Scott Galloway · 31:14
And mocking the admissions committee. He's he's... He sat in front of congress or that committee on the first impeachment hearings, and he was so disrespectful. And it's like, let me get this, boss. You're planning to run for senate? You wanna be up there with them, and you're sitting there mocking them, being incredibly disrespectful. And it struck me that this is... And Democrats are guilty of this too. The DC is now a place to go be an asshole, to be strident, to make your point, to be ideologically driven and not to get anything done, whereas at the state level, because of things like they have to balance their budget each year, there's some level of comity, there's some level of consensus, there's some level of recognition that we have to work together. So I think what we're seeing is this bifurcation between people pursuing public service at a state level, where they might be assholes, but occasionally they're prone to fits of sanity and bipartisan action. Whereas literally DC has become come one, come one, come all assholes who just wanna make strident points, the Freedom Caucus
Kara Swisher · 32:17
They're they're also all playing to the president. There was that other congressman who talked fast. I was like, who is that? I don't even know. I don't wanna say his name because I don't even know it. But it's like, literally, they're all like playing for just Donald Trump. I I was watching Lynn Dusky and I thought, what in the world happened to him when he was a kid that makes him such an asshole? Like, you know what I mean? Like, he thinks it's funny. He's like that prankish asshole that was always in school with you. There was always a guy like him when I went to high school and college and everywhere else, and and in workplaces. And doesn't... No. Actually, you don't happen to workplaces because they get replaced now. But it's a really interesting, like, weird... I I I have this feeling it's not gonna end well for him in general. Like, I I I wanted to, like, fast forward twenty years for this guy and then think, oh, no. No. No. This isn't
Scott Galloway · 33:03
Yeah. No. I think... Look. I think I think he has a future in the armed services where he's killed by his own troops.
Speaker · 33:09
I think this guy is... I mean, he's
Scott Galloway · 33:11
just such a he's such a difficult, you know, it's just... As you can you can tell how you're getting older. You know, it really offends me now. This is, in addition to, like, thinking I might wanna go on a cruise and, you know. No. One of the ways you can tell you're getting older. It really upsets me when people don't show some level of respect for institutions.
Kara Swisher · 33:29
Agreed.
Scott Galloway · 33:29
Agreed. And it's just, okay, boss, you really wanna break down the institutions that are, you know, helping take care of our old people, defending our shores. You really want to insult these institutions that have taken two and a half centuries and are arguably the most precious institutions globally. Sure, have their faults, but they're the least bad of of their kind. And by the way, you're planning to run for senate?
Kara Swisher · 33:51
I know. You know what my son said? He was watching he was watching it on one of the news things, and all he said is he looked and he goes, what a dick. Like, that's what
Scott Galloway · 33:58
he's Yeah. Perfect.
Speaker · 34:00
And I
Kara Swisher · 34:00
go, anything else? He goes, no. He's just a dick. What a dick. Like, that's what I'm saying. That's
Speaker · 34:05
So that's my my lose is Okay.
Kara Swisher · 34:07
Win? What's your win?
Scott Galloway · 34:09
My win is something boring. It's the s one, and that is people are calling and saying, you know, what killed
Kara Swisher · 34:15
I like it.
Scott Galloway · 34:15
What killed what killed WeWork? And this is a real victory. This was... This IPO was death by s one, and that is the disclosure here did its job. And that's when the shit hit the fan as people started reading through the disclosures and looking at the math. Right. And they realized, okay, this thing doesn't make sense. And it's really, I think, a real victory because what could have happened here, and almost did happen, was that the markets maintained, you know, kept tripping on its Ayahuasca or Halcyon. The thing went public, and you would have had this destruction in value, but it would have been the cost would have been paid or the destruction of value would have been incurred by retail investors.
Kara Swisher · 34:51
Right.
Scott Galloway · 34:51
So the S-one to a certain extent that this required disclosure from the SEC in the form of a prospectus that educated the market potentially saved retail investors $40 plus billion of losses. So while I'm critical of the SEC, think they're really more there to protect management than to protect investors. I think the disclosure documents that are required for company to go public, which by the way don't exist with many markets, did its job. The math showed up and said, we're not gonna we're gonna protect the markets from this. And then as I said, the next big stories are gonna be not only on SoftBank, but also we didn't talk about this, the blast zone impact on JPMorgan. So my win is the the disclosure and death by s one and that that our system our system does have some checks and balances, and I think it's a victory that saved retail investors tens of billions of dollars.
