature
50:50uh sorry it's not gonna be me but
50:51Robinhood let go of 23 of its staff in
50:53August again uh so they're gonna get
50:56there great job to my friends there
50:59congrats plenty of Runway now that
51:01they're not burning a ton of cash they
51:03got 6.2 billion in cash and cash
51:04equivalents they're good they're good
51:05they can be acquisitions
51:07that could be a big move for Robin to
51:09start buying some stuff things are about
51:12to get interesting in that space I'm
51:13into it all right next up you know what
51:15I love about our group chat Molly is
51:17that uh producer Rachel this is one of
51:21my great discoveries I think producer
51:23Rachel always has like interesting
51:25things she finds I know she's the most
51:27interesting woman in the world
51:29wow she legitimately is out here just
51:31doing like cool stuff 29 hours a day I
51:33don't know how she does it she dye their
51:35sleeps I'm a little worried about that
51:36myself since I pay her salary but okay
51:38Rachel finds interesting so I I asked
51:41her instead of just okay Boomer that
51:44when Rachel reporting that's how I'm
51:46branding her I'm good at The Branding
51:48Sultan of science uh queen of quinoa
51:49dictator do all these things good thing
51:53um I'm able to Brand a person in the way
51:55Donald Trump is you know or Howard Stern
51:58yes who own that comparison get in there
52:01I'm sort of like Howard Stern and Trump
52:03and that I can name somebody for better
52:05or worse I have dubbed her Rachel
52:07reporting I think this is going to last
52:09like this could be like a career thing I
52:10would change all social media if I was
52:11Rachel to Rachel reporting because it's
52:14you know why it sticks
52:15alliteration correct it's good having a
52:19smart co-host so Rachel reporting I said
52:22you find something I want to break in
52:24like we do for a j trade J trade I want
52:28to have a Rachel reporting Stinger so if
52:30a fan wants to make a stinger or as an
52:32audio drop fine but let's bring Rachel
52:33on because she found something
52:34interesting
52:35all right here she is hey Rachel so when
52:37you find something that's awesome that
52:40fans of the show would love to download
52:42or try
52:43just break in anytime you like all right
52:46I'll be I'll send it I feel like I'm
52:48constantly download we'll call it the
52:50download with Rachel reporting oh I like
52:53it
52:54uh okay so send it as the as the kids
52:57say these days okay
53:06Sue invite only collage making app and
53:08it was really similar to the product
53:10that I'm about to talk about so to
53:12understand it though first I think we're
53:13going to talk about Pinterest is Shuffle
53:15um
53:16and I'm a Pinterest power user I am mad
53:19I actually just got an invite I'm not
53:22gonna lie I saw somebody commented on
53:24another tweet with their invite code and
53:26that's the code that I used so for any a
53:29hack it's an invite only one but it
53:30doesn't seem like it's gated that much
53:32and it was a collage making app on
53:34Pinterest that you could use um off of
53:36your own tweets and you could only do it
53:38on your phone and I was like oh you know
53:39what making collages is super fun it's
53:41super crafty a great way to kind of
53:44listen to an audiobook and just do
53:46something with your hands
53:47um but I spent a lot of time on my
53:49laptop so I went to my computer and
53:52looked for something like a similar
53:54platform that I could use other than
53:56canva and found the landing and it's
53:59awesome it's really cool what do you do
54:01with it yeah so
54:04so it's a mood board platform just like
54:07shuffles was but the thing that makes
54:09this one a lot cooler is I'm able to go
54:11discover other people's uh mood boards
54:14I'm able to share mine and you're able
54:17to monetize and Shop the things that are
54:20into the mood board and I think this
54:22would be so cool if you had for example
54:24like a themed party and you wanted
54:26everybody to maybe like for Halloween
54:27dress kind of similar make a mood board
54:30and tag a bunch of different stuff in it
54:31would be cool
54:33um add this link to like your email
54:34invite so first thing I understand this
54:37yeah I like I do this I do this for
54:40every party I throw like I have a
54:41Halloween party idea
54:44Pinterest board pin board or whatever we
54:47call it and all of my friends
54:48contributed to it whenever and we're
54:49like we literally just did a cute Foods
54:51party over the weekend
54:53but it's hot but it is kind of hard to
54:56shop like Pinterest doesn't have I know
54:58you do your fun things but I do my fun
54:59things I made these deviled eggs with
55:01little spiders on top out of Olives like
55:03it was amazing yeah
55:04but it is hard to shop and it is not
55:07super
55:08shareable but are you saying that when
55:10you say monetize like you can actually
55:12be
55:13a style Creator here like a collage
55:15Creator where you make something
55:16beautiful and then you get a cut if
55:18people buy it yeah I believe so but I
55:21think in order to do that I'm not sure
55:23if that's actually in the platform but
55:25in order to do that super easy you could
55:26just make your own Amazon storefront
55:28like I've done that before right and
55:30then on your Amazon storefront you'll
55:31get unique links so that's kind of the
55:33workaround that I would probably do
55:35um and that's actually how this whole
55:36thing started
55:38um two founders of the platform created
