0:00

this episode is presented by connection

0:02

when it comes to itt connections

0:04

got your back see

0:05

how at connection.com?

0:19

hello and welcome back his equity a podcast

0:21

about the business of start us where we unpack

0:23

the numbers and nuanced behind the headlines i'm

0:25

is awesome as green as and joining me is rebecca

0:28

skloot act senior writer covering venture capital

0:30

and startups is so exciting to the back

0:32

on the show backer know excited to be back

0:34

things are hungry i feel like i've on tor enough me

0:36

this week so i'm esther grateful for you

0:38

smear and and eleazer out by it is going

0:40

to be funds are both kind of in a similar world

0:43

of though we're on different tasks but darling

0:45

the world events are ya ,

0:47

specially with some of the news this week i'm to flake said

0:49

it did i prefer yes exactly the gorgons

0:52

the news i feel like equity listener

0:54

as do not know you as well as obviously

0:57

me or some of the other regular cohost

0:59

so i was thinking of putting you on the spot

1:01

is he giving you two options either

1:03

tell us your coffee order which is how i

1:05

judge people and what i'm really friends with them or

1:08

tells us on facts oh coffee already

1:10

would be harvey says actually don't drink coffee

1:13

oh okay are you t person or nothing yeah

1:15

nothing i really no love a good

1:17

like much a lemonade or something kind of

1:19

like mixing the bitter and sleep

1:22

in society will work with about it's

1:25

good to know the fun fact might be the much a

1:27

lemonade recipe that you're hiding from us other

1:29

that i mean i wish i had a good

1:31

recipe does some promote on here but

1:33

i definitely don't there's a really

1:35

good motto spot in ss called

1:38

stone no matter of add ons

1:40

you then but we'll do it when you from the disrupt

1:42

i feel like i wanna do like everything with iran doesn't

1:44

live here to so much of to see if is a snare

1:46

you and not be a so deftly i'd

1:49

love to go or other see it okay will

1:51

your taste buds are definitely noted but let's

1:53

jump into what we're talking about today we're going

1:55

to start with the sch decision

1:57

to allow over the counter hearing loss technology

1:59

and that matters for start ups ever

2:01

get her up miller was all but international money

2:04

transfer super crowded sector and were

2:06

his spend time on two teams so

2:08

first we're going to look at how employee benefit start

2:10

ups are fair and when employers

2:12

are changing their mind about what to put money into

2:14

as well as how corporate venture plays a role

2:16

will end up looking at to us yoga fees

2:19

the midwest and south east n c

2:21

to and the we're gonna draw comparisons between both of

2:23

them that you'll probably be surprised by reactions

2:26

around the news item of the week i put butter

2:28

on monday i talked to bear on wednesday but i had to

2:30

get your take to obviously on adam

2:33

newman's returned to real estate andreessen

2:35

horowitz as biggest had ever written to date

2:37

going into his new company flow i mean

2:39

what was your day one response and i

2:41

guess it's day for since this happened so

2:43

maybe with seems definitely i'm

2:46

like

2:46

the people really shocked about seen

2:48

the news on monday necessity shocked about the

2:50

fact that i'm newman was

2:52

make a comeback the writing was

2:54

on the wall over the last year he happily

2:56

with starting to get act years and i

2:58

wasn't surprised that someone would come in and back him

3:00

when he eventually got something going yeah

3:02

so i definitely i think wyatt my

3:05

first reaction was just the size of the track

3:07

wanting to that question is

3:09

as though i just checked them and

3:11

the great so far because three

3:13

hundred and fifty million per the new york times yeah

3:15

right desires just thinking of them

3:17

there are other bad said such like big valuations

3:19

and something actually sort of surprised me and first that

3:21

that was the biggest tech they've written on i

3:23

think was kind of change for me over the past

3:26

few days serve like thinking about where

3:28

it goes from here

3:29

the billion dollar company it hasn't

3:32

launch

3:32

yeah and going off of the

3:34

last few years

3:35

entrepreneurs beautifully made that's like this because

3:38

they had a wide eyed condition that someone

3:40

would come after them who cares if you

3:42

write checks

3:43

crazy evaluation f the next person

3:45

a year later is gonna write for something

3:47

higher right that's essentially

3:49

do risks what may not be a

3:51

good

3:51

that to be can let it was a good

3:53

joke on twitter a little bit of like these

3:55

emerging by manager saying americans are back

3:58

in controversial founder so enters

3:59

with can make them up and i look smart which

4:02

doesn't sound of zoning but just the ago

4:04

your point where it's like ah what a different

4:06

world know it's so true though because

4:08

if you know someone's gonna follow on it's

4:10

just like to

4:11

the competition of like what you can

4:14

combat and by how much so

4:16

definitely now thinking especially about the sausage

