GSV's Moe Sees Opportunities in Post-Virus World

to hear your voice as well. All right, well, I wish we were having this conversation at the Village Pub right next door to where you are, but uh, here we are. First of all, you know, what's it like out there? You're in California? Obviously, you know, before New York became the epicenter, you know, northern California really was where people's attention was focused. What do you make of it?

What's going on around there? Well? I mean I think, you know, I mean, clearly everywhere people are are UM a little bit of a shock, and I think you know, the fear of the virus, you know, has UM really kind of consumed many people's thinking and behavior, and when people get scared, and I think many a lot of people are scared. You know, it's hard to focus on much else, and so I think, jelly speaking, that's kind

of it. It's a little bit eerie. It's you know, I live in a place where there is typically a lot going on, a lot of energy, and it's very very quiet. Yeah, and I think we do wonder, Michael, you know, how much of kind of how we're adjusting our lives at this point, how much of it once

we get through this. I'm assuming we, of course, will you know that how much of it stays with us in terms of you know, concerns about viruses because there will be more viruses to come, but also how we're kind of adapting our work lives, a lot of us

working from home and the ability to do that. I just wonder, you know, we had a conversation with someone who talked a well known investor, Cathy Wood, who invest in disruption, and she says, you know, when you see market disrupt and that's where you kind of get innovation and opportunity. So I wonder, you know, if you're looking at it in a similar way, that's clearly where the

half is glass, the half the glasses half full. I mean, you've seen this over and over again, where you've had this location and disruption, you've also had huge opportunities, and so I think, what's exciting And then again, this is a very serious situation and and obviously the most important thing is health and safety, but you are seeing people in their creativity and the innovation thinking about what you know, what does this mean and where does this go? So

I like to say, is we were it was? It was BC before, that's before Corona, and now we've got a d which is going to be after the disease, and these opportunities that emerge a d UM I think are going to be I'm very exciting. And so that's part of what we're doing is focus on what those opportunities might be and also understand what it means for

kind of companies that UM grew up in the old world. Right. Well, one of the things I wanted to make sure we talked about Michael was you know, normally this time of year, you are like in the thick of planning this massive conference that you do in in San Diego and partnership with Arizona State. I believe you you bring together some huge speakers to talk about the future of education, education, technology,

and tech specifically. I guess two things. It seems like you've made a big decision to do a lot of that virtually this year. Tell us about that. First, Well, we're shifting the physical conference to the fall UM with the hopes that things will be UM more or less

back to normal by that. But we didn't want to lose the UM opportunity to convene people that we're gonna do it virtually, So we're gonna have a one day virtual event UM next Wednesday, April one, and we called us, you know, the dawn of the age of digital Learning. Because while digital learning has been you know, growing at a very healthy clip up until UM, you know this, the coronavirus has really been a major catalyst to accelerate this.

And with whether you're a parent, whether you're a K twelve school you know, there's one point four billion kids around the world right now that that we're going to school now our home UM. You know, universities are scrambling to figure out what they do to UM, you know, to provide courses for for their for their college students, and corporations there are reimagining what they need to do to upscale reschool, their their work force. So it is as much of this is a a very difficult situation

for society, for the economy, for online learning. Um, it's it's I think, you know, it's based an accelerant to the future. Well, and the same thing with like I think, um, you know, using the virtual world in terms of distance and reaching out to our medical community, right in terms of telehealth. UM, I mean, I wonder if that is something that we look at very differently coming out on

the other side, for sure. I mean again, I think this has been it has been a total shift in terms of how people you think about what you know, those sort of the realities of of an interconnected world, urbanization and uh and and globalization that that you know, the pandemics. You know, people that are you know, worry about you know, things that could happen in the future have been worried about pandemics for some time. But really this is the first time where it's been you know,

basically relevant to everybody. And I think that kind of you know, mind shift is going to affect This isn't because the genie is not going back in the bottle. I think it's a permanent shift about how people think about UM activity and how they've done how they do things in the future differently than maybe they did in the past. Let's get back to our conversation with Michael mo He is out in California and it's co founder of GSV Asset Management. Michael, great to have you still

with us. And you know you wrote a book a couple of years ago that I read. It's fantastic, and it's about Global Silicon Valley. This whole notion of the Global Silicon Valley is the Global Silicon Valley Handbook is the technical title. Um, but you have really explored this notion of this interconnected world and this notion that the ideas, the ethos of Silicon Valley is much wider spread than just the place where you happen to be sitting right now. Does this dent that ambition at all or does it

strengthen it? Yeah, I think it's actually is going to strengthen it. And I think that's partially You've had this trend that's been going on for a dozen years. Oh you know, the front g s V stands for Global Silicon Valley and so to your point, you know, the mindset of innovation and entrepreneurship that's made Silicon Valley is such an amazing place and I've been fortunate to live in for twenty five years, is going, you know, spreading

throughout the world. And you're looking at the ambition that exists with young people that want to not work for the large company but want to start their own business. And you know, in today's world, where you know you're gonna have more difficulated hiring is going to not be as robust as what we've seen the last five years, you're gonna see that likely accelerate because your opportunity costs to start a business is lower. And so what we're seeing is from you know, from Austin to Boston, from

