Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend-February 19, 2021

Welcome to the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Tim week forty nine working from home still for many we were mostly in the office of those snow kind of set me home and you home a little bit as well. It's a week though, where we saw stocks hitting records and then backing off, Bitcoin taking out one record after another. We did get some upbeat news and COVID cases, but that was a little bit overshadowed by reports about inequities of the vaccine rollout. That was just some of our

backdrop this week as we talked with all of our guests. Yeah, it was a busy week and it included the president of Impossible Foods. The company is cutting prices on quote unquote me you know, put that in quotes because it's not actually mean by as much as twenty percent Also we caught up at the former editor in chief of The Financial Times. He's got a new book out. It's called The Powerful and the Damn Private Diaries Into Turbulent Times. He has seen so much and he's written about it.

Plus Mackenzie Scott, the former Mrs Jeff Bezos and how her big giveaway is transforming the family. Fortune's really changing so much. They're all of that to come to him, though. We begin with Dr Alaja Day Williams, Chief of Staff of Neurology over at Columbia University. He's an NIH funded researcher, a leaning health disparities expert with research focused on community based behavioral interventions. He's also the founder, president in board

share of Hip Hop Public Health. By the way, Bloomberg Philanthropies provided a granted Hip Hop Public Health. We began by talking about what he's seeing in terms of cases and getting the vaccine out to the people who need it. The good news is that you know, we all seeing um we're all seeing you know, the rates of COVID in patients trickled down. Um our admission rate called down,

and we've been seeing that slowly but steadily. It's it's a it's a it's a welcome relief given uh you know, my experience on the front lines at the height of the pandemic when it took uh New York City by surprise. UM. But on on on another front, UM, I'm actually very

very concerned about about the vaccine coverage UM situation. UM as you as you lead with in in this segment, there are striking disparities, um again afflicting those who are suffer suffer the most community of color, poor neighborhoods, uh, disenfranchised Americans. They're the ones, really who have born the

brunt of the COVID death and morbidity rates. And and they're the ones now UM really UM really, you know, really not being engaged sufficiently uh in off and and you know, sadily enough um too, you know in a way that they would enable increased uptake of the vaccine. You know, we we have to earn back trust, Kim and Carol. UM. You know, trust was broken over hundreds and hundreds of years of you know, of quite frankly systemic inequities and structural racism and um and great mistrust

with the medical community. And we're seeing those effects now. So we have to be more creative, and we have to be more purposeful uh to earn back the trust of these communities so that we can get back to the nation coverage rate stuff. Because the bottom line is we're all in this together and and we we are all connected, and if one link in this chain UH is not strong, then um, we won't be able to,

you know, climb our way out of this pandemic. Let's talk about your website and and this organization that you've created, hip Hop Public Health. It's very cool. I was watching video US last night about HIV and eating healthy and you guys do it in a fun way. I mean, it's hip hop, it's a song, it's got lyrics, but it's also got really strong messages that I think and I'm assuming really stay with people. Tell me about this organization and the impact that you that you find that

it's having and really reaching people. Sure, thank you. So, you know, hip Hop Public Health was really borne out of my frustration with the traditional public health messages in the black community. I felt that the penetration of the public health communication campaigns wasn't really sufficient and a lot of the work we did working directly with community with community members confirmed uh, this really poor translation of public

health into the community. And they really came up with the suggestions for us to use a new model, and hip hop really made a lot of sense, and it was really pushed and promoted by the youth that we were engaging around how best to do this. You know, as a neurologist, Kim and Carol, I'm also um really interested in music and it's roll in the brains. You know, a lot of people don't realize that that music actually occupies more real estate, more neural real estate in our

brains than language itself. You know, music, music augments learning, it's it's it augments our memories. Music, it creates positive associations. You know, music increases our attention to Music has such powerful neurological uh strength and attributes that you know, it's one of the reasons why if you think about how we learned our abcs, we learned it to through song. If you think about movies that we watch, right, if the thing about Dark Vada, right, you know, he's imminent.

You know he's about to approach those emotions start rousing as soon as you hear that that music. If you think about Rocky the Rocky the Rocky series. You think about that music that's played and how it connects with your emotion and want it motivates you to go that extra mile when you're on the treadmill. You know, music

has such powerful, powerful features. And even as a neurologist looking at the stroke patients, we use a form of musical music information therapy to help patients speak again, use it in our nursing home to deal with agitation amongst dementia. So our our position and hip hop public health is that music has an incredibly transformative power right needs to be better better leverage within public health. That was Dr Alaga Day Williams, Chief of Staff of Neurology at Columbia

University talking about so much in that interview. For the entire interview, check out the podcast and you loved and we both love where he talked about the importance of music therapy. I've I've read about this and the impact that that can have on people with some severe injury, especially neurological ones. Yeah, that was just fascinating me. This is a medical doctor, somebody who studies neurology talking about the importance of music in recovery and association as well.

A really important interview coming up. From getting vaccines to minorities, something Dr Williams also talked about, to providing funding to black and brown entrepreneurs. The founder and CEO of Black Girl Ventures, she's coming up next. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, this story that Bloomberg reported last year, Tim,

I gotta say it stayed with me. It's about how the u S population it's black, and yet just four per of the VC industry is African American. That data came out on the year of from the National Venture Capital Association. That's compared with three percent two years earlier. It's not changing much, but one of the guests we caught up this week is trying to change it, as is Nike, who partnered with Black Girl Ventures to provide half a million dollars to fund black and brown women

identifying founders of companies. Here with more on that and the work that Black Girl Ventures has been doing since it was founded back in ten is Shelley Bell, founder and CEO at Black Girl Ventures. So with blackgirold Ventures, we worked to create access to capital, capacity, and community in order to help black and brown founders sustain and grow their businesses. One of the ways we do this is we have a unique way of providing capital through

our pitch competition. And that competition is like Kickstarter and Sharp Pink put together. So women pitched their businesses and it is crowdfunded, and so the audience actually votes with their dollars for the pitch that they favor most, and then we grant that capital through those winners. We've also stretched across the city, so we're I'm across the country. Wait wait, wait, wait wait, explain it. So so okay, so I love it. Wait, I want you to break it