4:18

news for a few weeks ago there's sort of

4:20

admitting that they really did bus up

4:22

on the valuations last year and a sort of embarrassed

4:25

by what happened from that and

4:27

thinking about have some of those big players may

4:29

not be interested in coming on after that

4:31

makes is a very different deal like if this happened

4:33

a year ago today it would be like wow that's

4:35

crazy by some of them funded and six

4:37

months today i'm less sure about that and

4:40

i'm kind of for it but how that will impact

4:42

the start up in the future of it's not like a

4:44

guarantee any more the kind of follow on and around

4:46

like that this is a good point like and it's

4:48

not one of those problem areas

4:50

real estate where you can be

4:52

like super capital lean

4:55

it does require a lot of money a lot of money going into

4:57

a real estate company in general make sense i talk

4:59

to a competitor about that were if you look at they will

5:01

see bigger bc round going into this

5:03

hard and antiquated industries but

5:05

i agree i feel like just based on like some of the reaction

5:08

i think there are a lot of positive takes on adam

5:10

newman's return so we might see those people

5:12

jump and yeah i just doesn't seem as simple

5:15

as like spirit a threat that hi where do

5:17

i go from there and even if you agree with adam newman

5:20

return hum you may not agree

5:22

with the valuation which is like the whole other level

5:24

like you're saying remove any the other thing too

5:26

that this touted receive this

5:28

year as many b c is are doing for like

5:30

the flight to comfortable on sort

5:32

of going on a lot of super bad said no we'll

5:35

talk a little bit about that later when we dive in further

5:37

regional themes this

5:39

shows that injury centers like twenty got the message

5:41

there you let a risky background

5:43

you're trying to do something ambitious like del sol

5:45

radio check and well dot can be

5:48

good or bad i think that it's just worth

5:50

noting on it's own not it's like there are pieces

5:52

like interests are so willing to okay we'll

5:54

take those potentially big risk reward

5:57

totally seeing that amid a downturn

5:59

versus twenty twenty one is it's a

6:02

different story and it's so many signals the talked

6:04

about abortion the site's off of suppose hair

6:06

but i'm glad to hear where you're apt to they had

6:08

a considered dot follow on funding aspect

6:10

at all but let's jump into something that you

6:13

just wrote it coming out this morning it's

6:15

all about hearing aids and kind of an innovation

6:17

in the space that's going to make them more accessible

6:20

on and starts in the face very happy what's going

6:22

on deathly so on monday

6:24

yea an outside hearing it

6:26

could now be sold over the counter which is

6:28

a big win for that industry because traditionally

6:31

you had to have a prescription which for some

6:33

people bottle filled make them a sandstorm

6:35

forward

6:35

but for a lot of it it's rifle than

6:37

a vision one of the people i spoke

6:40

to

6:40

right hundred five legacy players in

6:42

the space and he described them as a

6:44

cartel

6:45

you are you can't break into the face

6:47

like they had a hand and everything like

6:49

it

6:49

wait you're not yala just a probably

6:51

had a contract with one of the five

6:53

players said you had no choice to begin with

6:56

and they're so expensive because

6:58

of this like lack of competition the average care

7:00

costs forty five hundred and despite

7:02

the clear like medical need for a lot of these people

7:04

it's not really covered by insurance for the

7:06

most part yeah this ruling essentially

7:08

allows

7:10

lots of new companies

7:11

the space you can do

7:13

at any price range any

7:15

sort of new tech can come in and

7:17

you can sell it before them probably

7:19

make it easier for them to sell to discuss

7:21

trying to decide to go down that way but

7:23

you can sell stuff that say the cvs

7:25

and

7:26

there think could be huge only with

7:28

innovation but not having

7:30

to to go through the traditional prescription route they're

7:32

hoping will help bring down the stigma associated

7:35

with wearing hang it especially because

7:37

we all probably incorrectly

7:39

think of it as something that is mainly for

7:42

like the elderly and people hearing loss

7:44

associate with each bag one of the founders i

7:46

have to thirty years old and that's what got him

7:48

fired wow safe because he

7:50

felt really weird about starting were hearing

7:52

aids that thirty years old but he needed them

7:55

and so kind of hoping never do such

7:57

sigma

7:57

then the market an accent

7:59

sort of the kind of products should be able to get

8:01

when you were doing research for the story did you find

8:04

that it was more that there were starved waiting in the

8:06

wings for and innovation like this or

8:08

that this will now create a wave of startups

8:11

yeah so it sounds like from the people i spoke to

8:13

it's a little bit of both okay because even

8:15

with this new ruling this is the be a free

8:17

for all like anyone to put a price out there like all

8:20