Chicago to Salpallo, from Mumbai to Shanghai. Do by this emergence of this global Silicon valley and just to put some meat on the bones. In terms of data, ten years ago, of all venture capitals the United States, and much of that was Silicon Valley. Last year, fifty of all venture capital was outside of the States. This shift

has been dramatic, and it's excited. It's great. I mean, you know, the US is excuse me, US is four percent of the world population, So spreading a democratizing entrepreneurship, you know, creating opportunities wherever you might be. You don't have to move to Silicon Valley to start an idea that could be transformed of I think that's very very positive vote for entrepreneurs, but also for society overall. Right, creates a competitive environment, and as Jason knows, I'm pretty

competitive kind of person. But I think, but I think, but I think it makes all of us and he is too, and it makes the world or makes us all better. But I do wonder you've heard some of the conversations Michael about um you know kind of a tech you know war between uh China and the United States. How do you see does you look around the globe? Are we are we going to be entering that kind of phase? And is that a good kind of war

to be having? If so, well, I think the war of creating better product and better technology is going to ultimately benefit UM, society and and everybody. I mean, when you go to China. I've been to China twenty times in the last three years, and the thing I know about China is the more I go, the less I know. But I also know the ambition of the people in China is remarkable. So it used to be the place that you know, was was a copier. You know, they

were the imitator. Now they're the innovator. And so there is like artificial intelligence, it's gonna push you know, other geographies include the United States to compete and I think the you know, the kind of the noise with the with the China US trade war. You know, while that's created a lot of um, you know, some a lot a lot of noise, I think ultimately it should have a benefit to to level of playing field that ultimately, you know, benefits everybody that wants to compete on more

a fair basis. So anyway, I think and there's no absolute, um, you know answer, but the but the but the overall gravity of this as I think it's it's going to accelerate innovation and technology. It's gonna benefit society, it's gonna benefit business. And so, you know, Michael, one of the reasons I love talking to you and especially like having dinner with you, is you just you can be so expansive in a lot of ways. And I've seen some

very provocative presentations that you've given. As I was alluding to earlier You have a great historical perspective about the markets, about economies globally and domestically. Put this in perspective for us. We keep throwing around words like unprecedented, which it is in a lot of ways, But help us give us some context here and maybe they'll make us feel a little bit better about this disruptive time we seem to

be living in. Well, I think what we've seen. I mean, first of all, anytime you've seen a number of times, anytimes you have a greater decline, eighty percent of the time that's followed by recession. So I think that's a reality. Do you have a V shape? You have a U shaped to have an L shape. I'm bullish that you have overall um platform in terms of business opportunity and activity that will when when you get the panic behind us, It's not gonna be back to normal, but I think

you're going to see things that emerge. And to the earlier part of our conversation, I think you can see new areas or ears that existed, but all of a sudden you see this boom and acceleration. Obviously you know I mean zoom and slacker or two places is that um, you know, just it just it's you know that that's gonna be a mega way for a long time. Are the area that's personal, that's that's near and dear to

your heart, personal fitness. You look at these, you know, the companies of the the Pelotons, the Tonals, the mirrors. I mean, this is you see more and more of innovation, you know, in in that in that world. And and and again with the great news about entrepreneurs, and they solve problems, they run to wait space, they're right to run two issues. And I think you're gonna see very exciting companies like we saw after the financial crisis. You had you know, you had Square, you had Stripe, you

had Uber. You know, all these these are all in the in the rubble of the mess of the financial crisis. And again I think I'm hopeful, I'm optimistic like we've seen, you know, throughout history basically that new leaders emerged from disruptive times. All right, we're gonna leave it there. We can talk to you, Michael mo You're the best. Come see us in New York. Well see you in Silicon Valley. Once this is all uh said and done. Always appreciate

the Village Pub. It's the Village Pub, and it's one of the best restaurants I've ever been to, and it's a great place to go and hang out with Michael mo have a nice glass of wine and a nice dinner, and hopefully solve some of the problems of the world. Michael Mo is the co founder of Global Silicon Valley GSV Asset Management. His books really worth reading Global Silicon Valley Handbook and finding the Next Starbucks. A fascinating uh career that he has had