Silvergate Plans to Shut Down, Rent the Runaway's Avant Garde

The Runway CEO discusses how the fashion rental is leaning in to a more cost conscious consumer, but first from the micro individual companies to the macro where we've seen, while actually little bit more of a mood shift just towards later, trade pale once again. The Chair of the Federal Reserve up on Capitol Hill and look didn't give much to alleviate the anxiety around whether the interest rates

are going to be rising. But we did manage to see the NASDAC, the tech heavy benchmark push up full tense, recovering some of yesterday's sell off. We're looking at in particular the semiconductor index outperforming up two point seven percent. I'm noting though that really we're still trying to fight off a boring cost that's on the rise. Look at this level, are currently on the tenure or almost at four percent, up another two basis points on the front

end of the curve. The two year we've been well above that five percent level. Let's flick it on with an inverted yield curve. We are still seeing some other areas or risk assets on the downside. Now, interestingly, we're seeing crypto once again under pressure. Dollar on the rises we think interest rates that have come, but Crypto under pressure for a whole host of different contagion issues that are facing them at the moment. Ed So from that mcchrome picture, I know you're going to delve in a

little bit more to one particular name. Yeah. Look, power has been a big factor in the equity markets for individual names, but newsflow still drives the agenda. Actually, Adobe really interesting up three tenths of one percent, paired its gains, but we've reported Caroline that they're committing to no company wide layoffs this year. Will dig into that later in

the show. Snaturally Interesting down almost six percent. A lot of notes out from the cell side today saying, actually, if you look at it, the chances of TikTok being banned in the US unlikely. So they won't be as much feel good read through to names like snap Data Dog down four percent, analysts warning about some systems issues and breaches which might impact revenue, and Tesla down three percent. Regulators looking into concerns about the steering wheel falling off

the latest regulatory headache for the ev maker. Breaking news in the last hour. As he said, Silvergate has issued a statement telling the market that it is planning to wind down and liquidate. A profound reaction in after hours trading. We're down thirty five percent. Let's get straight to the details. Were bloombos Uci yang Ucci? What do we know so to this announcement from Silvergiate, it's not a total surprise if you have already followed the previous actions from the

company of Silvergate. On Friday announced that they had to suspend their flagship product, calls the same Payments neat Work, which is the product that attracted a lot of these cryptal firms to onboard with Silvergate in the first place. The company couldn't file their annual report before and they also talk about the risk of being investigated by the Justice Department. So we know that now the bank has

announced that they're going to liquidate. They're going to an orderly wind dine or windowne, and then their plan is to be able to fully repay the deposits to their customers, which is a good news for the cryptal industry because

the contagent risk will be much lower. And yet it's interesting, even though you brace yourself, you see such a market moves that spells out and also not just in Silvergate, but other crypto friendly banks I'm thinking of the like Signature Bank and also coin based on the downside, yes, so the biggest challenge for the cryptal industry now is that their players are finding it very difficult to get

access to banking services. Silvergate was one of the very few banks in the space that were friendly with crypto companies, that were willing to open a bank account with them and take deposits from crypto firms. As you mentioned, Signature is one of the other banks, but that bank has already announced their plan to scale back from serving crypto customers. So right now there's concerns among crypto players about how they could exactly transfer US dollar while finding a banking

partner in the US. Chiang running to set for us. We appreciate it. I made all the fallout across crypto from the risky assets of crypto too. Of perhaps some would say in more bread and butter cash or money market funds. Apparently they're all the rage at the moment as we move away from the likes of crypto. Liz Young is the perfect person to discuss all of this

head in. That's a strategy over it so far. Just talk us through at the moment moving away from the crypto sphere into good old equities, bonds, and indeed cash instruments. Where are people gravitating as we think about a higher interest rate environment. Yeah, so An, I don't know that people are necessarily taking money out of crypto and putting it into cash instruments. I think a very different risk

tolerance there. But we are in a period where you can look at things like the six month treasury yield above five point two percent, a two year treasury yield above five percent, and you're getting a really good yield for parking your money for a pretty short period of time. And I would say, as an investor, even a long term investor, what you want to look for over the short term, no matter what the instrument is that you're

investing in. You want to look for very obvious dislocations in markets, and right now I do think that this is a time where the treasury market is seeing a brief period. I don't know that I would call it a dislocation necessarily, but there is a little bit of a disconnect between the treasury market and the equity market. So this is an opportunity in treasuries to get a yield that we may not see again for many years. Ladies, thank you for joining us on this International Women's Day.