down for me. So you're telling me that entrepreneurs they pitched to an audience and then the audience actually votes with money. Yes, and Black Girl Ventures we we created a crowd funded pitch competition. So you know, while you know the status you just mentioned four percent of VC industry being black, and you know, less than one percent of black women or black black women receive access to VC capital. You know, I'm just I was thinking to

myself or what can we do? And so I created this unique way of engaging people democratizing assets to capital. It is while we wait for everyone to become more equitable, we still as underrepresented groups have to stay in business. And so my thought was what could we do And this is what we can do. We can activate people to actually engage in people with people to vote with their dollars to provide access to capital. Well and tell me about this, because you've been doing it for a

few years now, what's been the payoff of this? Yeah? I mean when we're doing just purely you know, access to capital you can from in terms of like without any sponsors, in the beginning, we were still able to provide anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars or a

couple of thousand dollars. I mean now with with our efforts becoming more visible at Black proventres and having awesome partners like Nike, Visa, Warby Parker, Equilibria, Cool House like this, amazing partners that we're able to work with an how rare beauty burn and we're actually able to get our our community more capital through the partnerships and connecting them to bigger partners for example, with a very Beauty branch competition.

It was a clean beauty competition, the first one in the country, and we partnered up with Ultra Beauty and so the winner of that competition, not only did they receive ten thousand dollars plus their crowdfunder capital, they got an opportunity to sell their products on ultra beauty dot com. Wow. So it is really a combination of Shark Tank, American Idol,

like all these things in terms of doing it. But you know, it speaks to though, what is a very significant problem and that there's not equal access to capital or fundraising you know rounds for all individuals. No, there's not, and I mean there's not equal access. There's not equity when when it comes to loans, there's not equity when it comes to UH capital for black role ventures. We try to combat that with this out funding competition. On top of that, we're all we also have a fellowship.

So with this Nike partnership we will be launching in Chicago. It is a nine month fellowship not only focus on business owners, but focus on business them becoming business leaders. We need more voices at the table and that's what I've learned throughout ever as a black revengures is that having more voices at the table, voices in the community, that I amplified visibility. We feel like people will be able to engage in supporting these groups. Right, it's UM.

So it's been an amazing journey. Yeah, it's creating role models for people to follow, but it's also creating a network absolutely. So you know, each one teach ones a

fund one. It's a great way of saying it. Shelly, you guys have funded um I think roughly dred and thirty women and I'm just curious talk to me a little bit more about what happens to these women where by providing them with a little bit of funding, what happens to them as an entrepreneur, what happens to them as a business you know owner, what happens to them maybe as someone who is able to kind of pass it along in my men to somebody else. He had

a great question. We at Black Girl Ventures, we also provide them with more resources after they pitch, and so they get an opportunity to go through an accelerated program to be a part of a larger community. They get an opportunity to get access to Google cloud credits, Amazon credits UM. Also we have different tech partners sales Force website.

We also connect them to people. But one of the things that I would say that they can do with the capital, especially in today's society where everything gets um so connected to tech, is they can market you know, they give put the money and to add um, they can actually hire or keep on a freelancer for another month or two um And those kinds of things extend their capacity and you know, and also so capital capacity and community and Black girl vengers well, and I'm guessing

that there is also a sensitivity and maybe a um, a deliberate net you know, being deliberate in terms of their supply chains. Because one of the conversations Shelley, that we've had, uh certainly here at Bloomberg, especially in light of what happened to George Floyd and just trying to understand the racism within you know, the society at large, is the importance of companies, big companies that when they're thinking about their supply chain to make sure it's diverse.

Like you know that money talks, essentially, and that's how we're going to move the needle here. I mean access the capital can look like a few things and black overstors. We believe that acts the capital could be a larger customer, right, And so when you talk about diversifying the supply chain, that's what we're looking at. People being able to get into supply diversity efforts that allow them to get access

to a larger customer. And this is why the government, the US government's efforts around um supplier and around like contract is so important because they're being able to get access to the government even as a customer is super important to diversifying and being able to level up your company. I mean, prior to me operating Black Girl Ventures, I owned the print shop and I was able to level up by doing uh swag and merch orders for Amazon

and Google. And I mean, you know, considering that journey took that invested in what is Black Girl Ventures today. The growth is as a nonprofit really focused on creating

more access more women. So if you look at that thread right now, me learning how to do that through like working with Google and work with Amazon, and also getting a bigger customer through Google and Amazon, right and then moving into creating this which now has created as as the capital for a hundred thirty and counting women across the country. And that was Shelley Bell, founder and

CEO Black Girl Ventures. And listen, one of the things we got into the conversation, Tim, it's just that whole idea of that a lot of minorities don't have the same access to capital that white investors and entrepreneurs do, and so she's really trying to change that. Move the needle, all right, still ahead. What's troubling workers? A survey ranks their concerns. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and

Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So, Tim, the American worker, you know, you've talked about a lot. I've talked about a lot. It's something that Bloomberg has really kept close tabs on, and long before the pandemic, we know that US workers productivity in their medium pay, which once rose in tant and went through an acrimonious divorce compensation, especially in some of the country's fastest growing industry as well, it's stagnated while the cost of housing, healthcare,

and education TI we know this decidedly have not. And one thing that we talk a lot about is is workers goals of financial security. Here with insight on that is Rob Thousand, vice chair at Prudential Financial and a member of Prudential's Board of directors, with the company's latest survey of the workforce. Yeah. So this is actually the eleventh in our series that both free dates and then subsequent to the to the pandemic. UM. Some interesting things

coming out of this most recent survey. Where I found most interesting, not necessarily surprising to me at least, but interesting is, um, how you know you think about how

stress reveals cracks and foundations. Um, this stress, the economic stress and the pandemic stress that we've been going through is actually, you know, I think revealed conditions that existed well before the pandemic in terms of the lack of financial resiliency that exists with you know, amongst American workers in the In the survey, over half of the individual survey indicated that they recognize that since the pandemic they actually were not well prepared going into the pandemic from