the products will talk to be as d a approved

8:22

that would your own pain sister right

8:24

and so knowing that this regulation with a possibility

8:27

this year i took you a professor

8:29

at johns hopkins university because read

8:31

and he said that he already knows a few companies

8:33

have gone through the ft of night and process

8:35

and we're just waiting

8:36

for that sort of decision to come down

8:39

to you so you

8:40

that new products as early as next three five

8:42

months from now but he hopes that

8:44

still the sparks lot of people who

8:46

maybe we're interested in the safe space just

8:49

knew that the regulations we just make it impossible

8:51

to succeed will now given good luck

8:53

yeah it's so what i was professor

8:55

the sources and i think we should do it more it to see

8:58

what's there always been playing sees interviews

9:00

kabila just don't have as many financial

9:03

tire of as , seems likely

9:06

how did you find this one for interestingly

9:08

enough so the aren't at news their from

9:10

the new york times they looked into here

9:13

the a little over a year ago which i surprised

9:15

that i am remember that's when i recently saw the ruling

9:17

on monday cause i was thinking i suppose ago i

9:19

recently read something about how it's

9:21

really hard to innovate in the space and then

9:24

was surprised to find out who's like over a year ago

9:26

yeah but they had spoken to him there and

9:28

he has a son so many interesting

9:30

studies there's like i gotta get his take on the snow

9:32

to like he's done studies that

9:34

prove like a three hundred dollar over the

9:36

counter device is like the same

9:38

quality as some of these like more expensive

9:40

prescription products so yeah fully as i tuned

9:43

into the space more from the intersection

9:45

of ideology and like how what

9:47

i thought was procrastinating yeah used to

9:50

play a great take on this i feel good so underrated

9:52

how what this is obvious but getting

9:54

a whole new flow of innovation it does

9:57

more than like it decreases sigma but i think

9:59

officers will be

9:59

okay we're going to shoot anything on the market now

10:02

i guess i'm glad some bonus of embarrassed

10:04

but there are hope will be some quality and i

10:06

would love to see like design be a focus

10:09

vs just accessibility to

10:11

are not just let being able to think big

10:13

needs something like this to happen in order

10:15

for you to think they've otherwise you'd want to do looks

10:17

the mvp and get it through i'm guessing

10:20

definitely no sign of the bridge seen that

10:22

came up his

10:23

so many people who

10:24

would benefit from her last technology

10:27

don't necessarily need like a hearing

10:29

aid you're gonna were twelve hours

10:30

the day yeah i'm one of the founders i spoke

10:32

to the saying that this could become a really interesting consumer

10:35

tech category for here saying like

10:37

some of your hearing loss to be like you

10:39

and i are having a conversation bryant like this

10:41

i can hear you totally fine but if we're to move as to

10:43

a restaurant maybe i'm just need a little help hearing

10:46

you and a his same that there could be a whole new category

10:48

of like consumer tech hearing aids would

10:50

be like okay i know i need to wear them

10:53

at conferences i know any to pop them enough

10:55

i'm in a meeting bullet for people who

10:57

wouldn't need to the mana time like those people

10:59

are not gonna go

11:00

through the lengthy and pricey process that exists

11:02

right now to get the prescription to get something

11:05

worried enough to get fitted multiple time right

11:07

and for it so it's like dirt ton of people

11:09

now who you can design check for who

11:11

honestly just had already been going to be part of the market

11:13

before even though they do suffer from hearing

11:16

loss

11:16

totally the total addressable market a completely

11:18

as bad it was going to point to want to end on watches

11:21

are we gonna see investors back a

11:23

d to see how tech play

11:25

and i think a lot of the to seniors and pretty negative

11:27

for a lot digital houses and pauses and

11:30

though it does take investors to

11:32

are are i would love to see investors back

11:34

something like this like this feels like the impact

11:37

that i would love answer to more out but i'm i'm pretty much

11:39

a broken record in that category yeah

11:41

and there have been some sort of sad because the

11:43

regulations were murky and some

11:45

states prior to this ruling you were

11:47

able to sell some types of

11:49

products to certain populations online

11:51

speak unless the there definitely are started

11:53

that are exists as have received we see backing

11:56

were clearly not shying away from the face when the regulations

11:59

were a lot murmur

11:59

so i definitely could see them

12:02

sort of piling in now i mean

12:03

sit on the murky regulation topic

12:05

because this week my deal of the week

12:07

as for mellow and it's all about rethinking

12:10

international money transfer which a

12:12

new with complicated but i didn't know how complicated

12:14

it was so i was really excited to see is accompanied