We were just saying then as that one hundred on a three day basis pre during and off to Pow And I ask you where does that leave us as we value tech shares in particular, this kind of reset of how we think about rates, bigger increments and high for longer, right right, Well, what happened this week is Jerome Powell did it again. His comments moved markets, and he moved them pretty quickly and in a big way,

and in a lot of different ways. So what we heard from him was we put the possibility back on the table, not even just on the table, but now it's looking to have almost a seventy percent chance of maybe a fifty basis point hike at the next meeting, which is just a couple weeks away. So what it did for markets is it now has to force us to digest the possibility of maybe not that steady sort

of trickle out of hikes that we were expecting. One of the things that I found peculiar about this statement was that the Fed had continued to say, we're not going to repeat the same mistakes of the late seventies early eighties. We're not going to go through this stop start cycle. This sort of would be similar to a stop start cycle. So now markets are forced to digest kind of a jagged rate path, and it's going to be more difficult both in the bond market and the

stock market. The bond market is having a hard time with that, which is why we're seeing over one hundred basis point in version now between the two year and the ten year yield. Liz, you're a chart watcher, and I've spent all day with Caroline agonizing which chart am I going to show? And in the end I decided, you know what, I'm just not going to show a chart.

I'm just going to ask a question. You're really focused in zeroed in on jobs data, and what we've been talking about in the tech sector is the big headlines around layoffs, but the data doesn't necessarily reflect all of those people being out of work. How are you reading the tech headlines when it comes to layoffs. Well, I think what happened with the tech headlines is that they

hurt sentiment in the short term. But the reality is that tech jobs didn't make up a huge portion of the labor force, and or people that were laid off weren't going to claim unemployment, So we didn't see it in the data. We didn't see it in the headline stuff that we would normally expect to. However, we got some data today, So the Jolts data, which is job openings and quit rates. The Jolts data is still strong in the sense that there are a lot of jobs open.

There's still a five million person gap between the amount of jobs available and the people who are unemployed, so the labor market remains tight. Make no mistake. However, there was something under the surface in that Jolts data. If you look at construction jobs open that fell month over month by forty nine percent. That is a huge drop. Now, I don't want to rule out the possibility that it was seasonal, or that it was just an anomaly because it was January. That could be the case, but that

is a very big drop. And the reason you want to watch construction jobs is because they do tend to lead the overall labor market. So if that becomes somewhat of a canary in the coal mine, it's something that we're going to look back on and say that was where the break started to happen. I Meanwhile, the two's tends, the inversion of a yield curve has been screaming too many.

The recession is in the CODs for a while. Ultimately, if you're looking at putting money to work in more growth orientated names, is now the timeless, straightforward growth names I would probably not buy. If you were going to just paint with a broadbrush, I would not do that right now, particularly because we saw such a big rally from the start of the year and those valuations did

get more inflated. Now, regardless of what happens with market direction from here, in any bear market, there still are names that do better than other names, so you could index towards high quality growth names, high cash flow generating growth names. One of the places that you can look for growth is in the healthcare space, and particularly if you move down the market cap spectrum so into the smaller cap names. They are heavily in biotech and pharma.

You're going to get growth opportunity in those names without the rate sensitivity that you would get in classic technology, communications and consumer discretionary. So if you really want growth in the portfolio, you could look there. It's not top on my list right now of things to buy, mostly because a lot of times when you look at what leads you into a market peak, it's not the same

stuff that brings you out of a market trough. So I do expect that there's going to be a rotation and we're going to see different sectors lead on the other side of this so far ahead of investment strategy. Liz Young so smart and Marky's also ask you on Twitter which conference has the stronger quarterbacks AFC or otherwise. I don't know what that was about, but I'm just helping you out if the moment tell tell you what it's about. I'm a Green Bay packer, but I'm from Wisconsin.

