Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend-December 12, 2020

They moved on that virus news, also unexpected stimulus headlines. That was our backdrop for the week. So coming up this hour, we're going to hear from the head of the largest healthcare provider in New York State, Michael Dowling, President CEO at Northwell Health. He reminds us that a vaccine rollout it's going to take time. Also, Warner Brothers recently shaking up the movie making world well known Alice

Craig Moffatt at Moffatt Nathanson weighs in on that. And then we get real unreal estate with the chairman of commercial real estate firm Thestian. All of that to come We start this hour with this week's US her story. It's remarks about untangling childcare in America. It's written by Cynthia Coon's Bloomberg News US healthcare reporter Share reports on how the U s childcare crisis is torturing parents and the economy. We got more from Cynthia and Bloomberg Business

wee getitor Joe Weber. They joined Bloomberg Quick Take anchor Tim Stanovic and me. You know, it's been one of the stories of the pandemic, really and um, you know, when Cynthia and the team started talking about it, you know, we started with this idea of like, really, it's been

a story about moms in the pandemic. You know that this has been that's been the group that's been just crushed in In September, we saw the workforce numbers, and we just saw women leave the workforce right as schools were reopening and kids were staying remote and basically families were forced with this decision does mom keep the job or does mom watch the kids? And that has incredible

economic implications for the country. And and I think, as Cynthia is gonna gonna talk about, you know, in any ways, this is just a reflection of this longstanding thing that we've known of how broken childcare is in the US compared to other countries. So Cynthia dig into this with me as as you started reporting this story, you know, what, what did you what did you learn? Well, you know,

it's interesting. I thought we were in a childcare crisis before COVID, so um, what happened during COVID just really underscored all the weakness in our system. And I think the thing is also about what we described as childcare, right.

I think most people think of that as zero to five years old, and then after that you're you're in the system, but you're really not a lot of places that are working on universal childcare are also looking at summer care, after care for care, because even our school system,

when it's fully functioning, doesn't match a work day. But like Joel said, there were eight hundred sixty five thousand women who left the workforce in September, so it was very clear at that moment in time, when schools didn't reopen,

that this situation was just not tenable anymore. The spring, a lot of people left their jobs, partly because their jobs disappeared, but I think by the Tall people who are reassessing what they could peasibly do with children at home and a lot for a lot of women that meant not working. And there was also a lean In and McKenzie study over the summer and then their study over a quarter I think was a quarter of women children underage ten we're considering either taking a leave or quitting.

So this has been a really big problem for women, and I think what's most interesting is that when you look around the world at wealthy countries, even countries that aren't necessarily as wealthy as our own, there's a lot more money spent on childcare and early education. And so we took this moment to explore what's feasible from a policy perspective, what could the US be doing to maybe come like come back with a stronger, you know, foundation

for working mothers after this crisis. Aside well, what could we be doing because as you write in your story, uh SMP Global had to report out and they said that the U s could add one point six trillion dollars to g d P if women entered in state in the workforce that are rate, similar to how it is in Norway, a country that has government subsidized daycare,

So what could the US learn from Norway? So the really interesting thing is I think there's a perception here that investing in early education in childcare is really expensive, and sure it is, but as a proportion of GDP countries like Norway when you look at the data, so

we're investing about one percent of GDP. We do spend money on early education for children of low income families, But in countries like Norway and Sweden, where they're subsidizing everyone's child care, they're only spending about two percent of GDP, so it's not as though they're expending some extraordinary proportion of their GDP on this. And one of the interesting things and kind of best practices is making this available to everybody, but also making people pay so that it's

not necessarily free for everybody. So if you're at a higher end of the income spectrum, you are paying into the system, but you're still getting something that's equivalent to someone who can't afford to pay for that. That's a leveling factor in some of the research that's come out so far about what universal preschools do and a lot of the programs going on in the US we've seen to the like Portland's just passed the universal pre care

for threason four. It wasn't easy, Cynthia, and there it is kind of like, you know, liberal bastion of America, I feel like. And yet they had a hard time. Yeah, well, there are multiple groups pushing to get this done. They had different ideas, and they imagine they came together in the end, but there was sort of this you know, split decision about what they wanted to do, and they

had different perspectives on it. And there were also attitudes among voters that I just spoke to one volunteer who encountered volunteers who I mean voters who were saying, you know, children should be at home with their parents, but to be fair in the end to vote with sixty percent in shavor. So it was pretty substantial, and I think it speaks to something that people said to me was we should do valid initiatives. Bring this to the people

because the people want this and legislators aren't. Legislators may not be getting this done, but here's this thing. Those are threes and forest programs. It's very critical for early education, very critical component of childcare. But there's still zero to three, that's the most expensive, and then you still have aftercare, you still have summer. So states like Massachusetts they're working on something potentially, they're, you know, in early stages, trying

to get something proposed for this coming legislative session. But what I talked to someone who's working on at her aim is, let's get far to thirteen. Let's stop saying it's fine for parents to spend all summer cobbling together care. And like most parents know, you're lucky if you find a campus open from nine to four and you're basically scrambling to figure out before a care in africare or your kids school and at fifteen and obviously no one's

drop accommodated that. Bloomberg News US healthcare reporter Cynthia Coon's and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber, joining Bloomberg Quick Take anchor Tim Stanovic and me check out the entire remarks in the magazine. It's on newsstands online and on

the Bloomberg terminal. Online and on the terminal is also where you'll find the international cover story about how South Korea's successful approach of regiment and masking aggressive testing and high tech contact tracing is a blueprint for the US and other democracies coming up from the childcare crisis to the healthcare crisis. Get ready for the COVID long haul. More from the President CEO at Northwell Health. That's next on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg

Business Week with Cairol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. Big week for COVID nineteen vaccine news, progress and some starts and stops as well. Which has really been a part of this entire pandemic and race for a vaccine really from day one. Well, someone who has seen it all from day one as well, and overseas the largest healthcare provider in New York State, they have treated over a hundred thousand COVID nineteen patients since the start of the pandemic.

