Cybersecurity Threats, Crypto News & Digital Marketing

to retaliate for those sanctions. Plus the revolving down in Washington between those in crypto when those tasked with policing it some surprising number of people who have been making the move from crypto to government and vice versa. And for the first time in nearly two decades, there will be no new call a duty next year. Well, that means the gaming industry, and that's why the gaming world is going crazy off elden Ring and my fans a

Game of Thrones might be intrigued as well. We'll get to all of that good stuff in a moment, but first, well, it was another pretty bleak day on the market, particularly for your long technology, but most pretty good to has the update for us, Yeah, a risk off day in the market's read on the screen, which is interesting given that we had a pretty big sell off yesterday. That usually means you have a pretty strong rebound. But even though we opened in the green, we weren't able to

hold those games. You can see that right behind me the SMP five hundred closing down one percent, but like you said, Caroline, a lot of that pain showing up in the NASDAC down almost to all which shy three percent two point six percent. What's important to keep in mind here is that big tech, although at least those records, it also leads the declines, and that's really what you're seeing seeing. One of the only sectors in the green today was of course energy, which brings me once again

to those geopolitical tensions. You can see that's what weighed the stock market down but actually fed into commodities, and you can see that Brent crude getting closer and closer to that one dollar. There's a barrel that is going to be significant when we talk about inflation feeding back into what actually weighs on those tech stocks. Let's talk about technicals though, because that absolutely plays into this dynamic. You actually saw the SMP close into correction territory yesterday.

So once again, Caroline, the assumption here is that you're going to see a bounce back. Pretty normally, when the SMP five hundred drops ten from its all time peak, you do see a pretty strong bounce back. Yet we are not there. We are now down eleven from its peak earlier this year. There was some green on the screen, though a little pockets, and when it comes once again, it comes to geopolitical tensions. Traditionally in those kind of safe haven moves, you tend to go to big tech.

But today that green on the screen happened to me and cybersecurity stocks a little bit of a last miss self when it comes to CrowdStrike, vm Ware and fort neet, but Paulo Alto once again actually gaining some pretty blockbuster earnings there at the end of the day, when you're talking about geopolitical risk, when you're talking about invasion risk, and of course cyber tax on Ukraine, what better play than those defense stocks, And right now, that's the purpose

cybersecurity is playing right now on the stock market. Pretty such a great round up, really tying together all of the headwinds and tail winds in the market in their own moment, and I want to talk more about those headwinds and precisely the sanctions that we were just talking about, the Biden administration once again opping the anti in that respect, we want to bring in of course, Blue WEG's Washington correspondent.

He's not in Washington, so New York, Amory Horden. The reason your hero is because you had a really great exclusive interview. But first and foremost, bring us up to speed with well where we are in terms of sanctions. They seem to be ramping up slowly. Yeah, the Biden administration today is going to be sanctioning nord Stream too and the individuals that are part of nord Stream two. And this is, I have to say, is a pretty aggressive step. This is something that the US has really

held back from doing. And this isn't just now that the Germans say we're going to wait for that certification, because remind us nor Stream to the gas pipeline between Germany and Russia, right, and this is something Putin wants eleven billion dollars. He can start to not go through Ukraine as much for those gas, but instead use another

pipeline direct clean into Europe, the heart of Europe. And now even though the Germany says they're going to wait to potentially certify it with the US putting sanctions on and that means that certification may never come through. But the Ukrainian Foreign minister who I sat down and said this is very welcome. They've been against north Stream too for years. But he said more sanctions are needed to take lessen. It sends a strong message to put In,

but it still doesn't stop him. So it means we need more sanctions, we need the second wave and then probably the third way until it gets clear to him that he shouldn't make any step further. Dmitro phuleb there and he's heading back to Kiev. Now we should know Kiev now, Caroline and Ukraine as a whole. It's a state of emergency. The separatists have asked Putin to send

in troops. So it does feel like things are really starting to escalate, starting to escalate, and also not only in physical form, but also in cyber form as well. There was another cyber attack on Ukraine's key sort of infrastructure to and including the foreign minister his website, so that all these ministry as were attacked. This was the second cyber attack that's happened in about a week. But

this has happened to Ukraine a number of times. One of the biggest ones was in when literally everyone's power went out in the country, or maybe three hundred thousand consumers right, it felt like a lot at the time. But they've attacked cyber attacks have been at banks, the metro a number of issues. And I asked him about this and he said they have been working for to really fortify it and make it a little bit more robust.

