Putin's Potential Nuclear Threat and Women in Crypto

flee Ukraine with a single Google doc. Plus more and more women are flooding into crypto and most of them are hoddlers. How women are making their way into the biggest new tech trend to make sure they get a piece of the pie. And the NBA presents its first game in the metaverse. While they call it the net a verse, was it a slam dunk? We'll take you to the virtual report. I want to continue this conversation

now with security expert Jamial Jaffer. Jamille, I have to get your reaction to what Jody just had to say. There this quote from the U. S. Devents Intelligence Agency Director Scott Barrier saying that Putin will increasingly rely on its nuclear deterrent to signal the West. How serious is this to you? Well, look, I think it is obviously

a serious concern. Any time you're dealing with a nuclear weapons state that is engaged in aggression towards another nation, you've got to measure are they going to rely on their nuclear capability? But I think the main point take away from from general barriers point is that it's a signal. Right, it's nothing they're gonna use nuclear weapons. Is they're making a point that hey, we have new clew weapons, don't mess with us. The problem, of course, is that if

that's always our position, we can't do anything. You can't respond to the Russians that essentially because they have nuclear weapons that is suchually gives letter prudent clear one way to do whatever he wants where that's in Ukraine or elsewhere. We can't be afraid to engage and show military sturtch the Russians when they were begun crossing lines, they crossed. They crossed the line back in fourteen Crimea. They didn't stop there. Then we thought well maybe if they just

take donascan luhance that would be enough. They didn't stop there. Now they're going to keep Where are the Russians gonna stop? And we've seen them escalate civilian buildings, schools, hospitals, tremendous number of casualties increasing over time. We can't always be afraid of the Russian nuclear to turn to prevent us from stopping the kind of killing is taking place here. Emily, Well, why shouldn't we be afraid to meal because we see

the escalation continuing to happen. You are now calling for a no fly zone, which President Biden has clearly said we'll lead to World War three. Why is that a risk work taking in your view? Well? Look, I think Emily, the challenge here is that we're not necessarily gonna avoid

World War three by doing nothing right. We've seen that every return when we have not shown strength, and latter Reputin, he's tried to take the next thing right, whether that was Crimea, whether that was the Eastern provinces, and now we see him doubling down on his rhetoric and his

actual actions against Ukrainians. The Ukrainians of all know about the esculatory dynamic with vander Putin, and they're the one saying no flies and will bring this conflict to a more rapid and what we're doing now, supplying more weapons and the like, will absolutely help Ukrainians, But it's like this continue the conflict at the cost of more civilian life. So I'm not sure America is showing strength actually leaves

the World War three. It might actually get Putin realized he's gone to conflict he doesn't want and cause him to come to a peaceful resolution this sooner rat and later. Why don't you think it's gonna get to that nuclear level? Though? Why don't you think it'll mean World War three? Well, you know, I think there have always been talking about if you get in a conflict the nuclear weapons state, right he is there always a chance to go in

nuclear Of course, that's true. But the real situation is that I think we've seen now or the course of at fifties, sixties, seventy years, that nuclear weapon states don't actually use nuclear weapons because they recognize the catastrophic consequences of engaging in such activity. And so if the US where to begin enforce your no flies him, it's much less likely in my view, that we're going to go to a nuclear consept and more likely we come to

a conventional resolution. Look, letter Puttin doesn't want war with the United States, he doesn't want nuclear war. He wants to get his prestige back. He wants to get some deal in Ukraine that gives him a win, and he wants to be out of this. He doesn't want me. This conflict need longer than he has to. We need to bring into a close. If we allowed to continue, there will be more civilian deaths, more schools, more hospitals,

more unnecessary suffering. Now, we haven't necessarily seen cyber attacks on this scale that some expected. Why is that? And it doesn't mean the defenses are working or could the worst be yet to come, because obviously cyber attacks can also be fairly devastating, though on a you know, in a much different way. Yeah, no, absolute, Emily. Look, I think we have seen some cyberttacks in Ukraine. We've seen

the the deployment of the whisper Gate malware. We've seen other mal were recently deployed in the Ukrainian theater um And of course remember what happened not pet in seventeen uh mal we're similar to Whispergate leaked out and spread and actually harmed American and other international Western companies to the tune of two to three million dollars each ten million dollars worldwide. So there is the potential for not only damage in Ukraine, but collateral damage the cyber activities.