the standpoint of sort of their their own financial sort of well being. Uh. And I think that was quite interesting. So we talk about the pandemic, it's made it much worse. So now seven intent are not well prepared, but but fully half those were not in great shape heading into the pandemic, which I think speaks to some of the

foundational and fundamental things that need to be addressed. Yeah, so so we rob we talk a lot about this idea of the case shaped recovery, that so many Americans are out of work right now and they're having a really tough time getting back to work. At the same time, we're seeing the stock market flirt with record highs and people who are at the top end of the income spectrum are doing pretty well. And I'm wondering what you saw in your research that actually confirms and and confirms

to conforms to that. Well, what it showed is that you know, there's a there's a high level of anxiety amongst American workers. And you know, if you sort of think about it's the broad based American workers you're talking about Middle America, uh, in this kind of a survey. So there, you know, the people who may have some level of savings but obviously insufficient based on what the

survey has said. And so the benefit that they've received by virtue of the uplift in financial markets has been dwarfed by the insecurity they're feeling because of around job security and benefit security and the reality of UM. Whatever they were making and saving before the pandemic hasn't been

enough UM. And I thought was it was interesting kim is um in the survey had showed that, you know, one in four had actually exhausted UM or substantially depleted their emergency savings, and now one in five were behind on their bills and two thirds said they couldn't they could not finance a or pay for any kind of an emergency repair or you know, need for cash that

might come up. So I think there's you know, there's very much this dichotomy of of individuals who are who who have not participated in the financial markets are are actually quite vulnerable. Hey, I do under Rob too. Were there any differences in terms of ages millennials versus older workers? Yeah, interesting question, Carol. We did look at that, particularly in this survey, we looked at millennials and it was actually worse, which was kind of interesting when I thought about it,

perhaps not surprising. I mean, let's remember millennials now we're the biggest component of the workforce. So whatever we're seeing in the data, it's gonna reflect how millennials are are are also experiencing the current environment. But also when you think about where they the millennial is, UM from the standpoint of sort of the life cycle. You know, they're heading into household formation, UM, you know, buying homes, getting mortgages, UM,

raising children. Uh. And so there are points in their career when actually, UM, there are probably the most stressful points in their career in terms of their need for resiliency. Yet are faced with an environment where it's you know, not not particularly available, and I think it has them more stressed over the current circumstances than the general population. And forgive me for your bringing this on YouTube, but I am curious in terms of pulling the research and

pulling it together. UM, any differences when they dig a little bit deeper into UM backgrounds and demographics blacks versus whites, Like, any differences there? Yeah, our our survey didn't. We haven't parced the data out from the survey that way. You know, I think it's fair to say, um, Carol that you know, when you look at both the first order effects of the pandemic from a health standpoint and then the second order effects from an economic standpoint. It's been a very

unequal experience in our society. Uh, and you know, from a socioeconomic demographic standpoint, so for both a racial standpoint and frankly from a gender standpoint to One of the things we do see is um in other surveys that we've done related to this, is that you know, women are experiencing this from a stress standpoint more extremely than men are as a result of you know, what the pandemic has done to the personal demands in the household

and you know, all the benefits of remote work. And we've talked about this before with some of the burdens of being at home and that has to do with you know, the child care and home and home schooling and uh and you know, associated activities. So it's interesting to hear you know, what Rob had to say, Tim, because you know, sometimes workers are concerned about just keeping their jobs. Sometimes they're worried about getting you know, pay increases.

This time it really was largely about financial security, So good to get uh some thoughts on that. And that of course was Rob Fouls and he's vice chair at Prudential Financial. He's also a member of Prudential's board of Directors. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Up next, someone who's had a front seat to so much, the former editor in chief of The Financial Times, all about the biggest business stories of his career. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week.

This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovik on Bloomberg Radio. He spent fifteen years as the editor of the Financial Times, front row seat to the big business, economic and political stories of our times and the power players behind them all. I love talking to people like this, to him and his observations, his access, it's all detailed in a new book. It's a diary, if you will, of what he saw.

The book is entitled The Powerful and the Damned Private Diaries in Turbulent Times, and the author Lionel Barber, former FT editor in Chief. Check it out well. Great to

be with you, Carol. I wanted to have a book about power, people in power, how they made decisions, what were they like up close and personal, like Mohammed bin Sulman in Riad or Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, or are the president Trump and Obama sort of snapshots of the personalities and on Wall Street obviously some of the big bankers who are in the middle of the global

financial crisis. And I had a privileged seat, as you say, as editor of the Financial Time, so up close and personal in diary form in terms of we got about thirty seconds, then we'll come back. Everybody who has power not the same though in terms of how they use it or how they I don't know how they are frees to face well. I I think that the big change that happened in the under my aditorship was obviously the digital revolution, and that really changed the power balance

between readers and and producers of news. The news industry fragmented. There were new ways of reaching readers. You saw that with Twitter and politicians, and and also the rise of China. That was the other huge phenomenon. There was a change, frankly in the economic balance about between East and West. So one thing I want to ask you, Littel, especially on a day where we were kind of glued to the hearings in Washington, the game stop meme stock trading,

the Reddit rise. Um, is it a story that you missed reporting on? Oh? Yeah, I mean this was one of the best market stories. Was better than the Taper trand tantrum. Maybe not quite as dramatic as when we were watching the world's financial system almost melt down in two thousand and eight, But it had everything, didn't it. The small time trader, the hedge funds making millions, and and one or two companies that you and I thought were not much better than Penny Stock suddenly going through

the roof. I'd love to have been in the newsroom. Who is the powerful and who's the damned in that story? In in the game stop, Well, there were one or two people who are going to caught short, who are definitely going to be damned. But I think there's some questions about the integrity of the trading platform. I think there's uh, the powerful maybe at least in the short term. The the the the small time retail investor clubbing together was a bit more powerful than we ever imagined. So I

want to go through I have. I could talk to you for hours, Um, the tech boom. What comes to mind? Who was the power player? That just epitomizes that that that time you have to say that it's the Big four, isn't it. I think jeff bees are some amazing transformation of Amazon facebooks and questions about their model, the way they they they they contribution to the sort of civic discourse and role in elections being their platforms being abused.