We're talking about Michael Dowling and his team. Michael is President CEO at Northwell Health. Mikea is also author of a new book, Leading through a Pandemic, The Inside Story of Humanity, Innovation and lessons Learned during the COVID nineteen crisis. He's optimistic and realistic about a COVID nineteen vaccine. What's important and we should be celebrating, and that is that we finally have a vaccine that we can actually stop

to distribute. But I think everybody should be well aware that this is going to be many, many months before we were able to vaccinate the bulk of the population, and then we obviously have to deal with the issue that many many people in the public are very hesitant about taking a vaccine. So while while it's a great news that we have it, and it's a great news that it's beginning, which we should celebrate, as I said,

but this is a long haul. This is not a quick fix answer at the moment, and it should in no way, uh give the opportunity for people to say that they don't need to be a mask wearing and social distancing and doing all of the prevention issues that we have been talking about for a long time. So it's it's a it's a great it's it's great news, but you know, the implementation of this is not easy. It's going to be complicated. We will deal with it, we will fucceed on it and with it, but it's

it's going to be months and months and months. Well, Michael, to to that end, I mean, you have seventy four thousand employees at north Well Health. When are they getting the vaccine? Well, the first batch of vaccines we are supposed to get at the beginning of next week. Then the number of doses that we're going to get, I think we don't know exactly. I put there relatively small

numbers compared to the numbers of people we have gone. Obviously, we prioritize, we prioritize using The first people to get the vaccine will be intensive care workers and emergency department workers. The latest news that I hear is that I'll get somewhere between seven and a thousand doses and the vaccine. That's good news, but it's a small number and it will come out incrementally over the next month to two months, etcetera. So they do all employees. It's gone, probably going to

take the next month or so. That's a suming we get the doses that on the incremental basis that we assume we will. So we probably will be starting at the beginning of next week Tuesday Wednesday, is my guest. And do you anticipate that you will? I'm assuming do the two doses that's necessary. I mean, that's that that's what you guys are gonna assue that you will have

enough to do. Yes, Um, the penalty will give you the doses for the first for the first round, and then they come back and they give you the number for the second round. So you have to get the two doses because because the vaccine begins to really take affect after you get the second dose, which is about three weeks after you get the first one, and the management the bad and the data systems you need on

that to be complicated. Um. But yes, we will be doing board obviously you have to um and and then you know we got you know, the nursing homes are going to get done, and the high the staff and just mentor will get done. And then you go to the next tiers of staff over the next month, Apool, are you at all nervous that you won't get everything you need? And I just think about all the promises for PPE, you know, during the height of the virus in the springtime here and they're just the supply chain

was terrible. Are you nervous at all though, Mike that there's gonna be some problems with hiccups along the way. Oh, there will be hiccups along the way. There will be confusion along the way. That's the reality of all of these things. We are very well prepared here and not well. We have unbelievably detailed plans. We know exactly what we need to do. But it would be foolish to think that this is going to go so smoothly that nothing will will will happen. There will create a hiccup. I mean,

it will happen. We just have to respond to it. As I all staff when I met with them, is that we have to manage the confusion intelligently. That's what we have to do. But that's what operations does all the time anyway, No, no, nothing that has to be operationalized always go smootly. As the fact of life. It is what it is, and we will just have to deal with it. We have all the processes in place. If we get enough doses to do everybody and and on the in the sequence that they suggest, and we

will be fine. Um. And if we have to change along the way, we change along the way. That's the nature of the operations. Well, Michael, I want to get an update about COVID capacity and hospital capallacy capacity in your health system right now, Um, you treated nearly all of New York State over COVID nineteen patients. What are the hospitals like right now? Right now, we have today about seven hundred and sixty cases in our hospital um,

and that has gone up from about eighty patients. This is on a daily basis about three weeks ago, so the increase has been lauged. But we've got to put it in context. Back in April at the height, when we were at the epicenter of the height of the issue, we had three thousand, five comment patients in our hospitals. So what the seven hundred It looks like it's a huge number, It is very small religive to what we

had before. So we are prepared if the number keeps going up, which I shume it will given the holiday season, and I do believe that probably the worst period of time would be right after Christmas for a couple of weeks in January. Uh. And we are ready. We had the capacity, we have the supplies, the staff morale is good. We have the staff um. You know, if we need more as your capacity, we've got it. So we're pretty

well propelled. And I'm working with all of the other health systems in New York, especially in downstates here in New York, and we talk on a continuous basis, and I think we're all, well, we're ready. We handled it before, we will handle it again. I don't think we will get back to anything close to what we had back in April. Um, that's our hope, of course, but if it does happen, we will be able to take care. We better position today than we were six months ago.

We have better treatment methodologies. You know, not as many people are going into I see us today, and not as many people are being intubated today. The treatments are better and the processes are better. But we are We got the capacity, supplies, were in a good position. So I just want make sure I heard the numbers right. So you said seven six cases COVID cases in your hospital today from eight from eighty a few weeks ago.