And I think we also have to assume that lighter Putent estimates that he can engage in at least some level cyber activity against US in our allies without incurring too big a cost, because he's done it year after year, you know, using proxies like criminal hacker games. Now, why haven't we seen it yet? I think he estimates it right now. He doesn't needed to play that capability. The US is largely stayed out of the fight directly, and they've only engaged in this supplying weapons. He is getting

tired of it, he's getting tired of the sanctions. He's certainly under pressure at home. So there is a high likeli that if he's gonna turn to something, it's less likely to be nuclear or kem bio and it's more likely to be cyber and an escalation of civilian campaign. And that's the most troubling thing because you point out an attack of the cyber domain couz cod damage and so We've got to be cleared him not only that he should not do that, but if he does that,

there will be a significant response. Right now, we're taking military options off the table. We gotta put those military options back on the table. Emily, all right. Jamal Jaffer, cybersecurity expert, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute, Jamil, thanks for sharing your perspective here. The war on Ukraine has showed the power of the kindness of strangers. Roughly three million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes and country,

many with just the clothes on their back. My next guest helped create an open access Google doc that helps with every step of the way, from what to do when leaving the Ukraine, what resources are available and where to go, how to enter neighboring countries. Joining me now, Elena Vandenberg. She is also the co founder of the meeting software company Chili Piper. Elena, thank you so much for joining us. So this Google doc is incredibly detailed.

Anyone can open it. You've got information about traffic, lights and traffic and transportation, medical aid, accommodations, food. What sparked the idea to do something like this? As tech companies. Uh. It's hard to figure out what we can do to stop something that of this great proportion a war. It

is hard to stop when you're working on tech and software. UM. But as we saw the attack on Ukraine unfolding, and our own employees in these regions UM in such great distress, we started that Google document immediately to see what would be the best path to get them to save shelter. UM. We started sharing it with our partners and our community, and we realized that many more people needed it than

we thought initially. UM. So it just started growing from there uh to the place where it's at now ninety pages or so UM, and it's access by tens of thousands uh um and and keeps growing. Now. I know when you started this it was just you and one or two other people. How many people are working on this now? How constantly are you updating it? It's a real time updates UM. A lot of people are contributing from different countries. UM. As new policies are being added

in Australia or in Germany or in UK. You the policies are updated in the Google doc UM. There are thousands of contributors, and we look at every information that's being put to make sure that it's vetted. Obviously, it's very important that the information gets UM gets a veget so that they this is life in the situation, so it has to be accurate. We're actually looking at scrolling through this Google doc right now. Are there any stories that stand out to you of the people who have

been helped by this. I'm sure you've got stories flooding in. You know, people who you know who wouldn't maybe wouldn't know what to do. It's heartbreaking. UM. I UM am part of thousands of what's up groups and telegram groups where people are asking left and right for help on how to get to certain borders, how to make sure that they're UM, they're not in their lines of fire, and that they get shelter. On the other sides, most people in Ukraine, as you can tell, have UM stayed

behind to fight, including our own employees. The ones that are going out and looking for shelter are mostly women and children and elderly UM. So it's harder for them to access something like a Google doc because they're not typically that used to just to kind of format. So what happens is that there's one leader out of three or four groups that tells them, Okay, there's this document, we can rely on it to find shelter, and that person usually leads them to their way. UM. I was

family recently. They just got with twelve kids in Romanian hotel and they send me a picture with them being crowded on mattresses. Um. It's it's constant outpouring of of of messages like that you yourself grew up under a dictatorship in Romania, where now so many Ukrainians are fleeing. What are you hearing from family and friends in Romania about what that's like seeing all of these people come

across the border. Ukraine and Romania are quite similar in that they've lived under some oppression of some kind from Russia, and at the same time there's there are some friendships that have formed. I don't thing that anyone feels like there's a war between Russia and Ukraine. Um, it's mostly