But I was curious about if you're going tipped for toe or tip for tat with poutin tote to toe when it comes to sanctions trying to deter him any of his conversations have Western leaders said they would also issue cyber attacks on Russia and he said, no, that hasn't come up yet. We'll see how cyber wolf haes stoughts to be factored in a little bit more. I'm reholding such a great interview. Go onto dot com and

seek it out because it was a great conversation. But we want to, of course discuss a little bit more about what's been happening with several of the Ukrainian government and banking websites not functioning due to distributed to not of service attacks d d US. This comes after Ukraine said just last week that of course it suffered its worst cyber attack also targeting banking and government websites is and Marie was just telling us, let's dig into it.

Marcus Fowler, he's a senior vice president for Strategic Engagements and Threats for dark Trace. He also spent fifteen years working at the CIA as its global cyber operations. You're a man who is in the know on these things. Just talk to us about the level of threat that distributed denial of service attacks have on Ukraine. How impactful

are they? Carolina and great to be here, So, you know, these distributed denial service attacks really go at basically flooding a network or a website with traffic so that they're unusable, they're overloaded, and they really don't function, and they can be disruptive kind of at that, you know, if I'm a consumer trying to get to a specific website, and they can really frustrate kind of the the Internet connectivity of a specific website. But in terms of like broader,

more disruptive attacks, I think those are still to come. Okay, still to come and still to come level DoPT Ukraine or do you start to think that here in the United States, with sanctions being upped by the Biden administration, we could to see infrastructure as we've seen before, or perhaps websites and the like start to be attacked as well. Great question. I think the easy answers both. You're going

to see them ratchet up. You're gonna see the Russians ratche up, ratchet up cyber attacks within Ukraine, potentially moving into ransomware, data theft, data encryption to further cripple organizations and businesses, as well as potentially move into critical infrastructure as a as a higher escalation point. As for the U S and the West, as harsher and harsher sanctions and more economic damage is done on Russia, you will

see them. I think I want you an attempt to respond in kind in terms of economic disruption, thinking financial institutions, banks maybe potentially tightening and or more damage to the supply chain through either their own actions or proxies such

as cyber criminal groups or in ransomware actors. Yeah, to that point, when you are looking at the data, when you're trying to see when you're understanding where these attacks are coming from, how do you discern whether it's indeed from the government, whether or need it's more using other actors at their will. How you can ensure that you're joining the dolts in a sophisticated manner. No, your attribution within cyberspace and who the actor actually was is incredibly difficult.

So I was very pleased to see what the earlier version of the denial of service attacks. The US government come out fairly quickly to identify the Russians as the actor, as the attackers in that space, and I think assessed attribution is really important, that it is done as quickly as possible, and that Russians, where there is evidence, can be held accountable. But I think they will absolutely be leaning on proxy organizations, potentially new ransomware groups we haven't

heard of before. You're gonna see more activity within that space as the Russians either provide more state directed you know, actions, or are increasing not only trying to blind ive but kind of turned the shackles, you know, released that the shackles a bit in terms of those ransomware groups operating out of their backyard as it were, Marcus, I mean, obviously this is I'm asking you to talk your book a little bit. But have we seen an uptick in

demand for cyber protection? Are we seeing the defenses being fortified? Are we ready for the fight to be perfectly frank So, I would say one of the silver linings of the increasing ransomware over the last two years is absolutely seeing the private industry, especially prioritized cybersecurity more directly right and really start to put more resources, personnel, you know, advanced

emerging technologies into that space. And I think that the US government has as well, right and as well as as mother Western allies, recognizing the increased threat, have they done enough, you know, as quickly? I think you we aren't a bit of a race condition against what will be a spike in in cyber attacks and getting the right pieces in place to properly defend right. It's kind of what that that old adage of you go to war with the army you have, not the army you'd