12:16

kind of a different take raise a twenty million dollar

12:19

seed in this environment nonetheless

12:21

to make a lot easier and a little bit more based

12:23

around hoping both sides benefit

12:26

from the money chance for the sender the receiver

12:29

know this basis super interesting super interesting a story

12:31

earlier this year about a money transfer

12:33

start up and that was sort of my first foray

12:35

into the space and i just you just

12:37

did not realize how complicated it was yeah

12:40

and this is like kind of been the story of me learning

12:42

more about send tech is like i didn't realize is a complicated

12:45

and that's a with partially privilege right that was

12:47

able to avoid learning about the intricacies

12:49

of sending money overseas but with

12:51

the know like what really sets out to me

12:53

was often times with international money transfer

12:56

a center will have to pay a transfer fee

12:58

and for the more money they send the more expensive

13:00

as and then of course the timing of that money

13:02

can be difficult and because they're like that be

13:04

involved is only some so much to times as

13:06

you pie don't wanna get inundated with these yourself

13:09

of course of we expand that to like an immigrant

13:11

someone who recently moved to a different country sending

13:14

money back home i'm adding that layer

13:16

of like they may not be wanting to pay extra fees

13:18

so mellow is trying to basically instead

13:20

of mine tithing iron transfer fees

13:22

admiring on interchange fees of and glut a

13:24

stable see robots how much money you send

13:27

and the truest innovation is about they're gonna

13:29

basically instead of sending cause you're sending

13:31

credit your family gets to access

13:34

credit on a twenty four seven basis up

13:36

to a certain amount will you if you're a new

13:38

are present in a country and our building up a credit

13:40

score so to speak users are building a chocolate

13:43

got a letter to for i don't know i don't see too

13:45

much of that these days where it's like

13:47

oh look it's for both sides not just

13:49

like easier it's or the like smarter do

13:52

know that if we think that's such an interesting take on

13:54

a to sort of the credit aspect

13:56

of it

13:56

the obama fake seem less if

13:58

you are in a country with

13:59

sort of like high credit adoption were

14:02

yeah to be able to pay like that it almost makes more

14:04

sense csis like in those countries to or if

14:06

it's more of a higher credit option that's

14:08

what you're gonna be using to pay anyway totally

14:10

i mean and it's starting in the philippines i believe it's

14:12

planning to expand to india

14:15

and one other geography i'm sorry it was not

14:17

my head but the waves are planning on doing not

14:19

again i think they set some good boundaries that that

14:21

it still is hard right like they are trying

14:23

to better people who don't have credit scores and

14:26

there's a reason hasn't been successful in the past

14:28

i'm not saying that this is like no one thought of as

14:30

i think it's it's gonna be an ambitious player that has good

14:32

seed funding but more than even the seed funding

14:35

i thought their master hard partnership was really smart

14:37

it were talking that regulatory hurdles and i think

14:39

one would definitely be to get a poem aloe cash

14:42

register or scanner in each local

14:44

business like that he'll hard mastercard office

14:47

he has the physical footprint around the world

14:49

so i'm kind of glad that they like slick knew what

14:51

they should do and and it shouldn't be to try and like

14:53

disrupt everything with like to mellow branding

14:55

and instead go what a more institutional partner

14:57

know it seems like visa mastercard definitely

15:00

will sort of help on that front but it also

15:02

like he started to play sort of a sign off on quality

15:05

or sign off on sort of how they think about the

15:07

idea has been some are far higher

15:09

up expertise nastase it's interesting too because

15:11

the money transfer company i covered my

15:13

this year it's called a pricks least in nigeria

15:15

iraq and therefore play it is that

15:17

you transfer money by it converting

15:20

to stable coin and then it transfers

15:22

and then

15:23

when the receiver wants to take it out it transfers

15:25

to the local currency but they're also

15:27

thinking of working with these are these

15:29

already sort of signed onto a future card for them

15:31

to seems like be them as carter deftly

15:33

big corporate partners in the money transfer speeds

15:36

and definitely seemed eager to like lean into

15:38

innovation here which is suffering a positive sign for

15:40

the company's trying to tackle this area yeah

15:42

i wonder you added that like i had no idea that that

15:44

existed and and to give you even more t like fisa

15:46

msf both interested in for

15:48

mellow per the founder and the know what with

15:51

mastercard select a little that of like how

15:53

many sort of can both of those efficient get

15:55

on their team am sort of sight out of

15:57

really knows that is that's just

15:59

the like a great

15:59

thanks for this area yeah had a fight like

