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Markets, Twitter, Labor, And Baby Formula (Podcast) · Bloomberg Intelligence

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney alongside
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Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day we bring
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Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
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Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets podcast
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Speaker 1: called Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
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Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Please to welcome tow
0:22
Speaker 1: reback to the show. She's a director at k k ARE.
0:25
Speaker 1: I've had the pleasure of interviewing our on television before
0:28
Speaker 1: and how before we get to inflation the economy? Um?
0:34
Speaker 1: Jerome Powell, Paul and I were just saying, you're in
0:37
Speaker 1: the commercial break. Everybody we know who went to Brand
0:39
Speaker 1: Dice is either like on the board of the f
0:42
Speaker 1: f MC or incredibly successful on the street, every one
0:46
Speaker 1: of them. What what's the deal with that school? You
0:49
Speaker 1: guys are so funny. Well, first of all, thanks so
0:51
Speaker 1: much for having me in Happy Friday. You know what,
0:53
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe it's just the luck of the draw,
0:55
Speaker 1: hard workers, a little bit of scrappiness. I think it
0:58
Speaker 1: kind of comes down to that fundamental right there. All right,
1:01
Speaker 1: so um in your hard work now at KKR. Looking
1:05
Speaker 1: at the fundamentals, what do you see in terms of
1:08
Speaker 1: this economy. It's a little bit scary going by the
1:11
Speaker 1: volatility we've been through in um markets and the the
1:16
Speaker 1: inflation um that we're seeing is you know, generational, and
1:23
Speaker 1: you've just got to be worried about the growth even
1:26
Speaker 1: if your base case isn't for a recession. Sure, yeah,
1:29
Speaker 1: I know, it's a fantastic question, and I think, look,
1:31
Speaker 1: the markets have a level of inkst and we haven't
1:35
Speaker 1: lived through something like this in a very long time,
1:37
Speaker 1: and the inflationary levels are certainly very real and something
1:41
Speaker 1: to be extremely mindful of, especially across the investment landscape. Now,
1:45
Speaker 1: it's all that being said, I think we look back
1:47
Speaker 1: at the last twenty four months and we think about
1:50
Speaker 1: kind of the big vacuum of different drivers that the
1:52
Speaker 1: economy and the markets have had, and we have to
1:55
Speaker 1: take a moment to pause and say, you know, the
1:57
Speaker 1: FED is probably sitting between a rock and a hard
1:59
Speaker 1: place and need to act. And there's a little bit
2:01
Speaker 1: of this great unlined happening. But even looking further beyond that,
2:05
Speaker 1: like the last ten years of growth have really accelerated,
2:09
Speaker 1: and there's this globalization of markets, So all that symbiosis
2:13
Speaker 1: coming together and then you're tweaking one lever like that's
2:16
Speaker 1: going to have network effects. And I think that's what
2:18
Speaker 1: we're living through right now with this volatility as we recalibrate.
2:21
Speaker 1: Tell obviously KKR has been around for a long time,
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Speaker 1: tremendous pedigree, lots of experience there, but there's probably a
2:28
Speaker 1: lot of folks on a lot of your investment teams
2:30
Speaker 1: that have not lived through periods of you know, really
2:35
Speaker 1: serious inflation or rate increases or rate increases for that matter.
2:40
Speaker 1: So how are you what's what's the feeling was inside
2:43
Speaker 1: your firm about how to deal with inflation and how
2:46
Speaker 1: to kind of adjust that when you think about investment opportunities. Absolutely, Look,
2:50
Speaker 1: you know, KKR, we've been doing this for six years
2:53
Speaker 1: and history is the greatest teacher and informant of the future.
2:57
Speaker 1: And I think right now with multi gender Asians kind
3:00
Speaker 1: of living through maybe their first bout of real volatility,
3:04
Speaker 1: these are learning experiences where we're kind of playing together.