I'm from Wisconsin. Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers is right now in the midst of a big decision of staying. It sounds like either staying with the packers are going to the jets. It would be NFC to AFC. That's what the question was about. All right, all right, you're telling a sort of fair weather forty nine ers fan. I'm not that interested. Thank you for coming to the program so far ahead of investment strategy is young now.

In other news, Uber is exploring whether to spin off it's Uber Freight Logistics arm in a sale or as a separate, publicly traded company. According to sources, the move would allow CEO Diracostra Shahi to focus on the ride hailing and food delivery units. Uber launched the freight division in twenty seventeen. Shares popped in after hours on the news, though a decision is not imminent. Carrow, according to sources.

Another one of those stories that you've been busy helping on overall, ed La louis, thank you time now for talking tech. Japanese lunar exploration startup ice Space, which partnered with Elon Musk's SpaceX to deliver its lander to the Moon, will list on the Tokyo Stock it Changes Growth market April twelfth. It's market cap at the time of IPO would be roughly nineteen point two billion yen according to Bloomberg calculations, that's about one hundred and forty million US dollars.

And on this International Women's Day, JP Morgan has some news that it's calling shocking. Only five point seven percent of startups in Asia Pacific are led by female entrepreneurs, a percentage that stayed stagnant for five years. Private firms in Asia powered by women include Unicorn, Air, walll X, which ranked first on a list compiled by JP Morgan's

private bank, and Nuns and Young. The rankings took into consideration factors like funding, investor confidence, and operational and financial components. But worrying data, Carr, Yeah, and it's worrying because it's relatively stagnant. So too is money being allocated to female entrepreneurs from VC month funds. About two percent more money was put to work in that direction in twenty twenty one, and it was the same back in fourteen, for example.

We can dig into that found I'll just want to bring up a pole that ed you and I put to our own audience today asking whether they think maybe more female entrepreneurs will be inspired to go out there and to build and to get money. And I'm glad to say no, oh, generally you are negative, no forty one percent and no Doogles. One of the people doing

the work trying to change that. Founding partner of Female Founders Fund, which allocates towards businesses built by diverse founders, just taught to us out at the moment about whether you are that pessimistic or not. So first of all, thanks so much for having me, Caroline, and Happy International Women's Day. I think there's a couple of different ways

to look at the data. So obviously, you know, unfortunately we haven't seen huge increases in the amount of overall funding going towards women, but we track different types of metrics. So for example, in the history of the NASDEC, there had been three IPOs led by female founders before twenty twenty one. In that year alone, there were seven IPOs

led by women. So I think that, you know, as a fund that invests in female founders, we have to remain optimistic and it's even more important in terms of the work that we do. But we are seeing more female CEOs that are taking companies public that are raising large growth rounds. So overall, you know, I'm cautiously optimistic, and you're building that network effect holding summits where you gather an awful lot of female entrepreneurs and advisors together.

I think it was about ten million dollars worth of enterprise value in one room just last week for one of these events. Where therefore are you allocating money? What exciting problems are these female founders trying to solve? Yeah, so great question. A couple of the areas that we're excited about this year, in particular, so as early investors in naven Clinic, I would say digital healthcare as a category is an area where we've invested heavily in the

past and can continue to be excited. I think the difference this year is that historically we've seen a lot of founders build more curity solutions, and now we're seeing more in the preventative approach. So really founders leveraging data

to help more at risk populations take early action. Great example of that within our portfolio as a company called Gabby, which has leveraged data to be able to help women, particularly those who are more at high risk, take earlier and more preventative approaches to just making sure that you know they're they're kind of tracking that you know, within their their healthcare risk for example, Yes, exactly, so breast cancer.

