♪ emily: this is the "best of bloomberg west," where we bring you to the top interviews from the week in tech. one year after losing her lawsuit, allen is back. she has no regrets. plus, they get serious about you -- fox media gets serious about snapchat we will talk about the studio just for snapchat and where he thinks new media is headed.

the man of assuring in a digital revolution, we will talk to him later this hour. first, allen powell is back. the investing partner has started a new advocacy group. it will push for greatest diversity at tech companies. she was at the epicenter of a lawsuit that got national attention when she sued for gender discrimination. she lost on all counts. what has she been doing since? i began by asking why she thinks this project to work when others have not. ellen: we pull together a team of women who have almost 150 years of collective experience in tech. we've seen the problems and issues and we have a set of recommendations of what people will be able to do to solve the problems. we think the years of experience, the research we've done will make a difference and -- will make all of the difference. emily: if you give these recommendations to ceos, what makes you think they will

listen? ellen: we have some who have said they want to use our recommendations and they will participate in our startup program. we shared it with a bunch of ceos and engineering managers. they say they agree with what we recommended. we're not telling them to fire everybody and start from scratch. these are ideas that came through experience, things we know and are sure will work. it's coming out of experience, the research that's out there. it is pulled together into one integrated document or website that will help people do what they say they want to do in a that we think will work. we are still talking to people. i'm excited that people are interested and they agree with

what we're saying. emily: how is it going to work? you are working with companies of a certain size. who will do this and how? ellen: we have two different programs. one is for startups. the one for startups is for 18 startups that are between 25 and 1000 employees. we want to have three meetings. one to get things started, what recommendations are you going to do? where are you in terms of your metrics today? what metrics are we going to collect? a second meeting three months in to see where we are and how you are doing and what's working. let's all learn together. and the third meeting to figure out where do we end up in what worked and what do we want to change in our recommendations based on these experiences. and what is next? emily: for a company as big as google or facebook, women make up 30% of the work force. 20% or less in technical roles.

it's too late for them? ellen: we think we can make an impact, the ceo can move things. the idea of changing really quickly and moving on the fly is most appropriate and impactful. emily: what will your role be? are you committing to this full-time? ellen: it's been funny. we pulled this together out of our spare time and working together. enjoying our process of working together and getting a lot of things done. it's been a passion project for us on the side. we are going to continue in our own work and drive things forward as a team. emily: let's talk about your own work. you lost a high-profile case on all counts. you were interim ceo of reddit. what have you been doing since then? ellen: i took six months off. that was great, spending time with my family. i went on vacation and got some rest. i started working on this and

pulling together the team of people that is there today. i gomez, hutchinson, erika baker. there is one person i am missing. we have been working on this and pulling this together and i am also writing a book. emily: what is the book about? ellen: it's these issues, but animated by my own experiences in tech. why am i so excited about tech? how do we get through and make it a more diverse environment? emily: are you looking for a job? what is that process like? immediately after the trial you said people were nervous to be seen with you and that it was a difficult process.

ellen: when i was at kleiner perkins, people did not want to see or be seen with me. it has changed a bit since then, i think people are becoming more aware of the issues. it's not my one story. it is a lot of people sharing their stories and having similar experiences. i've been working on the book. i've not looking for a job until i get the book done. we'll see what happens. emily: now that you've had a year to reflect, would you do it again? ellen: that's a good question. i would do it again. i will tell you the same thing that people told me. they all said they would do it again, they would not recommend other people to do it. emily: what would you do to -- what would you recommend to other women or minorities who are being discriminated against? do they sue? do they go somewhere else? ellen: it depends on where you are. if you think people will listen, try to change from within. if you have that energy.

for me it didn't work. if that's not going to work, go someplace else. emily: why didn't you appeal? ellen: it's so expensive. the legal process is just really hard. you're not matched in terms of resources. they have teams of pr people attacking you and your family. at the end of the day i thought my story is out, i can tell the rest of what i want to share. i think people heard what i had to say. emily: they have more women partners. they say this was not sexism. that, you were not good at your job and that you did not deserve to be promoted. was there any part of you that thought maybe they were right? ellen: no. i saw the other women who had similar things said about them. i believe the group of us were not treated fairly. emily: john doerr became chairman of the firm.