3:07
Speaker 1: The way we move and pivot across the firm as
3:09
Speaker 1: a global team, I'm really into use and so I
3:13
Speaker 1: would say, even though there might be a level of first,
3:15
Speaker 1: for some of the more junior folks across the team,
3:18
Speaker 1: they're actually they're actually an incredible opportunities for us to
3:22
Speaker 1: kind of figure out how we could be more agile
3:24
Speaker 1: and creative as we structure investment opportunities, as we think
3:27
Speaker 1: about capital solutions, if we lean into different sectors or
3:30
Speaker 1: segments of the public markets. And honestly, one of the
3:33
Speaker 1: things that I love about working here is that it's
3:36
Speaker 1: one team, and so we're kind of exchanging colors, like
3:38
Speaker 1: across the pond, figuring out how we can work better
3:41
Speaker 1: together and figure out how we navigate this market. And
3:43
Speaker 1: for those on the front lines and especially in the
3:45
Speaker 1: first few years of their career, that's super exciting. Do
3:48
Speaker 1: you go over to I'm sure that Barbarians at the
3:51
Speaker 1: Gate is required reading when you get hired there. Do
3:54
Speaker 1: you go to Henry Travis and ask him for his
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventies playbook? Because so many people are concerned that
4:00
Speaker 1: we are looking at the possibility of a stagflation the
4:04
Speaker 1: likes of which we haven't seen since that decade. You know,
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Speaker 1: we are so fortunate at this firm to still be
4:11
Speaker 1: led by Henry and George and Scott and Joe to
4:14
Speaker 1: really put into play all the lessons of history. And
4:17
Speaker 1: quite honestly, I will demystify that our Barians of the
4:20
Speaker 1: Gate is not required reading. But we certainly know very much,
4:23
Speaker 1: like you know, the things that the different decades have
4:26
Speaker 1: taught us across these markets. Markets are fundamentally different now
4:30
Speaker 1: if we think about where they worry even pre GFC,
4:33
Speaker 1: you're talking about, you know, so much of the credit
4:35
Speaker 1: market being equity linked, daily liquidity vehicles. You have different
4:39
Speaker 1: inputs where if you see a sell off and equities
4:41
Speaker 1: there could be permutation into credit. That was not the case,
4:45
Speaker 1: you know, before the crisis. You doesn't a lot of
4:47
Speaker 1: talk about the sixty portfolio, the decoupling of the stock
4:51
Speaker 1: market and credit. I think we're starting to see that
4:53
Speaker 1: there's a lot of new stuff here. And I would
4:55
Speaker 1: also argue that, like you know, after the pandemic, or
4:58
Speaker 1: since the onset of the pandemic, the rules of the
5:01
Speaker 1: game have kind of changed. And I think that's also
5:04
Speaker 1: what you're seeing a little bit as this, you know,
5:05
Speaker 1: this story on the wines of bent so Tell. I mean,
5:08
Speaker 1: KKR obviously is a global firm, global reach, global view.
5:13
Speaker 1: Do you have parts of the world where you're a
5:16
Speaker 1: little bit more focused on right now, whether it be
5:18
Speaker 1: emerging markets or the developed markets. How do you think
5:21
Speaker 1: about that, given you know, coming out of a two
5:24
Speaker 1: year pandemic. Yeah, absolutely, so, You're right. We do have
5:28
Speaker 1: our global lenses on all the time. You know, I
5:30
Speaker 1: would say we're being we're being really selective in Europe
5:32
Speaker 1: obviously given the unfortunate situation there um with the war.
5:36
Speaker 1: We also know that everything is intrinsically tiede um Asia
5:40
Speaker 1: is super interesting to us. On the credit side, We're
5:43
Speaker 1: still find a lot of interesting opportunities um in the US.
5:47
Speaker 1: But I would say we're in a walk run moment
5:50
Speaker 1: right now, and so we are being We're cautious, but
5:53
Speaker 1: we're walking, and we're finding compelling areas to invest, but
5:56
Speaker 1: we're not reaching and overly reaching for risk it. If
6:00
Speaker 1: I think what you're going to see is a little
6:01
Speaker 1: this will probably carry on for a little bit more.
6:04
Speaker 1: The market now understands what the Fed is doing. I
6:07
Speaker 1: think they already knew what was coming, but they're ingesting
6:10
Speaker 1: that reality. All right, tal great, great stuff. As always,
6:13
Speaker 1: tal reback director k K R and a proud graduate
6:17
Speaker 1: of Brandeis University, which again everybody I've come across on
6:21
Speaker 1: my thirty year Wall Street career from Brandeis have been
6:24
Speaker 1: really really sharp people, so that they do a good job.