I would say another category within healthcare that we're seeing a lot of activity in is longevity and really founders looking at finding ways to slow down or reverse the aging process, leveraging biometric data. Couple companies in that space that we've been tracking, so Pronovo, which does early cancer

detection through screening. We've also seen two female founded companies, Modern Age and tal Health, that are again leveraging at home testing to help suggest, you know, supplements and different ways in which you know their patients can take more preventative approaches to aging. I know, I want to talk about kind of the forward vision. We've reported a lot about very senior leaders, women leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond, Susan Wojiki or Cheryl Samberg leaving their roles. You're investing

at the earliest stage of the curve. But how important is that to kind of see a pathway to leading big tech companies? Yeah? Absolutely, I mean, I think the fact that all of these exits happened, you know, within a short period of time is definitely troubling. But at the same time, you know, I think there's a lot of kind of younger talent, and I'm hopeful that you know, you'll start to see these those women kind of rise amongst the ranks, hopefully relatively soon. Bill Bigger, Better Businesses

on Adoogle founding partner of female founders found. What a joy to have you with us. We thank you so much. Plenty more to come in terms of public markets head yeah, and also another strong woman leader in Silicon Valley. Coming up, we're going to speak about Adobe opening a brand new office tower in California, but also pledging no mass layoffs. This seri at a time where it's tech peers are doing exactly that. Our exclusive interview next with Adobe's chief

people officer, Gloria Chen. This is Bloomberg. So this is a case of bucking the trend in technology. Adobe is opening a brand new eighteen story tower in San Jose today with room for thousands of new staff as the rest of the sector simply cuts back on both jobs and real estate. I spoke exclusively with Adobe's chief people officer, Gloria Chen inside what they've dubbed the Tower have listened. Well, the space that we've designed here is not your traditional

office space of desks in cubicles, right. We have created over four hundred different kinds of working environments, so everything from a large town hall to team neighborhoods, collaboration spaces, focus spaces. So it's a lot of different uses under one roof. And so we're actually committed to continuing to grow here. We're here for the long term, but this

is new space for new ways of working. Does that growth include you know, a hope to hire, you know right now, it's not just pulling back in real estate we see from big tech. We see layoffs. Adobe at the end of last year did a small cut. You know, those are two kind of in congress ideas announcing a new space, a beautiful new tower with capacity, while around you we're seeing cutbacks well. And as you know, our products and tools power the digital world. We're coming from

a position of strength. So we're posting great financial results. We had great earnings last quarter, and we are continuing to grow. We're investing now in this market. We are being judicious with managing expenses, we're judicious in hiring, but we are continuing to grow and we're investing in the space to support our employee base. Here you are the chief people officer, and there's a question I want to ask you that about your job day to day, and

it is about FIGMA. But my question is, when you are potentially bringing in an outside organization new people, how do you match those cultures? How do you integrate within your existing culture, Because that's a big part of what you're announcing with the Founder's Tower as well. It's a renewal and new sets of kind of cultural norms and rules. Yes, so we are so since you mentioned that, you know, along with our fortieth anniversary did roll out our new values.

And it's really as we think about in this particular moment in time, having celebrated our fortieth anniversary, moving forward into this next decade of growth, really thinking about how do we prepare for the future and for future growth as it relates to FIGMA and actually in general, all of our acquisitions we do look at not only strategic fit, financial sense, but also cultural fit. So that's something that factors into acquisitions we make ahead of actually making those decisions,

and so that's very very important to us. Can you guarantee at this stage of twenty twenty three, that there won't be more layoffs, that you won't downsize in other areas. So we are coming from a position of strength. We've posted great earnings, we're growing profitably, and so how we're really managing is to be prudent about our investments, be prudent about hiring. We are committed not having company wide layoffs. That was Adobe's chief people officer, Gloria Chen, and a

promise Caroline, no company wide layoffs this year. Were you surprised by that? I mean, it feels to be going against the grain, doesn't it. Ultimately she sort of vindicated it with why the digital tools they build and they're not going anywhere, even within and perhaps more of a recessionary environment. But when you think about the building nature of something you're reporting around Meta, just enunciate for us whether you think really that can be done on one