that there's a war between Puttin and Ukraine. Um. Everybody is at Everybody who's um on the more educated front on on Russia feels that, even though they're not allowed to talk about it, that this is not a sentiment that they share that they should be attacking. And in Romania there's this looming fear that is reminiscent of communism, of dictatorship um, where everybody was afraid to speak out, everybody was in a state of fear um and and constantly propaganda played on TV. So it's a it's a

that's familiar with Well. Grateful for the heart and Sawyer putting into this document that is now helping so many people in Vandenberg, co founder of Chili Piper, thank you. Coming up, we're gonna be talking about software. Page your Duty shares soaring after their results. CEO Jennifer Tahatta is with us. Next, this is Bloomberg. Pagere Duty is seeing a big boost after reporting a better than expected outlook

for the year, but the stock still struggling. You're to date along with the rest of software, joining us now to discuss page Duty. CEO Jennifer ta Hatta Jennifer shares jumping here. What do you think it's going to drive the next year of growth as we come out of a pandemic but are facing all of these macro economic headwinds. Well, thanks so much for having me, Emily, And first of all,

I'm really proud of our results. We saw accelerated growth in the last year, ending the year growing revenue at thirty and we see a lot of momentum coming into the new year on the back of really strong performance in our enterprise mid market segments with customers spending over a million in a r are with US growing sixty and customers spending over a u K growing UM. You know, the macro is has been really challenging over the last

couple of years and that continues. If you had asked me five years ago did I think I'd be dealing with a new crisis almost every quarter as a CEO, I wouldn't have you know, I would have thought that was a crazy question. And now here we are, I will say that, UM, in the macro environment, we are not seeing a change in what so far as a pretty strong buying signal because a lot of our long

term tail winds are still in play. We see customers adopting the cloud, We see DevOps transformation happening all over.

Digital acceleration in particular still going on. It's not just a COVID thing, as as companies realize that the primary way they're going to engage with their customers is through a digital experience, and increasingly we're seeing inflation and some of the broader macro and certainty we can talk about Europe, we're seeing that as a potential driver for increased appetite in automation, which has been a big part of our platform.

What are the global trends that stand out to you, because in general, it certainly seems like we're seeing a reset on big tech, on enterprise software, and I wonder if if this is something that's going to continue for the foreseeable future, or if we get back to the multiples that so many tech investors had gotten used to

ordainitely seeing some you know normalization. You had some multiples that were very very high and hard to rationalize, and then you had some companies that were not playing in the same range. What I would tell you is every company is becoming a software company. That's a reality. So I don't I don't think software is going away anytime soon, and I do think that investors are going to continue

to look for, you know, a path to profitability. And you know, we were we were chilled to share with our our investors this week that we intend to be profitable by f y twenty four that you know, we're going to continue to gain operating leverage as the company scales, and we see that as you know, a way to become true durable grower um from from a broader perspective.

But I think you know, if you look at what's going on in the macro, one thing that is certain is that the way customers and the way employees work has changed. Is a lot more interrupt work, unpredictable, unstructured work coming at employees now, and some of the more traditional platforms to getting queues, etcetera don't serve that type

of work very well. Page Your Duty is designed for technical crises, to start incidents, and increasingly we're seeing it be used for crisis management, which you know is unfortunately becoming a really important practice in most companies today. So what do you think this will all mean for Page Duty stock? I mean, obviously we've seen the stock under pressure despite these strong results. What's what's next? Quickly? Well, I I you know me, I'm a long game player.

I have been at the company for six years. You're gonna have to carry me out in a box. And I actually have a lot of confidence in both the team and the company, and we have very sticky customer base, you know, or our gross retention has been consistently above a dollar. Retention has been above twenty percent. We expect to keep that pace going. So I actually think there's

a lot of upside and growth. And you know, we're very focused on our purpose and our mission to revolutionize operations and we think this is what modern companies need. And you know, frankly, if you look at what's going on in the backdrop, that that remains true. So I feel good about the direction. Jennifer had a CEO of Page Your Duty Always good to have you on the show, Jennifer, and thank you for stopping by. Welcome back to Bloomer Technology.