6:30
Speaker 1: All right, I don't know what's going on. I'm looking
6:32
Speaker 1: at Twitter stocks down nine per cent. Elan's got presumably
6:36
Speaker 1: a bit up there for fifty four dollars and twenty cents.
6:40
Speaker 1: Do we have a bid? Do we not have a bid?
6:41
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm gonna bringing a couple of experts here.
6:43
Speaker 1: They kind of do this stuff for Let me man
6:45
Speaker 1: Deep saying he's Bloomberg Intelligence senior tech analyst. And then
6:48
Speaker 1: I add on the left coast, I think we're gonna
6:50
Speaker 1: put the blame on him. Is Ed Ludlow, Bloomberg News correspondent. Um, Mandy,
6:54
Speaker 1: if you're here in a Bloomberg interactive broker studios, I'm
6:57
Speaker 1: gonna go to you first. Is Ellen just trying to
7:00
Speaker 1: negotiate a lower price here? Well, so look at what
7:04
Speaker 1: has happened in the market over the last two three weeks.
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Speaker 1: Uh Internet companies, software companies multiples have compressed and appear
7:12
Speaker 1: like Snapchat is trading at about five six time sales.
7:17
Speaker 1: This deal was announced at seven time forward sales and
7:20
Speaker 1: if you use any metric evy two daily active user
7:24
Speaker 1: uh ask for the deal, it's around two hundred dollars.
7:27
Speaker 1: Snapchat is around you know, hundred and fifteen dollars. So
7:30
Speaker 1: you can see how the deal can be negotiated lower
7:34
Speaker 1: and clearly at that price for the users. And you
7:38
Speaker 1: know the growth that Twitter had. Twitter is in the
7:41
Speaker 1: highest growing asset in the social media space. Yeah, before
7:46
Speaker 1: the tweet came out this morning, it was like five thirty, right,
7:50
Speaker 1: And when we kicked off my show Bloomberg Surveillance Early
7:53
Speaker 1: Edition UM simulcast on both Bloomberg Radio and Bloomberg Television,
7:57
Speaker 1: I said, you guys, I don't want to talk about
8:00
Speaker 1: us anymore. I'm so sick of the Twitter story. And
8:02
Speaker 1: God love Elon Musk. You know, I'll give him all
8:05
Speaker 1: the credit that he is due. And it doesn't matter
8:09
Speaker 1: what credit I give him. He's still the richest man
8:11
Speaker 1: in the world. So good for him, But so annoying?
8:14
Speaker 1: Am I wrong? Ad? Is? This? Is he not annoying
8:17
Speaker 1: as all get out. Let's set a baseline, and the
8:20
Speaker 1: baseline is no one knows what's going on inside Elon
8:23
Speaker 1: Musk's head. Yeah, but that's what's that's what's so annoying? Like,
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Speaker 1: I get it, it was interesting for a while. He's
8:29
Speaker 1: such a smarty and good for good for him, I'm
8:32
Speaker 1: a fan, but this is super lame for me. That
8:37
Speaker 1: the thing is that comes back to bots. Right. If
8:39
Speaker 1: you try and find things that he has been consistent about,
8:43
Speaker 1: one of them is that he doesn't like bots on
8:45
Speaker 1: the platform. He said multiple times I will remove bots
8:48
Speaker 1: from the platin good point this is. Then this leads
8:50
Speaker 1: me to the question. When I first saw the tweet,
8:51
Speaker 1: I thought, oh, he thinks what oh, no, it's less
8:55
Speaker 1: than five percent bots? Does that mean he no longer
8:58
Speaker 1: needs to buy Twitter because his whole asition in the
9:00
Speaker 1: first place was to get rid of the box. And
9:02
Speaker 1: if it's less than he's like, why bother, it's not
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Speaker 1: even broken, so I'm not going to try and fix it.
9:06
Speaker 1: Or does this mean like his bitcoin investments have dropped,
9:10
Speaker 1: so he now doesn't have enough money to really buy Twitter,
9:13
Speaker 1: and so he's gonna say, um, oh, there's too many bots.
9:17
Speaker 1: I didn't know that before the transaction and try and
9:19
Speaker 1: use an excuse to cancel. Well, I think on the
9:21
Speaker 1: final I think he's in a strong financial position right.