Google massive amount of influence over the news business. I mean, for for the Ft, it was critical because we built a subscription model. I see if you have followed that over across the bond um for the you know, having a reasonable relationship and making the tech giants understand and that included Apple that you know, we couldn't just hand over our data on our customers. We needed to sort of establish our brand and not be discriminated against, and

that that was a big story. But the powerful was certainly and still are the big tech four in America. Yeah, I think it's interesting the way in China. Yeah. Well absolutely. We talked earlier about Facebook and what's going on in Australia right now. Um, I do wonder, you know, what is the survival of mainstream media when you've got social

media and it's where increasingly everyone goes for their news. Well, true Carol and in the period I was editor, there's no question that the media landscape fragmented in a dramatic way, and social media became terribly important. But as long as you're not caught in the muddled middle, and you've got a strong brand, and I would consider Bloomberg, the New

York Times, the Worlcester Journal, and the Financial Times. We were known when I was in Washington twenty five years ago as the Financial Times in London no more it was the ft Pink brand. If you've got a strong brand and a good business model, which is a subscription business, you know you can thrive. And we the FT did get more than a million paying readers. We double our audience and readership in the fifteen years I was editor.

It was a must read for all of us when it came to anything going on in the world of business and beyond and the market. Let me let me go through a couple of other big stories, um, the global financial crisis. Who's one power player that you were in their office or on the phone with that just when you think of that time, that's who you think of. I think that Jamie Diamond, because he was tactically very so astute, and look they got bigger and more and

they managed their risk very well. I think of Steve Schwartzman, who epitomizes the role of rise of private equity. His market timing going public was impeccable, and they manage risk well. And also I think of Larry think that quiet but immense power in asset management. Those are the three. Maybe Goldman Lloyd Blank find he was always great fun to talk to, very astute lionel. If you put out a phone call to anybody, did everyone always call you back? Uh,

well they called me back. Maybe not in five minutes, but at the end of half an hour. Yeah, people return my calls. Was there any call that you were ever nervous talking to someone because it was a delicate story or I don't know, I'm curious. Oh you always worry a bit that um when when that heavy breathing comes on the line and you think, well, you know what we you don't know, what have you messed up

or something? You're a bit wary. But then you've got to be able to bounce, you know, uh, strike back politely of course. But now I wasn't really nervous. Um obviously in our country we've got libel risk are things like that, and look, frankly, there were occasions when things got a bit heated on the phone, but this is a family broadcast, so I don't want to go into it. Well, there's great details in the book The Rise of China. It's something we tease before the break. Um. I feel

like this is a story. We've certainly been covering it, but I think we don't realize how big China has become and how significant they become in our global economy. It's it's above and beyond the numbers. You're so right, I mean, I I think this was really belongs to the one or two biggest stories of my time as editor. And the difference, of course was the change in power when Cheesing Ping came to power and decided to go

beyond the natural two terms. And you know that old phrase that Dung Sholping said that China should bide its time and hide its power. Well, under Shijing thing that they're not biding their time and they're certainly not hiding

their power. And I think the other thing that I noticed than I remember right going spending three days in Washington just to get a sense of what the establishment, political stagiment across democrats and Republicans, and the intelligence and security establishment felt And it was clear to me at that point in two thousand and seventeen eighteen that the whole atmosphere had changed and this was going to be an age of confrontation across the board, and it is.

You're you're back to sort of almost nineteenth century great our rivalry, favorite person that you had a conversation with in your in your tenure and just got about a minute left. Well, I do remember sitting in opposite Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, and there's a picture of that in the book. Ye. Well, he's a very icy character and he's a little scary character, and interviewing him with us is the master of destabilization. He's always trying to

put you off balance. So that was memorable. And you know, actually the probably the most memorable was sitting for three and a half thousand I have to say my backside was getting a bit sore in Rwanda talking to Paul Kagami, who's transformed that country. That was memorable. And forgive me, I said a picture in the book, but it was actually a picture in some of the coverage of your book that I came across with you sitting down with

Vladimir Putin. Um. I hope you will come back. I'd love to talk more about what's in the book and your observations of of some of the big stories that continue in our time. Thank you so much and good luck with it. Lionel Barber. That's Lionel Barber, the former editor in chief of The Financial Times. A lot has happened to him in the last decade or so. Yeah, it really has. And you know, having a front row seat to all of these stories, it really reminds me

of why I wanted to become a journalist. I mean, we get to witness history in the making. It's just it's so cool. Yeah, I agree. And that wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stanivic.

More ahead in our next hour, including a conversation with the president of Impossible Foods and the food innovation to come, A lot is Changing, and the founder of Adam and Matter on radically sustainable jewelry, plus the individual transforming the fortune created by billionaire and founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos. We're talking about his ex wife Mackenzie Scott. Love this story. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week and this is Bloomberg.

You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim stenovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi am Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stenovik. Plenty ahead in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including the president of Impossible Foods on price cuts and food innovation. There's more to come, Blass. We're going to hear about an influencer who turned her passion into a

business and Booze delivery. We were all drinking a lot during the pandemic and getting it delivered to our home. It's definitely one of the booms during the health crisis. First though, in the magazine this week, a story that was among the most read on the Bloomberg when it crossed about the individual transforming the fortune created by billionaire and founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos, or of course, talking

about his ex wife Mackenzie Scott. We got more from Bloomberg News Wealth Team reporter Sophie Alexander and Bloomberg Business Week editor Jill Weber what we've seen since their divorce and really um uh most recently um, largely because of Mackenzie,

has been um this real uh change. And you know the six billion figure that so uh and and been right about um that's attributed to her, we think is the largest single, uh, single amount that anyone's ever given to philanthropies in in a in a calendar year, um. And so Sophie like, can you walk us through you know, the significance of what that means for the Amazon fortune going forward? The six billion dollars is just such an

immense figure. And when we're talking about philanthropy historically, you know, one of the main criticisms of billionaire philanthropists, or one of their reasons rather of not giving away enough money faster, is that, you know, it takes time to be thoughtful and it takes time to give away this these huge amounts of money, you know, billions of dollars. But Mackenzie sort of disproving that and what this could mean for the future is you know, Mackenzie is only just getting started.