55:41it to have like a virtual apartment for
55:44nurturing Furnishing platform but they
55:47noticed I believe after they got funding
55:49you know that's kind of like a niche so
55:50I imagine what happened is they expanded
55:52now it's for a bunch of different things
55:54and not just Furniture but what an
55:56awesome use case
55:57um I feel like a lot of times I see on
55:59Pinterest already those mood Boards of
56:01what can kind of create like a certain
56:03aesthetic in your house so I I think
56:05this is going to be a really fun thing
56:06to play around with this is really
56:07interesting because I was on the board
56:08of a company called this next which was
56:10doing social commerce it was a whole
56:12social commerce boom 15 years ago I mean
56:15it was it was kind of a little bit free
56:17mobile it was pre-mobile and you would
56:19basically make collections of things and
56:21uh yeah it was kind of like Pinterest
56:23and what's really interesting about this
56:25is when we did the all in Summit uh I
56:28came up with three themes we had like
56:29the good besties theme we had the Miami
56:31Vice theme and then we had the Havana
56:34White party and not only did we have to
56:36make this people asked us for it and I
56:38think Rachel you might have been
56:39involved in helping make the mood board
56:41so people the first thing people said
56:42when we invited them to the things do
56:43you have a mood board and then we you I
56:46think you made it for us but this is you
56:48make it and if you share it and you're
56:49good at it every time somebody clicks on
56:51something you make a little Vig yeah
56:54exactly and I think this is um it's cool
56:56that you said social commerce because
56:58when I saw this and I saw that oh like
57:00this would be a really interesting way
57:01to make money is I absolutely hate this
57:04and it's getting super super popular but
57:06it's almost
57:07um I'm not sure what that station was
57:08because I'm a little too young to even
57:11know it but people used to like sell
57:12stuff on TV and now when I open up
57:14certain apps like I'll go to somebody's
57:17like live stream and they're trying to
57:18like sell you stuff and I'm like that's
57:19so weird like I don't like that and a
57:21bunch of different platforms are uh I
57:23know tick tock's adding that it's a QVC
57:25right I don't like that I mean life is
57:27just a great yeah okay Boomerang
57:29following a TV where people sold things
57:33on TV well this is a live streaming it's
57:35very big in China
57:37Amazon tried it as well here yeah yeah
57:40but I think it's a lot better and it
57:42reminds me of the my pillow guy is the
57:44only one person that I know
57:46it's still like a lot um this is still
57:49happening the whole cell stuff on TV
57:51thing but this is this is way better
57:53this is delightful and yes basically
57:55Rachel our roving reporter of the
57:57internet and the World At Large is out
57:59here finding all this cool stuff but I
58:00was gonna say I am so
58:04like for so long social was just sort of
58:06dead right it was more abundant it was
58:08like you just have these platforms and
58:09you're never gonna win there's always
58:11going to be there's just gonna be
58:12YouTube Facebook Instagram then Tick
58:14Tock which was super disruptive but now
58:17feels so entrenched and like they're so
58:20much happening in the social space and
58:21we are ready for it it does though kind
58:24of make me a little nervous when I see
58:26stuff like Landing which just popped out
58:28and it's awesome and but it's kind of
58:30like what Jason has said before with be
58:32real um where it is this a feature so is
58:36Landon going to like stay around for a
58:37while or will this just become a feature
58:40that Pinterest like fully adopts so I
58:42think that's one thing I guess that I'm
58:43looking forward to seeing in the future
58:45like are there going to be big players
58:47like you said or are is everything
58:49that's a smaller plan trying to build
58:50themselves off just going to end up
58:51getting eaten by one of those big
58:53companies and become another feature
58:55yeah this is a big deal uh here's 2006
58:58in the New York Times Gordon Gould a
59:00former partner of mine good friend
59:02talking about this next and social
59:04shopping and so this is when social had
59:06just started and there were a series of
59:08companies and one was called the other
59:10notable one at the time was
59:11stylehive.com there was also Wiss in
59:14caboodle but a lot of people were trying
59:15to figure this out because it was sort
59:16of they were evoking Myspace so Myspace
59:20plus Commerce so Myspace plus Amazon
59:22this idea was out there this is just an
59:24important lesson for Founders listening
59:25sometimes it takes a decade or two to
59:27get the format right right and the why
59:28now you know back then the why now was
59:31Commerce and social existed right
59:34but really the why now that accelerated
59:36this is the mobile option I think right
59:38um and yeah and I think just the visual
59:41communication right the nature of visual
59:43communication like people are much more
59:45comfortable now I think communicating in
59:46images and and also the manipulation
59:50tools are ways here that's it you got it
59:52Molly yeah people are it's actually it
59:54is that I think you just nailed it there
59:55Molly the why now of this vertical might
59:58be people know how to do creative tools
1:00:01like canva or Instagram and back then