9:23
Speaker 1: We reported Thursday night that he's trying to get even
9:26
Speaker 1: more equity financing and completely eliminate the margin loan opponent
9:30
Speaker 1: of the deal. But I actually have a question from
9:32
Speaker 1: Mandy focused on the box, which is Mandy, why does
9:36
Speaker 1: he need Twitter to be a private entity to pull
9:39
Speaker 1: all of this off? Anyway? Like Twitter, if you read
9:41
Speaker 1: the boiler plate at the regulatory filing, they clearly know
9:44
Speaker 1: about the bots, they know about the science about how
9:46
Speaker 1: they tracked the bots. Why does taking Twitter private make
9:49
Speaker 1: any difference to this whole scenario. Well, so Twitter has
9:53
Speaker 1: underperformed in terms of you know, just the product enhancements
9:58
Speaker 1: that that they have done over they and it's not
10:00
Speaker 1: just about bonds, in terms of harnessing that engagement monetization.
10:06
Speaker 1: So and their cost structure is bloated. So Twitter's revenue
10:10
Speaker 1: per employee is way lower than all their competitors. So
10:14
Speaker 1: there are multiple things that need to happen for Twitter
10:18
Speaker 1: to turn around. And you could argue once they go private,
10:21
Speaker 1: they don't need to raise more capital. So that's the
10:23
Speaker 1: thing about taking Twitter private is this is a self
10:27
Speaker 1: sufficient model. You don't need more capital after you take
10:31
Speaker 1: a private and look, you can cut costs and improve
10:33
Speaker 1: the margin structure. The problem in the deal was there
10:36
Speaker 1: was too much debt. So that's what he is I
10:39
Speaker 1: think solving for in terms of taking them, not taking
10:42
Speaker 1: that margin loan, and really getting more private investors to
10:47
Speaker 1: partner with him to pay that cash portion. Also, ed,
10:50
Speaker 1: isn't the idea um These bots make their user numbers
10:55
Speaker 1: look better, right, It makes interactions look stronger. If you
10:59
Speaker 1: take away the bots as a public company, it'll be
11:02
Speaker 1: super disappointing, like Netflix with no subscribers. So but if
11:07
Speaker 1: you're if you're private, nobody's looking and who cares. We'll
11:10
Speaker 1: hold on. Also, if it's only five percent of us,
11:13
Speaker 1: is that there is the box, So that then wouldn't
11:16
Speaker 1: the opposite be true? But I guess the thing that
11:17
Speaker 1: interests me most is that, you know, Twitter did put
11:21
Speaker 1: in the boiler plate that their number maybe a little
11:23
Speaker 1: bit off because they're constantly using algorithms to remove bots,
11:27
Speaker 1: but at the same time new accounts are being set up.
11:29
Speaker 1: There's an irony in all of this, right that the
11:32
Speaker 1: biggest complaint for many uses is crypto related bots. You
11:36
Speaker 1: know the crypto community on Twitter. But Elon Musk is
11:39
Speaker 1: one of the great victims of the Great bot attack, right,
11:43
Speaker 1: he might be a crypto bot. Well, for all we know,
11:47
Speaker 1: we could just be living in a simulation and Musk
11:50
Speaker 1: is a crypto. But by the way, look I'm looking
11:52
Speaker 1: at my my Twitter account, Um, Matt Miller and nineteen
11:55
Speaker 1: seventy three, I have seventeen point eight thousand followers. There
11:59
Speaker 1: is no way I have seventeen point eight thousand followers.