We were both three weeks ago, we had let's say three to four weeks ago, we had about eighty on a daily basis, Okay, so exponentially creep up, you know, we got to hundred fifty and in the last week it has jumped, you know, you know, post Thanksgiving. Yeah,

and then we have obviously of the election process. Um, you know, doing the election, there's a lot of people out and about, and then we have pockets in the community that decide or whatever stupid reason, do not want to wear masks and do not want the social distance and I'm not complying with public health safety standards and indoors communities, you do have a higher incidence of infections. Well, we have definitely heard that from so many, including the

nation's top doctors and virus experts. Wearing masks and social distancing makes a big difference. That's Michael Dowling, President CEO at Northwell Health. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up the news that rocked the movie industry, brought on by the virus. Once our Alice weighs in, that's an next This is Bloomberg is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol

Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Just about a week ago, Warner Brothers said it will make all of their one films, including Dune and Matrix four, available on HBO Max at the same time as they open up movie theaters, ending

theater chain's exclusivity. It's what we like to call up Wait what moment, which is exactly how actors, directors, you name it, took it, which is why it also caught the attention of star Alice Craig Moffatt founding partner and senior Alice at Moffatt Nathanson, who has covered the telecom, cable and satellite space for years. He's been named the number one Alice by Institutional Investor magazine year after year. Craig was also the founder and CEO of the e

commerce business at Southeby's. Well. Craig filled us in on why investors in A. T and T, which owns Warner Brothers, needs to pay attention to this news. The big news really is the big announcement from A. T and T, which about bringing movies in so called day and day or the same day that they bring in the movie theaters, bring them the bringing them to HBO Max. And that

is really an extraordinary development. Um. It has implications for the exhibitors, that is, the movie theaters, It has implications for A. T and T itself, and I think, as you saw with a lot of the blowback today, it has a big, big implications for the actors and artists and directors. Boy oh boy, did they hear an earful from how angry some of their stakeholders are. Kind a

million questions. So do you think this is one thing or just a short term thing, or do you think this is something that becomes part of how it happens longer term and maybe forever. Well, you know, it's it's it's. It puts them in a in a difficult position because Jason clar who formerly of Hulu and the person who put himself out front in this decision um uh Inten now running Warner Media, made it very clear that this is a decision about customers and that the customers want

movies day and date. It's what they've always wanted. Um. And I don't think anybody would argue with that. It's customers would love to have movies day and date. The problem is, once you say that, it's a little hard to put the genie back in the bottle and then say what we've in two we know want to put customers first. Um And so uh it feels like not just to me, but I think to most people as if this is um going to become an expectation and uh,

the implications of that again are just enormous. Well, I love listen you just get into the weeds with all of this, and you really break it down at you know, when somebody creates a piece of content, you know, a major film or something, you know, the theaters is just one level, right, but there's so many other levels, and you go through the pay windows, right, And you say that often when it does its theatrical release, it doesn't necessarily make money there, But it's the later windows, Like

you talk about the pay one window, like an HBO, that's where it starts to maybe you know, at least be in the green on some kind of movie. And and remember it's we're not just talking about a T and T and Warner Media themselves. We're also talking about directors and actors who have participation deals. So Christopher Nolan a critically important director to Warner Warner Media, um Is, our Rate and um As are lots of these directors.

So you know, in Legendary Entertainment, which was offered hundreds of millions of dollars for King Kong versus Godzilla to go direct to Netflix, took it, took the deal to Warner Brothers instead, and then got blindsided and wasn't told in advance. From what we read today, that Oh, by the way, we're taking your movie out of movie theaters or at least, um, we're going to be making it

available at no extra charge on HBO same day. Um. If you're a director and you're and or an investor in one of those films, and you've got hundreds of millions of dollars writing on the performance at the box office based on your contract, your head is kind of explode. And from what we understand, um, they were not not told in advance in order to keep secrecy. So when when they did this with Wonder Woman, which was you may recall Wonder Woman was the first movie and that

was very done purely as a one off. It was single film with no expectations of any others to follow. But you're talking about what happened with Wonder Woman and what people are now calling the Wonder Woman money. You know, this comes down to, you know, how people are paid, right, whether it's directors, actors, all of the people involved in getting a movie to the the it are. It kind of comes down to that, right, the upfront money versus

maybe the money that comes later after ticket sales. That's right. And the reason this is also important is look at the end of the day, A T and T is a phone company, and culturally, um, you always have to wonder how well is it is a phone company going to adapt to what is essentially a creative business. Well, time will certainly tell about how well the synergies between A T and T and Warner Brothers work out. That's Craig Moffatt, founding partner and senior analyst at Mofatt Nathanson.

Find that full conversation on our Bloomberg Business Week podcast feed at Bloomberg dot com or Apple Podcasts. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Our next guest doesn't mince words when it comes to the commercial real estate market. He says it's the worst since, well, in a long long time. More from Vestition's chairman. That's coming up. This is Bloomberg.

Is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio made a flurry of real estate headlines on the Bloomberg this week, including Manhattan apartment rant sinking to the lowest level in a decade, San Francisco apartment rants plunging the most in the US, and Airbnb holding its i PO as its pandemic recovery has outpaced major hotel chains. The virus continuing to make its mark on real estate. So we got real on commercial real estate with Michael Silver.

He's chairman Investition. It's a commercial real estate from that serves only occupantsive buildings, never landlords. We caught up with him in Chicago. Probably the worst commercial real estate market since the dot com bust, probably surpassing the dot com bust, and it's probably the worst commercial real estate market. Certainly. It's there's more vacancy than there was as a percentage of the overall supply. Then there wasn't two thousand nine in the recession. So it's um and it's going to

get worse. And it's so for example, in the US has a four billion square foot supply of office space. We're starting to exceed overall sixteen percent vacancy overall that's never occurred. Occupancy dropped in the US so far this year at around thirty million square feet and it's predicted to draft around fifty million square feet. And in terms of sublet availability, there's a hundred and fifty million six or a hundred and sixty million square feet of sublet

available throughout the United States. Headed towards two hundred million square feet of availability of sublet. It's never occurred before, So how do we digest that? Or you don't? You just don't. And I think, I think, I really there's enough supply in the marketplace in order here to mop up off all the vacancy that's predicted. There's about a seven year supply, so I just don't think it's going to get back to any kind of state of equilibrium for at least seven maybe eight years. So what does