side by Adobe. Meanwhile, we see what we're about to brace ourselves for with Meta. Yeah, part of the anxiety it Meta is they're just they don't know if the economy is going to get worse, if the ad market will get mersed. That Gloria Chen's point was they're being prudent, they're being safe. Interesting, we didn't even cover it in

that section, but they're also promoting hybrid working. Having just opened a really expensive building, Well maybe you could just really enjoy those sort of added extras for three days of the week. It's the control of the data to conduct all sorts of big data operations. It's the control of the recommendation algorithm, which allows them to conduct influence operations. It's the control of the software which allows them to

then have access to millions of devices. As you put all those three things together and again come back to the starting point, which is this is a tool that is ultimately within the control of the Chinese government, and to me, it screams out with national security concerns. Welcome back to me technology. I'm Kline had aial and I'm ed Lovelow in San Francisco. Some of FBI Director Chrisopher Ray's testimony at a Senate hearing on Global threats, where

he warned of TikTok's ability to ultimately divide Americans. Yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairs, Senator Mark Warner unveiled this bill to contain TikTok data and protect US user data for more, let's bringing Alex Brinkats are interesting on this because Snap was down significantly and it had been higher.

The idea being that everyone took a beat and was like, if you look at the content of this bill, the chances of an outright ban aren't that high, and so the opportunity for Snap to kind of gobble up all these TikTok uses is not that real. Where do we sit with all of that? Absolutely, Warner's bill, you'll remember,

is like the fourth bill that's actually hit Congress. It's a bill that also would basically give President Biden the authority to force a sale or a band, but kind of leading with this idea of a sailor divesseterer, which would mean TikTok would remain here if this bill passes and Biden intends to act on it. But certainly Snap has really suffered because TikTok has really cannibalized their users.

The young folks who are getting older, one hundred million Americans who are spending ninety five minutes a day on TikTok, they are certainly a little bit worried about about TikTok. And Snap would be happy if this company would no longer exist in this home market. How's the company itself, TikTok, responding tool of this, Alex, So, TikTok would really seem prefer for this process, for the national security review to be kicked back to this kind of long running, scipious

review process that's been happening behind the scenes. It's been something that's gone on for years. It's the thing that's gotten Congress pretty impatient and push them to actually propose these bills. They say they put all these security measures in place that would address the concerns that FBI Director Ray is talking about. But the skeptics on the hill, the skeptics in the DOJ, the skeptics at the FBI

don't seem to be buying what TikTok is selling. So this is probably the least ideal venue in Congress for TikTok to be kind of facing some of these detractors who, as they've gone on hills and kind of a round robin tour trying to give convinced folks that they should be allowed to stay, they've continued to run into a wall of folks just not believing them. Bloomberg's Alex Burenco, the aatist and all things TikTok. Thank you. Now moving

on to another tech giant, Google. For years, AI was Google's thing until Open Ai swooped in and kind of stole their thunder. Now the AI arms race is on, and as a recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece points out, the tech giant has declared a code read a directive that all of its most important products, those with more than a billion users, must incorporate generative AI within months. That's

according to a Bloomberg source. Let's do a deeper dive into Google into Google's AI A push and some of the considerations behind that, with Google's Vice president for Trust and Safety, Laurie Richardson. Laurie, welcome to the program. Thank you for your time on this International Women's Day. The message from you, as I understand it, around AI is being bold but responsible. How difficult does that make your job right now? Well? Thanks, it's great to be here.