12:02
Speaker 1: I interact with like four people on Twitter. Um, you know,
12:06
Speaker 1: no one ever tweets me besides Ed and Creedy, And
12:11
Speaker 1: I don't believe that I have eighteen thousand followers. That's
12:14
Speaker 1: got to be fake. Well, I want man need to
12:17
Speaker 1: jump in this point if there's time. But what I
12:19
Speaker 1: would say is that there are thematic things. So when
12:21
Speaker 1: I tweet about Elon, Musk and Tesla, which I do regularly,
12:23
Speaker 1: there's a very engaged, active, real community, but there are
12:27
Speaker 1: also a very quick flood of bots that sees on
12:30
Speaker 1: this idea that Musk is one of the biggest users
12:33
Speaker 1: on the platform and one of the most followed, but
12:35
Speaker 1: he also engages and you know, the bots. And when
12:38
Speaker 1: we say bots, I mean bots in the sense of automation,
12:42
Speaker 1: but also the people behind those accounts, there must be
12:44
Speaker 1: some they sense an opportunity with Musk, and that's the
12:47
Speaker 1: ir N I'm talking about. I mean, the other thing
12:49
Speaker 1: could keep in mind is there are a lot of
12:50
Speaker 1: passive users. So what you're talking about, Matt is being
12:54
Speaker 1: a creator. Yes, there are fewer creators on the platform
12:58
Speaker 1: than there are users. And look, engagement time for Twitter
13:02
Speaker 1: has totatily gone up, so all their metrics look okay,
13:07
Speaker 1: and and the Twitter platform has a decent engagement when
13:11
Speaker 1: you think about it. But look, bots is a unique
13:14
Speaker 1: problem for Twitter because over the years they didn't do
13:18
Speaker 1: a good job of really taking improving their ads stack
13:21
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, and that is where all the monetization
13:25
Speaker 1: problems emanate from who's your Mandy, who's your favorite Twitter?
13:30
Speaker 1: Which Twitter adds the most value to your Twitter experience? Well,
13:34
Speaker 1: so I think Musk is right up there in terms
13:37
Speaker 1: of coming up with ideas, and look he is or
13:42
Speaker 1: the real Elon Musk account, the real Elon Musk and
13:47
Speaker 1: and look, I think there are plenty of people politicians
13:50
Speaker 1: that you can follow, and there there is value in
13:53
Speaker 1: terms of being a passive user. So the thing about
13:56
Speaker 1: Twitter is it has more of the white collar workers.
13:59
Speaker 1: So there are poo if you try to model it.
14:02
Speaker 1: The traditionally should be higher than some of the other
14:05
Speaker 1: social media platforms, but that's not the case because they
14:08
Speaker 1: have done a very poor job of showing ads to
14:10
Speaker 1: their users. Made seeing Bloomberg Intelligence. Thanks so much, Ed Ludlow,
14:14
Speaker 1: Bloomberg News bringing you all the latest. Ian single, CEO
14:20
Speaker 1: and co founder of zip Recruiter joins us here and
14:23
Speaker 1: it's time you discussions. We talk about the labor market.
14:25
Speaker 1: But and I know you guys your publicly traded company
14:28
Speaker 1: z i P on the New York Stock Exchange. You
14:30
Speaker 1: guys just reported some numbers recently, You're earnings. What were
14:33
Speaker 1: the highlights? First off, thanks for having me guys. Yeah,
14:38
Speaker 1: we have another exceptional quarter our business crew eighty one
14:42
Speaker 1: per cent. We beat on both top line and on
14:45
Speaker 1: bottom line, as well as raised guidance for the full year.
14:49
Speaker 1: Talk to us about us about the labor market. The
14:52
Speaker 1: one question I have for labor and I'm not sure
14:55
Speaker 1: I've heard a really good answer, but the four to
14:57
Speaker 1: five million people that left the labor force, who are they?
15:01
Speaker 1: Where did they go? And are they coming back? Yeah?
15:06
Speaker 1: Well that if you look, there's really there's two trends
15:09
Speaker 1: going on in the labor market right now that are
15:11
Speaker 1: really interesting. So number one, you have a robust demand
15:15
Speaker 1: from employers. There's eleven million open jobs in the country,
15:17
Speaker 1: and you could compare that to the pre COVID period
15:20
Speaker 1: where we thought we had a white hot hiring market
15:22
Speaker 1: and there were seven million open jobs. So obviously a
15:26
Speaker 1: lot of employers have had to staff back up in
15:28
Speaker 1: a post COVID reopening of the economy. And then the
15:31
Speaker 1: other factor that's really hurting employers right now is for
15:35
Speaker 1: the last nine months, you've had four million people quitting
15:40
Speaker 1: their job every month, and in a normal healthy economy
15:43
Speaker 1: that was more like two and a half million. So
15:46
Speaker 1: substantial demand for new openings from employers as well as
15:50
Speaker 1: real struggle to retain the people they have. And that's
15:53
Speaker 1: just creating sort of a hiring tsunami where there's rampant
15:56
Speaker 1: demand for talent and a shortage of it. And what
16:00
Speaker 1: you're seeing is a lot of job speakers in the
16:03
Speaker 1: post COVID world are looking for a different type of
16:06
Speaker 1: work and that is what is driving a lot of
16:09
Speaker 1: the shortage of labor that we're seeing today. I'll tell
16:12
Speaker 1: you what I feel a little bit of a rivalry
16:14
Speaker 1: with Ian And it's kind of like you know, when
16:18
Speaker 1: um there's a sports rivalry, only one school cares about
16:21
Speaker 1: it and the other one, and the other one really doesn't.