Kara Swisher · 35:41
Here's my win. Automatic, which bought, Tumblr, run by a guy I like very much, Matt Mullenwink, who's gonna come on Recode Decode. He just raised $300,000,000 in series d from Salesforce Ventures at a post money valuation of 3,000,000,000. I think he's slowly been building. I I haven't looked at the the numbers. I don't have them, but I think it's really interesting. He's a he's a really been running that business for a decade or more, just slowly, quietly. I just like that kind of entrepreneur. I haven't looked at them and see if it's worth what they're paying, but I certainly do appreciate someone who spends all their time sticking to their knitting and trying to build their business into a a viable. I like that. I like that kind of personality.
Speaker · 36:18
And what
Scott Galloway · 36:18
does the business do?
Kara Swisher · 36:19
It does like WordPress. It does WordPress and all... It has all... WordPress, Word... WooCommerce. They have all kinds of... They just bought Tumblr. Just... It's not very fancy. I'll tell you that. Know? And he's very interested in commerce. He has a lot of commitment to good journalism. I just... We we were on the WordPress platform when we were at All Things Die and loved it. And, you know Fair. Got it. It's a nice product. And it just, like... I just like... I like when good guys win, I guess. I need to look at the numbers, obviously. But it's... I... I'll talk to him about him when he comes on the podcast, but it was interesting. And then I think... I I don't know if this is a win or lose, but Airbnb has said... Says this intends to grow... Go public. I don't... I can't tell in 2020 with a billion dollars in revenue, but I think they definitely face a lot of headwinds in terms of how... What they're doing in neighborhoods. And I think Brian Chesky is one of the more laudable CEOs among this class, know, someone who will face problems and discuss them. But he definitely has, you know, a lot of challenges of what what impact Airbnb has on neighborhoods. I got an interesting tweet this morning saying they're ruining Amsterdam's neighborhoods because no lives there anymore, and return of drug dealers and things like that. And so that's... That... I don't know if it's a win or lose, it'll be interesting. And speaking of s ones when we see that one... When that one comes out.
Scott Galloway · 37:32
I wonder to what extent those stories are being fueled by the hotel industry that rightfully is upset that they have to pay all these taxes, and then this this company comes in and
Kara Swisher · 37:41
Who pays taxes? They pay taxes. They... I I just did something. I paid a lot of taxes when I was using it. They... It's added in. They pay hotel taxes and things like that.
Scott Galloway · 37:49
And so pay the same level of taxation that hotels pay on
Speaker · 37:52
a It
Kara Swisher · 37:53
seemed pretty high to me. I don't... You know, I don't know on the top of head, but there was definitely a tax element of my my payment, and it was not small. Yeah. So it should be... Just the idea of people clomping through previously regular people living neighborhoods, right, and not staying in tourist, you know, kind of things. It'll it'll be interesting. It'll be an interesting IPO, and he is someone... You know, this biz... Again, this is a business that's super interesting, from lots of points of And he's had ups and downs on executives there, but he seems to, he's a very intense guy. He's a very intense guy. It'll be interesting. It'll be interesting to see. So I I I hope it's a win. I hope, like, both of those things are win because I would like to see more really solid, as you say, companies... Like you said, you said in your your... When you were wearing the Lesbian Zoo Tech and Lesbros shirt the other day, you know, it's the return of, like, businesses that are trying to make money and not growth, but really actually trying to build real businesses. You're a good influence.
— Predictions segment begins —
Scott Galloway · 38:49
Any predictions?
Kara Swisher · 38:50
Any... No. That's you, my friend. I don't predict things. You're the king of predictions. I predict you're gonna make a prediction.