So Google has made a statement that we plan to be both bold and responsible when it comes to this next generation of launches. But it's important to note that Google's been in the AI game for quite some time. We've led on cutting edge research and in fact, when I first came to Google several years ago. I led the team that drafted and launched Google's AI Principles, which really is the blueprint for how we plan to and

have approached AI responsibly. We externalize those in twenty eighteen, and they have really served as the north star both for us and for others in the industry and the foundation there is really about AI being socially beneficial and being something that helps enable humans, and about working as much as we can to reduce any unintentional consequences. Laurie, I'm really interested in your role and what you're working

on day today. How do you bring together all of the really smart people working on the product side, with your leaders, with government, with academia to kind of make sure that whatever happens with BOD or other AI related initiatives, that to your mind, it's safe. Well. I was drawn to join Google because I really believe in Google's mission, which is about organizing the world's information and making it

universally useful and accessible. My team Trust and Safety helps Google stays true to that mission and make sure that anytime you're interacting online, so whether you're searching for information for a school report or buying a present, for a friend or looking for directions to a local restaurant that you can do that in a safe and trusted way.

It's an incredibly dynamic space. The work is always evolving, and we take on not just keeping people safe when they're using our products, but some bigger questions too, like around global election integrity, or making sure that people in Ukraine have access to high quality information in the wake

of the Russian invasion. Therein is the issue of misinformation, of disinformation, something that people are particularly worried about when it comes to large language models and the propensity to spit that out even more is that okay, concern, where are the king risks for you? Well, We've had many years of experience and making sure that no matter what Google product you're using, you have access in easy ways

to high quality authoritative information. So think about Google Search, and I'm going to use the example of global elections. We want to make sure that when major elections around the world are taking place, when people want to find out where to vote and how to vote and what time their polling station opens, you can immediately go to Google Search and find that information. So information quality has been at the heart of what we do for a really long time, and this next wave of technologies is

no different. We're going to bring all of that insight and knowledge to there. We take misinformation and disinformation really seriously. My team develops policies and enforces them around things like medical misinformation to make sure that users can trust the information that they find in the moments that matter most. What is it though that helps with content moderation? Ultimately?

Is it about people? Is it about AI trainers? We've heard much reports about those doing the workout in Kenya for Chat GPT, or is it actually AI on versus AI using machine learning in the like? I think it's all of the above. If you use If you look

at Google's AI principles, they really help. It's we release AI principles and AI practice at the same time, so it starts with how the models are developed and train and making sure that you're doing that intentionally, thoughtfully, responsibly while you're being bold is what we are work at

Google to do. Laurie, I want to give you a specific example, and I appreciate that you know you're focused on what Google's doing, But one of the things that has been pointed out about Chat GPT is it generating sellacious or I guess I'm looking for the right word, but I guess worrying content In response, how specifically do you tackle those issues in order to keep users safe?

I'll just say it's really early days for this technology, and I think we're all learning about what its most beneficial uses are going to be and how to put the right boundaries around it. At Google, we have lots of people working both internally and externally, trusted testers to train and to do adversarial testing so that we understand exactly how the products are going to behave and perform. I think this is also a whole of society set

of questions. So we again externalizing our AID principles, making sure that enterprise customers and we've done this for many years really know how to responsibly deploy AI and working with government, civil society stakeholders to make sure that people are really harnessing the benefits. Here it's an all hands on deck approach, and yet it's all hands on deck to get this to the user base as quickly as possible.

You can't move but for a headline of another company adopting generative AI within it is the Paddoor's box open now because ultimately we've gone live. You're going live with BARD to a certain extent, and it's in people's hands. How do you stop that? Therefore, I think we're in the phase where we're really still learning and training and shaping this technology, and it's still it's important to take a bit of a longer view. This is early days and we're going to be learning more about how to

use it most beneficially. So it's still very early. But I know you speak as a passionate mother, and I speak as a passionate mother too that my children don't have a long term view in terms of what they can consume or can't consume, that their minds are boggled on one consumption and one consumption alone. Do we have that ability to break things in this environment? Google's products for a very long time have really been designed with safety,

including for children in mind. So we have controls that we build in too, products like the Google Assistant, which is an early version of interactive AI, that make sure that when children are asking it for information, they're getting the most high quality information that's safe for children that's out there. I think that the potential for everyone and being able to have The type of knowledge at their fingertips that Google Search has provided for a long time