that mean? Because I feel like I'm looking for a story and I'm going to find it as I as I talk with you. But I do feel like it hasn't necessarily played out yet in the financial markets. Is that fair? Yes? It is fair, And that's because in the in the multi market buildings UM, most of the buildings are distributed with seven and ten year leases, so most of the owners can make their payments. So that's

played out. But it's not gonna last. UM, It's just not gonna be the situation forever because at some point is going to be a recognition of how much supply there is and there isn't any leasing activity right now, and in order to attract the leasing activity. Owners are going to have to drop their race right, no other trust. Well,

here's the story I was looking for. On the Bloomberg by Adam Tempken, the more than billion dollar market for bonds backed by US commercial um mortgages may face glosses even after promising COVID vaccines become widespread. Uh as key parts of the real estate market may not return to

full strength anytime soon. We're talking about the c NBS market because I've been kind of you know, we've all been watching it really closely, and it feels like, you know, knock on for Micah, which is what I'm knocking on. It's held up. But like you say, so, when do we start to see the problems? Um, I think you're going to start to see the problems next year because I don't even think they have the amount of sublet space that's on the market today. I think potentially it

could double the next year. I mean people are recognizing. I think building owners are, I think businesses are recognizing that they probably have more space than they need. And many of the standard office space users are just sitting in a state of limbo trying to figure out how much do I need? How much don't I need how many people are working remotely, And whereas technology companies, which represents the overall market, they're putting space on the market.

They're very quick to respond to this, and they're putting a lot of space on the market. And I think the standard UH office space users, you know, the lawyers and the financial markets will soon start to follow. So this becomes really story where it becomes problematic, where the bank's story, it's going to be a story. It's just

going to be absorbed. Not great for landlords right now, potentially some financial exposure to for investors UH, And we'll have to see how it trickles down maybe into the financial community meeting banks and so on. But for tenants, they're in the driver's seat right now in an incredible way, and what they need to do is react quickly and find their voice in new negotiations. So, Michael, tell us

about what you have scenes. Since you work with tenants, tell us about some of the tenants that you're working with, and maybe what are some of the opportunities that they're finding in this environment, especially when you talk about so much excess supply when it comes to commercial real estate. If a tenant is lucky enough to not be encumbered by a lease. So I'll get back to that. They should expect to have a discount in overall costs instead

of a ten year lease. They should be a negotiating flexibly because a lot of their workforce is working remotely for a three to five year lease. And um, they should be very focused on flexible lease arrangements, UM, free rent, construction and a drop in the face rent. Now if a tenant, if a tenant has a lease, they should expeditiously attempt to get rid of the space. Not even we recommend attempting a buyout from the landlord. It's a lot cleaner, and there are a number of landlords who

are open to those kinds of arrangements. And it's an opportunity for a tenant to recover more than they would on a sublet. And the owner is benefiting by not having competeing space offered at half price in their building. Um. But the opportunities are incredible right now for tenants. We have formed a division within our company to expeditiously and

with dispatch work on ridding tenants of space. So this is this is maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity well, the conditions for owners are as bad as I've seen since when the entire commercial market imploded just through overbuilding. Um, it's more than a one time lifetime because we're not dealing with just office housing. We're dealing with remote working

as well. Remote working necessitates needing less space. And as I get back to my base case, if there's four billion square feet of office property in the United States and you need less space, that that means that one point two billion square feet of space needs to get absorbed, and we absorbed two square feet a year. So you know, that's why it's basic math here right. This won't be

worked out for quite a while. The working from home, UM, Michael, We've had a lot of discussions here with CEOs and you get depending on who you talk to, you get a different um response. Some say, Yep, it's here to stay. You see the big tech company saying you want to work from home, that's fine, you can do it forever. I don't know, it's hard to say how much of it sticks. What are your expectations here? My expectations that

it will stick. You know, our clients say that they're just not going back to working full time out of an office space. I actually think we're on the dawn.

I mean, for all the problems that I think commercial owners will have, businesses are on the dawn of some of the greatest productivity advancements that I've ever seen, because they're able to work remotely, and they're able to work in the office, and they're able to work virtually with technology tools that just keep getting better and better, so they're able to function as one unit as opposed to

borders that sometimes get created through office space. So you have a combination sometimes of office space and remote working, and it's fantastic. The productivity gains are amazing. So I'm thinking about our audience smart audience, um you know, tuned in audience, and thinking about the investment play here based

on what you're saying. And I'm wondering, you know, especially in a you know, a year, year and a half or so, where we been so much time our last couple of years talking about we work and coworking companies, what's what's the investment play. We've talked a lot about logistics companies and warehouses. That's been a play and that's going to be even more of a play going forward. What do you see as the play going forward, and just got about a minute left here. Well, online services,

anything connected with online services. So you're talking about warehouse space, just bike space, you're talking about three PL space, you know, reworking, supply chains. What's three pl forgive me three pls at supply chain pl is third party providers for warehouse got it okay? With supply chains? Uh? With with supply chain delivery systems like fed X, d h L, they need

large amounts of space distribution center's logistics. Yeah, that is definitely one of the pandemic winners in the commercial real estate space. That was Michael Silver, Chairman Investian. That wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bomberg

Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser. More ahead in our next hour, including why the investing app robin hood is losing thousands of traders to a China owned rival, Plus Gotham Green's co founder and CEO on raising money and growing the business that's coming up on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol

Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Hi on Carol mass Or. Coming up in the second Hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, Gotham Green's co founder and CEO on his company's whirlwind year and explosive growth. Plus Kenya Hunt, she's fashion director of Grazia UK. She's got a book at about being a black girl, a black woman in today's ever changing world. At j w P founder Josh Wood. While he's used to putting on fundraisers for Madonna and others,

how he's getting it done in a virtual world. He even brought Brad and gen back together again. Well, at least virtually. We'll hear his story. But let's get things going this hour with what was one of our most read stories on the Bloomberg this week. It's about the app that has been one of the big stories in our markets universe this year. We're talking about robin Hood and how it's losing thousands of traders to arrival out

of China. Bloomberg Quicktake anchor Tim Stenovic and I got more on this story reported for Bloomberg Business Week by Annie massa Bloomberg News investing reporter who joined us along

with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Weber. You know it's one of these um um sort of stories that I kind of love, where you know, robin Hood has been uh you know, basically just a phenomenon during the pandemic, and along comes uh, you know, like an upstart that's kind of got its own, uh, its own kind of way of doing things that's been you know, different than robin Hood, which also had its own way of doing things. So it's almost like they're getting schooled a little bit

in their own game. And as Any is about to tell us, they've done it by actually going the opposite way of robin Hood. Where robin Hood made every very streamlined and almost uh stripped down and bare bones, they've actually flooded it with more information rather than less. Anie. Why why does that seem to be working so far? Yeah,

that's exactly right. You have this kind of difference between on on one end of the spectrum, you have robin Hood, which is just for a complete entry level trader, very simple, very clean graphics, and you know, if you think the way other end of the spectrum might be like an interactive brokers with more sophisticated analysis in real time data.

We both sit a little bit in between those two, and it's trying to reach out the same kinds of users that robin Hood is after, the younger kinds of demographic, the more social oriented types of traders, but it's doing it in a way where the format is slightly more sophisticated, slightly more information than you're getting when you log into

a robin Hood account. Yeah. Any I'm curious too about this, this idea of this being a Chinese company because think about TikTok and the problems that TikTok has had with the US government. I mean, financial services are regulated so much more it's going to work, yeah, than a social media company, So so how are they going to pull this off with sciphius. You're exactly right, and I think

TikTok is a very high profile example. But we've really seen how the tensions between the U S and China and the trade war and just this rising geopolitical tension between the two countries has been affecting the business world and really creeping into finances as well. So we mentioned in the story how we've already seen, you know, the Trump administration kind of thinking about possibly placing restrictions on Chinese payment platforms or threatening to kick companies from China

off of the US exchanges. So for now, we Bill have not been caught up in that fray, but it certainly could be an issue for a company like this down the line. So any what what more do we know about uh we bill in terms of like how many how many users are on the platform, what kind of growth are we seeing here? We mentioned that you know, it's it's peeling triggers away from robin Hood, but like how big of an opportunity does does we both think it sees here? That's right, So we both still smaller

than robin Hood, but they've been growing staff. They've grown their client based by about tenfolds this year, so they have about two million customers now. Now that compares to robin Hood that has more than thirteen million customers. And they've been going completely getting busters in terms of news sign ups this year. But still for a newer company without as much name brand recognition broadly speaking as robin Hood,

that is a significant user base. And and talk to more about talk to us more about the stealth mode, because I thought that was a really curious thing, like they've really just cloaked their operation. They do have an office in downtown New York in right off Wall Street. But but why run so quietly? A lot of people who are listening this might be hearing about it for the first time. That's right. So they haven't done any big kind of ad campaign or or advertised really aggressively.

And we were talking to the us CEO who said, we're trying to stay under the radar a little bit

for now and grow without making a huge splash. It's a it's still a very competitive space, and we Bill has been fortunate enough to pick up some of the customers that have been frustrated by robin Hood who seek out other options and then they kind of come across wee Ball and say, hey, I might like to try and open a brokerage account there um instead about robin Hood, either because they're frustrated with the service at robin Hood or because they want to like level up their account

a little bit. So I just think just because they have a customer service line, they're going to be like, you know, way ahead of robin Hood. Um, Andy, so tell us about I mean, is money coming in investor any what's their plan here? That's right, So that you're on the brink of raising another fundraising round, um, they expect to raise about a hundred million dollars for evaluation of possibly over a billion dollars, So that would put them in unicorn status territory. Uh So they are trying

to attract investors at this moment. They've grown so much in the public imagination, but they've also had some really high profile lapses. So they had an outage that lasted more than a day in March. They've had an issue with hacking of some accounts that we reported on earlier this fall. And each time you've seen users go online vent their frustration, and some of them have even threatened to leave and seek out other kinds of brokerage. Of

the financial and investing world continues to be disrupted. And that in a week where JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Diamond said that Google's move into banking made it a real competitor. Again. That was Annie mossa Bloomberg News investing reporter and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Weber joining Bloomberg Quick Take anchor Tim Stenovik. M me coming up how

we invest changing, so too is how we farm? More on that when we catch up with the Gotham Green's co founder and CEO, You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Gerrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. This week, the indoor agriculture and tech company Gotham Green's announced a new equity and debt capital raise of eighty seven million dollars. That money to be used to decentralized food production and bring more fresh

foods to people across the United States. Well. One of the highlights this week was an interview we did with Farage Pury, his co founder and CEO of Gotham Green's. We began though on what a year it has been for them, an essential business that has stayed open. It's been a whirlwind year, no doubt, as it has been for many many people, if not everybody, but doing well.