16:02

you mention it is definitely a harder area

16:04

with regulations and

16:06

the boy i am pete i'm

16:08

lousy managers slash superhero

16:10

he's and yes but what happened

16:12

i put a very expensive latte

16:14

on top of my car drove off and it's

16:16

failed

16:17

i was that my profile

16:19

my laptop up there to that's

16:22

why we use connection services to manage our

16:24

cloud everything is backed up i can access

16:26

your stuff remotely you won't miss a meeting

16:29

miss wanted to latte pete for

16:31

all your ita needs for pete's sake,

16:34

talk to the experts in connection today,

16:36

i

16:39

want talk a heads up we

16:41

been hacked, what happened? my password

16:43

is my birthday, everyone knows that

16:45

february fourteenth why would

16:47

ever get how these people cigarettes

16:49

i think i do have you ever

16:51

updated it yes i changed

16:54

it to valentine's day okay we're

16:56

protected with connection security services

16:58

you just gotta be more careful plunker yeah

17:01

and for all your eyes he needs for peed

17:03

said talk to the experts a connection

17:07

totally one would jump into the here in the conversation

17:09

around spending and jump into our first themes

17:11

so you wrote a story that i have been

17:14

teasing out for like a weeks and tix not

17:16

getting mad at that's because of doesn't so excited for

17:18

you to write it and it's all about how

17:20

employee benefit sorry ups are going to be impacted

17:23

by companies and employers the

17:25

same one thousand last scaling back

17:27

on all other costs as well so what did

17:29

you prefer to confess to sleep as of

17:31

late so the story was pretty the think me

17:34

and it didn't even start from the employee benefits

17:36

start up it i just ah

17:38

came across it linked in post probably

17:40

like june at this point that mentioned

17:43

that there is some investors

17:44

was worried of just about btp to see company

17:47

in general they were saying like oh

17:49

that's your business with the she is companies have

17:51

to cut costs that could be

17:53

problematic or that could stop growth and a fairly

17:56

same they would be totally wiped out her the like that

17:58

and he got me thinking

17:59

fr

18:01

the employee benefit start ups because i

18:03

see oh are you there spoke to a bunch

18:05

of them last year i just got like a ton

18:07

of the about it and i was like i'd

18:09

never really gotten too many like that

18:11

prior two thousand and twenty one and

18:13

i know for of that you the ones i talked to last

18:15

year had either started that you're committed

18:18

to dot model that year or so everything

18:20

was a very for very nice yeah because everyone

18:22

try to jump on the great resignation

18:24

companies are trying to bolster everything

18:27

to sort of make it more attractive from

18:29

police say yeah i mean i saw

18:31

something super similar happened with the attack which

18:33

is a lot of a tech company i don't give them

18:35

credit for this because this was still in the height

18:37

and spotlight of that sector and a lot

18:39

of them were like we know consumer interests are

18:41

going to change consumer habits are going to change

18:43

long term so we want to start

18:46

putting bueller's into the enterprise

18:48

space like masterclass created one out

18:50

school created when i felt a little bit like a religious

18:52

creating a benefit and kind of packaging up

18:54

their services so i do think like the really

18:56

thoughtful enterprise products versus the not

18:59

offer products were never going to be treated

19:01

the same but it just so interested me now that

19:03

like even the ones that had the foresight to go

19:05

to enterprise route are of course now also

19:07

facing the sticky customer is no longer sticky

19:10

definitely no that's what i think what is the

19:12

biggest same here is that because

19:14

so many

19:14

the company has decided to do this model

19:16

last year it's like oh corporations

19:19

will find anything to sort of keep their employees

19:21

and

19:21

they were totally right yeah like six nine

19:24

months but thinking about now is sort

19:26

of also stock market and just as

19:28

things are more call on the downturn people are

19:30

obviously talking about somebody else or recession

19:32

i was curious kind of how they would fare what

19:35

would you keep a random employee

19:38

benefit you didn't have two years ago now

19:40

that you need to sort of cut costs

19:42

so yes at the start that was like an interesting

19:45

area

19:45

start driving and so chatting with someone

19:47

and hr researcher a huge saying that

19:50

that a oh yeah first thing for

19:52

thing on the cutting room floor yeah the employees

19:54

are like a benefits because it is

19:56

you have employees that really don't feel like

19:58

they have anywhere else to go

19:59

oh you don't know

20:00

we need to do things to keep them there

20:03

as bad as that sounds but he is saying

20:05

that even if we enter a recession now because

20:07

of the labor market it would just be so

20:09

unwise for these companies to cut them now

20:12

it's just like a totally different ballgame