I'm emily changing in San Francisco well, between inflation and rate hikes, the war on Ukraine, the pandemic, the consumer landscape has changed dramatically over the last few months and years. Here to talk with me about where the consumer is going and more. Kirsten Green, founder of four Runner Ventures. Kirsten is great to have you back here on the show. Thank you for having me. You've spent to you decades focusing on the consumer. Walking through malls in the early

days of your career as an analyst. I'm curious where you think the consumer is going now, facing all of these shocks, all of this uncertainty, higher gas prices, What does that tell you about where they're going to be wanting to spend their money. There's a whole new list of things on the macro level that are impacting us today, and we're talking about the economy and the last two years has been probably the unprecedented time of change and disruption.

So this consumer has really been through a lot the last couple of years, and I think, you know, as much as anything we've been, it's been demonstrated that they're resilient. People are resilient, consumers are resilient. UM. We definitely have had you know, kind of higher savings rate, lower spending during this time period and sentiment kind of fluctuating and going up and then most recent period down again. So here we are back on another leg of the roller coaster.

And I think that, like you know, as we entered this year, UM, I really was looking forward to seeing like what are the new norms people are establishing, And that's where we're trying to keep our focus on, which is out of this period, what is kind of re emerging, like it's not going back to where we were before. It's obviously not being where we've been for the last two years, but it's really thinking about what is the future look like and how are people going to be

impacted by the recent events going forward. Now you throw in you throw in a war, you throw an inflation, you throw an interest rate increases, and that's just a lot of uncertainty, and you're seeing that show up in lower consumer sentiment and consumer confidence numbers. So what does that mean for the next leg of the roller coaster and where you are going to be putting your money because your job is to figure out those early bets

that none of us right don't. So we've been we've been investing, and we've been looking at a consumer who has been, you know, cautious for the last two year. Savings rates have been highered, spending has been lower, They've been more particular about what they're buying, when they're buying, how they're buying, just like they are with their time.

I think that continues. If we thought this year was going to be the year to re emerge and for everything to kind of come back on, I think now you've got a whole other host of reasons for people to be a bit cautious. That being said, people are fully healthy. This is you know, some of that. We're we had higher savings rates definitely over the last two years than we've had in decades. Um. While peep spending has started to take back up, savings rates are still higher.

The job market is incredibly it's favorable to people looking for jobs, so there's kind of a counterbalance to some of the things that feel threatening out there. And I think you just see people proceeded with caution, but also feeling like they want to get out and spend a little bit more and get out and do things again. What's happening in the venture capital environment? Because there has been a ton of money flooding into the ecosystem and

valuations have been high. I'm hearing that valuations are starting to come down given this uncertainty. What are you say that that is the hearing. I don't know how many people have seen it yet, but I think it seems like the practical or the expected thing to have happened, you know, I think everybody's life has been different for the last two years. We talked about the consumer's life being different for the last couple of years, investors have

been too. I think we we went home on March and thought like, we can't do our jobs because it's such an in person type of job, and we learned how to do that in a remote environment. Last year was a record year for investing in the venture ecosystem. It was almost more than two x the year before, and so it was just like people at work focused and just cranking, you know, cranking out making new investments.

And so I think this year, end of this year, and you have a lot of new investments to navigate in an uncertain environment, it's a good time to sort of take a pause, make sure people are set up for success, think about how you are going to set priorities for this year. And the changing landscape. UM and thing were frothy last year on a lot of levels. It's you know, it's never all across the board. I mean, there's a lot of innovation and there's a lot of

newness driving opportunity. So but the pause moment does give people a chance to kind of reset a little bit. And I think that you know, that's probably healthy. It's healthy for everybody. It's healthy for the ecosystem in general. But it's more of a conversation right now and sort of like how do we expect that to play out than it is I think actual deal pricing. You've now raised over a billion dollars in our last fund, and