16:23
Speaker 1: Because I went to Antioch and he went to Oberlin.
16:26
Speaker 1: We always consider ourselves the champions of kind of the
16:28
Speaker 1: progressive movement, right right, But Oberlin was too smart to
16:31
Speaker 1: really care about us. Do you think Ian Uh, our
16:37
Speaker 1: founder at Antioch horse man to be ashamed to die
16:40
Speaker 1: until you've won some great victory for mankind? Do you
16:43
Speaker 1: think you're in a good position to do that right now?
16:45
Speaker 1: It zip recruiter because the pandemic has really changed the
16:49
Speaker 1: way labor struggles against capital in a in a positive
16:54
Speaker 1: way for the former and um, you know, opened up
16:58
Speaker 1: doors for diversity and really made UM employment a place
17:04
Speaker 1: where you can do good. Yeah, and I think you know,
17:08
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that changed in a post COVID world
17:13
Speaker 1: was this desire for remote work. There's an economist over
17:17
Speaker 1: at Stanford named Nick Bloom who has accelerated the transitions
17:20
Speaker 1: to remote work by fifty years. And if you look
17:24
Speaker 1: at it too, what we have right now is a
17:28
Speaker 1: job seeker or currently employed population that has become aware
17:32
Speaker 1: of their leverage and they are they are utilizing that
17:36
Speaker 1: leverage to get significantly higher pay in a number of
17:40
Speaker 1: different ways. The wage story, the wage growth, doesn't tell
17:43
Speaker 1: the whole story because of new jobs are being offered,
17:47
Speaker 1: signing bonuses in order to induce people to change jobs.
17:50
Speaker 1: And then on top of that, um employers are discovering
17:55
Speaker 1: that they are the ones who have to go first.
17:57
Speaker 1: Thirty seven percent of people hired in the last six
18:01
Speaker 1: months we're recruited to those positions. That's compared to nineteen
18:04
Speaker 1: per cent in the pre COVID period. So there's just
18:07
Speaker 1: been a huge flip in the job market and a
18:10
Speaker 1: dip recruiter. You know, through both design and through good fortune.
18:14
Speaker 1: Our primary feature is software that enables employers to go
18:19
Speaker 1: first and reach out and recruit job seekers. We were
18:22
Speaker 1: able to create more than seven million great natches last
18:24
Speaker 1: quarter using algorithmic techniques to give those employers the right
18:28
Speaker 1: list of job seekers to recruit, and that has been
18:31
Speaker 1: a big part of our success. We were effectively where
18:34
Speaker 1: the puck went when this post COVID reality happened. Good stuff,
18:39
Speaker 1: all right, Ian Segel, thanks so much for joining us.
18:42
Speaker 1: Ian Siegel he's a c and co founder ZIP recruiter.
18:49
Speaker 1: You know mean, I'm not My kids are all grown,
18:51
Speaker 1: so I'm not in the baby formula market. But this
18:54
Speaker 1: story has really got my attention because I know it's
18:57
Speaker 1: impacting so many families across the country. Uh, this baby
19:00
Speaker 1: formula shortage, and we want to get somebody who can
19:02
Speaker 1: really shed a light on it for us. We have
19:04
Speaker 1: Laura Modi, CEO and co founder of A Bobby Um. Laura,
19:09
Speaker 1: I love for you just to explain how we got
19:11
Speaker 1: to where we are here in the United States with
19:14
Speaker 1: baby formula. Yeah, and lovely shout with you. I wish
19:18
Speaker 1: it was hunder better better terms though is it is
19:22
Speaker 1: a very very scary situation. What's happening. I will say
19:25
Speaker 1: like even as a mom, I can emphasize greatly. But yeah,
19:29
Speaker 1: as as the CEO of in for formula company, it's complex,
19:32
Speaker 1: as the industry is complex in itself. To make infunt formula,
19:36
Speaker 1: it requires an immense amount of safety, so breaking into
19:39
Speaker 1: it isn't easy. But we are here because when very
19:44
Speaker 1: few players own the market, and when one of those
19:46
Speaker 1: players has a recall, it's going to leave a gap
19:50
Speaker 1: in the market. And that's exactly what we're trying to fill.
