and 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live ♪ one way or another i'm going to find ya and get ya, get ya, get ya ♪ one way or another ♪ get cha, get cha, get cha ♪ one way or another i'm going to see ya ♪ i'm going to make meet ya, meet ya one day ♪ happy thursday welcome to "squawk alley. i'm jon fortt. ahead, tech, power and politics. you can't handle the truth political theater doing their best jack nicholson impressions. in the hot seat again as lawmakers from either side of the aisle accuse democrats of moderating content too much or not enough and amazon closer to

a union vote turning into a political flashpoint senator bernie sanders heading to alabama to rally the pro-union side and saying aird already delivering the progressive workplace bernie just talks about important insights with start, julia, with politics. >> that's right, jon today in the house hearing, set to start in an hour, facebook ceo mark zuckerberg, alphabet ceo and twitter's jack dorsey pressed on efforts to fact check and remove hate speech and misinformation dorsey will say removing or changing the shield could be damaging to free speech, zuckerberg recommends specific reforms to the law such as requiring companies to have adequate systems in place, saying they should not be held liable if they meet the thresholds discuss now with casey newton,

platformer alongside roger mcnamee. roger, start with you. a critic of zuckerberg and facebook what do you think about zuckerberg's recommendations how the liability shield that has protected facebook so long could be changed >> so, julia, i think mark is framing this in the best possible way for facebook. section 230 is currently constructed, provide as safe harbor, and the reform he's making will very much advantage facebook relative to other players. i think that the hearing, in fact, will have a subtext that goes way beyond section 230, because i think the issues we're dealing with here really go to the business model of facebook go to the business model of twit ot ter of google. as a consequence, 230 is a side show a lot of talk about it from the

platform companies at this hearing, but i don't think from the perspective of long-term regulation that that's the biggest fish that we're going to be frying here. >> casey what do you think do you agree and how do you think each of these three ceos will differentiate their defense? >> roger is right. an element of op yoportuneopporm and pichai taking a very different position he points rightly, i think, to the fact that section 230 is sort of the foundation of a lot of the modern web. the internet is much bigger than three companies testified today and they deserve protection. not surprising we see zuckerberg basically seizing the moment but interesting to see how that are that goes with congress today. >> yeah. not surprising we've really seen this movie play out a number of times by now.

roger, as you say, section 230 in the sense a side show and this whole thing is really a side show, do you actually see lawmakers getting to the business model today have they ever in the past are you expecting anything different this time around >> i think the theater of a hearing like this does not lend itself to getting into deep substance, but no question the relevant committee, which is to say the energy and commerce committee of the house of representatives, is absolutely digging into the deeper issues's there was a report this week from the global watchdog which pointed out that facebook had the power all year long to get rid of disinformation. there were 10 billion views of disinformation it could have stopped, had it chosen to. 32 million followers, or groups, espousing violence as recently as last friday, still 118 pages with 27 million followers promoting insurrection against our government

and facebook has the ability to turn this stuff off but it's not in the interest of its business model to do so as a consequence, this issue of business model i think is going to be a subcurrent under all of it as i said earlier. mark is very smart to position himself relative to 230, because it sounds like he's being cooperative but doesn't get to the core issue i think pichai's position, casey said in a sense, that's the industry standard position, but it serves the status quo in a way i think at the moment, at least, harming public health because of disinformation of covid and clearly harming democracy. >> interesting casey, i'd like to ask you to respond, and tell us which company you think will face the most fire today in this hearing? >> well, on that point it may be jack dorsey. i found his prepared testimony to be somewhat muddled and largely avoiding some of the hardest questions here

they talks about decentralizing twitter. maybe putting it on the block chain. nothing congress really wants to hear i differ slightly from roger on the core issue i think misinformation is a problem, let's talk who's spreading it seven republican congress members quizzing the ceos today tweeted the "stop the steal" hashtag promoting the lie the election was stolen. very difficult for any tech platform to get misinformation under control when the misinformation is literally coming from inside the house. >> well said >> that's a good point, casey. and there's probably still more questions than answers we'll have at least, if i could predict, after this hearing, but we will, of course, watch closely. i want to pivot to the other big tech battle playing out today. that's around the drive-by workers at an alabama warehouse to unionize. take you through this twitter battle a top amazon executive, dave