20:14

a totally different scenario where he was

20:16

saying that that would actually be like one of

20:18

the worse ways companies could cut costs

20:21

now would be to sort of puppies employee benefits

20:23

oh my god riven number at like seven thousand

20:25

and twenty one that i'm not envious of being a founder

20:27

right now okay though i know i honestly wouldn't

20:30

know in some way to flakes is it even

20:32

in bad taste if i had to conduct to on the whales

20:34

but still have like ah a

20:36

sweet green membership for all my employees

20:38

i'm certain kind of his and yeah

20:40

that's a hard balance to strike and right

20:43

oh i'm sure and especially with some of these

20:45

employee benefit start up a lot of and you sell

20:47

to the big corporations the i also saw the other

20:49

third the human i have a good would

20:52

have purchase a few minutes like if things continue

20:54

going for early and the in this is gonna get cut

20:56

eventually it just like is definitely seems safer

20:58

for now i want to couldn't walk to put through

21:00

something that someone may already know which

21:02

is like kind of the arc of how is thought about benefits

21:05

and silicon valley cause when i first started

21:07

i was like okay it's gonna be like beer kegs

21:09

and pool tables and that but very like

21:12

one point oh where it was like unlimited

21:14

alcohol and stuff like that what birds

21:16

and are we out right now as if you have to say what two point

21:18

oh and three point o were like can you divide

21:21

the upper is it still like no one can

21:23

agree with professor of like know

21:25

i think now it's sort of ways that companies

21:27

can help their employees bad

21:30

the like you didn't think your company would like

21:32

get involved in early think that's kind of allies

21:34

look out at yeah like one of which i know there's been

21:36

a kind like fertility

21:39

funding employee benefit start ups that have club

21:41

out in the last couple of years which is something

21:43

that sure maybe that into health insurance you're getting

21:45

from your company begin with had something

21:47

in there about it but it's generally like i've

21:49

the us and things like that are not really yeah well

21:52

covered by insurance so i think when

21:54

people realized how simple and

21:56

that was to employees in the fact that do some

21:58

stuff that i think it's like

21:59

but like a good percentage of on

22:02

planes would leave

22:03

their job to go to a company that covered

22:06

the tree

22:06

i mean episode roe v wade been overturned

22:09

exactly so it's like something that another

22:11

and the one that to about on the seen lately

22:14

is like api nope he later

22:16

model for healthcare there goes your

22:18

employer in a while so that

22:20

company that employee benefit the like you

22:22

would get almost like the way you get like a health

22:25

equity card dirt or so help your plan

22:27

yeah and you'd be able to like put

22:29

the charge on there and and pay the company backed

22:31

over yeah like a big unexpected medical

22:33

procedure fujitsu like a lot of the new

22:35

or companies are dislike trying to tribal areas

22:37

that maybe one traditionally think that

22:40

your company would kind of like be involved then we

22:42

don't want it so important to say that out loud because

22:44

there's a difference with people taking back benefits

22:46

that are like not a big deal versus the benefits

22:48

that are truly like life changing and impactful

22:51

on that's like hope we were will see things go

22:53

but i want to dig into one more thing in your story

22:55

which was his idea of mission driven benefits

22:57

and i had seen that phrase pop up before it's

23:00

something that i'm guessing a lot of newer sort

23:02

of or late says companies more than like the big

23:04

companies are dealing with it now fully

23:06

vetted seat leak into the big companies as well i

23:08

mean a big one that for came

23:11

to my mind when i was having a

23:13

conversation about that specifically is

23:15

the thought of like mental health services

23:17

that a lot of companies that sort of added over

23:19

the last couple of years imagine

23:21

if you had this

23:22

campaign about stopping burn out

23:24

and sort of helping replace and then you can

23:26

like what would that have here

23:28

for years like wow i just feel like such

23:30

a terrible i am a would leak and we address

23:32

worry about it for sir though

23:35

i suppose that i mean if you're targeting anything

23:38

in women's health

23:38

then you have like a fertility benefit what you really

23:40

can't cut that yeah for that she's gonna send

23:43

the absolute wrong message term plays

23:45

yeah it's all making me think about a story that

23:47

else woman anaheim wrote in around

23:49

may which was about corporate venture

23:52

and it kind of conscious of what you're talking about because

23:54

benefits is one way that corporations

23:56

fan but corporations who may be quite like

23:58

an impasse will benefit they still are investing

24:01

and like disruptive start ups at crazy

24:03

valuations another kind of p

24:05

r and general like how are you running

24:07