wish you'd built and resourced and prioritized appropriately. Moist the way Marcus Fowler really interesting. We thank you so much as VP of Dark Trace. Let's just take a moment to think about, well, the future of marketing from Palaton to Facebook or US. We now know it meta. The world is seeing its shares of brands facing kind of a post pandemic marketing challenge. More I want to bring in on the back of its earnings and also it's

forward looking thinking on all of this. The marketing firm sat to Global, the CEO and co founder and chairman David Steinberg's with us also, of course, as I say, pushing to a fourth court of sales number that beat estimates under thirty five million. Talk to us first and foremost about your numbers first, David and the growth that you're seeing. Are we seeing continued demand and knowledge need in the marketing space. Yah? So, first of all, thank

you for having me, Caroline. I appreciate it. It's great to be here. Uh So, in SATA, what we're really seeing is what I think a lot of organizations are seeing. There's a tremendous amount of disruption in the ecosystem. Is most marketers are moving from analog marketing to digital marketing. And as a lot of the very large tech players

are sort of trying to consolidate control. Apple got rid of their tracking mechanism called the I d f A. Google is eliminating their cross app tracking, They're eliminating the third party cookie. Platforms like at A Global, which do not use any of those to resolve to an identity,

have been able to grow fairly dramatically. I mean, I think that we grew the business when normalized for the presidential election by thirty two percent in the fourth quarter, and we grew earnings for the year by over sixty I think a lot of that is coming from this big disruption in the marketplace where organizations are trying to figure out how to navigate those changes, and Zeta Global

is a bespoke platform to help them do so. And obviously, feeling that you've got enough confidence in your growth strategy that from a full year revenue of about four fifty eight million, you're looking to get that into an excess of a billion dollars in annual revenue over the next well up to talk to us about the kind of companies that are coming to at the moment. So it's

a great question. Obviously, not only did we roll out our plan to get to over a billion year in revenue and plus operating margins, we fairly dramatically increased our guidance for two as well. Uh, you know, we're seeing very large enterprises. In fact, thirty four percent of the Fortune one hundred today use the Zata marketing platform who are trying to get to consumers in a way that is very cost efficient. And our platform is not just digital, it is built to be efficient in the way the

marketing operates. And we've been able to really scale very very quickly with our clients. And so, how how do I, as a client wanting to get in front of the right use of the right demographic, the right timing, how do I do that in a cost efficient way at the moment, because I feel that there's a lawful lot of wall of money is being spent on the likes of Instagram, on the likes of TikTok. But is it really being that efficient to your perspective, Yeah, so a

lot of it isn't right. So the old joke is, you know, marketers would say, I know that of my

marketing is a waste of money. I just do not know which half the beauty of the data marketing platform, combined with our data cloud, which has over two hundred and thirty million opted in US individuals alone, is we can weed out the individuals that do not have a propensity to want to buy our clients products, and we know exactly when they're in market, so we're able to hit them at the precise time with the precise message, and we're able to pull out of that marketing funnel

the fifty percent of customers who would not be credit approved and or have a propensity to want to buy that product. So just by removing them, you're able to massively increase the efficiency. And then by using our data cloud where you're interacting with these two hundred and twenty million opted in US individuals, were able to know when they're in market for particular products and services and specifically

target them when their thinking about the products. So those two things allow us to be very efficient with our enterprise client's budgets. Said opted in, how are we in terms of general trend lines, how many people are going to be wanting to to opt in? How many people see the quid pro quo and say I'm in, I wanted I want to be targeted that little bit more efficiently. Yeah, listen, we we came about this in a very different approach from most companies so we have acquired a large number

of technology platforms that power publishers. In an exchange for the publisher getting our software platforms at no cost and the consumer being able to use those tools at no cost, we simply ask them to opt in. In return, we guarantee the consumer we will never sell their data to anybody at any price at any time. We simply use that data to build intent based scores on what does

the consumer intend to do next? Do they intend to buy a particular credit card, do they want a blue car of a particular model, are they going to churn off a wireless platform? And we use that data to build the curriculum of contact on behalf of our enterprise clients to help them lower churn or create customers more efficiently. So by always keeping the consumers data private, we get a lot more consumers who are willing to opt into the platform and work with us because they know their