he wants to be a player coach. and he told me he wants to focus on developing new talent. what would you say to him? do you have any advice as he brings up the next generation? ellen: include some women and underrepresented people of color in the group. emily: do you have a relationship at all? ellen: no. emily: you went on to become interim ceo of reddit and you did some bold and controversial things. you try to crack down on online harassment. the community revolted. there was a petition for your resignation. what happened? were you fired? did you feel pressured to leave? ellen: there were a lot of things that happened back then. -- back then that are hard to explain. i could write a book about just that. what i took out of that was it's difficult to change a community once it's gone a certain direction. what i hope other internet companies realize is when you have problems, they scale with your company and it becomes hard to revive the approach you take

-- that you have taken. emily: what can be done to make reddit save for women and -- safer for women, safer for minorities? it's outright misogyny, death threats. you were on the receiving end. ellen: you have to your team and -- you have to build up your team. and a bunch of technology. the jury is still out on whether or not they will be to do it. it's harder to do than it is for much smaller companies with a smaller community. it's hard work. you see that from twitter and facebook and snapchat. going back and trying to fix things later is always harder. that is why we are focused on the startup size. if you can get your start up to be diverse and inclusive, just

like a community from the early stages, hopefully that grows with the company and grows with the community and builds in all the great things you want from the get-go. emily: do you think we are harder in -- on women in leadership roles? do we hold people to a different standard? i am thinking about marissa mayer. ellen: that's a hard question. i don't know the details of what they are doing. i do not know the details of what they have gone through. i do know that the leadership roles have a much lower number of women in there. there should be more women ceos and there is something going on that is making it hard for them -- harder for them to succeed and that's making it harder for them to get into those positions. emily: how do we get more women into technology? what is the answer here? ellen: get all the girls in at an early age and have them code and get them into school. i think that your problem is once they get in, are we giving them an environment where they can succeed?

are we giving underrepresented people of color opportunities to learn and get hired and get promoted and get into roles were they can lead? part of that is we have a lot of bias. part of that is we are not finding enough people and making an effort. we are comfortable with the way things are. emily: my exclusive interview with ellen pao. coming up, big changes are afoot for the industry. fox -- vox is leading the charge. we will hear from the box media ceo. he is creating an entire studio for snapchat. tivo is planning for a monumental shakeup. we'll hear from the ceos from both companies. ♪

emily: this week, vox said it was expanding into tv and creating a studio for snapchat. the news comes as many traditional news outlets are struggling to keep media levels up. they are siphoning away at dollars. i set down with jim to find out with more about his expansion plan. emily: explain this partnership with snapchat, you are doubling down. why now? jim: all of our growth is on mobile generally. specifically within mobile, it's on a few of the big platforms. e-mail is a mobile application. that is why you see us doing more e-mail newsletters. facebook is a great mobile application and we are investing in facebook. snapchat is the fastest growing.

-- fastest-growing storytelling mechanisms on mobile. we have a great brand. we want to unleash those great brands either in food or tech or news and take advantage of our storytelling skills. we are really excited to be investing more in snapchat. emily: i am curious about how these are evolving. was this your idea or snapchat? jim: that's a good idea. we met over a year ago. i think they were aware of the brands we were creating. we are creating a new group of brands designed for digital consumers who tend to be young adults. they tend to be highly engaged in new media. we got to know one another. snapchat is going out to the best programmers. they love our brand. we love them. it's a great partnership. emily: everyone is trying to understand how these new platforms are evolving. what works better for vox? snapchat text or video? jim: i think visual more

generally. that means video certainly. it also means great graphics and great photographs. it's things that can appeal to -- that can visually appeal to people. what excites us about snapchat it is a new form of storytelling. it involves video and photo imagery. it's really exciting if you can get audiences to engage on their terms. it's not as simple as a tv channel, which is also video. audiences want to engage in a different way. a new and exciting way. we pride ourselves on being a great story platform across different platforms. it might be snapchat or facebook. emily: you have different websites. how do you balance investing in these new platforms and experiments and investing the traditional way, given how the landscape is changing? jim: that's an important question.