your business fell on so

24:09

anyways i was surprised to that story sounds

24:11

like cbc is still doing really well

24:14

and so strong like a pulled back but less

24:16

than you imagine was the headline and and a you're also

24:18

focus on cbc of that definitely not

24:20

a pretty surprised that i got up it's really about

24:23

a lot of beauty launching a cbc

24:25

find i thought it was interesting

24:27

the to launch like a new corporate venture

24:30

fund this your odyssey of course

24:31

the worth noting that you don't

24:33

decide to day to launch a bunch of

24:35

the as slander been in the works for at least

24:37

a year and stuff like that i'm choice honesty

24:39

clutches of that timeline i love adventure people

24:41

on the show because i think the before like why would they do

24:43

it the day after and i'm like no this is

24:46

not really says anything system

24:48

sites right but i definitely was

24:50

surprised sending some even if you

24:52

say said twenty nine aside adventure

24:54

fun totally as a corporate that you find

24:56

and you could be like moving at the market conditions

24:59

maybe we have plans to get upset

25:01

and are full of money for the next year maybe

25:03

what's drastically slow down and

25:06

instead to than three or four years but

25:08

it doesn't he does not seem that way it seems like corporations

25:10

are just like really all in on the spending right

25:12

now even know cbc funding

25:15

has gone down this

25:17

year it has now dropped more

25:19

than regular vc funding crossover

25:21

funding any of those categories and

25:23

according to some data from pittsburgh from the

25:25

first half of this year the percentage

25:28

of deals and included these types and busters actually

25:30

went up well as you're very slightly

25:32

but i mean very few things have gone

25:34

up this year so to place of

25:37

worth pointing out yeah i think i wonder if

25:39

i'm just theorizing but i wonder if corporate

25:41

ventured give startups more of like

25:43

the alert or vibe of stability

25:45

than a vc firm that isn't creating

25:47

it's own revenue and it kind of can't disappear

25:50

overnight of it has a corporate venture capital fund

25:52

like the company maybe i'm not only

25:54

other i think the l

25:55

key aspect of this huge

25:57

because they know there's a lot of and

25:58

investors right now

25:59

they owe like we would write extract

26:02

we would do x deal but we don't

26:04

wanna call the capital or lps told

26:06

us not call capital and x y z and

26:08

all that stuff and of course they can always assume

26:10

all about is true but of course some

26:12

it is yeah and will you that a cbc you

26:15

decide you just take times higher side of the

26:17

equation just off the table yeah we don't have

26:19

to ask someone else normally and usually a lot

26:21

of the cbc arms opera

26:22

it napoleon the kind of the companies obviously

26:24

but they'll need to the company to get approval

26:27

rating on a start up so think they can just operate

26:29

know

26:30

what have they have on hand and sort of

26:32

the little extra upset attritional

26:34

bunch of burn would need to be impacted

26:36

this year

26:36

pardon me think we're gonna see more debuts

26:39

it's year plan as as and than those in the works for a long

26:41

time for most fun like all fun and

26:43

you're like a rolling fund and maybe

26:45

we'll see more debut than second one could i

26:47

do think at some point if you're learning and development

26:49

budget has shifted dramatically and

26:51

in some ways you're like oprah years of up to potential

26:54

employee turn i imagine it has to

26:56

trickle down in some way to your other

26:58

operations anything experimental even though

27:00

they're on different as the table i feel like anything experiments

27:02

or ambitious and getting filibuster it

27:05

under an early thing

27:07

at the same time know with everyone even

27:09

the investors who are fairly sitting

27:11

out right now everyone's like on is is

27:13

the best

27:14

him to invest it's when valuations

27:16

come down and i feel like if you're a quarter

27:18

the feel sort of gotten into the

27:20

groove of at the last time for many years

27:23

of this bull market and have had some success

27:25

i feel like if you have any sort of means

27:28

to keep investing in that way i

27:30

feel like the company would actually probably be behind you

27:32

the i allowed you stop i want to and

27:34

with a look at to you

27:36

as geography is some the we don't do enough

27:38

on the show and as someone who is

27:41

very loyal to cincinnati and anywhere

27:43

in michigan it's so exciting to be talking about the midwest

27:45

to start suffer of within a few minutes

27:47

though so i want to jump right away and tude this

27:50

or that euro which is l peas are abandoning the us

27:52

midwest this year and it doesn't make

27:54

sense so why doesn't it make sense so

27:56

this is super interesting cause like the first half of

27:58

this year so records and the thing adventure

28:01

and him you look at the midwest and someone to

28:03

see from the midwest ero dollars

28:06

this year for from fund raising which those

28:08