data is never going to be sold. Here's hoping we get stalked a little bit less by ads for things we've only just purchased. So thank you very much. Indeed, there's a global CEO and co founder and chairman David Steinberg. Are you making the time for us when he's just released his earnings and indeed a serial entrepreneur, they're so great findings. Now we're going to talk about it called a Duty being delayed. It's the first time the franchise will be without an annual main line release in nearly

two decades. It's all according to people familiar with the plan. Now we want to talk to our expert and all of this, Bloomberg's Jason Schreyer for more on the reasoning behind it. It feels as though what the previous release just didn't live up to expectations. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. So Call of Duty, um it has been an annual release, has come out every fall since two thousand and five. So this is pretty stunning. It's a it's a big change.

And just for a little context, is the last time we did not have a Call of Duty UM, I believe was the beginning of the first Obama administration, So no, sorry, at the beginning of George W. Bush's second term. So yeah, so we're talking about a very long time. And yes, so the previous year's last year's Call of Duty game underperformed, which led activism Exacts to start thinking, hey, maybe we

need to rethink this whole release schedule thing. Maybe gave some of these titles a little bit more breathing real Okay, so maybe a little bit more desire working up our appetite for the latest release. But it also comes at a time that there's a lot of change and Activision of course, notably that they're being boored. Could it be anything to do with that, Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's some There's been some conversations there another about how

Microsoft will react. But you know what, I think, legally, even though they've announced the acquisition, the Microsoft is buying Activision, um, it is not quite closed. They need to go through regulatory approval, which is expected to be finished by the next summer at the at the latest, summer three at the latest. So until then, Activision is legally required to just continue operating autonomously. And I'm sure they're in conversations and Microsoft exects all the time. They are still making

their own calls. And I think this was more about the health of the College Duty franchise than it was about Microsoft coming in and wanting to make some changes and talked to us. Therefore about maybe some of the independent changes they're making ahead of the sale from an executive shake up perspective, because they were once the acquirer, particularly of the maker of candy Crush. And then there's some executive chan that yes again, um that was actually

just today is that king to make a mechanic? Car Sta announce that their president and chief creative officer both departing. Um again, who knows if that is really related to the Microsoft exposition or if, as they said, they want to go spend more time with their family. I mean,

we all know what what that typically means and exact speak. Um. But again, I just don't think that, Um, well, it's possible of these folks saw the writing on the wall and they're like, you know what, Microsoft is going to make some changes anyway, we better might as well get out of here early. I do not think that Microsoft is actually getting involved too much just yet. Okay, lastly, like talk to us a little bit about where is

hot right now? So if we're going to have to wait for Activision to release Call a Duty, there is another game that everyone seem to be talking about. Elden Ring. Yeah, alden Ring comes out on Friday today. The review embargo lifts a bunch of criticism just hit. Last I checked, it was tracking to be um one of the if not the best reviewed games of all times. Um So, which is the game a lot of what was the

winner before UM I should check? I think, uh the legend of Zelda Breuss of the while it was a top one, Mario Odyssey was another chop one um let. As I checked on the Open Critic, which is a review aggregation site, it has a ninety six out of a hundred, which is by far the biggest game of the year, and I think one of the biggest games ever. But yeah, so this game, UM, it's getting a lot of heights, largely because it's a crossover between George R.

Martin UM. George R. Martin was the writer of the Game of Thrones series UM and from Software, which is a Japanese developer that, as you tell them, absolutely the loved among a lot of gamers for its series Dark Souls UM, which is known as like a really interesting, mysterious, difficult um action action RPG series. And so the game combined the two and it really just takes a lot of smart ideas from a lot of other games. And uh, it's really brilliant. I've been a whole an of it

over the past week. Jason, you're doing your reporting for us. We thank you. Jason Schreyer, He's always so smart on all things gaming. So go check out the latest. Meanwhile, coming up, despite while supply chain issues and shipping delays, it didn't seem to slow down over stock, which is reported about than expected fourth quarter earnings. We're gonna be breaking down all of the numbers when it comes to you're purchasing a big ticket items for the CEO Jonathan Johnson.