you are celebrating the ten year anniversary of Forrunner Ventures. Yes, what if the next ten years going to look like? How do you put those hundreds of millions of dollars to work? Yeah? I actually, um, you know, I feel so invigorated to be entering this next decade with ten years of experience working together as a team and still being as excited about what we do and as ambitious in the face of a tremendous amount of opportunity. So, you know, you've been covering the tech industry for two

a couple of decades. I've been investing in it, but in so many ways like it is out of place now where it is ubiquitous, it is part of not just business but people's lives, and we're really seeing a lot of more useful cases for it and really shaping

people's lives in different ways. I think there's been this happened because of because of technology, because of connectivity UM, and it was sort of catapulted forward, I think in the face of the pandemic, which is this idea of like I want to do, I want to be more self reliant, I want to take more things into my own hands. UM, maybe I want more flexibility in my life.

So people are changing their career paths, or they're changing how they make money or how they seek opportunity, and that is feeling like a whole new landscape of potential across the board and UM and that's also shifting how people are spending money. So I think there's just a lot of opportunity happening. I think there's more conversation about sustainability, about kind of like how to do good in business

for the future. There's obviously a lot of conversation about Web three or crypto and how that's going to influence things. So I think, you know, our team feels definitely like we're entering this year executing into a tremendous amount of opportunity and change. What are you most excited about when it comes to crypto and web A lot of people still don't understand it. Yeah, I mean, I you know, I think we're all on a really steep learning curve.

Um we have made some early investments. I think the area where we're focusing the most on is how do we think about making it something that's more approachable and more kind of you know, practical to people and to business, so that it's not just a kind of a subsector of the economy. It's like, Okay, it's a new it's a new protocol, it's a new way of doing things. It will allow different kinds of access. How do we think about leveraging that in the context of what we're

already doing. So does it you know, does it make business transactions easier? Does it change kind of some of the goods you buy? Does it change how you interact in some ways? And so really thinking about how do you make that an approachable experience? Now, one thing that is not changing fast enough is the representation of women in the tech industry. And the latest now here is

this two percent that keeps getting thrown. Around two percent of venture capital funding last year went to women only teams. It's like when you look at mixed gender teams, but that still means more than of venture capital is going to only mail entrepreneurs. Something, isn't it? Changing faster what's going It's incredibly disappointing and frustrating, particularly because that is a downtick from the year before, and that's just unacceptable

on all kinds of levels. I do think on the positive side, you have twelve percent of women, UM, twelve percent of partners at adventure firms are are women. That's up from two percent a few years ago. Women led firms raised seven billion dollars last year. That's up substantially from any year in the past. UM. And you know, I, I sincerely hope and believe that like that changing landscape is going to flow through to a more diverse group

of founders being funded. And I don't want to get hung up on one year as a trend or as we can't accept that, right and so I, you know, I'm last year, let's call it an anomaly, and this year, let's say that the inputs are going to drive better output, because it is so obvious and clear when you look at results that multi gendered, multi ethnic teams are better

company cultures. And after having invested in a hundred and fifty plus companies private companies over the last decade, we could definitely say that one of the biggest indicators, if not the biggest indicator of between a company that does well versus a company that does really well, is the culture that they built. Yes, it's the ability to get the right people engaged and to give them the right

opportunity to flourish and do their best work. All right, Well, I'm going to take a little dose of your optimism and hope that you're right that things will get better. Kirsten Green, founder for Runner Venture. Is always good to have you here. It's good to see you in person. Thank you for having me, for joining us. All right, coming up, talking about crypto, women in crypto. What block five's latest survey tells us about the role of women

in the ever expanding blockchain ecosystem. They want a piece of that pie. We're going to talk to Flory Marquez, co founder of block Fi. Next, this is Bloomberg Bitcoin fluctuating after the FED signal, additional tightening and increasing interest rates making risk assets potentially less attractive to investors. Let's dive deeper into this with our crypto contributor Sinali Bossi Shinale. How much will that deter potential investors given that some