She's playing the giving pledge. She's pledged to give away the majority of her fortune UM, which at this point is nearing sixty billion dollars and so UM that that's just a huge amount of money that could be given away. And then when we're talking about Jeff who recently stepped down or enough that he would be stepping down from Amazon as CEO, UM, that's sort of a sign that he's probably going to focus more on his giving and that we could be seeing more from him in the

Philo philosophical space coming forward. And to be fair, I mean, he did give away money before, right, but it's not as quickly as his former wife has. Definitely, UM, I think that the to be fair to Jeff UM. When we talk about Bill Gates, you know, one of the most impressive philanthropists in history, he didn't start giving away very much until he stepped down from Microsoft. UM. And so Jeff has been giving money. But you know, when you put it in the context of how much wealth

he really have, it's it's a very small amount. We're talking about uh, single digit millions, UM, tens of millions sometimes and more recently sure hundreds of millions of dollars. But where he's really had the biggest figures are in his commitment. You know, he's made the two billion dollar commitment for the Day One Fund and then the ten billion dollar commitments for the Earth's Times, So those are huge numbers, but we're not actually seeing that money deployed yet.

Bill Gates didn't start giving significantly until he left Microsoft as CEO, which which I thought was a really important point and not something that I had considered. Um, I wonder if that's what we're going to start seeing from Jeff Bezos now that he has stepped down, or he said he would step down and that will happen later this year and hand off the reins to to somebody else at Amazon. Are we going to start seeing Jeff Bezos give away more money? That is sort of the

big question, you know. In his letter announcing that he would be stepping down, he mentioned the Day One Fund and he mentioned the Earth Fund as two of the

things that he plans to focus on more. So, you know, it's been a few years now since he made those announcements that he started would start the Day one Fund, and he announced the Earth Fund last year, but really has only given about a billion dollars of the twelve billion dollars that he's committed to giving and he's set no timeline for himself, so you know, he's not really going to be held to anything um, but we could

see more from him coming soon. Well, I think you know that's it's an interesting point here because they're the Chronicle of Philanthropy came out with some big numbers from from Bezos and Scott and others, and and one of the things that is interesting there is that, you know, Bezos his name was that at the top of that list because of what he's pledged, but not actually what

he's given. And that I think is that one of the things that is really important to keep in mind what what Sophie and Ben did a great job of underscoring in this is like one thing to pledge and it's another thing to actually do. And what she you know, really showed here is is uh that you can do something big and dramatic and do it actually fast. And that that I think is the thing that everyone in the flanthropy world has looked at her and said, Wow,

this is something. So my last question for you is how competitive does it get when your ex life give it away six billion? Like you, that's something you have to kind of like the sort of kindle a fire in your belly to be like, did you really do that? You know, it just it happens. It's like you can hear an echo in here. That's a real laugh from Joel. I like, all right, you guys just be quiet. Go ahead,

Sophie answer. I was just gonna say. I mean, it's impossible to say what the relationship is now and how her giving impact his giving. You know, she's been a giving pledge, she hasn't, and he's been sort of knocked for that. Um But and it's also impossible to say what their philanthropic giving, you know, who did what while they were together? Was I talked to an expert about such? So it's really hard to say. You know, it's very

from couple to couple. Um So, we just don't really know enough about their individual personalities to be able to say much more on that. But you've got to think that, you know, when people are talking about the Amazon fortune and seeing these things that, you know, he might feel a certain responsibility to sort of step it up. It's gonna be a prime topic that comes up. We're a

great team. I'm just gonna say it. That's Bloomberg News Wealth Team reporters Sophie Alexander and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Webber. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, coming out the social media influencer who is now using her influence to help others and creating a sustainable jewelry company along the way. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and

Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So to remember, last week we highlighted an interview we did with journalist Nick Milton. It was about his new HBO Max documentary and that was all about creating Instagram and social media influencers. Yeah. I loved being able to interview Nick. The documentary left me sort of feeling like, oh, this is the world we live in. We have to accept it. It It was

a little scary, yeah, no doubt about it. And and this week we actually caught up with one of those influencers who is nearly five million Twitter followers, she's got four point six million followers on Instagram. She has someone, though, Tim, who has stepped away from social media, at least for a while. She was named the most influential person on the Internet by Time two years in a row and

Forbes thirty Under thirty. Her latest venture creating a direct consumer jewelry company that uses recycled sterling silver sustainably and ethically crafted in Thailand, which went online last November. Bethany moda founder of Adam and Matter. So my company we launched in November. It's called Adam and Matter, so it

is a jewelry brand. And I had done some stuff in like the fashion space before, when I had a clothing line with air Postal that was a few years ago, um, and we did get a little jewelry in that collection. But I always really wanted to offer something in the jewelry space that, you know, maybe was a little bit more expensive than what I've done in the past, but for good reason. And that's why designing all of these products.

I was also able to work with former Tiffany and co designer you and Jolie, and she helped kind of guide me in making you know, sustainable products that are going to last a really long time, so you don't buy it because it's trendy and then you throw it

away a few months later. I really wanted to make products that can actually become a part of your life because I know, for me, some of my favorite jewelry pieces even growing up, it's like I would keep them for years and they are kind of like I compare it to tattoos a lot. I feel like when you really love a specific piece of jewelry, whether someone special, gay to you, or just means something, um, you know, it has a personality and it and it kind of defines you in a way whenever you put it on

and acts as like a reminder for something significant. So that was kind of my overall sool with this collection. Well, it's interesting. I do think this year two, we've thought a lot a lot more about our impact on the environment. Right we saw as the world shut down, skies were clear, you could see mountain ranges. It was pretty remarkable. But I do think about we've become such a society where we were something a couple of times throw it away,

we like, you know, so disposable. So it's interesting to hear you say about that sustainability, though I feel like the metrics around it can be kind of fuzzy. What does sustainability mean to your company? So I mean we were a new brand and we're still learning and we're always open to new ways that we can improve. Um some of the ways I'm mean we use recycled and hypoallergenic, lead free materials, so like recycled metals and all of

that for our products. And then also for me, it came down to even just the packaging that it comes in was really important for me because I know sometimes you'll get jewelry and it comes on like a little card or something that you just tossed in the trash.