But also remember there for ay into blockchain. He's been a big proponent of the technology and looks as though his early investments there seemed to still be bearing fruit. Suddenly people liking the stock on a key investment in the financial exchange area. So stick with us of that conversation from beautiful sunny New York. This has been back. This is Bloomberg Technology. I'm Caroline High in New York.

Let's get back to some market moves today because we've seen tech in particular under pressure, particularly amid the rhymesing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Why let's talk to run Blastelica, who's with us of course over in Chicago and run is it is it theoretically risk off or is it more a rising rates environment that means in tech feels the pressure the most. Well, we're really seeing both of those factors coming to play at the same time right now.

We already have we've long had concerns about the prospect of rising interest rates and inflation fed policy, and then on top of that we had this new geopolitical tension that it's just another reason for investors be a little bit more cautious about the growth side of the market. And it's another reason why we've seen people just pull back from tech and a pretty broad based fashion. I'm looking at a child and now it's like one hundred

from us all time high. I mean, that's basically heading into bear territory now as we saw the SPI in

a technical correction level. Ryan talked to us about what analysts are saying, because on the one side, you've got Goldman Sacks sort of talk calling about a regime change that we're seeing, particularly in the hedge funds area selling out a big tech but Morgan Stanley sort of looking at maybe the silver lining the opportunities therein absolutely so Morgan Stanley came out with some Daddy yesterday that looks at a fund ownership from major technology stocks, and it

found that when it comes to names like Apple and Microsoft, these are under owned relative to their weight in the SMP five hundred, which the firm interprets as a positive signal. Perhaps people have communities for so much there's maybe a little bit room on the upside from here. Therefore, are you likely to see a bounce? Are we likely to hend head to a bad territory? Are we thinking that in this rising tension with Russian Ukraine and we're really

in for more pain to come? Everyone I've spoken with expects a lot more volatility in the space, and certainly no one is ruling out the potential for additional aside from here. But when it comes to these major names like your Apples and Microsoft and Amazon and so forth, people continue just to really see very strong long term growth potential here, strong earnings power, and those are factories that do have people continuing to be a fan of them, even if in the short term there is a potential

for further volatility and downside and questioning evaluations. Ryan, we thank you so much. When Ryan Lastelica stays warm over in cold Chicago, and let's talk about sort of the down day that we had on the overall markets, but the companies outperformed. One of them was Overstock, in fact, surging in terms of its share price, announcing better than expected fourth quarter earnings, as well as navigating, of course, the ongoing headwinds that are supply chain issues, labor issues, inflation,

re isssues. Let's talk about how you managed to navigate that, and also a little bit of blockchain to see of Overstocks with us Jonathan Johnson, Jonathan, congrats on the numbers and and talk to us a little bit about how you've managed to ensure the inventories where you need it, that supply is where you need it when the rest of the world is really struggling with it. Yeah, we had another great quarters, our seventh consecutive quarter of profits,

second consecutive year of market share growth. We have a vast and distributed supply chain, uh so, over three thousand partners that have goods for us. We have always had goods in inventory. We're very good at forecasting for our for our carriers where demand will be, so we weren't hit with ship again two years ago, and we weren't hit with any delivery problems this past year. And of course supply chain is tough, but we think our distributed

asset light model really helps us navigate a well. And do you see any easing all some of those pressures in general in the industry. I think the bottlenecks and kinson the supply chain probably will last for the bulk of uh that that supply chain is pretty stressed, and so any small kink in it tends to be amplified more than it normally would. We think our system works well, particularly well in times of high demand and low supply.

What about inflationary pressures as well? Because people come to you for value, is that going to be a headwind tailwind for you? As we start to see people worrying about the price point, people do come to us and recognize us for smart value, which means, you know, the best product they can get for their dollar. Of course, there are inflationary headwinds for everyone, whether it's labor or

goods or you know, gasoline prices. We've done a nice job being able to absorb those with our suppliers and pass as little of those as possible onto the onto our customers. Our customers when they come to over stock, she expects a great deal for her dollar, and we're still able to deliver that. I'm interested when you say gasoline, because an awful lot of people would say, actually, it's it's the delivery, it's the trucking. Is that sort of

choke point that has been difficult? How are you finding you know, when we look at geopolitical tension, we look at oil prices heading towards a hundred dollars? Is that something you just braceful that little bit more? How do you lean on your suppliers in that respect? Well, you know, we we have to lean on them. We work closely with you know, the ups s and the Fedexes of the world, which are the last mild delivery from our suppliers warehouses. Uh, it's it's a difficult thing to manage.