19:53
Speaker 1: So what can be done? Laura? You know, UM, as
19:57
Speaker 1: a father, I understand the fear as well. Um, I
20:01
Speaker 1: have an eighteen month year old baby. Eight month year old.
20:05
Speaker 1: That's not eighteen month old one and a half year
20:08
Speaker 1: old baby. She's she's perfect, eighteen going on eighteen exactly.
20:13
Speaker 1: But um, you know, we had an issue. Breastfeeding was
20:17
Speaker 1: a real problem, and there was a point where we
20:19
Speaker 1: had to term to formula. And for a lot of people,
20:21
Speaker 1: this is a reality that I don't think, Um, I
20:25
Speaker 1: don't think the man in our society are aware of.
20:30
Speaker 1: That means that baby formula is the only choice for
20:33
Speaker 1: so many developing um infants. What what would you do
20:39
Speaker 1: if you couldn't get hold of baby formula? Yeah, I takin.
20:43
Speaker 1: That's a point that's getting missed in this shortage. A
20:46
Speaker 1: lot of people are reading it like it's the toilet
20:49
Speaker 1: paper situation, and it's not. Sevent babies use some type
20:54
Speaker 1: of formula by the time they are six months old,
20:57
Speaker 1: and it is the only alternative to breaston It's not
21:00
Speaker 1: like you can turn to anything else. And what happens
21:03
Speaker 1: during the moment where you can find food for your
21:05
Speaker 1: baby is you see behaviors that are honestly unacceptable, like
21:10
Speaker 1: making homemade formula in your kitchen, rationing formula, theft, all
21:15
Speaker 1: of these things that are frankly dangerous and only increased
21:18
Speaker 1: safety issues. This is a crisis and we have to
21:21
Speaker 1: solve for it before we see these behaviors get worse. Mark,
21:24
Speaker 1: can you just again, just to shed some light on
21:28
Speaker 1: the story again, how did we get here? Why? Why?
21:31
Speaker 1: What baby formula manufacturer? Just give us a sense of
21:33
Speaker 1: the structure of the baby formula market. Where do we
21:36
Speaker 1: get it and who produces it and who had a
21:38
Speaker 1: problem and you know, kind of how do we get here? Yeah,
21:43
Speaker 1: well we go here because you know, the infant formula industry,
21:47
Speaker 1: this is the basic supply and demand issue, right There's
21:51
Speaker 1: only so many mouths to feed when it comes to
21:54
Speaker 1: infant formula. And up until the recall we had, now
21:57
Speaker 1: who had a recall? This Abbot Nutrition that makes similar
22:03
Speaker 1: at one of the largest infant formula manufacturers in the country,
22:06
Speaker 1: and they've been making high quality infant formula for decades
22:10
Speaker 1: and they're very good at what they do. What we
22:13
Speaker 1: have been unprepared for and not you know, pointing fingers
22:18
Speaker 1: at anyone company here either. This is as you look
22:22
Speaker 1: at it as an industry, it's what we are unprepared
22:25
Speaker 1: for is when one of those goliaths has a recall,
22:30
Speaker 1: are we prepared as a nation to be able to
22:33
Speaker 1: support the gap? And what we've realized in this moment
22:37
Speaker 1: is we're not what what what can you do? Laura?
22:40
Speaker 1: I mean, Bobby is not the size of Abbot, Let's say,
22:46
Speaker 1: and I'm sure your production facilities are are limited right now.