clark, svp of worldwide operations, last night clapping back at a tweet to bernie sanders who supported the unionization effort and will visit workers tomorrow the quote, i welcome senator sanders and i often say we are the bernie sanders of employers but that's not quite right, because we actually deliver a progressive workplace for our constituents a lot of sarcasm there, guys outlines amazon's $15 minimum wage and benefits. and then democratic representative mark poken hitting back with this twees paying workers $15 an how doesn't make you a progressive workplace when you union bust and make workers eunate in bottles. amazon's official twitter handle shot back with, you don't really believe peeing in boltsbottles, you? if that was true nobody would work for us.

a lot to unpack there. roger, come to you first so curious what is the strategy here from amazon sarcasm and taunting by a top executive when there is just so much at stake for them they're already on the wrong side of lawmakers in congress. >> i do not think this is a winning strategy for amazon at all. they're playing by twitter rules appealing to people on twitter, and i do not think that's the core constituency and i think they're losing the battle hard whether they lose in alabama, i don't know it's a master of time before unions become a bigger deal. not just in amazon but throughout the tech sector i think the issue is less about compensation than onerous work rules that really dehumanize the people who work in these large warehouses particularly during the rush seasons, around holidays and various our gifting moments. so i think that if i were amazon

i'd be looking for a different communication strategy. >> casey, here's my unpopular opinion/observation. maybe more of an observation warehouse jobs in general are hard right? i mean -- a lot of time from where we sit sometimes, on the east coast in these cities, we don't like to think about that, but they are hard. and if the conditions at amazon warehouses were as bad as some of the democrats are trying to paint them, this union vote wouldn't even be an issue. everybody would vote to organize i look online and look at indeed, worker rankings of the job from amazon workers. warehouse workers 3.6 our five walmart, 3.5 out of 5. actually lower and talking tens of thousands of reviews on each. costco pretty high 4.1 out of 5 walgreens 3.6 out of 5 same as amazon

it square that for me. if amazon is that bad compared to everybody else with tens of thousands of reviews, why are we seeing those rankings? >> it's a good question. i think what we've seen from the reporting on the ground is that 9 the situation in be besmer - bessemer, alabama, economic prekaraty is a dividing feature of life for too many americans looking at coming age of automation this suggests a union is something workers want to protect themselves. >> maybe they do, roger. i'm not really trying to argue for that one way or the other

but an old enough to remember a decade or so ago when walmart was the boogeyman. seems there's a new one and make distracts from underlying issues about pay, benefits, worker education and advancement perhaps needed across the economy, not just within one particular company >> jon, a fair point, but i would also note that in many of the communities where these warehouses are based, the warehouse is by far the largest employer it's not like people have options. and i really strongly agree with casey's point here, that in this country where we tie health insurance to employment, and where we give all the power to the employers to misclassify workers as contractors, when, in fact, they really should be employees, in order not to give them health care you have very little safety net in these communities so it is legitimate for a worker to vote against a union out of fear that they will lose their job, or out of fear that the

warehouse will be moved, and that fear is the problem so i really, strongly endorse what casey just said about why it's in the interest of these workers to have some level of protection, and why, i think, the government is likely to treat workers across the entire economy with more respect going forward than has been the case over the last 30 or 40 years. >> roger, you make a good point tying this in with all the conversations and regulation around gig workers, but i'm curious whether this issue, which is about amazon and warehouse workers, really speaks to larger questions about immunization with tech in general and of course, we saw the union push at google casey, is this start of something as other tech companies beyond just amazon >> yeah. look around. medium, a technology and media company came one vote short forming its own union just a month ago. we've seen a couple unions at

small, lesser known tech k companies form within the past month or so. i think this is resurgeant and frankly in the economic self-interest of most of these workers to strongly consider it, to be able to bargain collectively and protect themselves against this coming wave of ought make automation and other economic changes. >> take a moment to push back against jon's unpopular opinion and i wonder from what time frame these are from the last year amazon looked different than any other year than any other company we've s seen amazon warehouse workers consider kd essential workers, and it's changed perhaps what they want. it's not just about pay now but it's about working conditions and protections. so, roger, come to you on this has what workers want changed,