1:00:04they didn't even know how to do that
1:00:05like they had to ask customers to make a
1:00:07mood board they'd be like what am I
1:00:08supposed to get Photoshop out or
1:00:10something like do I need a designer for
1:00:11that and now it's like no you need an
1:00:12iPhone and you would literally have to
1:00:14like even if you had an iPhone back then
1:00:15you would have to you'd have to like
1:00:17take it well the iPhone didn't have a
1:00:18camera for a lunch right when it
1:00:20launched or something like you'd have to
1:00:22figure out how to take it anyway yes
1:00:23there's all of that plus as Nick points
1:00:25out there's one click payment
1:00:27how do you guys feel about so this
1:00:29morning I had the wonderful um privilege
1:00:32of meeting up with a little celebrity of
1:00:34the Lower East Side which is the
1:00:36location of Manhattan that I shop in a
1:00:38lot and she has this shop and it's
1:00:40called Rogue and she started off as a
1:00:42depop influencer and now has a
1:00:45storefront and famously this was first
1:00:47done I Believe by somebody that Jason
1:00:49knows um the founder of nastygal where
1:00:52she started oh yeah sure doing teapop or
1:00:54uh maybe yeah yeah she so I think she
1:00:58was the first one that did this um yes
1:01:00she started online they made nasty out
1:01:01but I'm starting to see now a lot of
1:01:03people start on standing is someone
1:01:06stand yeah I think it's on Stan it's
1:01:07around Rivington is where Rogue is
1:01:09um is the name of the story there's
1:01:10another one called funny pretty nice I'm
1:01:12gonna plug that one too by a Creator
1:01:13named Natalia but it's so weird seeing
1:01:16people start an Ecom kill it in econ
1:01:19basically making these mini media
1:01:21companies and then make storefronts like
1:01:24retail storefronts and I'm like why is
1:01:25that the why is is that a goal like it
1:01:28seems so interesting like why is that
1:01:29there's a there's a real reason um why
1:01:32real world is an incredible way to bring
1:01:35a community together and so it makes
1:01:38some it acts as uh what I dubbed a long
1:01:40time ago monetized marketing the real
1:01:43world manifestation of what's Happening
1:01:44online gives something for people to do
1:01:46in the real world and then what are you
1:01:48gonna do when you go to one of these
1:01:49stores or you go to Mr Beast Burger you
1:01:51know his new storefront
1:01:53so this becomes a virtuous circle you
1:01:56have this audience online this is why I
1:01:58want to do this week in startups Meetup
1:02:00so badly and you did a great job on that
1:02:01I'm going to reboot them everybody
1:02:02because I want there to be a real world
1:02:04manifestation of the hundreds of
1:02:05thousands of people listening to every
1:02:06episode here here you can go hang out
1:02:08with other Founders go over this week
1:02:09and start meet up in your city boom all
1:02:11right great job awesome sounds good find
1:02:14good find and we should note by the way
1:02:16that they uh recently raised money too
1:02:18we didn't talk about this but the
1:02:19landing just raised a two and a half
1:02:20million dollar seed round LED by Cowboy
1:02:22Ventures not just in February 2021.
1:02:25Aileen Lee so maybe they'll call us
1:02:27maybe they'll be raising soon don't I
1:02:28didn't who knows yeah I didn't mean to
1:02:29paradoxically this is true story I was
1:02:31working late last uh over the weekend
1:02:33working on some you know special
1:02:35projects making cute Halloween food
1:02:38no I was just literally we're taking 20
1:02:41meetings a day anyway I'm coming home at
1:02:4310 o'clock at night I'm exhausted uh I
1:02:46haven't eaten so I stop it in and out
1:02:47you know here in the Bay area so I get
1:02:49my double double I got my headphones in
1:02:51because I know what's gonna happen you
1:02:52know so I'm gonna recognize me and start
1:02:53talking to me and uh so I got my
1:02:54headphones in it's like a little
1:02:55self-defense and I see the guy at the
1:02:57corner of my eye and he's just like I
1:02:59hate to interrupt you I was like no it's
1:03:01probably take my headphones out and he
1:03:02says uh big fan blah blah blah I know
1:03:05what do you do he says sorry I I work at
1:03:07UH Pinterest I said what do you do there
1:03:09he said I work on a collage app on
1:03:10Android no way there it is so it's
1:03:12definitely a simulation uh yeah and
1:03:15these things are awesome talk about a
1:03:16random moment right that it relates to
1:03:18something you found so there's something
1:03:19going on here in the world with social
1:03:20commerce Rachel well done anytime you
1:03:23find something interesting like this
1:03:24whether it's Rogue on uh the Vintage
1:03:26store or anything just break in and make
1:03:28us feel 20 years younger trash old
1:03:32you're a trend spotter love it all right
1:03:35thanks guys thanks Rachel
1:03:37all right thanks for watching everybody
1:03:39stay tuned for tomorrow we're going to
1:03:41do a really in-depth breakdown of the
1:03:43Airbnb earnings among other things
1:03:45that's right and of course Rachel is
1:03:47back again for another awesome segment
1:03:50of okay Boomer I'm really excited about
1:03:51this one actually Mom fluencers it's
1:03:53going to be confluencers yes uh on Tick
1:03:56Tock see you then and so two days of
1:03:58Rachel in a row I know aren't you lucky
1:04:00audience is gonna like that all right
1:04:02we'll see you tomorrow bye

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