So I wanted to make sure that each box that our pieces come in is sturdy enough, and again using like all sustainable materials and making sure it's something that you don't want to just toss but you could actually use as a jewelry box for the item that you bought. So all of our past is meant. It's also kind of like a collectible sort of thing, Like I have all of my box for all the jewelry, and it

looked really pretty on your vanity. So that was my thing, is like, let's make this look really nice and make it sturdy and reliable so that people get this they realize, you know, oh, I can keep this and I can store all of my jewelry or even other things outside of it. And what I understand they're also part of it.

Is it called the Response Little Jewelry Council. Yeah, because you know, when it comes to manufacturers, we obviously want to make sure that we trust the manufacturer that we're working with and you know, it's good working conditions and that you know, we are supplying the best products for our customers, but also that behind the scenes everything else is also very you know, ethical and and great behind

the scenes. So that is basically what that means is that we've done our research in making sure that the manufacturer that we're in business with is up to our standards, um and vice versa. And and it also is a give back program, right because everything that is sold there's a donation made to an organization dedicated to female empowerment. Talk to us a little bit about that, because that's part of it, right. Yeah, So I knew that was

something that I definitely wanted to incorporate as well. UM, giving back to something that I feel like if we all, any of us ever have the opportunity to do so, I think it's incredible to do so. And so I wanted to incorporate that into the brand. So we are

working with Step Up and Cross them. So both of these organizations, they're just very dedicated to help propel girls from under resource communities to fulfill their full potential UM whether it's like different programs, educational programs, and just helping them reach their dreams and their overall goals. UM So I'm really happy to be in partnership with them and um finding different ways to work together. Yeah, it's really great.

I love it when we find an entrepreneur who then ultimately who has done well, figured it out and then is helping others to do the same, and that's really what you're doing. Yeah, and that's definitely it kind of is a full circle and goes back to what the brand stands for is we want us to be, you know, an empowering brand, and we wanted to inspire other people.

And you know, at the end of the day, this is something that I genuinely never thought would be possible for me, especially like as a thirteen year old girl when I started YouTube like so many years ago, I never would have thought that I'd be able to launch a brand like this. Um So it also itself is a repers tentation, especially now in the social media world, is so accessible for anybody to have that dream and

for it to actually be accomplished. UM. So yeah, it's kind of like goes back to the whole deeper meaning of empowering everybody to go after what they want because it is possible. You were and you are an influencer. You have a lot of followers on social media, but you stepped away from it. Tell me why, I mean? And I am curious because you're back on social media. How do you How do you see social media? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it not so black and white? Um? I think social media can be as

good or as bad as you wanted to be. Um. And that's something that I had to learn and is also what contributed to me deciding to take a break. I took a break, um, kind of when social media burnout wasn't being talked about as much, so I thought I was the only one experiencing it. Um. I think at the end of the day, to be an influencer, you have to have somewhat of an ego, and I think that my ego at a point got a little

out of control. Role in ways that I felt like I didn't know why I was doing what I was doing anymore. I think when you start out, especially for me, you know, so many years ago, when social media wasn't looked at as a career, I did it fully out of passion and so um, Somewhere along the lines when it becomes a career, it can get a little confusing of like, wait, am I doing this because I love it?

Or is it just for money? And like that's why I had to kind of step away to find the balance again of my passion for it um, so that I could feel like, Okay, I am giving my most authentic spells to my audience, and I don't feel like I am being inauthentic for the sake of my career. That's Adam and Matter founder Bethany Moda still the comma. Bloomberg business Week, the boom and Booze delivery in the world of covid. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This

is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick takes Him's genov on Bloomberg Radio. So Tim I tweeted up this tour when it came at It's about how Covid brought booze to your door, my door, everyone's doors, making the online liquor sales and delivery business worth billions of dollars. Yeah, it's grown so

much in the United States over the last year. The story and the current issue of Bloomberg Business Week magazine now on news stands, online, and on the Bloomberg Bloomberg News consumer reporter Tiffany Cary, Yeah, that's right. I mean some of the alcohol companies they've obviously had a hard time with all the bars and restaurants being closed. But

you know, necessity is the mother of inventions. So here, you know a lot of them are investing in e commerce more and and we're seeing these platforms that can deliver booze really take off. Okay, but what about the regulatory framework here, because your story goes into some history that I really didn't know about the delivery of alcohol that goes all the way back to prohibition. Yes, crazy, right.

They had to break up the bootleggers, so they created this sort of three tier system where they weren't going to have anyone own all three parts of of the you know, distributor, retailer, wholesale or chain. And so there's this legacy where no one could own all these three parts. So it's really hard to do this sort of direct to commerce, direct to consumer that we've seen in all these other industries. It's really held online sales of alcohol back.

So let's talk about because we saw you know, Drizzly and uber like. So how does this maybe change the dynamics of the players in the industry and how much this business maybe grows going forward. Well, I mean these are big names, right, everyone knows Uber if they don't know Drizzly. So I think it's helped bring a lot of attention to this, which is important because I think a lot of people haven't even realized that they can

order alcohol online. I think there was a statistic, you know that only of people before the pandemic even realized they could order beer online. So now you know, consumers are more aware. I think it's going to take off because really, who wants to go all the way to the store just to get a six pack or a bottle of wine or liquor. So there's a there's a host of companies apart from Jerusale, speakeasy Thirsty bev Shop,

Casking Barrel Club, and Passion Spirits. And some of them are similar to one another, some have a minor differences. They've done pretty well throughout the pandemic. But what does it look like on the other side of the pandemic when people are saying, okay, wait a second, I'm okay with actually, you know, going to restaurants and going to bars again, I'm not drinking at home as much. Well. I think people have always, you know, had alcohol at home.