Keeping healthy, keeping keeping our staff, our team members around the country, almost four hundred of them healthy and space has been really our top priority, and we've been able to keep our business fully operational, and for that I am extremely grateful. We are fortunate to be in the food system. We are fortunate to be UM considered essential employees, and we work hard to keep our supermarket customers fresh with stock, healthy, fresh produce. What was the toughest part

of staying fully operational during the pandemic. So look, we we saw the writing on the wall. Our team put a crisis management plan into place in early February, so we worked really hard to secure our supply chain, work on shifting our shift schedules around so we could enforce more social distancing, and and even sort of got on the temperature checks and things a little bit early on. So I feel incredibly fortunate that we were able to do that, and we've certainly had to modify how we

run our facilities. But very early on god confirmation from the federal government um that that we would in fact be considered an essential industry, So we informed our employees that we could stay operational. And literally the day that the pandemic was declared, we received a surge in in request from our supermarket customers to run extra trucks on the road and deliver more product, uh, you know, since

there was such a run on grocery store. So it really provided us with an opportunity to really improve our value proposition and the supply chain. You know, the supply chain is so reliant on California, the centralized production there, and we were able to really serve our customers. Well, yeah, that's pretty remarkable because you know it's all been about supply chains. What what about what you learned during the pandemic, especially with this new you know, debt and cap, you

know equity rays. I do wonder about are there strategies that you were thinking about implementing And I've seen you know, your greenhouses out there in Brooklyn. I mean, it's pretty remarkable. It's very high tech, But there were strategies verage that you were thinking about putting in place, but taking your time, and all of a sudden you're like, Okay, we're all in on this because speaking big growth strategy and plan and was already well in the works even prior to COVID.

So in we almost doubled our capacity with new greenhouse facilities in Illinois, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Colorado. So we were able to really ramp up those facilities this year and double our growth year on year. And we already had a plan into place um to expand further further

geographic market expansion within the US two. So this funding is going to enable us to do that while continuing to build operational capacity and just build our brand and continue to be a leader in this in this segment, in this category. To be fair, did you have to put some plans on hold because you were just making sure that your employees were, say, if your teams were safe, and that you were meeting all of that increased demand

by your supermarket customers. Certainly, we for for for a couple of months there in the spring, we were just focused on exactly that and didn't focus as much on on sort of the new site development and and acquisition. So we certainly held our breath for a little bit. But then as as things stabilized a little bit in the summer, we um we we double down on those efforts.

It really sounds like you guys have really been kind of in warp speed, if you will, so, tell me about the visibility you feel like you have in and how you see the year playing out as a as a CEO of someone who's running a company. How confident do you feel about the outlook given this sector that we're in, which is fresh food production. I think the outlook looks bright. I think the future is right for our company, but also for our sector as a whole.

I think the pandemic has really revealed a lot of should I say, sort of risks in the supply chain, right, and our entire model is built upon decentralizing the supply chain of highly perishable fresh produce and growing it in closer proximity to large supermarket retailers and institutional food service operators. So I think from the B two B side, the

outlook is strong. You know, there's a lot of headwinds in the incumbent supply chain, whether it's water related issues out west, whether it's climate related issues, the wildfires, farm labor issues. So I really do think that more and more fresh produce is going to be grown indoors. And then I think from the consumer standpoint, consumers are cooking

at home a lot more. Although are obviously all of us are anxious to get back into restaurants and being out again, people are looking more at home and they want better quality ingredients, and they care more about where their produce is grown and is it hygienic, is it clean? Is it um sustainably grown? So I do think on balance, the prospects are certainly very promising. Listen, I think that's a really important aspect of its sustainability. I mean, talking

with a lot of senior executives people running companies. I mean, this is what consumers want, this is what brands need to stand for. And I do think AGG is one of those areas when we talk about the climate and water usage, that's a big deal and I'm curious you know what you're seeing in that area and and the role that Gotham Green's can play and all of that. Absolutely. I mean, agriculture, like you're alluding too, is a huge consumer of natural resources, right, So it's the largest consumer

of land on the planet. It's the largest consumer of fresh water in the planet, so around seventy of fresh water withdrawals go toward agriculture and farming. Um It's the largest cause of global water pollution. It contributes of global carbon emissions. You know, the list goes on. So we're really serious about sustainability and climate change, we need to be looking at AGG. And we're seeing a lot of innovation.

We're seeing a lot of investment in research and development all throughout the AGG supply chain, from the tech side to the distribution side, to actual farming techniques, the use of big data. So we play a role within that and our form of farming specifically, which is broadly known as controlled environment agriculture allows us to farm using land

a lot more efficiently. So what we can grow in one acre would require thirty acres out in the field, right, So we're much more land efficient, we use less water than conventional farming, and by growing the product in much closer proximity to the marketplace, we don't have to shift the product you know, great distances, so there's less sort of fuel consumption and associated emissions as well as less waste um. Less fresh produce gets thrown away this way.

So yeah, I mean, look, we're not sort of saving the entire agricultural system by any means, but I definitely think we're playing a role in in consumers are increasingly interested and want to spend their dollars with companies that that are rooted in those kinds of values. People wanted to spend their money with companies rooted in certain values. That is so much behind the rise in E s G investing, as investors align themselves with companies with similar values.

That again was Varage Puri, co founder and CEO of Gotham Green's coming up Can You Hunt Fashion, Director of Grazia UK on her book Girl, Girl Girl on Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Match. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. We're breaking some of our favorite interviews, some of this week's highlights on our daily radio show and podcast. That included

Kenya Hunt, fashion director of Grazia UK. She's a fashion insider who has spent years working for some of the media world's most influential women's titles on both sides of the Atlantic. We're talking about l Jane and Moore. She's got a book at It's entitled Girl, Girl Girl, Different Spellings on Womanhood and Belonging the Age of Black Girl Magic. Like many of our conversations, we began with how her world has been impacted by the virus. The title um

so girl. You know I used the phonetic spellings of girl, three of them in particular, and on the cover of the British version of the book, I believe I use four or five and it's a word that you know, you know. I write about how it's through of a love language between black women. You know, it has real meanings in my life. Personally, I use it a great deal when I'm when I'm speaking with my girlfriends, with my family members, um, sometimes with colleagues, like close colleagues

who become dear friends. But you know, most importantly that it has a multitude of meetings. You know, it can be a greeting, It can be an admonishment. Um, it can it can meet a number of things depending on the context, how you use it, who you're who you're with,