and that's going to affect the tech industry much more now that ecommerce has a much bigger role to play. right? >> well, i would also point -- i think the issue is exactly as casey said i this this is an economy-wide problem in that the pandemic has really, i think, reinforced the need to have greater levels of protection for the people who work in essential industries i mean, the notion that if you work in a grocery store or if you work in a meat packing plant or in an amazon warehouse and you do not have either health insurance, or adequate health insurance, or your work conditions subject you to a greater risk of getting sick i mean, these are things that our economy currently has no provision for. i think what the whole debate is about is, wait a minute. we've just gone through a pandemic, and it's entirely possible because of climate change this is the first of more than one and if that's the case, we really need to rethink how the

economy is structured, and a big part of what biden has done with the american recovery act is to acknowledge that with a temporary move to try to help all the people harmed by it, and i just believe that we're going to have to get accustomed as investors to a slightly different balance of the benefits in the economy, because the pandemic just showed that the other balance just leaves way too many people in catastrophic situation people that we desperately need in order for the rest of the economy to operate >> uh-huh. we will soon see how that dynamic continues to play out, ballots start to be counted on march 30th at that alabama amazon warehouse thank you, guys, so much casey and roger, for being with us this morning. >> everybody should subscribe to casey's newsletter. >> agreed. after the break, smart tvmaker vizio goes public. we've got the ceo up next.

later this hour, legendary founder linked in reid hoffman chats with us. a great hour ahead stay with us. asting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. oh. their award-winning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. so it's like my streaming service. well except now you're binge learning. see how you can become a smarter investor with a personalized education from td ameritrade. visit tdameritrade.com/learn ♪

smart tvmaker vizio making its public debut at the new york stock exchange this morning ahead of that first trade. leslie picker joins us with

william wang. >> thank you for joining us on a very important day for your company. i remember covering your first attempt at an ipo in 2015. ultimately signed a deal to sell the company and fell through over regulatory concerns needless to say a long road to today. only to find a down sized deal at the end i'm curious. what is this next chapter looking like for vizio and how would you characterize the process thus far of going public >> yeah. first of all, i'm very excited to be here today you know, i started the company back in 2002 with the second mortgage on my house. we've come certainly a long way in the last 18, 19 years built a great company with great people and we sold over 80 million devices. and five years ago, when we tried to go public, the company tried to buy us and since then we're boog executing our vision.

on tv, streaming on to the tv and also bring additional value to our tv, which we're so well-known for so so excited to be here today >> can you give us a sense of what the future looks like for video? i want to ask that question in the prism of who you believe your competitors are on one hand you do make the bulk of your money from selling actual tvs telling hardware is it samsung, sony, or do you see your competitors as being, you know, maic of ott devices like roku and apple and amazon's, google, companies like that? >> yeah. i see all of those as competitors. again, entrepreneur, pretty paranoid in competing. what we here sought to do. companies sony, samsung, great picture quality's same time people at roku, amazon fire, great user interface to stream on your tv

we see both as competitor. >> in your prospectus you say covid generated a "net positive impact on consumer demand for your products. people essentially stuck at home upgraded their tvs, but during the course of the year you faced inventory shortaging and ship shortages at the foreground and the like give a sense what the demand looks like now and your ability to meet that, especially looking at this ever-changing world? >> yes covid-19 made people stay at home, and home entertainment became more critical that are ever i'm so glad as a tv company we can entertain people at home, and that the demands, tv demands, very strong still and last year's demands went off the chart and currently tvs still, it's a great product. again, people staying home we need entertainment.

so the challenge has been tough but the last 18 years we had a lot of complications we're a great company, with a great team of people and work closely with all supply change partners to make sure here in the u.s., for the american consumer to entertain themselves at home. >> i cannot imagine last year without a variety, the wide variety of streaming services available to us right now. your smart tv's offer netflix, ap the tv plus, peacock, disney plus, et cetera but notable exceptions you don't have a distribution deal with hbo max and discovery plus how important is it to your customers that they have the full suite of streaming services at their disposal through vizio tvs and what are you doing to try to get those onboard that aren't currently signed up to do, you know, a distribution deal with vizio?