We've got a great supply chain team than the nagies, each of those relationships really well. Just looking at your share price obviously doing incredibly well on the day, but has been under pressure over the year. How are you sort of talking to investors at the moment they're feeling that you're getting caught up in an evaluation question mark in the time where we start to look at rate hikes and issues like that, or what what do you

make of the valuation of your business? Well, as I mentioned on our call today, we have a board off rise to share we purchase amount we think our stock is undervalued today. Uh, we've been in a a company black out BRAOD since the first of December. That's been the bulk. When when the time when the price has gone down, I think we're in a good position to exercise our buy back. Should that be the right thing to do? Interesting, so making the most of it yourself.

Of course, you're a man who's known for being front of the pack when it comes to dream homes, but also a man who's really understood and got to grips and blockchain before many did and before it became the catchual term that we would love to make out the way further afield in crypto than we actually are. I'm interested in Medici ventures, of course, that was originally the part of the business that you had making investments in

some of the blockchain technology. You've doubled down in that T zero talk to us about why this is a spinoff of yours and said well, a company that you're in a minority stake in, and Piper Satellite analysts really liking the new funding round that T zero has been getting. Remind this what T zero does and why it's additive to your business. So T zero is blockchain meets capital markets. It's UH. It's a registered alternative trading system or exchange

UH that uses blockchain to settle trades more quickly. It's able to deal in cryptocurrencies and n f t s and security tokens and the normally traded NMS securities UH. This week, T zero announced that it received a significant minority investment from ICE, the parent company to the New York Stock Exchange, among others, and that the former chief strategy officer at Ice would become the new CEO at T zero. We think this is a great omen for the future as markets moved to the century. We think

they're going to use blockchain. We think you're gonna be able to trade you know, crypto and stock and n f t s all in one place. T zero is set up for that to have Ice on the cap table. And David goon is the is the CEO. I just think bothes really really well, well, how long will you will overstall Cremaine a key investor. What is your feel forward looking plan in this respect? So we have interests

investments in twenty one different blockchain companies. About a year ago we formed a limited partnership and helling On Ventures, which is a venture capital firm, is the general partner of that fund and it manages or oversees those uh twenty one companies, including T zero. Hellyan was instrumental in closing this deal with David Goon and Ice and so, uh we're letting Hellian manage the exits and how those

things work within that fund. But I see a long, strong future for T zero, really fascinating and being able to talk about the consumer and indeed the rock Chane Well were you all at the same time Overstock CEO

Jonathan Johnson stay well in Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, coming up Crypto and Washington is a relationship between the industry and the Hill all that transparent we're talking about, well the swapping of talent from one to the other as Bloomberg and is of course time now for our Crypto report, and we want to dive into the relationship between crypto and Capitol Hill because well, sen since I was getting more entangled people increasingly moving between jobs and crypto and

the government agencies that actually police that very industry. Well, there's therefore the potential for conflicts of interest. They seem to be growing and could it potentially undermine efforts to really regulate the sector. There's been a deep dive done by my colleague and Bloomberg, Allison Verse Brill, and you join me now, Allison, to really talk about the data being crunched by the Tech Transparency Project. What do they make of the amount that she has scale of the

revolving duel between Capital Hillen CRYPTI. So they characterized this as as really an explosion and an activity in recent years. Um you know, I talked to them a little bit about when they started analyzing this data and they said, you know, it was slow to start, and now we're

seeing more and more of it. And I can tell you from personal experience having covered this now for a couple of months that on a near regular basis, I'm getting announcements about first mal shifts, you know, individuals moving from jobs at the White House, regulators UH into companies like Finance, coin Base, um or or groups that lobby or represent them at law firms. Do is there a date, Is there a time? Is there a tipping point that