and um and so. And then the you know on womanhood and belonging in the age of Black girl magic really speaks to my my exploration of you know, black womanhood as I know it personally, you know, as an American expat living abroad in the UK, and um, as I've come to understand it, you know, as a result of you know, having lived away from home from the States for the past eleven years and being a part of a network of a you know incredible women really

who are network. Die is quite beat and so you know, my understanding of my myself, you know, as a black woman who involved is a result of this experience. Well, and if I look over the essays, um, you know, they deal with the movie The Black Panther. They deal with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their decision to step down, and the connection with the white supremacist

rally in Virginia. What the connections were, you know? And then you talk about and I know you said and I really respect what you said that you don't always want to center on a narrative of pain. But I do think about the essay that is entitled the front Row, and you do talk about being, you know, a black woman in the world of fashion, uh and sitting in the front row during fashion shows, and how you were

often you know, the only black woman there. Um and and I just, you know, I think we need to have a better understanding of kind of what that's like and how do we change the world signific frequently so it is more diverse than I am. Curious about your

thoughts on that. Yes, well, you know I think that, um. Well, you know, this year has been quite uh an interesting one because we've seen people engaging with conversation around race and racism and privilege and in ways that we've never seen before really, and it's been happening on a global scale. And you know, that was happening, you know, as the Black Lives Matter movement was really gaining steam following you know, the tragic deaths George Flood and Brianna Taylor and the

list goes on. I think those conversations are vital. You know, the work of engaging in them. He has very clearly been exhausting for for black people. I can mean, I speak for myself. I don't I don't like to speak for you know, entires speak for my personal experience that has been that's exhausting. But I think there's you know, the conversations that I've been taking place this year have been really vital because I do since that there's a real shift happening. Um And I think black women have

been you know, a driving mechanism in that. Um you know, seeing how it was the work of black women that essentially put Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in an office for example, or the fact that you know, black women have really been driving this what is effectively the largest civil rights movement in history. UM And and so I think, you know, all of these conversations that are happening are you know, incredibly important in terms of driving change. But

also it becomes about changing our behavior as well. Um, you know, I can speak to fashion because that's the industry that I've worked in. You know, diversity within fashion has been a talking point probably my entire time that I've been working, my entire adult working life. And for the longest, it was just that sort of thing, you know, and something would happen and we see a wave of discussions and panel discuss and articles about it, and then

it would die down and nothing would really change. The needle wasn't really moving. But you know, I think this in the past, you know, five years or so, we gradually started seeing progress and then this year does feel like a bit of a watership moment. You know. There was so much discussion about the Black Squares, you know, and you know there's been so much discussion around you know,

performative allyship and and all of those things. I think it really just comes down to really people changing their behavior, but also being held accountable to that, and the part of that is keeping these conversations out there, making sure you know, it's you know, the discussion doesn't die down. That's Kenyahan Fast and director of Grotto UK. She has spent so many years working for some of the media

world's most influential women's titles. Her book out Girl Girl Girl, on womanhood and belonging in the age of black Girl Magic. Start ahead on Bloomberg Business Week. Remember when we used to go to things, events, fundraisers, you name it. Our next guest puts together those types of events. He pivoted though, even brought Brad and Gen act together virtually. And yes, I'm talking about that Brad and Jen that's coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol

Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. Do you recall when we all used to attend events live in person that included things like fundraisers that came to an end, like so much else because of the health pandemic, And that's where to like so much else, those putting on fundraising events had to get creative and pivot. The Global Fundraising Agency JWP knows about that. It has worked with amphar Madonna and many more, and this year it's been involved in COVID

nineteen fundraisers. We caught up with Josh Wood, founder of the event production and fundraising organization jw P. He told us what his year has been like our businesses was you know, a hundred percent based on doing events and fundraisers for live in person people and for the like the biggest charities in the world, and so we really had to think on our feet and sort of change

and pivot. But we're doing Okay, Well, take me back to and forgive me that I do this, but I think we were all in the same boat, Like, take me back to you know, March in April, where um, you know, just we just saw our world as we

knew it. I was kidding with one of our last guests, but it was pretty serious that when we saw the sports world start to say we're canceling tournaments, We're shutting down, Like that's when we looked at each other and said, okay, this is on a whole other scale if we if we hadn't you know, realized that bit then, but like everything just shut down. So what was March April may like for you, Well, I think we first started seeing you know, a lot of our clients in February and March.

We're still thinking that this was going to be a two to three week saying that we were going to shut things down. Everyone's going to stay home and by the end of May. Um, you know for us, it's the busiest season that people were going to be going to Chippriani at the end of May, going to you know, our Bossle and Switzerland. So we start did seeing things slowly start to taper off at the beginning of March.

I think when we had a big event that was planned during the Tribeca Film Festival for our client Core, which is Sean Penn's disaster relief organization, and um, we heard that the Tribeca Film Festival was shutting down, which we were like, what, how is that possible? I mean, I think things slowly started and everything just um just

started like tumbling from there. Yeah. That was another one because I usually do their their press junket uh and sit down with Jane Rosenthal and Bob de Niro and like, you're right. It was just it just stopped, like it just wasn't gonna happen. And I know there was a lot of where people were saying, well, maybe we'll do this in a couple of months, and then the reality hit that no, we're not going to be able to postpone this for just a couple of months. Um, really

really different. So what you know, so what happens, Josh, because you know, organizations still need to fundraise, they still need to do philanthropic events. We've seen some things on broadcast television. So how do you pivot? How do you adjust? Well, what we've been doing is sort of working with each of our organizations that are you know, like you said,

our clients all still need to fundraise. For example, City Harvest, which is one of our clients, is is you know in New York Favorite, which is out feeding at need

families and people on the front line food. UM. We've worked on two sort of telethons with them, UM and and sort of the format around that is getting like the best chefs in the world to shoot videos of recipes that they're cooking at at home and then get celebrities to talk about their favorite cooking and it's sort of like we did one around based on New York and then we did another one that was national and both of them raised over a million dollars UM and

Fox luckily donated the air time, so they were very supportive, and UM Jeffreys and Carrion sort of put it all together, so it was that was very successful. UM another one of our clients, where I mentioned before Core, which is Sean Penn's Disaster Leaf organization. They've really been on the front lines of the COVID epidemic and have been doing all the free testing first and started off in l A and all of California, then New York and then

basically all over the United States. Um, but because they were opening at such a rate and there's so much free testing needed, they really needed money. Tell us about this event that you put together that ended up being kind of build really as that reunion between Brad Pitt and Jennifer aston Man. There was so much on it everywhere on social you name, and everybody was talking about it.