numbers are just start to begin with and yeah of

28:10

course you can argue like is kansas which

28:12

can reach a bunch of and every quarter know but

28:14

like some of the state so it's like okay missouri

28:17

st louis i get to just about st louis

28:19

are free

28:19

that leaves the that is actually quite surprising

28:22

and what i thought was interesting about it

28:24

particular

28:24

because when i start talking to the

28:26

sea is who invest in the midwest

28:28

these there they were saying doctors

28:30

that is really start to them because

28:33

all of the cost of the seas who

28:35

started sort of investing in the region as everything

28:37

took off last year a kind of doubling down

28:39

this year while because that's where you can find

28:42

the company as were you don't need to be like oh

28:44

you should have of the team of the runway those companies

28:47

are like we always rates for twenty four months of runway

28:49

and it's sort of like totally the play

28:52

yeah younger who are like all

28:54

i found a problem in the agriculture and she

28:56

were working i can't fix my current

28:58

job but i know how do those are the kind

29:00

of start ups you're getting especially in areas

29:02

like the midwest the they're saying it's interesting that

29:04

lps are not backing fun fair because

29:07

i'll peace or backing funds that are investing

29:10

their anyway yeah oh my god what because

29:12

you are for a second i think it's so rare for

29:14

us or anyone in the tub journal this

29:16

look look the lp side of were there

29:18

dollars are going like i don't see

29:20

it happening that much and so i was like very

29:22

happy to see if the lp prospective

29:25

a just like end up adding a whole new layer

29:27

of a guy who is edwards like your

29:29

hypocrisy in a way where it's like wait a second

29:32

they're all involved anyways like i feel

29:34

like it just is a really good a look at things

29:36

and and also really quickly want had what atlanta's

29:38

center ecosystems dominic from the

29:40

techcrunch plus him as well wrote about

29:42

how the se you as is on track for

29:44

it's best your yeah and the had that quarter for funding

29:47

into to twenty twenty or thirty declines

29:49

across other reasons why twenty oh but

29:51

there was a few rounds in atlanta that stood

29:53

out and so i don't know i mean you get into it

29:55

just now with how it even if local

29:57

b c's aren't raising others are the

30:00

internet market anyways is there anything

30:02

else that we can draw a comparison my between these

30:04

two geography is yeah i think valuations

30:06

have played the big one here in the eyes

30:08

valuations and

30:10

we're not going to pretend that like valuations in

30:12

spike in these regions last year blizzard

30:14

i would just be like completely inaccurate but

30:17

they did not like as much as they did in the bay

30:19

area a new york so if

30:21

you want to come in and best

30:22

funny that's gonna take maybe a lower

30:25

step up the last year you can do so

30:27

in regions like the southeast and the midwest

30:29

without it being sort of like of as big

30:31

of a deal or you won't be doing

30:33

the big cuts that you're seeing and some of the

30:36

other started fair either it was a difference

30:38

either think so a duel and go was like the pittsburgh

30:40

start up and i was like oh it's still a good thing that

30:42

they have so much grow up and now i'm like oh maybe

30:44

you don't want to be doing other separate example

30:46

to their public now but i imagine like the

30:48

big unicorns are not as beneficial

30:51

as you think are aren't everything about geography

30:53

anymore but i know that we are much

30:55

overtime becca thank you so much

30:57

for joining and was solidly the to have you

30:59

and i know you're going back a pretty soon

31:01

so i'm glad that you're in boston that and we full

31:03

of people telling you that their team teams that

31:05

have coffee and you can actually diversify

31:07

equities caffeine preferences

31:10

assist no no i hope so

31:12

i was set on the podcast that i thought butternut

31:14

squash with underrated and i got fifteen

31:16

touch it's a subtle president trump on

31:19

okay much ado to see companies you not

31:21

email back us and everyone else we will

31:23

chat with you on monday thing for hang out with us

31:25

on this very frantically by

31:38

hey everyone this is lucas mapping and i'm

31:40

anita on a funny we're launching a new tech

31:42

crunch podcast called chain reaction

31:44

digging into the world of crypto currencies

31:46

and if teas and web three crypto

31:49

was captured it's has some of silicon valley's

31:51

most influential investors and founders

31:54

or hyping it is the future the internet but

31:56

controversial measure and still don't

31:58

need schemes

31:59

and in fighting and holding

32:02

block by

32:03

each week while on how can explain the

32:05

latest news drama transit seen

32:07

as less for the crypto syria will be

32:09

learning alongside you fi interviewing so

32:11

as the saudis investors entrepreneurs

32:14

and skeptic along the way for pride

32:16

now and your favorite podcast

32:17

yeah from what the again