I think people will continue to buy it online. And there's actually some interesting talk about, you know, what will happen to liquor stores here if people don't need to go to the liquor store to buy the alcohol, if they can buy it online like they buy their groceries. Did these become like tasting rooms or something very different? But do some of these services do they get fulfilled

by your neighborhood liquor store. They do. I mean, that's so interesting about this because of this legacy of the three tier models, it's been around since prohibitions. They can't deliver it themselves, so they end up going through the liquor stores. So there's definitely an important role here for

the small retailers. It's so interesting. We talked yesterday about ghost kitchens Carol and the idea of the way that that restaurants have changed and not having actual you know, people sit in them right now because of the pandemic. I wonder ghost liquor stores. That's what I'm wondering from. People are like, oh, wait, you're in New Jersey. I can't you get so I got to go to your local liquor store to have them actually delivered to you. I mean, that's a really good question. What do you

think is that what happens? Well, a lot of these delivery services will not cross state lines just because of the law. They do have to comply with the three tier system, even though they're sort of disrupting it in a way. Well, that's what I thought was interesting that even though it sounds like it should be like direct to consumer, it's not Tiffany right. Like I wrote in my notes after reading your store, I'm like, there's still

layers to get that bottle of booze. You hit the button, you know, excuse me on the website, but that doesn't mean automatically that's who's going to give you the Booze. That's right. There's a super complicated back end, and a lot of these companies, you know, they don't consider themselves delivery companies or you know, logistics companies. They talk about themselves as software companies. They've really used technology just to sort of solve this problem. So you go to a website,

you think you're buying it from the brand. You have this sort of fluid experience as a consumer, but on the back end, the software is taking you, you know, to a different site and having me buy it somewhere else and have it fulfilled by the liquor store. Really okay, so how does Thirsty come into this. It's a little different than Drizzly because Thirsty works with with major brands and those owned by Constellation brands, and it's sort of,

as you describe this, this shopify for Booze. Yeah, it's a little different because it Drizzly. It's like the experience of going to a liquor store where you're seeing all

the brands next to each other. But I think, you know, particularly amongst some brands that really want to stand out, they don't want the consumer to be reminded of who their competitors are, so this service really lets the consumer go to you know, that website of the brand they already know they want to buy, and just have that sort of seamless experience and really mimic what what d C does in other industries. So, Tim, certainly one of the questions is what happens on the other side of

the pandemic. I mean, I feel like that's the case for a lot of companies and trends that have happened during the health crisis and the shutdown. It's curious if we're all going to continue, you know, ordering booze online. I don't know if time will hell yeah, I mean maybe we'll be at bars and will be ordering ubers, you know, the company that owns that will own Grizzly soon and to get home right, Yeah, exactly. That's interesting way of tying it all together. All right, that's Bloomberg

News Consumer reporter Tivity Kerry. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Innovation and how we buy our booze. We just covered that up next, So innovation and food. It's just getting started protecting with the president of Impossible Foods. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes

Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So this week, Impossible Foods kind of suggested retail prices by a US grocery stores. Tim and the mood definitely seen as key by the company's president. It's all about getting people to try the brand him and keep on coming back. Well, we wanted to know more, so we caught up with Impossible Foods president Dennis Woodside. Dennis, by the way, former CEO of Dropbox.

He was also CEO of Motorola Mobility when Google owned it. Look, you know, our mission is to completely replace animals in your diet, and for us to do that, we have to produce the product that tastes great. We have that, but it has to be priced right and people consumers are very price sensitive when it comes to their meat

and the meats that they purchased in grocery stores. We've scaled so quickly over the last year, We've done from two hundred grocery stores over seventeen thousand that we've been able to get a lot of efficiencies in our supply chain and UH drive our costs down, so we've we've passed those costs onto our consumers in the form of price decrease. We don't think this will be our last. We have to compete with animal animal products that we're gonna do that. So when will it be as cheap

as ground beef? Well, if you think about what we what we do, We take plants and we turn them directly into meat. And what the animal does, it's the animals kind of an intermediary that uh that that requires a lot more land, a lot of water, a lot of labor, a lot of transportation oil gas to move cows around, that sort of thing. So in theory our products should be much lower priced than than cows over time, but it just takes time for us to optimize the

supply chain to scale up. Uh. You know, animal based meat today is less than one percent of total meat consumed in the US. But that's gonna change pretty rapidly. And as that does, the cost for the whole industry, including US, will come down and we'll be able to compete much more aggressively on price. But timeline wise, though, is there are you thinking you know in years that you can count on one hand or or is this like a decades long progressively as absolutely years that you

can count on one hand. There are portions of our product now or elements of our product now that are are at the cost of the cow. But there's a lot of uh. There's a lot of processing costs and transportation costs, packaging, all those things that we have not yet fully optimized and that take that just take time and scale to get right. So the packaging, what what the actual product shows up in on shelf. That's expensive. But as you get bigger that those costs come down.

So that's what I was gonna ask you. Is it just a case of when you're selling more Dennis, the math just changes. When you're selling more product, the cost go down. Is that what it comes down to? Or is it is it a case of being able to squeeze even more costs out of the current systems. It's a little of both. So what we do, what we've been able to do over the last year is go back to our suppliers UH and negotiate better prices because

we're we're driving a big part of their growth. We've also been able to get better utilization out of our factory, so we're running three shifts to day instead of two. Uh, and you advertize that fixed cost of the factory over more products, and that allows you to take your take your price down over time. Hey, I'm c'll see that stopping. That's just going to continue. I'm curious to Dennis, have you guys done some focus groups with customers are just like,

it's too expensive right now. It just I can't do it. I want to do, but I can't. So people. So first of all, over people who are trying impossible for the first time, they're coming their meat eaters, so so they are they are substituting impossible for for all kinds of meat products, not just ground beef. But and when we when they try it, the number one thing that they say they love about the product is the taste.