Tell us about the event, how it came together, and then were you surprised by kind of the reaction Where first of all, we're surprised that both of them signed up to do it. Well, I think, um, we were surprised. You know, everyone likes Sean Penn and he was the

centerpiece of it. So Sean got it was Shawn's idea with Dane Cook to do a reading of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and so Sean I think the first person Shawn asked, I think was Julia Roberts and so we kind of knew after we had Julia that like we're gonna bemebusterers. And then Julia asked Julian, Jennifer our friends. So then Julia asked Jennifer, and then um we had Then we got Brad Pitt involved, and um we got the rest of cast, which was Morgan Friedman and um

people econoy and just like great people. But we it was the success of of it was beyond our wildest dreams because I think America loves Brad and jenn and it was the first time that people had seen them together and they were acting, you know, their friends, and they were acting very casually and talking to each other

and they had a love scene together. So um, it was really great and it was it was a wonderful exposure for Cork because we had over over twenty million people have watched it, which is beyond our wildest imagination of what we thought. The black tie gal of dinners have a really nice rate of return because people like dressing up in black tie. They buy you know, a

table and a unit of ten um much easier. Yeah, it's very social, like instead of buying, you know, if you have the four percent event, you only have to sell forty tables versus tickets, and you know people raise money in the auction, so so there's a there's a high rate of return UM. But on the digital events, they're not as expensive, but they don't make as much money. But they have been you know, they have been financially very viable. Like you said, Sitting Harvest, both the telephile

thons they did raised over a million dollars UM. The event that we did for Core for Fast Times, the Ridgemont High that raised six figures, you know, that raised a lot of money UM, way more than the budget. So yes, what we're seeing is that the expenses are are lower on the virtual events UM and by innovating and doing creative things with content that hopefully you're able to raise quite a bit of money. You know, most of ours have been raising UM over a million dollars,

which has been great. That's really impressive. Well, what makes a virtual gala work? Because I think about this, like I was recently invited to something. It was an award ceremony, and I was like, do I really want to sit for two hours on a zoom? As much as I love the event, totally don't know exactly so what makes

one work? Well, what what we learned very quickly at the beginning is that we were saying that people were like, at the very beginning, we were doing sort of long format um Galid Dinners, particularly with the Biding Campaign, who was one of our clients in terms of fundraising, and we were just and they were basically just applying the run of show that you would for Galid Dinner to

a digital format and that just didn't work. You know, by minute twenty, everyone's eyes were glazing out of their head. So we really try to keep it short. Like we keep it you know, we advised not anything longer than threaty minutes, um have it be. Really we try to keep it very interesting, creating interesting content, um, you know. For Hunton River Park is one of our clients, and we did an on gala for them which is about

thirty minutes long. And Martha Stewart had did cocktail recipes, had David Chang do a video, Owen did a video. So we try to make it like less about the format that you normally would see in a gala and more about creating compelling content and then having some sort of fundraising mechanism for donors to engage kind of like TikTok videos on steroids, right with with meeting and content, you know what I mean, to keep people interested, right

and to keep them certainly engaged. Um. Yeah, that's really fascinating. So so I have to ask you, because you have worked on some outrageous things. I mean, is there an event that you put together that you kind of pinched yourself instead? I can't believe I'm doing this and I'm with these people and we're making this impact. But luckily

I've had a lot of those moments. I think the one for me that was the most um important was we did Nelson Mandela's hundred um birthday celebrations with his family. His his family, the House of Mandela hired us and so we did a full year of events for the Mandela family and that was incredible. And the last event that was on Nelson Mandela's birthday was at his private home in Johannesburg and his family were there and dignitaries

and celebrities and people from all over the world. And for me, that was such a major moment to be in Nelson Mandela's home with his family and um, just getting the message of what he was all about, because you know, that's exactly what we need right now, is some peace and love. So that was great. I am hopeful for UM meeting and getting in person events going. Um, anybody booking anything yet? Yes, my proposals go out the door today. So yes, it's crazy. So UM. People are

looking very bullish for May onward. Particularly in New York. We're seeing in person events. We did a site visit for an in person gallat a big space. Really have a concert this summer. We always have a contingency plan, upon a contingency plan, upon a contingency plan, having a backup plan and being able to pivot. That's in a nutshell. Well, we're all looking forward to being able to attend and be at fundraisers and events in person in fingers crossed.

That was Josh Wood, founder of the Event production fundraising organization j w P. And that wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Carol Masser. Be sure to tune in daily to Bloomberg Business Week Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. You can also hear more of our Bloomberg Business Week conversations download them at Bloomberg dot com, Apple Podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on YouTube. Just search Bloomberg Global News and be sure to check out our Bloomberg Business Week Extra podcast. Johnny Philly on CEO of b n P Party by USA. We talked about the impact of COVID structural changes as a result and what visibility he has for one when it comes to the market and investment environment. We also

talked about a Biden administration. Bloomberg Business Week It's available on newsstands, now online, and of course on the Bloomberg terminal. Have a safe weekend, everyone, This is Bloomberg