in started this move? Do you think so? You know, I talked to the director of the Tech Transparency Project and she said they started looking at that as far back as UM but that there wasn't really a you know, grow in this until and that we've just started to

see that increase since then. And I can also say that the infrastructure bill that was passed last year contained some provisions of crypto industry didn't didn't like all that much, and that's definitely spurred some some activities, some moves, uh you know, also on the lobbying side. So seeing a lot of that going back to that time when it was that particular bill that took I mean, a lawful lot of people by surprise that they suddenly were really

doubling down on the crypto space. And we did a lot of number crunching then about the sheer lack of lobbying and the money that is spent by other industry groups visa VI crypto, and it was just paled into in comparison. They had hardly anyone up on Capitol Hill fighting for them. Is that now really changing, and what are the concerns being highlighted by this particular bit of reporting. So that's definitely changing. We're seeing, um, you know, we're

seeing superpacks that are designated just to crypto. We're seeing um, you know, companies like coin base and and others beating up their lobbying height, hiring more outside firms. Um. So in general, we're just seeing a lot more money flooding into Washington. And that was really one of the concerns

that was raised in this report. They said, you know, having this greater flow of former regulators into the industry or vice versa, you know, could have potentially impact the regulatory process um and prevent the rules from being as tight as they should be. And for full disclosure, my husband is a senior manager over at coin base, so when I highlight that fact, But I'm interested in whether this is unique or not. I mean, is this kind

of what happens. Crypto is so unique because of the sheer scale of money that was being made and I can imagine that an awful lot of you know, money, once we put to work to ensure that the industry, they will believe and survives. But what about a revolving door between Capitol Hill and other industry groups, other lobbying areas. UM this, I will say, this is one area where crypto is definitely not unique. We see that at in all different types of sectors. We see it in banking,

we see it in tax um. I think pretty timely actually, we saw a pair of lawmakers, including Senator Liz Warren, asking for an investigation into sort of the a flow of officials from large accounting firms into the I R S and Treasury and back and how that impacts tax rules. UM. So,

definitely a common trend all across different sectors. I think the one difference is that this is now a growing trend in crypto, which is such a new industry, and it really reflects that it's gaining more maturity and it's you know, getting more influence in Washington as investment. Thank you so much for being us the insights on that revolving deal. We thank you. What it will take is not just simply putting simple bandages and putting in programs,

so to speak. It's about fundamentally, um redesigning the culture that exists with thee. The old way of doing things is no longer the way of the future. The data shows that individuals from the historically excluded communities are having a different experience. That it also starts with the data, and that will help us think about strategies and solutions.

We have to address some of the root problems. At the moment, what we do is play like diversity musical chairs, and at the end of the day, we have to expand the actual cool of that talent itself by addressing

educational equities and other systemic variants. Some of the d I experts from Uber to Spotify to Snapchat talking about really tackling discrimination in the tech industry and well as one of the key goals of my next guest to Twilio is out with its own annual Impact and d I report just today talking about how business leaders and corporations need to think about doing good overall. CEO Jeff Lawson and say is joining us now, And I mean so focused are you on this that you're taking time

out of your well deserved break. So we appreciate that, Jeff, and I'm interested about really the findings what business responsibility means to you at Twilio. Now, Yeah, thank you go, And I mean it's um really interesting when I think about the contract, the social contract between our society and companies.

The idea is that companies make our society better, and that's why we allow things like a piece of paper files from the state of Delaware or in Dublin can own property and earn the contracts and all sorts of interesting things. And historically we've said, well, it makes society better because you know, increases production and increases jobs and things like that, and companies big process. But I actually

think now society is asking more from that contract. We a tilio have this belief that our existence should make communities around us and society overall stronger because we exist. And that's a multifaceted aspect of this contract that I think goes well beyond what you know, the last generation of business leaders thought that it was really just about making a profit. It's also a lot about the data.

How you ensure that you are gaining true diversity, How indeed you ask saying that pay equality is coming about, how are you tracking the impact that you make from an environmental perspective, a social perspective, a governance perspective. Well, obviously we try to track our impact along all those aspects.