we pride ourselves on being able to change quickly. culturally, we like to think of ourselves as an organization that strives not just to embrace change or tolerate change, but to thrive in change. what that means is having some strong core values. and holding onto those values and being able to try new things and experimenting with new things. we tend to experiment where we know there are big audiences that will be receptive to the brands. we are receptive to the marketers we work with. we allocate resources and capital. we take that's. -- we take bets. we scale up. we scale down. it involves looking at a lot of data and understanding the audience and your skill set. and always be alert and ready for change. we have to be ready to allocate differently based on what we see.

emily: you are launching a tv show on a&e. what is the overall vision here? jim: we talked about programming for the snapchat audience. i mentioned it's a different kind of storytelling medium we are excited about. television is a storytelling medium that a lot of people are interested in as well. whether it's snapchat or television or a website or facebook or any other thing that comes along where we see big audience potential to have our brand speak to audiences, we will be there. our fyi partnership we are excited about is with the brand curb and this is our house and home in real estate.

we are going to tell some exciting stories. and tell stories about big housing trends. this is what we know well. emily: that was jim bangkok. coming up, tivo second coming. the dvr pioneer is back in the game after a billion dollar acquisition. what's in store? we will hear from both ceos just ahead. later this hour, the man who saw potential in steve jobs and laid the groundwork for the modern videogame industry, we will talk to the atari founder. ♪

emily: rovi and tivo are teaming up to take an immediate -- take on the media landscape. the billion-dollar deal combined two powerful players. tom carson will lead the new company. they joined us this week to tell us more about their plans. tivo is a household name. rovi is the guide that tells us what's on.

what is the combined company going to be known for? what is your focus? tom: thanks for having me on. we just came back from an all hands meeting with tivo employees. the excitement has been incredibly high. a lot of it has to do with the combined companies have an incredible arsenal of technology for allowing consumers to get the content they want. for us, it's about the product side of the business and helping us formulate a company that is better from a product perspective. emily: tivo has seen the march of technology in this space for a couple of decades. the fcc may be opening up the set-top box market to more competition. how would it impact you guys if google gets into this market?

if amazon or apple push further into the set-top box market? naveen: it speaks to the rationale behind us coming together. the world of television has changed phenomenally. a lot of new players are coming in. consumer behavior has changed substantially. we see this as an opportunity to take what tivo has done and create the best possible way to watch television and bring that together with a lot of the smart kind of plumbing that we have provided to make that possible. to the extent that the fcc is able to create more opportunity for innovation and competition in that arena, we think the combination of these two companies positions us even more strongly to play with a lot of large silicon valley companies

being part of that. emily: you have a powerful patent portfolio combined. we see companies in litigation with the likes of comcast, netflix, google over patent licensing issues. are we going to see more of that? tom: this deal was not about acquiring additional intellectual property. sometimes rovi gets a reputation for being a patent bully. frankly, the reality is we work very hard with our prospective licensees to come to an agreement that is fair and mutually agreeable. honestly, less than 2% of the agreements we have end up coming from a litigation. the vast majority of our license agreements are done amicably. this is really, again, about the product business. this is just a great team of two companies that really do in their respective areas have great product technologies that on a combined basis allow the companies to be twice as effective. emily: they're developing their own ip for tv as well. do you have ip that they need?

tom: anybody that is doing a search for video content in what ever form they are doing it, there is a high probability of needing a license under the rovi patent. saying that, even in cases where we are having licensing agreements or discussions with prospective licensees, we find that they have a high interest in the product technology. the product technology that we have, the conversational search between the two companies are best breeds. it allows the dynamic to be not just on intellectual property but on cutting edge technology. emily: that was tom carson.

coming up, we will hear from the man i shrink a digital revolution in education. the founder of the kahn academy when we return. you can listen to bloomberg radio on sirius satellite radio. ♪

emily: welcome back to "best of bloomberg west." let's turn to education in the way one man's vision may be changing the rules of the classroom. supercharging with video, lectures at home. the khan academy. we are checking in with sal khan about what is changing and -- as changing in the world of education. it's been a year since we spoke and you have record numbers

across every category. video, teachers, students. give us an update on where you are. sal: a lot of people associate us with videos, especially around math. we're much more than that. we had a partnership with the college board around the preparations for the sat. it is really exciting as we saw the data from this march where kahn academy was the official prep for it. we've seen a 20% reduction in paid test prep. nearly half of the students used kahn academy. now they take the psat and it can be used for a diagnostic. it's much more than videos. we are tied into things like the sat, trying to get as many students as possible to come the college and life ready. were doing a lot on the internationalization front in india. we've been working with the foundation in mexico, with a lemon foundation in brazil around making sure all these

students in these regions have access not just the videos and in their language, but standards. it's available on the platforms that are relevant to them on mobile. there has been a lot going on. and we continue to add more content emily: you've also launched the khan lab school. i believe your own child goes to this school. it is sort of like amazon opening up a brick-and-mortar store but you believe it could be complementary to the overall platform in the future. what have you learned? sal: our mission is a free world-class education for anyone anywhere. we take that seriously. the spirit behind starting a physical lab school is, let's use that as a lab to understand what the best learning can be. students get more responsibility. they are building a portfolio, they are learning. as we learn from that we hope to share it with many more people and incorporate it into what is on khan academy.

already, i have learned a lot in terms of how to complement -- a lot of people think the virtual in the physical are somehow in -- somehow complementary to each other. if students can learn at their own pace and time and freeze up a lot of time during the day for more human to human interaction, for more projects, more tutoring. when you don't have everyone learning at the same pace you have a mixed age environment. i have seen my own son already able to mentor younger students or being mentor by students older than him. it really matures the students in a powerful way. in a lot of ways it teaches them metacognitive skills that may be more valuable than even the math or the science. emily: tuition is $22,000 a year which is less than a lot of private schools but more than the average person can afford. you also have elon musk starting his own school with a local teacher with 20 kids. you have mark zuckerberg funding and giving to education more broadly.

i wonder if you're back in the same position where instead of democratizing education we have public schools that everyone can afford and a few elite schools that few people can afford. sal: i think the spirit behind a lot of the schools, especially the lap, i cannot speak for all of them. there is a feeling that the model of education of this factory model of, you get a lecture, everyone moves at the same pace, you get grades. even if you get a 'c' you move on. you have gaps in your knowledge and students hit walls and they don't really appreciate the creativity of a subject. or they cannot really build things or connect it to life. there is an appreciation that will not serve students wealth -- students within the 21st century. khan academy has a two-pronged approach. it's a different organization than the lab school.

that is where we think about, let's share as broadly and widely as possible. it's literally a free world-class education for anyone anywhere. you can access the smartphone you can self educate yourself. if you're part of the physical classroom, it can be a richer experience. at least four the khan lab school and what elon musk is doing as well is pioneered new models that can be a catalyst for other things. at the lab school, we are already working with the local public school district. it's not just a one-way stream of information. we are learning a lot from them on how together we can get to a world that is more project-based, more portfolio-based. and allow students to have more agency over their learning. emily: part of the reason we wanted you to come on the show is we are going to be in boston for three days talking about the boston tech scene at harvard in -- harvard and m.i.t. you have a degree from m.i.t. and harvard business school. you're one of the most decorated

people in silicon valley. if you could do it all over again would you get all those degrees again? sal: what i get those degrees? -- all of those degrees? yeah. a lot of people ask me -- it was is the hands-down great life experience. the number one thing is the people you meet push you to become better. i think boston particular, especially m.i.t. and harvard, but the whole town feels like a big college campus. it really pushes you to become a better person, especially intellectually. emily: our interview with khan academy founder sal khan. coming up, the granddaddy of the gaming industry, nolan bushnell who created atari along with "pong," "asteroids" and "centipede." we will ask him how gaming can change education. for the best longform interviews check out the "studio 1.0" podcast. you will find us on itunes and sound cloud. be sure to leave us a rating. it will help more listeners discover our content. ♪

emily: if you have ever played a video game, you owe debt of gratitude toward next guest. norman bushnell created "pong," "asteroids" and "centipede." these days he's bringing games into the classroom with a company called brain rush, trying to make education as addictive as atari. take a listen. brain rush, you say, can teach subjects and academic discipline 10 times faster than in the classroom of the 90% retention rate. how so? nolan: it turns out that when games are played it provides context. quite frankly, kids learn at their own speed. so that they played to mastery. playing to mastery is the key. no abcd. you don't complete the game until you understand it completely. that is really important.

emily: educational gaming is one of those ideas that seems like it's always just about to hit it big. why has it not happened yet? nolan: i think that games are a part of young people's lives today. they spend so much time with their cell phones and computers, tablets, that they feel as comfortable learning and using technology as they are in the regular classroom. emily: you're credited as being the founding father of the electronic gaming industry with " pong and everything else you have done. today the most popular games are things like "call of duty" and "grand theft auto," games filled with a lot of violence. do you think that is the future of gaming, will violence always be part of the industry? nolan: actually the violence of the games has been decreasing.

while there is a big ones like "call of duty" and what have you it is kind of cartoon violence. "grand theft auto" is probably one of the exceptions. if you look at the numbers of people playing, there are a lot of puzzle games that are good for your brain. the cell phone games that people play on the subway or the school grounds, they are pretty good and not violent at all. emily: what about the medium? virtual reality has been touted as being potentially transformative for the gaming industry. do you think it will be transformative and when will that happen? nolan: i think virtual reality has certain problems that are not totally solved yet. i think there will be virtual reality in arcades and in public places. i think that the adoption in the home has the wait until the headsets are sub $200. i see that being quite a ways off, particularly for the ones

that are progressive, well-designed and ready to go. the systems right now -- go ahead. emily: if not vr, what is the next big thing in gaming. what is the next big shakeup? nolan: i think augmented reality probably has a much more interesting area where you can play with a bunch of your friends. i actually think it's going to sort of take over the board game business and the party were people get together and have fun and play a game with an augmented world in front of them. i think that will be very fun. emily: how big of a future do

you think the console and console games have? nolan: i have been expecting it to drop off for the last 10 years, so i'm probably the last guy that should answer. i think pc's do a good job of gameplay, but the consoles represent purpose-build things that give access to people that are less technically literate. i think they are around for a long time. emily: we've been talking about diversity in the tech industry. i'm curious for your historical perspective. why do you think it is that women have largely been left on the sidelines of the tech revolution and the gaming industry in particular? is there anything you remember

from your early days that may be laid the groundwork for what we are seeing today? nolan: well, i think that it stems back to the number of women in the math and sciences in college and high school. i think a lot of women just choose to not go into the hard sciences. early on and i'm not sure why that is. i have five sons and three daughters. all my sons are are in tech and all my daughters are not. i feel like i was equally supportive to both of those things. i think that some of the great games -- if you have ever played "centipede," that was done by donna bailey, one of my great female programmers in the 1970's. emily: atari cofounder nolan bushnell. coming up, he was an early investor in some of tech's biggest unicorns. spotify, uber, and dropbox, our exclusive interview with troy carter is up next. ♪

emily: investors are continuing their caution towards tech. specifically private valuations with some notable voices point -- pointing to a few early signs of a bubble. i spoke with troy carter, founder and ceo of atom factory. the firm was an early investor in some of tech's biggest unicorns including uber and spotify. i started by asking if winter really is coming for the industry. troy: we are starting to see market corrections both on the late stage and in the early stage side as well. we do feel -- i think we are starting to see a lot of the younger entrepreneurs get a lot smarter in terms of their business approach. before, where it was all about hypergrowth, i think a lot of entrepreneurs are factoring in profitability and revenue and things like that as well.

we are starting to see a correction in behavior. emily: you are an investor in uber, lyft and dropbox. all of these companies have different narratives going on right now. is uber worth $62.5 billion? troy: i think it will be worth a lot more than $62 billion. i think, when they finally do decide to go public, it's probably going to be one of the largest ipo's in history. so, i definitely think we are just seeing the beginning of uber. emily: dropbox has been plagued by write-downs from mutual funds. do those write-downs -- how significant are they? they do seem to be adding negative sentiment around the company. troy: they have a very smart team in place. drew is a fantastic founder. i think they have an awesome

product roadmap ahead. i'm still bullish on the long-term with dropbox emily: i want to talk about spotify. you are one of the first to embrace spotify. the company still has some challenges to overcome with many of the most prominent artists. how do those challenges play out for spotify? do you think they can overcome that? can they succeed for the long haul without the biggest names in music? troy: i think they look at the -- i think they will get the biggest names. just looking at projecting ahead, i think spotify will definitely win the music streaming race without a question. i think the revenue pot is growing exponentially for artists. so when you see -- i won't even say necessarily for artists. i would say for content owners. i think the misconception is that spotify is not paying out a lot of money.

spotify is paying out a lot of money. it is whether that money is making its way into the hands of the artists. i think that is the one thing the artists have to figure out with record labels sooner than later. i do see some changes in behavior there as well. i think long-term spotify is going to be a fantastic shape. -- is going to be in fantastic shape and i don't think those artists will be able to reach broad audiences without spotify. emily: beyonce just dropped an entire album with streaming rights exclusively on tidal. is tidal stealing some of the thunder that may be spotify or apple music would have had? troy: i don't think she dropped it exclusively on title -- on tidal. if i pull up youtube right now, not even probably, i can listen to the entire album. the issue is with audio, there is no such thing as a real exclusive. just because, once you let the cat out of the bag it will be all over youtube.

my argument is what is youtube paying out to the artists for the songs that are out there illegally? emily: would you say apple music has been a success? troy: they never made any grand proclamations about what they are looking to accomplish as far -- in terms of sheer numbers. when you look at what they are able to do with drink and able to do with some of the other exclusive content and some of the talent they have able to attract to the platform, jimmy i -- jimmy ivene and dr. dre are a force to be reckoned with at apple. i think they have attracted a lot of talent that apple would not have normally been able to attract. judging from that level i think they have been a great success. also i think they have been fantastic but educating consumers on streaming. the moment that apple put their stake in the sand we saw spotify

grow as well. i think it is one of those things where we are seeing everybody benefit from apple's ability to educate consumers. i think judging by that i would say so far it has been successful. emily: this is season 2 of your accelerator program. you were just opening up for applications now. how would you compare atom factory in the now quite crowded landscape of start of accelerators out there? troy: i don't know if it's necessarily too crowded. you have a lot of young entrepreneurs starting companies. i think the accelerator programs are fantastic. just to be able to give them the support they need, whether it is funding, mentorship, access to networks. i do think there is a lot of value in these accelerator programs. emily: what kind of founders are you looking for? you say that 10 disrupt entertainment and culture. troy: it's open to all types of

founders. i think, what we learned from our network is we have a strong relationship in entertainment and media, and with a lot of cpg and fortune 500 companies. we look for companies we can plug and play right into atom factory. in the last cohort of companies it was everything from a mobile streetwear marketplace to a sidestep efforts focusing on merchandise to transfer doing large file sharing and serves as a media platform as well. we look for companies we feel can fit right into our network and we can help them from day one. emily: that was our exclusive interview with troy carter, founder and ceo of the atom factory. that does it for " best of bloomberg west." stay with us for the latest news from the world of tech.

tune into the daily tech program, bloomberg west, and next week we will be live from boston, exploring the city's most exciting startups. you will see you there. ♪

emily: she took ebay from a 30 person startup to multi-billion-dollar powerhouse. then ran a hard, expensive race for california governor and lost. now, meg whitman faces what may be her most ambitious challenge yet, turning around struggling silicon valley icon hewlett-packard. her solution, to split the company in two. perhaps the biggest seperation in the history of american business. joining me today on "studio 1.0", hp ceo and chairman, meg whitman. thank you so much for joining us. it is really an honor to be here with you. so thank you so much. meg: you are welcome. i am glad to be here.