It tastes just like beef's Deftain nutritional profiles. The one thing that they say that they don't like as much as the price, and that is absolutely a barrier to to repeat and repeat purchase and frequency of purchase. But we can get the price right, you know, that's a pretty pretty obvious lever to pull to to grow our our volume and continue to scale. How do the habits of how people are eating this type of product, How

did they change or have they changed during the pandemic. Well, you know, so a year ago we weren't even available in retail, and when the pandemic hit, we realized that the retailer, we were available in two stores. We realized that we needed to scale up really quickly. And what we noticed was that consumers we were uh flocking to plant based products. They were cooking more at home, and

they were willing to try something different. They had a little maybe a little bit more time to cook or they were cooking and in the past they were would have been eating out. Uh, So they were open to trying new products, and that's why our sales have really

taken off at retail. And what we're also noticing obviously there's a lot more delivery activity, consumers buying impossible and digital platforms, whether it's direct delivery from grocery through instatcart or they're buying uh finished uh entrees through door to ask. So so we're seeing growth across all of those areas. The one area that's obviously been impacted quite a bit are the smaller restaurants, which was really suffered. They talked

us to Dennis about collaborate rations. I'm curious what lasting traction you are finding from some of the collaborations and partnerships that you have been doing. We know, all the folks in kind of the alt food space have been linking up with the likes of whether it's a Taco Bell, McDonald's and you guys, I know had teamed up last year. No, in twenty nineteen, I think it was with Burger King for Impossible Whoppers. So I'm just curious how those are

helping you in your mission. Yeah, so we we have apostles now available pretty broadly in the U s b K. You know you mentioned Burger King, White Castle, reb Rob and Kidoga are just a handful. We added Starbucks Starbucks Breakfast Sandwich in the middle of the pandemic in June of last year, and we've we've seen that product do

incredibly well, exceeding both of our expectations. So these these partnerships are very important, and every restaurant operator is realizing they need to have a plant based meat option on the menu. Consumers are are asking for for for choices and asking for alternatives, and so it's at the top of the top of agenda of every executive in the UH, in the in the QO SR space that I that I talked to for sure, UH and those who don't have a plant based meat option now are absolutely considering one.

And Dennis, what is the difference between beyond meat and impossible foods? Yeah. The two things that consumers tell us is, first of all, taste our product taste just like me. And survey after survey shows that the the liking scores of preference scores for our product versus animal based meat are relatively even, so people have a hard time telling the too apart. The second thing that that steps tell

us is the product handles just like ground beef. The color when it comes in raw, the way it transitions from a pink or a reddish raw state to a cooked state, the way it sizzles, the way it smokes, all those things, and and and that's UH mostly due to the intellectual property we have around an ingredient called hem which is found in every animal, but we've been able to to to ferment it from plants and use that as the key ingredient that aids in the transition

of of the product and the color of the products just so it's meteor like, it's more like me. It's much meteor That's what we're trying to do. We're we're we are simply trying to replicate the animal in every sense, the nutritional profile over time better the animal. We need to beat the beat the cows. What we say, well, and I have to say that in our lunch offerings here at Bloomberg, like often comes up some alternatives, right, and I'm not quite sure who who they are, um so,

so I can't speak to that. What I am curious though, to Dennis is you guys have been spending a lot on R and D and you plan to double the size of your R and D team. From what I understand, what's the R and D focusing on? And does it include anything like three D meat, which is something we've started to talk about you hear the Bloomberg Yeah, yeah, so so so what we're trying to do is rough

loocade every animal protein that you consume. Uh. There's well over a trillion pounds of animal protein consumed every year. So this market is absolutely massive. It's one of the largest technology markets if you call it the technology uh, in the world, and there hasn't been a whole lot of innovation. We're eating kind of the same products our grandparents date prepared kind of the same way with the

same nutritional profile. So we're we're one of the first companies that's focused at the molecular level on re engineering uh meat all from plats and so that's starting with ground beef because it's such an iconic product for most Americans. But focusing on pork. We have a pork product that we shared at ce Yes last year. UH we sausages. We have lab prototypes of basically every meat imaginable, including steak. Uh and we see a day when we'll be able to offer any protein on the menu in a plant

based form. It might take it will take a while for us to get there, but that's what we're why we're investing so heavily in R and D. Are you going to go into also fish? And I know we've got somebody we've been planning to get on the show that's got plant based shrimp. So I'm just curious. Is

it just you can't go anywhere and do and will you? Yeah? Well, well, we believe that the technology, we have, the intellectual property around him, which is in every single type of meat in the world as well as all we've learned in building Impossible Burger gives us the opportunity to compete in all those spaces. For now, it's our primary product is ground beef, but that's going to change very rapidly. What's the what's the exit plan here for for investors? You

and I were both thinking about this. Well, I mean, look, you're you know beyond me. The the I would argue the the chief rival UM is a publicly traded company. UM. You've raised a lot of money from a lot of significant investors. What's the I p O plan? Yeah, Well, Pat Brown, our our founder and CEO, he has said that eventually you know that we will we will need to go public. We will want access to the public market financings, will want to access to credit markets as well,

but we'll do that on our own timeline. We're well funded, as you mentioned, We've got plenty of cash in the bank. We have a number of big investments that we're gonna be making over the next year in capacity, so in manufacturing facilities UH and UH, and in new products that we'll be launching. UM. At some point in time, it will be the right time to make that kind of public decision. But but for now, we're we're we're pressing ahead as a private company and continuing to scale our

scale the business. That's Dennis Woodside, the president of Impossible Food, and that reps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stanovk. Be sure to tune into our Bloomberg Business Week daily show Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. You can also watch our daily broadcast on YouTube. Just search Bloomberg Global News and check out to our Bloomberg

Business Week podcast. Find that at Bloomberg dot com, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's where you can find really the full conversations of a lot of our guests this week and so much more. And you can also see me on Bloomberg Quickday make available at Bloomberg dot com, slash qt, and streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV, and more. Bloomberg Business Week available on newsstands now,

at Bloomberg dot com and on the Bloomberg Terminal. Have a great weekend, everyone, this is Bloomberg,