people don't think of digital assets as a risk at all. Yeah, I think to have this conversation, we really need to take a long term view here, Emily, we have to look at bitcoin over the last five years, because if you bought bitcoin in the last year, yes, you had a lot of volatility, but five years ago you've made many, many times your money. And you know, we're trading just over forty thousand. Now, just back in ten we were trading at like fourteen thousands, so you well more than

doubled your money. The reason you have to bring this up also is in the context of you know, if you buy stocks or if you buy a house, the idea is to build your wealth over time. Let's look at the theory um, also a smaller by market cap than bitcoin, but even ethereum also yes, volatile in the near term, yes, down from its peak, but much much higher than if you bought it five years ago. So the question still remains, where does it go five years

from now? Does it hit that five hundred thousand mark that Mike Novergrats is talking about, or does it just get a little higher than forty thousand. But either way you can see how people think the long term can be a good investment. All right, well, let's talk a little bit about where women think the curve is going. Shall I hang on? Joining us now at Block five.

Co founder A Floory Marquez, also senior vice president of operations, out with a new report on women and crypto and Floory the big concern is that women are going to be left behind in another big revolution, that crypto and crypto companies are already very male dominated. What is the

data telling you about the representation of women in crypto? I, Emily and Shannali, it's great to see both again, and uh, I am very very focused on making sure that while we are we are in the early stages of developing the technology behind crypto, we are paying attention to the

demographics and inclusion. So apt blocked five we ran a survey where we asked a thousand individuals who identify as women what they think about crypto, and what we learned was very interesting, which is of women had heard of crypto, and one in four actually slightly higher than the statistics we saw from the Biden administration actually own crypto. And I think it's very important to look at the trend line. So the statistics are not where I would like to

see them today. But we actually ran a survey six months ago and today to track how how women how many women knew to buy crypto? Did they know where to purchase crypto for the first time, And in the last six months that number has doubled to nearly forty percent of women. So it definitely the statistics are not where I'd like to see them today, but we are trending in the right direction, and I think there's so much more that we have to do to make sure

that we're hitting an inclusion. Now. The majority of that women you talked to, I noticed are hoddlers. They they're they're planning to hang on. And I'm curious, do you think that crypto could be the great equalizer that some are heralding? It could be. I think it definitely has some promising aspects to it. So Shinali was just talking about the five year returns in crypto, and so I think that what we see with women and investors in general is that people who buy crypto do believe in

its long term value. So the majority of women that we interviewed actually are buying and holding onto those investments, believing in the long term of turns and in terms of equalizing access to digital assets. I think this comes into play in two ways. One is there this is a brand new technology, no one's an expert, and so what that means is that we're all on the ground floor, and so we have a chance to bring inclusivity in from the ground up, and I do think that lower

some barriers. The second aspect is just the fact that crypto is allows financial access on a global scale. For the first time in history. You can access US grade financial asset assets from overseas instantly on your phone, and that's extremely exciting. Flora, you came from a more traditional finance background, fintech and then private asset manager. So how this is a common critique that women don't manage risk the same way, they don't think about risk the same

way as men. You know, that's constantly what we hear. So how then in crypto, one of the riskiest asset classes, do women start to think about risk, get comfortable taking it on, and also not just go with the assumption of things go straight up but could also hit some roadbumps along the way. I think that one of the interesting things that we found in our survey is that the majority of women. So about of women make financial

investment decisions off of conversations with friends and family. So if you think about inclusivity from a structural perspective, if you have a demographic that historically has been excluded from the financial system and everyone's learning about their financial decisions

from their communities, um, that's going to perpetuate exclusivity. And so the number one thing that we can do right now as women working in crypto is to talk about the statistics and perpetuate education to our communities and our peers, because I believe that for every single individual that I can convert into the space for the first time, we can bring that knowledge back to our communities and make an exponential change on who gets to play in this space.