and that will continue to develop, is really exciting. I don't know about you, Caroline, but I am a mom. When I was little, I had the World Book Encyclopedias, and that's how I looked up information. It's pretty exciting that I can very quickly work with my children to learn and grow because the world of information is at their fingertips, and I think building in responsible constraints and making sure that parents and kids know how to use this technology well is part of what we see our

role in doing. Laurie, you mentioned it earlier in your Remit is actually much broader than just AI. But the

war in Ukraine and the issue of disinformation. Can you talk to me about the work that you're doing in that theater and some of the progress that you've made over the law Twelve months in the wake of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Google and many others in the industry acted very quickly and recognition that wasn't just a war that was playing out on the battlefield, was also a cyber war and an information war, so we very

quickly addressed at its root causes. Of Russian disinformation, and we also made sure really importantly that people on the ground in Ukraine and all over the world had access to high quality information when they most needed it. One thing that Google did is partner with Ukrainian government to make an air aid app available so that Ukrainians would

have some notice when an air raid was coming. We also made sure that the top of Google Search, you're able to find information very quickly, and that our maps were as accurate as possible. And this work is ongoing,

of course, is the tragic war in Ukraine continues to unfold. Laura, One thing I wish my children could type in and search and I could highlight for them is the wealth of female leadership that there is a certain businesses, whether across finance, business and technology, and unfortunately the numbers are

still pretty rubbish. To be perfectly frank, when you're seeing particularly female leadership at your company at others, taking a step back at the moment and it suddenly feels all at once, how do you feel as a woman in leadership at this particular moment. While saying that Google's been a really to risk a place for me to grow my own career, and that's partly because I've had incredible female mentors Susan Wajski you mentioned earlier with Kreat many others.

But we also think a lot about pipeline at Google, and so many of our up and coming leaders are women. The leaders of search, of assistant of Google Workspace are

all women, and it creates an incredibly dynamic environment. The way that we think about this and talk about this on my team at least, is that diversity and having people from different backgrounds is not a nice to have for us, because we are shaping the next generation of technology for everyone, and so we have to reflect the world that we serve, and so we invest a lot in recruiting, retaining, promoting, and making sure that my team and our company is a place where women can flourish.

I've certainly benefited from a really terrific environment there, and there's I'm really glad we're having this conversation because it's incredibly important to stay focused on it. No, Richardson, thank you for having that conversation. No time off as well. What a hero Google VP for trust and safety. Go get back to your family. We thank you. I'm just talking about Spotify, but order about another company. That's pushing to reach new customers. Rent the Runway is now offering

subscribers more bang for their buck. This week, the company announced the twenty five percent boost in rental options for more for most subscribers. So look, if you're signed up for eight items per month four items ago, you can now choose ten. Jen Hymen, CEO of Rent the Runway, joining us now for what is a push for new subscribers or need? Is it a push to keep this scribe a basic We've already got addicted. This is really about actually offering more value to the customers that we

already have. We've increased all of our subscription plans. All of our subscribers are going to get twenty five percent more value for the same price. And what that effectively means is they can use Rent the Runway even more in their day to day life and really this can become a ubiquitous part of how they get dressed as a result. Jen, I wanted to do some research going into this interview, and I wanted to talk to your

user base. So I talk to my wife, who is a religious user of Rent the Runway on a weekly basis, and she pointed out the changes you've made. But she actually raised a really interesting question about technology, which is the app and how you make items more discoverable, And she actually wants to know also about things that ask official intelligence, how you're able to choose this additional basket

of items that you can go for. Yeah, well, we have a unique business model in that if you're a great e commerceary teller, maybe your customers come to you once or twice a year and they buy one or two units a year. Our customers, on average are picking over a hundred items per year from us. So the way that they browse, the experience, the way they find and discover inventory on our platform has to be even easier,

even more magical than the best in e commerce. And we are investing a huge amount this year in enhancing our user experience, in making the app easier to use, and finding ways for customers to search for inventory as diversus. You know, your wife's seventies party this weekend, going to work, to going on a vacation. I don't reveal my social plans. Look, it's International Women's Day. We're so pleased to have you on the program. This is principally targeted at female audience. Right.