>> yes we want to have all the great apps on our tv to entertain people at home, and the vizio platform is built around a really robust operating system which is owned by ourselves. and even though hbo max is a platform right now, people can still use apple air play building on tv to -- to see the show, but we're working very hard with those companies to make sure that we bring those great apps on to our tvs so we can entertainment our customers at home. >> william wang, we'll keep an eye on those shares. yet to start trading hopefully in an hour or so we'll have a sense of trading there. we appreciate you joining us meantime william wang, chairman and ceo of vizio. >> great thank you. now, after the break, data on tech employment in the pandemic from cnbc's technology

ute council sirurvey. we bring that to you in just a few seconds. stick around. welcome back members of cnbc executive council say easier to find qualified talent to fill open positions when compared to same time last year when none of the members surveyed said it was easier to find talent. includes chief technology

officers, information officers and other tock execs focused and digital transformation as companies across the country majority council members said their organizations are taking steps to develop talent and close the skills gap examples of that things like building flexible on the job training opportunities and completely rewriting job descriptions and job titles. finally, candidates from non-technology backgrounds have found some luck snagging open technology positions this year nearly three in four exec sutivs hired liberal arts degrees into tech rolls and hired people with no college degree at all after this break we'll talk with future of work with tech legend idofan ay with us. if you're 55 and up, t- mobile has plans built just for you. switch today and get 2 lines of unlimited and 2 free smartphones. plus you'll now get netflix on us.

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welcome back your cnbc news update at this hour the man accused of fatally killing ten people in a boulder, colorado supermarket, to plea. the judge ordered him held without bail. after visiting their client in a russian prison, alexi no va navalny is having terrible back pain prison guards don't let him sleep and night and requests for a civilian doctor denied. and planning for broadway to

reopen in september. that set up for people in theater community for covid. as any texan will tell you everything is bigger in the lone start state, including hail. this video of ice balls rfly as big as golf balls shot early last night northwest of austin jon, i don't even know what you do with that how do you protect your cars from that if you don't have a garage >> no idea boy. yes. thank you. the largest fund ever raised by majority black-led team just closed talking about forces behind that and s&p down half a percent. nasdaq faring worst of all down about a percent. we'll be right back. zero-commission trades for online u.s. stocks and etfs. and a commitment to get you the best price on every trade, which saved investors over $1.5 billion last year.

that's decision tech. only from fidelity. hi, i'm a new customer and i want your best new smartphone deal. well i'm an existing customer and i'd like your best new smartphone deal. oh do ya? actually it's for both new and existing customers. i feel silly. but i do want the fastest 5g network. oh i want the fastest 5g network. are we actually doing this again? it's not complicated. only at&t gives everyone the same great deal. like the samsung galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in. ♪ mom and dad left costa rica, 1971. and in 1990, they opened lrazu. when the pandemic hit, pickup and delivery was still viable. that kept us afloat. keeping our diners informed on google was so important. the support from our customers, it honestly kept us going. i will always be grateful for that. ♪

with a bang, energy and change came to every part of our universe. seismic or small, it continues. change is all around us. shaped by technology and human ingenuity, we can make it work for you and your business. diane retired and opened that pottery studio. how did you come up with all these backstories? i got help from a pro. my financial professional explained to me all the ways nationwide can help protect financial futures in peytonville. nationwide can help the greens get lifetime income because their son kyle is moving back home and could help set up a financial plan for mrs. garcia. and he explained how nationwide can help mr. paisley retire early and spend more time with his pal, peyton. and their new band. exactly!