But you know, we do it not to have like the number to show now we are transparent about the impact that we're having, but we actually use Like when you think about d E I A lot of companies think about, oh, this data, we have to put it out there to to to to prove something to the world. Um, what we think about it is the data is necessary, but you use the data to move, not prove. You use the data to impact your activities and to drive how you're building the company, to make a company that

is ever more inclusive and ever more diverse. And that's how we think about using data. Okay, So can you give us an example. I mean, I know that you've been in particular helping certain non for profits organizations sort of and align themselves with you and with other businesses. Is that can you give us like exact data of how you're doing it. I'll give you another example. And business, what do we do? We set goals and we put

our mind to which eating them. So when the vaccine for COVID came out last year, we set a goal to help vaccinate a billion people worldwide and we and we put to work our product, our technology, we put to work our people and their volunteer time and the resources are funding from the company. And as a result of that, already just a year in we have already helped to vaccinate three fifty million people and that is a huge number, but we've just started a third of

the way hey to our goal of a billion. But we did that by partnering with organizations who are on the ground, like Dovey, who is out there trying to vaccinate people in poorer countries that don't have readily access to the vaccine. And so we donated ten million dollars to gather were the second largest corporation to donate to that cause um And so I'm very proud of what

Toyo has done. And it's just another example of how we set goals and we use data to move to get outcomes that we want as opposed to just to try and prove something. Do you have that it sort of disrupts from within? And are you leading my example in some way? And how you seeing other companies embrace what you often use your own tools to do the same sort of thing. You know, the opposite of trying to have a monopoly on doing good. We actually want to open source any idea that we have and help

other people to do good as well. You know, one of the last pages of our impact report that we released today actually says our lessons learned in this past year, and it talks about some of the things that you know, mistakes we've made and learned from it and hopes that other people can do that. Another example is we started a program called we Pledge one Percent. It's a program for our employees to pledge one percent of their time, their income, or their totally out equity to do good

in the world for nonprofits. And we help them to execute that by giving them ideas, help them donate the equity effects that they want to do. And we've open sourcens and invited any other company who wants to bring this program to their employees as well. And so far we've got dozens of companies including at Lastian and Zoom and many others who have actually brought this program to

their employees well. And now we've got tens of thousands of employees at of variety of different companies, all participating by giving one percent of their resource just to do good. Interestingly, do you think that it sets you apart from a talent perspective, and you're getting that feedback that people are coming to Twilio because of this or is this sort of an added benefit quote unquote if you know what I mean. Well, we've made impact a really integral part

of our business. At some companies, you know, doing good as a cost center or we got to donate to this so we don't look bad in the press. Right at Twilio, that's not how we think about it all. We think of it as a virtuous cycle. The more good we do in the world, the more of that is going to engage our employees and build great awareness

and like high esteem for our company. That will attract more customers, that will attract more employees that will then help us build a stronger company that then can allow us to do more in the world. And that is a nice virtuous cycle. And that's why Toyo dot org at at our company is not a cost center. It's actually a business unit, and it actually does business to get our product into the hands of nonprofits who could be using our product to do good at great discount.

And then we partner with those organizations make them successful and that allows us to them do more good in the world and I think that's a new model that I'm very proud of having really elevate that. And just briefly, I've got about a minute left. When you are looking at billion people vaccinated? Is this very much on the emerging markets focus? Because I'm thinking of our academs who are in the Union in New York. Potentially you're not needing people to be vaccinated to go out to restaurants

and the like. Well, you know, think about it. A lot of this is in emerging countries where there isn't as easy access to vaccines. And we're very happy to partner with a number of organizations sort of doing amazing work like Save the Children's another great organization with something to educate the world on the safety of these vaccines. But even here in the United States and other wealthier countries,

you still see vaccine hesitancy. We still have a huge effort to mobilize and get even the US population vaccinated, and we're still not done, obviously, And so I see this as a as an effort that truly spends the world. Jeff Lawson, so great to speak with you. Thank you. Go back to your break now, really appreciate the time. Trilio CEO. Meanwhile, what does it for this edition of bloom Bag Technology? Join us tomorrow. We're gonna be joining John Woo, the president of Ava Labs, to talk about

well earnings of crypto. It's the bring back