How much of a premium do you think that is for you guys? How hard is it to resist the urge to branch out into mail men's wear as well. We've just scratched the surface of what this business is going to be. You know, if you think about the first decade of Rent the Runway, we had to convince women that we're in clothes that other women had worn before, was cool, aspirational, smart. Now that secondhand is really a part of how we all get dressed. The tailwinds for

our business have never been stronger. And the other tailwind here is that women need and want more variety in their wardrobe than ever before because of social media, because we're presenting ourselves to the world every single day via TikTok, via Instagram, and this is a more affordable and more sustainable way to get that variety in your wardrobe. And yet jen's more competition, and I think newly. I think over a UK self, which is doing something similar as

a Hellost suddenly popping up. Are you worried about that competition? I love competition because it means it's a real market. It means all that Rent the Runway has to be is the best out there, and we have the most premium assortment. We have the very best designer brands on

our platform. We are investing an enormous amount into our customer experience to make finding and browsing the inventory even easier, and I think that it really proves out this is a real market now, as opposed to just an idea that we had five six years ago when we launched subscription and then when you went public, ringing that bell, taking your daughters along, that amazing anecdote that you're then daughter thought that only women could run businesses and you're

having to painfully pop that bubble that you'd managed to sort of give to her in that way when you're talking to your daughter, when you're thinking about this business for the longevity, it's about profitability too, Is that within sight? How you get there when you're offering things more freely. Yeah, we've made financial transformation in the business over the last few years. We've driven our business to a gross margin above forty percent, inclusive of all the cost of our inventory,

all the cost of our fulfillment. We've restructured our debt, We've conducted a restructuring and this is the year that we're going to see significant improvement to our cash burn and the way that we get to profitability is by growing. For every additional dollar of growth that we deliver this year, forty cents goes to the bottom line. So we're really excited to grow the business. We're really excited to bring

the business to profitability. And back to my daughter, Aurora, I work so hard at what I do because I want her concept to run the runway. She thinks run the runway means girls run the world, and I want her to live in a world where that can be more true than it is right now. Gen to that point, you know a pattern of daughters as we both are. Why are we not seeing more women around the world

in that respect? Why we not see more companies being born that are led by family els who are getting the right amount of VC dollars Because at the moment I'm looking at a two percent cap it would seem being allocated to diverse founders. Yeah, it's all about the money, and it's all about the money at later stages. So there's a good amount of dollars going to women. At the seed phase, there's five hundred thousand dollars checks million

dollar checks being ridden. But we all know that the more money you're able to raise, the higher your probability of success, the better talent you can hire, the more mistakes you can make. So it's really about funding women who are further in their trajectory of being entrepreneurs. It's obviously about mentoring those women and having some of the most successful male CEOs mentor female CEOs and kind of

teach them how do they scale their leadership. I've been lucky to be mentored by some of the best CEOs out there who I continue to learn from, and I think it's a combination of money and mentorship that'll get more women into positions of power. Rend The Runway CEO and co founder of course, Jen Him and Caroline talking about so many of the themes that we've been discussing all hour long. Now coming up, Barbie's new dolls support some of those top women we've just been talking about

in technology. We'll discuss all of that next. This is Bloomberg while going viral today. I saw it as part of International Women's Day. The toymaker Mattel creating a number of Barbie dolls based on leading women in stem research, among them the three Wijikie sisters. Susan Whichikie, who owned, of course, the garage where Google was founded, became the longtime CEO of YouTube. Her sister Anne is the CEO of twenty three and me Janet is a professor at

the University of California. And Ed. This is global. They've got Mexican entrepreneurs, they've got scientists in the UK, they've got French philanthropists where Barbie is building these role models. Those three names so impactful in the world of tech, in science, a new generation becoming exposed to them. Imagine, for example, in years gone by, Steve Jobs, dolls, something like that, quite profound. I feel a calling for a redo of a Kendall. That does it for this edition

of Bloomberg Technology. Tomorrow we have the president of other Labs. This is Bloomberg