yeah. don't forget the band. i haven't. don't like surprises? [ watch vibrates ] proactive notifications from fidelity keep you tuned in all day long. so when something happens that could affect your portfolio, you can act quickly. that's decision tech, only from fidelity. as the pandemic continues to redefine the way businesses and communities operate the future remain as question for investors. joining us now to discuss their outlook for 2021 and beyond, graylock partner and linkedin founder reid hoffman joins us from a minute as well as sarah let me start with you. getting closer to reopening everyone talk about an idea of a hybrid workplace you're seeing different stances in that. dropbox, going remote first,

giving up a lot of office space and google looking for more office space and not committing to a permanent work idea what are technologies and common threads that will cut across >> yeah. i'm heartened to see, actually it's not just dropbox and google, as you mentioned it's ford. right? everybody's thinking about what the mu mode of work is and i don't think anybody knows the answer but we know a lot of hybrid and a lot more support for remote to your question about the technologies or innovation people are looking for, we're really going from emergency mode to, like, a building mode now. right? something we're really focused on is, we think the softer stuff is going to be hard effort building culture career progression, communication. that's the area we're investing in most. for example, investors in a company called remotion. like a virltual office that sits on your desktop all the time to try to keep you connected with

teammates. >> right and, reid, we've seen some companies, a big one is zoom right? positioned perfectly for remote work but as we started to go towards an opening, they sort of tweaked, or introduced new products, work in that hybrid word, zoom phone, zoom rooms what are companies you think have done a good job not just resting on their laurels in the pandemic because of a business model that fit, but thinking ahead, looking to that reopening hybrid product >> i think just about everyone actually who are the good innovators are thinking about that a lot of meeting products, you mentioned zoom also teams, others some of the ones i think we've also been investors in, graylock things like poeda and other areas, adventure and work flow make your own work process that conditions that flexibly plays between remote, in you know, in-office are and also hybrid. what i'm finding a lot of people are thinking about

okay how does hybrid work some people in the office? smt not in the office? how do you make it not, like, second-class citizens? a lot of already working in innovation to make that happen so that in the metaphor everyone is actually in the room where it happens. >> yeah. i like that, reid. sarah, talk to us about artificial intelligence and not just companies that are ai companies, but how start-ups maybe even those in your portfolio, how they are using and need to use ai to automate their processes and maybe distinguish themselves from both their start-up competition and established companies that they're trying to disrupt? >> yeah. absolutely. one thing we're seeing is, ferns that take a combination of ai and services right? services have been kind of a -- a dirty word in technology investing to date because it involves lower gross margin.

we've seen that isn't true in new breeds of companies. for example, our portfolio a company called abnormal security an ai-first company that becomes more important during covid, because people are getting targeted by lots of hackers with manipulative phishing emails they use a combination of ai and expert sort of security researchers to deliver their really high-quality service. we'll see more mixes of people who are, companies, who are ai first, but use service on the back end to make sure they're hitting a really high quality level. >> that's ai investment. in a way now, reid, talk more broadly about maybe capital investment, and the big investments that are going to allow certain companies to accelerate out of this period i asked that in the context just having had pat gelsinger on with us yesterday talking about a $20

billion fab debt which is making a lot of people scratch their heads. is that the bet that companies should be making, risky, perhaps, but leaning in to what they view as their core identity and core competency? >> absolutely. one thing we've seen, so-called moore's law, never a law, actually impact ended relative to desktops and servers. the result has been building massive amounts of very large energy-efficient, climbed-good server farm for doing ai to continue the digitization, the progress and those things will require, for example, special chips, special fabs you know, part of the kind of the ai technology race for building the new politicians in t -- applications in the future, specialized chips ways to do it and you can see line of sight to that transformation. whether it ranges from medical and precision medicine and everything else to education, to entertainment. the ai transformation across

industries is going to be, and is going to require, a massive a lot, and therefore you have a higher degree of certainty with that level of capital investment. >> reid, it's interesting. you were on our show recently talking about transformation of the transportation infrastructure and i know you love to invest in networks, and i wonder as you look at the physical investment and things you mentioned server firms, also physical investments in space as people increasingly come back together what's the network that will be disrupted or improved upon in terms of networks of co-workers and working together and how does that relate to transportation and getting people to and from work? >> yeah. thank you. actually, one of the things we've all forgotten with invention of cars how much you can completely change space. invented suburbs reconfigured where you could live and grow, and have a