And beyond the people who are investing in crypto, can you speak to the companies themselves when you look around at these giant investment firms that have really done well over the last five years, do they have enough women at the top and are their skills that women should be presenting on the forefront and get themselves in those

top roles at this time. So Creston that you just head On was talking about increasing representation, especially when you look at partners in vcs, and I do think that having women in leadership positions will perpetuate more inclusivity in the crypto space over time. And I think one thing that's really interesting about the crypto space that many people might not know is that you actually don't need crypto

experience to move into the space. What we're looking for is people with traditional experience to come into Block five, for example, and bring their traditional experience into the space for the first time. We will teach you about crypto. And so I'm hoping that if there are women out there on the sidelines hoping to break into the space for the first time, that they can see me, hear me. And here you know, we have a hundred jobs posted online.

There are many crypto companies out there hiring. You should definitely look at making the jump. How would you describe your own journey to this space and your experience rising up within this industry that, by many accounts has been so male dominated, even if it hopefully won't be so

male dominated in the future. I think my experience is definitely um biased by the people around me, and I think what's so important about making a jump in any industry is making sure that you're surrounded by a team that lifts you up. And so I think what's so important in any interview process as you're looking at companies, as in those conversations, are you talking to people who

can be your peer and who can propel you forward? UM. I think one thing that's really beautiful about the crypto industry is that because we're in the early stages, there's so much innovation to be had. And so my experience in traditional finance with some times that um, we were in a crowded room and there's a lot of sharp elbows to compete for new ideas. In crypto, everything's a new idea, and so there's a lot more camaraderie and support in terms of being able to propel your own

career forward faster. Floory Marquez Block five co founder along with our own Shinneli Bassik, thank you both for the first time a live virtual broadcast of an NBA game. It was a peek into the future of what the metaverse and sports could look like. An executive Disney calling it a video game come to life. That's how many viewers felt as well. For more, I want to bring in a Bloomberg's Mark German, So some people thought this

was a slam dunk, others did not. Mark. What was your take, Well, first of all, I'm glad to be on here, Emily talking to you about the NBA and it is not a Lakers game. I you know, I pledged to no longer watch Lakers games this season because they're doing so terribly. It was the Nets Mavericks game, two great teams. I thought it looked like a video game, like you said, straight out of NBA Live or NBA two k it, but it really didn't look so great.

I'm not sure what the advantages for consumers. I think it looks like a gimmick. I think it looks like something you would play with the video game. That's when you want to see it. When you're watching a game on TV, you want to see it completely in real life. So I don't think this presents any benefits. Now, if you watch t NT through their Apple TV app or some of their TV stations, what you can actually get is you can watch the game live view, not through VR,

with multiple angles. And I think that's really what the future of watching sports is, being able to see four or five different angles. Simultaneously versus watching it through VR. Now we have companies that are approaching this apple. For instance, Spot a company two years ago called next VR, and they develop technology that does just this what you're seeing right now from ESPN. With that nets Mavericks Games. So it's clearly a direction that some companies are heading. I

don't see the benefit though. This was a partnership between ESPN, Disney, NBA, Canon as I understand, it's six separate feeds. I guess you know. The question is how could some of this technology spice up the future of of of the game experience. I mean, I agree I want to see players playing in real life, but is there something here that could

make it cool? I think the future of live sports is probably augmented reality right where you're wearing a R glasses or your normal glasses of a R features to a game right and you're able to see stats or other information while watching the game right. Some TV networks have a feature now where on top of the players, you'll get a little overlay that tells them what percentage based on past history, is it like it? They'll make the shot based on where they are standing with the

ball at that particular or second right. So I think that is where you're getting real helpful in formation in an A R or VR sense in terms of actually watching this content in virtual reality. It looks cool, but clearly there's some work to be done on the cameras, on the angles and such. People are pointing out that it really doesn't look so great. Books chopped up. It looks like players running into each other when they're not

so it's not looking so hot. Maybe in a couple of years of the technology advances, it will look better, but I'm not sure why anyone want to substitute real life for virtual reality, especially in sports. Mark German, thank you fun to talk about the NBA, even if it's not the Lakers. Always appreciate you taking the time to join us. That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. Tomorrow we're gona have Colleen McQuary of a Credit Carma

talking about the gender pay gap. Also, please re listen to our show on the new Bloomberg Technology podcast. Download it for when you're on the go. It is great. This is Bloomberg