22:50
Speaker 1: What kind of demand are you looking at for your
22:52
Speaker 1: formula and what kind of production can you achieve? We're
22:57
Speaker 1: producing I mean, honestly, we are producing as much as
23:00
Speaker 1: can but we have actually made the decision in the
23:02
Speaker 1: last few weeks to only serve our current customers and
23:07
Speaker 1: made a very what was a tough decision to decide
23:10
Speaker 1: to stop growing the business temporarily while we just focus
23:14
Speaker 1: on serving those that are currently embody. That gives them
23:17
Speaker 1: the peace of minds that we have to supply to
23:19
Speaker 1: be able to serve them during this uncertain time. And
23:22
Speaker 1: it also ensures that from a production standpoint, the production
23:26
Speaker 1: of infant formula can be prioritized for formulas that are
23:28
Speaker 1: maybe for those more vulnerable and and and again zooming
23:33
Speaker 1: back out of the greater issue here. This goes far
23:36
Speaker 1: beyond any one brand right now or anyone company, and
23:40
Speaker 1: hence why you see the government stepping in. We have
23:43
Speaker 1: to look at what we are doing to use the
23:45
Speaker 1: current production on the market to be able to support
23:49
Speaker 1: with products that are feeding this country right now. Laur
23:52
Speaker 1: do you have a sense, given your position in the industry,
23:56
Speaker 1: of when this short form maybe UM kind of fixed
24:01
Speaker 1: if you will um in the last fourty eight hours,
24:06
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I've been very impressed watching both the
24:10
Speaker 1: FDA and the White House step forward with some very
24:14
Speaker 1: clear points about how they plan on taking action. And
24:16
Speaker 1: it's action that, if I were to put put solutions together,
24:20
Speaker 1: is exactly what what we should be doing, which is
24:23
Speaker 1: creating flexibilities in the system, looking to bring formula from overseas,
24:27
Speaker 1: especially especially for specialty formulas. So I think while we
24:32
Speaker 1: are right at the peak of the crisis right now,
24:35
Speaker 1: all eyes are on it, FDA, White House and companies
24:38
Speaker 1: are doing everything they can, and I would expect in
24:41
Speaker 1: the next few weeks we're going to see this try down, okay,
24:43
Speaker 1: And that's kind of where I wanted to go this
24:45
Speaker 1: if from what I read and learn, this is primarily
24:49
Speaker 1: a US issue, not a global issue. So perhaps some
24:52
Speaker 1: of the supply from other parts of the world can
24:54
Speaker 1: be directed here. We can we can order hip for
24:56
Speaker 1: double the price from Germany. Right, no car, but honest
25:01
Speaker 1: on that. But you are you are absolutely correct, insane
25:06
Speaker 1: that this is not a global issue. This is a
25:08
Speaker 1: US issue and is an issue that we are beginning
25:13
Speaker 1: to look outside of the US and say, how can
25:15
Speaker 1: we get other formulas to be able to support in
25:18
Speaker 1: this moment? Are you part of growing avant garde of UM,
25:24
Speaker 1: of better and of higher quality baby and child nutrition?
25:30
Speaker 1: I just noticed you work with Gwyneth Paltrow, my friend
25:33
Speaker 1: Sophia Laurel who does Tiny Organics UM also I think
25:38
Speaker 1: works with Gwyneth or Samski. It seems like there's a
25:40
Speaker 1: group of women that are just improving the quality of
25:43
Speaker 1: nutrition for for infants and babies. You know, this journey
25:47
Speaker 1: has been entirely personal. UM. I went into feeding my
25:52
Speaker 1: own child and realized I just wanted to see better
25:56
Speaker 1: options on the market, and you know, set out on
25:59
Speaker 1: the journey to for juice or organic clean formula that
26:02
Speaker 1: we could be proud of and have had the fortune
26:05
Speaker 1: of being able to feed it to two more babies
26:07
Speaker 1: of my own afterwards. That's great, Laura, thank you so
26:10
Speaker 1: much for joining us. Really appreciate you taking time explaining
26:12
Speaker 1: to us what this important issue is and for a
26:14
Speaker 1: lot of families across the United States. UM didn't see
26:17
Speaker 1: that one coming, but it's out there and hopefully we
26:20
Speaker 1: can address that shortfall very soon. Laur Modi, CEO and
26:23
Speaker 1: co founder of Bobby, which is a baby formula delivery startups,
26:26
Speaker 1: so a perfect source to get some information on this issue.
26:32
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can
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Speaker 1: subscribe and listen to interviews with Apple Podcasts or whatever
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Speaker 1: podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter
26:43
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Speaker 1: Twitter at pt Sweeney Before the podcast. You can always
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Speaker 1: catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio.