jessica: i am jessica summers and you are watching "bloomberg technology." puerto rico has been declared a federal disaster area after hurricane maria battered the u.s. commonwealth. that makes puerto rico eligible for financial assistance. officials say it may take months to restore electricity across the island. president trump is planning a visit to view the damage. a mexican officials says there is no missing child after a collapsed building that became the focus of rescue efforts. they believe an adult might be alive in the rubble. more than 50 people have been rescued. the death toll is at least 245.

the white house released details of president trump's position on sanctions for north korea. chooseal firms must between the u.s. and -- he targets the trade network, an 180 ban on vessels that have visited north korea. russia is warning the u.s. it will retaliate against fighters in syria. it accuses them of firing alongside assad's army. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am jessica summers. this is bloomberg. "bloomberg technology" is next. ♪

emily: i'm emily chang. this is "bloomberg technology." zuckerberg's politicking. why the facebook chief is handing over information to congress on political ads bought by russians ahead of the u.s. presidential election. plus, google bets bigger on hardware. a deal to buy top engineering talent from former smartphone giant htc. we break down the reasoning and the timing behind the billion dollar venture. and nest refreshes its product line with a focus on the home security market. our exclusive conversation with the ceo about their mission to make homes smarter and safer. facebook says it will cooperate with congress and handover information on the political ads that were paid for by russians ahead of the u.s. presidential election last year. mark zuckerberg took the facebook live to address the company's next step to protect the integrity of the democratic process.

mark: we will bring facebook to a higher standard of transparency. not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser's page and see the ads they are currently running to any audience on facebook. emily: this week, several democrats called for facebook and other social networks to face new advertising disclosure requirements. facebook is expected to be called before the senate intelligence committee for a public hearing in october with panel leaders demanding a full accounting. joining us, our editor at large cory johnson and our bloomberg tech reporter, sarah frier. what's happening? sara zuckerberg is trying to : take this and move it in a direction that is positive for facebook. they have been under so much pressure. congressional leaders have said we demand more transparency, more cooperation. now facebook is saying, yes, we will quiet operate with you, but we will also do more for transparency in political advertising on our site and work with governments around the world.

he mentioned germany. to make sure this doesn't happen in the future. they are trying to build that trust with the government so that they are not under so much fire anymore. emily: it's fascinating that political ads online are not subject to the same disclosures that television ads are. what do you make of facebook attempting to take a proactive approach? cory: there are two reasons that television ads are monitored by the government. one is concerned about political spending in the u.s. there is in a big back and forth about that. this notion that it's good for our democracy to know who is spending money to try to push their issues are candidates, the notion of nazis and racists and anti-semites pushes that to another level of political discourse. the other history relates to the

difference in technology. when radio or television were first invented, the biggest signal always won. the federal government came in, they establish the fcc and said, here is a slice, here is a slice. we will let you use these slices if you abide by these rules. it created some order in the chaotic world of broadcast. with those rules came the requirement to disclose certain things. that is been the basis for fcc law ever since. the internet is the wild west. there are an unlimited amount of channels. as a result, it's not been legislated. but we see the effects of this. what we don't know is the role of russian money and russian hacking on the u.s. election. what we also saw was that facebook was willing to give over a lot of information with a search warrant to robert mueller, but giving a lot less to congress. facebook is suggesting they are sharing the same amount now but , we don't know. emily: facebook is suggesting that congress decide how much the public should know. who knows what, and what do they know? sarah: facebook wants to be the one saying, listen, we did a very stringent review of our privacy policies, our legal

rights. we are going to give this information to congress in a way that we feel will honor that. they don't want to give it to the public because they don't want to set any precedent for having to make people's private stuff public in the future. of course, there are always investigations where people are asking for cooperation from facebook and whatsapp and instagram, and the company pushes back on those pretty hard. what's interesting here is the company is trying to figure out how to present itself is even more transparent than tv in the future. our colleague pointed out to me, even if you could do what zuckerberg says, ok, all these ads are paid for by cory johnson or by russia, how do we know it's not a bot? how do we know who this is? cory: it's possible they don't

know how much russia or others are involved. sarah: it is just an automated system. these facebook ads are not sold through salespeople. they are being sold through this self-serve advertising system on the platform. emily: to be clear, they found connection between these ads and russia, but they don't know who in russia, whether it is tied to the government. sarah: and they are continuing to look into this. they are looking into other state actors and other potential russian groups. this story may not be over yet. cory: sorry to interrupt. they were caught in this bind where they want to say, we did not have that much effect, it was only $100,000. but we will give you 3000 ads. as if the number wasn't 2999 or 30,000. they put a big number out there. they put a small number out there. they are trying to play both sides of this. emily: you are out with a new story about mark zuckerberg's political aspirations, of which he tells you there are none. he's not running for office,

even though it looks like he is. what is your takeaway? sarah: whether or not he is running for president, because only he knows, there are a host of political issues and societal issues and issues with facebook's power around the world that he has to deal with. he is doing this also to educate himself, but mostly to present this vision of the future of facebook as this nonthreatening, very helpful for the future of society -- he wants to paint a picture of this company as something that is going to be a force for good. it's kind of good timing. as he is doing this, all of these things are coming out, the russian ads. we talked earlier this week about the targeting against racists on facebook ads. this is all coming out as zuckerberg is doing this charm offensive around the country. it's all very curated.

it's a very complicated face for zuckerberg right now. he certainly doesn't want us to think that it's at all strategic, at all curated, beyond what he envisions for the future of facebook. emily: sarah frier, who covers facebook for us. cory johnson, our editor at large. thank you. be sure to read this week's cover story on mark zuckerberg in the new issue of "bloomberg businessweek." amazon is set to open a large new office in new york city and create 2000 high-paying jobs. the e-commerce giant has already got several locations across the city, but will expand its presence. the new office will employ people across finance, sales marketing, and information , technology earning an average , of $100,000 annually. amazon will invest $55 million in the building project. in lower manhattan's financial district. new york is bidding to be the location for amazon's second headquarters. coming up, google is making a

big push to beef up their pixel line of phones and products. how is it doing? htc talent. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: google is making a push

to get more control of phone hardware and software by agreeing to buy a piece of htc's engineering and design teams. -- deal billion means means google will have more control over the design and production of the pixel as well as other devices. joining me to discuss, aydin senkut, one of google's earliest employees. and a product manager. also with me from new york, bloomberg's mark bergen, who

covers all things google. explain how this deal is going to work. mark: it is sort of third time is the charm. google has done hardware before. they bought motorola. they made a big purchase for nest. this one is a little smaller, a little like a talent acquisition. they have 2000 engineers who were working on the google pixel device from htc, who will now be working primarily on google hardware, not just the pixel device, but their speakers, their vr devices, whatever is in the portfolio they are planning to put out. emily: some people are worried that this is deja vu. google spent $12.5 billion on motorola mobility, then sold it to lenovo. what's your take? aydin: i agree with some of the points markets made. i think it's a big competitive battle right now around consumer devices, especially phones. 2000 experienced engineers is

not going to be that easy for them to get. i think it's a great move. i think it's interesting that it shows they have learned from the motorola experience that they are actually getting the 2000 engineers. this is not an all-out acquisition of htc itself and the manufacturing facility. google is much larger now. from a risk perspective, i'm not sure it's quite in the same profile as the motorola move was for them. given how important vr has become until important this next-generation mobile phones, i ar will beand integrated, i can see why this is strategic for them, not to mention other consumers devices, given the importance of google home. emily: we will talk to the ceo of nest a little later in the show. what does this deal signal about google's commitment to hardware and phones in general? the relationship between this hardware division and nest and other parts of the company? mark: i will play double that the kit.

google has signaled a lot of commitment of things, then changed their mind. they signaled a big commitment to hardware with motorola, then to google fiber and broadband. they pulled back on both of those. i think this is google looking out maybe two to five years in the future and being terribly paranoid, seeing the world in which some of the bigger, chinese handset makers the , really successful ones, don't need google as much anymore. samsung is moving with its digital assistant to its own software services, sort of away from google. that terrifies them. when they are competing with apple. emily: is it a defensive move? aydin: i am the sure i would see it as a defensive move. google has really great economics. i think it's a strategic move. there are only a few companies in the world that have this kind -- this scale of engineers. google has always been a software company. for them to have more knowledge inside the company with respect to hardware, i think it's a good move in the sense that i can see

the influence of we want the engineers, but we don't want the cost of hardware and facilities and all the things. i think it's going to be an important area and could be a -- could be applicable to different things, phones, ar, vr, google home. i think it's a strategic move. in terms of what's coming up from china, i think software has been the driver. google has the monetization engine. i do think those are key assets. that's why i feel like google has some great strengths to rely on. emily: you were one of the first super angels coming out of google. i am curious the industry has , changed a lot. there are a lot more people angel investing. how would you describe the competitive landscape today? aydin: it's so different. when i left google, angel didn't exist. y combinator was just starting up. a lot of these organizations in terms of fostering the growth of startups and the funding, there were maybe a handful of really well-known angels. maybe 40 to 50 angel investors.

today, fast-forward, not only are there thousands of angel investors, but there are hundreds of c funds. on the one hand, it's really great. it bodes well for entrepreneurship, but it also means the number of startups has increased by a factor of 10, 1 hundred. it is harder in the bay area to hire people because they have to compete with so many companies, not to mention facebook and google. on the other hand, it's interesting times. we had a conversation years back, mostly around consumer internet, technology booming. now we have areas that we are making investments anywhere from satellite to liquid biopsy to curing cancer and enterprise customers, not to mention thin -- not to mention fintech. what is exciting, so much is happening in so many more verticals and markets. very exciting times. emily: we have about 30 seconds.

you just made your biggest investment to date in a company called guideline which helps small businesses offer retirement plans, 401k plans. why are you so bullish on this market? aydin: i think this is a $1 trillion market. this company is trying to take advantage of the fact that this is a key benefit. retirement is really important, yet only one out of three employees are using it. we found that it's a great opportunity to get involved in a company that can make a fundamental difference here in a market where we have not seen as much innovation. we are very excited to be involved. emily: thanks. it's been too long. we will have to have you sooner than the next five years. mark bergen of bloomberg technology in new york, thank you as well. coming up, the e.u. wants to make sure its citizens' private data is protected when stored on u.s. soil. the face of the privacy shield, next. this is bloomberg.

♪

emily: now to the e.u.-u.s. privacy shield, which is up for its first annual review. its first annual review. the privacy shield is a joint framework to protect the data of e.u. citizens that is stored on u.s. servers. there was uncertainty over the shield's continued existence when president trump signed an executive order. that would exclude non--u.s. citizens from having sensitive data rejected. what's going to happen? i spoke with the e.u. commissioner for justice, who spent the week in the u.s. to speak with commerce secretary wilbur ross and tech companies, about the status of the shield. >> i met mr. ross for the second time. i came with a little bit of concern that we need to clarify and make sure that we understand the protection of privacy in the same way. i came with my team to do the review.

we had a lot of detailed legal technical questions. i must say that all the work was ongoing in a very good working atmosphere. mr. ross, personally, assured me he has a very strong commitment for promoting the shield and keeping it running. emily: what are the main points of contention or differences of opinion? vera: we have to make sure that the american state authorities have privacy shield under full control, that they monitor the -- monitor whether the companies which transfer the data from the e.u. to the united states, and are fully compliant with the conditions, and also that there is no mass surveillance collection of data from security authorities. this needs to be checked.

privacy shield is a trust and check exercise. we trust, but we need to check. emily: what happens to the privacy shield, if the trump administration changes its stance? vera: that would be very bad news and a bad message for businesses on both sides of the atlantic, because it's important not only for the american companies, but also for a number of european companies. it would be a bad message for europeans because they rely on privacy shield to protect their privacy and their private data. if there is a radical change of the stance, i never hide that i am ready to propose a suspension of the system, but we are not there. i am cautiously optimistic that we will keep privacy shield running. emily: you've been meeting with tech companies here in silicon valley this week. you met with sheryl sandberg at facebook. what are their main concerns?

vera: privacy shield, because most of the companies i spoke to are under the shield and they appreciate it as a good, legal way of transferring data. the second topic was the data protection reform in the european union. this is a big change. we emphasized very strongly the need to protect privacy of people. the third topic was how to tackle the problem of illegal content on digital platforms, because this is of high importance for us as europeans. we want to have this fully in place. emily: you are coming out with a paper that covers how tech companies deal with illegal content online, how it is dealt with in the united states versus europe. what's your main takeaway?

vera: i spoke to google and facebook, out of the four companies which are under our code of conduct. facebook, google, twitter, and microsoft -- they have committed themselves last year to delete within 24 hours hate speech which has been notified to them. we agreed on the need to continue this. i also committed myself to invite more companies to do the same thing, because we want in the european union to have internet which will be hate free and which will not open the space -- a highway for hatred and for inciting violence. emily: are they acting on that commitment? have you seen them act more quickly in terms of getting the content down?

vera: i'm a very strong promoter of enhancing their social responsibility. emily: do you think the u.s. needs to handle this more strictly, like you do in europe? vera: it's a big issue here. we discussed it a lot. the first element of the -- amendment of the constitution, which ensures unlimited freedom of expression -- it will be up to america, to american politicians and people, whether they recognize that some speech is so dangerous that the society should prevent. emily: that was the e.u. commissioner for justice. coming up, after going for almost a year without introducing a new device, nest is rolling out a slew of new products. we will speak with the company's ceo about what is ahead. this is bloomberg. ♪ who knew that phones would start doing everything?

entertaining us, getting us back on track, and finding us dates. phones really have changed. so why hasn't the way we pay for them? introducing xfinity mobile. you only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. no one else lets you do that. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit or go to xfinitymobile.com.

and 12:29 p.m. in tokyo. i am paul allen with the first word news. president trump ordered new sanctions on north korea, targeting individuals, companies and banks that do business with pyongyang. south korean president moon jae-in and japanese premier shinzo abe stepped up the pressure. japan says north korea's increasing belligerence is intolerable. the philippines central-bank left rates unchanged at a record low 3%. they see inflation remaining within their 2% to 4% range.

kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a fifth straight quarter. weak investment sentiment and retail sales cloud economic growth. for the worstg up entry after hurricane rina -- maria. maria followed hurricane irma and left of the bankrupt u.s. territory facing billions in costs. the prime minister of barbuda said his island is uninhabited for the first time in 300 years. irma and maria have left the entire population homeless. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. >> i am sophie kamaruddin with a check on the markets. it is decidedly risk off in the asian session. this friday we have bonds coming with golden the dollar yen up 0.6% after breaking below them 112 level. they caution that once this bout

down, theversion dies dollar-yen will return hostage to treasury yields. japanese shares are retreating from a two-year high and the dropping equities are led by taiwan as well as hong kong. aussie shares are bucking the trend, set to snap the three-day drop. many are following in shanghai in sydney, tracking the fall we are seeing in base metals. aluminum and copper on the back foot today. looking at stocks moving in asia, htc soaring is analysts embrace the $1.1 billion deal with google. is a laggardo today in asia, falling the most in six weeks. chinese carmakers are sliding in hong kong, and take a look at property stocks. they are fighting with other developers in hong kong, tumbling after the recent rally

following the credit rating downgrade for china. taking hong kong rates the shine off of a red-hot property stocks. snapshot, asarket we had to the nikkei session hong kong. ♪ toly: welcome back "bloomberg technology." i'm emily chang. alphabet's nest is known for its and other devices that can be used from the phone. it's rolling out new device is with a slew of bells and whistles. mark gurman got his hands on some of the new devices. mark g.: this is product launch number three for 2018. -- for 2017 for alphabet's nest. after introducing a cheaper thermostat and security camera, they are taking on the whole of the home security system with four new products.

the first is a doorbell called nest hello. the device uses your existing doorbell system but at the camera's you can record who is at your front door. it has also come out with a digital doorlock. it may not have much unique functionality, but it looks like a nest product with its sleek design and connectivity with other nest devices. number a new outdoor security three, camera that can withstand weather and stream video to your phone. the most significant new device launch is the nest secure. it comes with three main features, a main hub with a speaker and pin pad, windows and door sensors and key fobs. what sets it apart is that is a complete diy kit. you can install the $500 device without needing expert help. if you want to fork out more, you can have it monitored for a monthly fee. on the software side, nest is turning some of its cameras into mini google phones.

by adding google-assisted support. now none of nest's new products necessarily move the bar forward for the industry. these are all concepts that have not only been tried before, but executed successfully. but still, it's critical for the alphabet unit to continue releasing products so that its customers will remain in their ecosystem and so that nest can keep selling them subscriptions on a monthly basis. mark gurman, bloomberg news, san francisco. emily: that was bloomberg technology's mark gurman. on the news of the product releases, i caught up with nest's ceo for an exclusive interview to talk about how he plans to grow the company. take a listen. >> it's not just about the product. it's about the whole ecosystem. the ecosystem around the software behind it, the integrations with other devices in the home, for example, our cameras. every product we build, we -- will work closely with any

other project we have built in the past. we wanted to make sure they are seamlessly -- they are a seamless experience, as well as the installation and maintenance of the products. that takes a while. emily: you took over for tony fadel. how are you similar and how are you different? >> we have different backgrounds. my background is a service provider background. i focus a lot on customer support, service, areas that stand behind our products. i bring a lot of that background into nest. that's one big difference. the company still has the same dna as when it was started. emily: let's talk about that. there were reports of cultural issues, infighting, recalls. i'm curious how you moved beyond that and what the stamp is you want to put on the company. >> we want to be a global

company. we want to continue growing our portfolio of products. we are so excited. yesterday we doubled our portfolio of products. that's a big milestone for us. that is one step of many steps we are taking. emily: how about the culture within the company itself? do you feel like things have changed things have grown? , given some of the reports about the difficulties in making this big transition? >> i will tell you what i tell everybody who asks me this, including my friends. this is the most talented team i've worked with in my career. great talent, great team. i inherited a very strong team. i'm lucky to have that. i'm just building on that. each leader has a different style. my style is different. but the core business and the core message for our company has not changed. emily: what's your mandate from larry page? >> grow the business and be a beautiful business. emily: can you talk about the relationship between nest and google?

>> we collaborate closely. we collaborate closely on our products. we work closely on integrating the experiences. yesterday we announced the google assistant. that's part of one of our cameras. that is a milestone. we work across different areas within google. we leverage a lot of great technology, especially around machine learning and ai. we pack our products with a lot of intelligence. that's part of being alphabet. we have the independence to grow our business while we leverage different technologies across alphabet. emily: google took a big stake in htc. curious what that means for nest and what you know about the strategy there.

>> it is a great opportunity for the hardware team. he knows that business extremely well from his background at motorola. the pixel product is doing very well. it's a natural extension for our business. emily: you mentioned google home. this is huge competitive territory. amazon has echo. apple has home pod. when it comes to the connected home, how do you see the competition shaping up? >> it is in the early stages for all of us. there are a lot of opportunities still left to change the experience is in the home for consumers. at the end of the day, consumers will decide what is best for them. emily: how is the rest of the business doing? talk to us about sales in general. >> we are doing very well. we continue to grow. we talked about our products are growing at a rapid pace that is accelerating. we will ship more products than we shipped in the last two years combined this year.

that gives you an idea of the growth. the expansion of our footprint is very important to us. the doubling of our portfolio is a big deal as well. emily: there's been some speculation that apple that might consider selling off nest to a third party. is there any truth to that? know they let them were not for sale. emily: that was nest's ceo. mercedes has competitor tesla in its sights. daimler plans to spend $1 billion to start production of mercedes-benz electric vehicles at its alabama factory, the first time a european manufacturer will manufacture a plug-in vehicle in the u.s. u.s. sales are projected to grow fourfold by 2021. coming up, it is the third recent lawsuit to hit the start up with we will speak to the $4.3 billion. plaintiff and the lawyer.

the feature to bring to your attention, our interactive tv function find it at tv on , the bloomberg. send our producers a message. this is for bloomberg subscribers only. check it out. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: snap is facing some

challenges with its hardware business. the company's lab for making hardware including its spectacles and video where glasses -- this comes after changing leadership earlier this month. steve horowitz, who was in charge of the lab, moved to a role in a different part of the company. sofi is the latest high-profile silicon valley company to face accusations of an unrestrained workplace culture. earlier this month, the ceo stepped down amid sexual-harassment allegations. thursday, a former loan reviewer at sofi filed a new lawsuit claiming she was repeatedly sexually harassed while working there. this is one of at least three lawsuits filed in recent months against sofi. a spokesperson said, "we take any allegations of sexual harassment seriously. while we cannot comment on the specific allegations of this lawsuit, harassment of any kind

has no place at sofi. the board and management of sofi are committed to creating a culture where employees can thrive." selina wang spoke to the former sofi employee, along with an employment lawyer. she started by asking why she decided to come out with this story now. >> the main reason really is that people are listening now. if i had come through with any information earlier, no way no one would ever listen to me. selina: robert, you represented brandon charles the original , person to file a lawsuit against the company, claiming that he was fired for reporting sexual harassment. how many women at sofi have come to you since? what are they telling you? >> we have several people we are talking to. sofi employees are calling us. i would estimate between 30 and 50 people have contacted us. a lot of them are just airing their experiences at sofi. a lot of them feel like they were abused and treated unfairly, and they just want to tell us what happened.

selina: i'm sure in recent months, given the events, this is not the first case to have come across your desk. why did you choose to represent her in particular? >> this case is really unusual. sexual-harassment baked into the culture of the company from the top down. you don't see that often. people were coming to us right away and they were not talking about low-level managers. they were talking of people at the very top of the company. in our view, it seemed to be trickling down through the company. there's the old saying, a fish stinks from the head. it is an old saying. i think that happens in companies. if the leaders of a company don't respect women, and the people under them also probably won't respect women like they should. selina: we examine some of these high-profile cases from uber, zenefits, sofi. how much of tech's cultural this, growbecause of

at all costs culture in silicon valley? >> i think it's one of the reasons that yulia had the -- they just wanted to grow, grow, grow. and they weren't paying attention to the right people, like yulia. how people feel there isn't the most important thing. it's all about growth and efficiency. selina: is this prevalent across silicon valley? i mean, some singular, high-profile cases. >> it happened at uber, we think. it certainly happened in sofi. look at these venture capital firms making these big investments in these companies, and they want a return on investment. you do that by growing and becoming more efficient. sadly one of the consequences is , that people's rights get walked upon, like yulia. she suffered in silence. now, here is one person bravely coming forward and sharing her experience. i suspect there are thousands of other women out there who experienced what yulia experienced. it's our hope that her courage

will inspire others to come forward and hopefully these tech companies will be better places to work because of people like her. selina: you have an interesting background. you spent time in new york as an employment lawyer, as well as in san francisco, representing people who had worked in wall street. are you seeing comparisons between what had happened on wall street, culture wise, and what's now happening in silicon valley at financial technology companies in particular? >> absolutely. there's a parallel, for sure. both wall street and some of these tech firms, especially fintech, are male dominated. you have that macho culture. it might be fun and great and rewarding for the men, but, sadly, the women get left behind and stepped on. selina: you were at the company for about a year. at what point did you decide to resign, and what have you been doing since? >> i knew from the beginning i wanted to resign. i tried going back to my former employer, and that just wasn't something that happened.