Scott Galloway · 38:57
There you go. So, again... And I'm I'm circling back to my, the earlier story, there's going to be a really big story coming down the pike around the impact of the blast zone of SoftBank. That's the big story here is the Vision Fund. I think the Vision Fund could be on the precipice of an implosion that makes the WeWork story look like, you know, look like an Easter Easter brunch. It's just... This is the world's largest investment fund right now. I mean, you know, $100,000,000,000. It just reminds me, you know, business like real estate is a bit of a local business. And it kinda has some really interesting implications, that is... And I and I understand the lack of moral clarity around taking money or dirty money, but at the end of the day, terms of our own economy and our own prosperity, there is an argument around cash their check. Cash their check.
Kara Swisher · 39:51
Right.
Scott Galloway · 39:52
And our revenge is, quite frankly, they come in with a dollar and they leave with 20¢.
Kara Swisher · 39:56
Right.
Scott Galloway · 39:57
And it props up or it gives American entrepreneurs the ability to go play in traffic and innovate. And when the Japanese start showing up and buying our TV studios, our movie studios, and our golf courses, and when the Japanese again show up and start funding entrepreneurs, you know, look out below because typically, it's like, I have a lot of friends who once they made money in San Francisco and tech decided they wanted to be film producers.
Kara Swisher · 40:22
Right.
Scott Galloway · 40:22
And I'm like, okay, but to be clear, you're not going to get your money back. The objective is just not to lose that much money, it's consumption. Think a lot of
Kara Swisher · 40:30
Gambling.
Scott Galloway · 40:30
Yeah, a lot of global investors have kind of America entrepreneur innovation envy, so they come in with large checkbooks, and they... It almost always turns out badly for them.
Kara Swisher · 40:40
Yeah. They should just buy bonds. They should buy, like, treasury bonds.
Scott Galloway · 40:43
Yeah. Right. Buy an ETF.
Kara Swisher · 40:45
Buy buy
Scott Galloway · 40:46
Vanguard. Right?
Kara Swisher · 40:47
Buy an apartment in... They buy apartments in New York. That's going down too. Luxury sales in New York are going down. It must be hard for you there, Scott. I'm kidding. Did you know that?
Scott Galloway · 40:55
Thanks for
Kara Swisher · 40:56
that. Thanks
Scott Galloway · 40:56
for that.
Kara Swisher · 40:57
No. But big big luxury apartments are down.
Scott Galloway · 41:00
Yeah. No. It's it's a perfect storm brewing in in New York luxury real estate, but cry me a river. Yeah. Anyways, the the... So look. The big story here the big story here
Kara Swisher · 41:11
that hasn't been explored yet The next is
Scott Galloway · 41:14
is SoftBank's vision SoftBank's Vision Fund and what what has really gone on here. It's gonna be it's gonna be fascinating. Somewhere at The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, someone's going through each investment. So six of their investments have gone public. Four of them are down since the IPO.
Kara Swisher · 41:26
I agree. And this... You could see this one coming. You could... I've been
Scott Galloway · 41:30
A 100%.
Kara Swisher · 41:30
A 100% seeing. You know, I do have a prediction. We're going to Canada next week, and I think Justin Trudeau's in big trouble with his brown face thing. Both in... A fail, by the way. I don't know what you can do about things you did when... Thirty years ago, but there's been a third picture of him. He seems to have enjoyed doing either black or brown face quite a bit. There's three, there's one video... Two one video or two videos and two pictures and they're quite... They're... You know, I went to look at it with my kids. We're like, how bad could it be? And then we're like, woah. That's bad.
— Predictions segment ends —
Scott Galloway · 41:59
Pretty bad. What's the context there? What was happening?
Kara Swisher · 42:01
At a Aladdin night party for one. And again, we were like, how... Oh, what did he just put some... Like, it is full. Like, it's a crazy picture. It's like, wow. That took a lot of time to do that. Then another one, he's fully in black body, like, black face, not just that fun, and dancing around.
Scott Galloway · 42:17
My question to you
Kara Swisher · 42:18
So it's not good.