my breaking point really was when all the stress was getting to be too much. my hair was falling out. i had hives, stomach aches constantly. for me, it wasn't worth it at that point. i started looking elsewhere and, thankfully, i moved on to better things. emily: all right. a former sofi employee and an employment lawyer speaking with bloomberg's selina wang. coming up, mothers around the country love the start up behind this smart breast pump, but vc's won't get behind it. and a quick programming note. wilbur ross will be joining "bloomberg daybreak americas" on friday. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: general electric's new

management team is taking aim at its corporate jet suite. ge if cutting back the number of flights and will replace it with private jets. the company intends to sell its planes. the new ceo is cutting back on the ge air force as part of a $2 billion savings plan. the u.s. venture capital industry is 93% male and facing heightened scrutiny for the sometimes fraught relations with silicon valley's few female entrepreneurs. raising money can be even harder for women when their product isn't one that men use. the maker of a beloved smart breast pump has hit a wall. the ceo and cofounder who happens to be a husband are turning to kickstarter in the hopes of keeping their company running. thanks for joining us. tell me about the pump, first of all. what makes you think it stands out from the other pumps on the market? >> we have the first water-based pump and a soft silicone cup

that feels more like you're nursing your baby than a machine. you get more efficiency and more comfort, more milk in less time. emily: you can make 30% more milk, and you have an app that inputs all the data. you're building a smart bottle to go with this. yet venture capitalists haven't gotten behind this. talk to me about some of your experiences. >> largely, i think they have a hard time understanding the product. it's something they will never use. i've often been in meetings where investors will have to say, let me go talk to my wife, let me go talk to my sister, i just don't feel equipped to evaluate this opportunity. those are a lot of the responses we get around the product. meanwhile i'm thinking, this is a massive market. it's growing every year. we have an amazing first product that is defensible. emily: you've had investors repeatedly ask you about your children. your husband and not -- does not

get asked to these kinds of questions. you had investors land on porn sites when you are pitching your company. they start cracking jokes. how does this make you feel, as a female founder? >> it is hard. it makes it very uncomfortable. you can lose your confidence very quickly going into these meetings. it's true. my husband has never been asked where our children are or how he plans on running his division with children at home. it's very disappointing that those questions continue to come up. emily: the pump itself is expensive. it originally retailed at almost $1000. you brought the price down temporarily to $649 and now you are offering a lighter version for $399. what makes you think it's worth it? maybe it's the price that's keeping investors from getting behind it? >> the original price at $999 is less than half the cost of other hospital grade pumps.

it is hospital grade, it opens up different opportunities in terms of rentals. in terms of whether women will pay that much, they will because they are in it for the long haul. a lot of our customers are planning on providing breastmilk for 12 to 18 months, so they rolled that into their calculations of how much it is really costing them on a day-to-day basis. in terms of the lower-cost model, we wanted to open up another opportunity for moms to get in at a lower cost. if moms are not ready to invest in a breast pump, they can still explore naya by ordering our bottle available on kickstarter now. emily: you just launched the kickstarter. you are raising money for the smart bottle. what has been the response so far, and how does this fit into your bigger vision? >> we had a great response so far with women who believe in the mission and what we are doing, in terms of making it much easier to provide the nutritional health or the nourishment that your baby

needs. we are really encouraged and optimistic about how it's going so far and how that fits into the broader vision for naya -- we feel like we are building this platform where the hardware starts to answer some questions and anxieties that parents have. we can take the guesswork out of infant nutrition. emily: quickly, because i think it's really interesting, you've asked all your employees to work for minimum wage. they've agreed. how much more time do you have? >> we have a few more months. it's tight. i think every entrepreneur has to make the sacrifices. and we are lucky enough to have a team that believes in the product, we have an amazing product. we are committed to making this work. emily: thank you so much for stopping by. check it out on kickstarter. that does it for this edition of "bloomberg technology." we are live streaming on twitter. check us out weekdays at 5:00 p.m. in new york. that's all for now. this is bloomberg. ♪

announcer: the following is a paid program. announcer: the following is a paid presentation for miller. >> my secret, one word. volaire. so much like i have more hair than i actually do. is an airs like there machine lifting my hair.