Scott Galloway · 42:19
It's not
Kara Swisher · 42:19
good for
Scott Galloway · 42:20
My question to you and the bigger story is Yeah. Is do you think that's disqualifying? Do you think he should resign as as
Kara Swisher · 42:27
I don't know. That... I don't know. I I think... Look. Whatever you... I think it's terrible. Like, it was thirty years ago, so I'm like, okay. You put that into it. And then at the same time, you're like, wow. You might have said it at the time. This is stuff. He might have gotten ahead of it when all that stuff was gunning out in Virginia. I mean, that guy's still governor. Right? The the the... You know, I'm not sure it's disqualifying, but it sure is from a political point of view because he's such a progressive. He's so known as mister sensitive, like, you know, handsome sensitive guy. I think I think that's where it hurts. It's like just from a political point of view, it's problematic on every level. And it's a good thing because Canada's sort of mixed. People are like, who cares? It was thirty years ago. Another group is like, what's the big deal if you do that? And then there's another group saying, this is a big deal. So I tend to go with the this is a big deal group, but, it's a problem. And we're going there next week, so we can talk about it live in Toronto at Elevate. It's supposed to be the South by Southwest of Canada, and we have, like Right. We have fans there, Scott.
Scott Galloway · 43:22
It's it's gonna be... I'm really excited about it. I hope Trudeau survives this mostly because I think he's dreamy.
Kara Swisher · 43:28
Right.
Scott Galloway · 43:28
Okay. And I think that's a huge asset and a global leader. And, also, my big geopolitical genius strategy was to prompt and go, Trump into invading Canada and pulling a reverse merger where their leadership takes charge of our country. That was my plan.
Speaker · 43:44
Uh-huh.
Scott Galloway · 43:44
I thought that would... That we invade them, and then they... It's a reverse merger. Their management takes over.
Kara Swisher · 43:49
Okay.
Scott Galloway · 43:50
So that's Dreamy. Kind of
Kara Swisher · 43:52
is dreamy, and you didn't stop you from attacking him like a relentless hyena. But... Okay. Alright. Dreamy.
Speaker · 43:59
Dreamy. Relentless hyena. Poor dog. You know what? The big dog went up to that
Speaker · 44:04
purebred Afghan, smelled its butt,
Speaker · 44:06
and said, this is a labradoodle. This is a labradoodle.
Kara Swisher · 44:09
The hair. I think it was all about hair envy, and you just decided that was enough. That's what I think happened there. Anyways He...
Scott Galloway · 44:17
That he definitely knows how to roll on a golf stream, lighten up. He... This guy knows how to roll.
Kara Swisher · 44:22
You're just jealous you weren't invited. Anyway
Speaker · 44:24
A 100%. I'm going down
Kara Swisher · 44:26
Scott Galloway. It's good week for Caris Fisher because this is an awesome first year of pivot, Scott. I don't love you, but I I I don't love you, but I really, really like you. How about that?
Scott Galloway · 44:36
Done. I appreciate your
Kara Swisher · 44:38
credit for your time. I admire you from afar. That's
Scott Galloway · 44:42
There you go. Very far.
Kara Swisher · 44:44
I have warm feelings for you. I'm trying to get something that's not quite love, but I have warm... I have occasionally warm feelings for you.
Scott Galloway · 44:51
You know what my favorite moment of yours is? Hands down, it happened a couple weeks ago at that event when you said your favorite lesbian was senator Lindsey Graham. I just just love that. Only you could say that.
Speaker · 45:03
I I am dying to say that,
Scott Galloway · 45:05
but only you can say that.
Kara Swisher · 45:06
Come on with that guy. Well, just can't. I'm sorry. I just can't... I can't even god. I can't even, as he might say. You know what I mean? I can't even. Anyway, Scott, it's been an awesome first year. We gotta go. We'll see you next week in Toronto. Okay? We're flying up
Scott Galloway · 45:22
the first class.
Kara Swisher · 45:24
We're gonna have some too. We're gonna have some poutine and donuts and stuff like that. It's gonna be really fun.
Scott Galloway · 45:29
Maple syrup. I can't wait.
Kara Swisher · 45:31
Can't wait.
Speaker · 45:31
I'll take you to a
Scott Galloway · 45:32
Leafs game. No. Best Canada... Best hockey in the world.
Kara Swisher · 45:35
It's actually the I'm going in and out. I have children, my friend, and I have more children coming, so I I got duties. Anyway, today's show was produced by Rebecca Sinanis and Eric Johnson. Eric Anderson is Pivot's executive producer. Thanks also to Rebecca Castro, Drew Burrows, and Nishat Kerwa. Make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. And if you like this week's episode, leave us a review. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Vox Media. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