family, along with a commute to work we are at the dawn of multiple place where is that reimagining of our cities, of our physical spaces, is coming through transportation there's autonomous vehicles, with things like aurora, neuro, invested in graylock making human drivers safer obviously jobee, uber of the air, and so all of these things mean now suddenly you can live at a cheaper area that's more healthy. you can, part of the whole electrification make climate a lot better, and what that will mean is new networks the best probably analog of the last decade for people to think about this is think how uber and ride-sharing transformed the notion of, did you have to own two vehicles versus one? what was the availability? did you actually need, to sweat parking or not and could you reconfigure those

spaces we'll see the same through autonomy obviously, automated kind of vehicles, everything from people to deliveries, and then also, of course, through, you know, kind of moving to 3d. moving from 2d to 3d in terms of transport. >> reid, glad you bring up uber and ride-sharing earlier in the so we talked about some of these labor battles in tech and how the pandemic has changed the landscape, and what's important to workers we talked to amazon specifically, but i want to ask you about the gig economy, because it's facing a kind of reckoning as well. are start-ups starting to think about some of these regulatory and labor issues earlier on in their life times should they be >> they should be. i think they are i think one of the challenges -- i think a lot of these companies are, you know, maybe sometimes fumbling, but more well-meaning than they might appear because they're saying, look the old mechanism that everyone kind of says, hey, look. i have a previous round peg,

round hole i want to make everything in it is not the exact right new one, but doesn't mean what is is what exactly should be. for example, benefited crude hours per number of hours that you're actually in fact working in the gig economy you know should kind of reputation and other kinds of information be portable to help you with career paths and moving to other things those are the kinds of i think future inventions we need to make to make sure people have not just kind of the benefits of the gig economy, which is flexibility and ability that come in and out as they want giving them, those workers something they want, but also career progression, and safety, and health care benefits and other kinds of things need to be worked in, but it's like, what's the new peg, nots what's the old peg? >> then finally, sarah, bringing it back to just the start-ups themselves and their future coming out of this has the go-to market, the sales

notion significantly changed over the past year when trying to make that it best of breed argument against, you know, competitors in a lot of cases already have an entrenched presence with a customer but perhaps not an innovative product. >> it's something we were looking out for beginning of the pandemic and the lockdown, and i'm very focused on these bottoms-up sort of new school sass companies that are competing in a best world -- >> passing to the package? is that a -- >> sorry go ahead. >> and one thing we've seen is that the companies that are, sort of user-led and community-led, so think slack, figma, coda, reid mentioned. they barely missed a beat during the pandemic right? because really people are finding software online and bringing it into their organizations and advocating for it in this era you have unbundled

and bundling of software markets in a kind of violent way where bottoms-up companies, they can really succeed and then look for adjacency, we're actually going to see more competitivenesses. >> thank you both very much for being with us. reid hoffman and sayre wa guo. and tune in to c nbc's at work summit march 30th register now at cnbc events dot com slash work you don't want to miss this. great names here. shifty gears for a series on female founders for women's history month. morgan debon, a digital company for black millennials and covers news, politics, travel tech and lifestyle. digital content and live events and the company says it's the

largest ad network targeting black consumers. >> all: welcome to the black fare flare. >> i started this company when i was 24 so i was a young ceo i'm still learning every single day on how to be a responsible and effective leader, and starting to bring people along with me on that journey and really empowering my team. >> during the pandemic, i really learned how to lead with empathy, and i listened a lot more, because i had time to slow down, and listen to my audience. listen to our consumer live to my employees i'm definitely a little bossy. and i am definitely ly stubbo. entrepreneurs have to be immovable in your belief i think i'm decisive, fearless and that has given me the audacity to dream really big, and to inspire others to dream big, and this is very much a

manifestation of a vision in my mind i have a lot of mentors. i am not shy about asking for help or asking for advice, and it's been, i think, one of the reasons why it's been successful i've had a tribe of people.

welcome back goldman sachs, bank of america, foot locker participating in the inaugural fund from mack venture capital. $110 million fund. largest first fund ever raised

by a majority black-led team here to discuss, both managing general partners guys, historic thanks for being here on cnbc with us. marlin what was the genesis of this did you intend to sort of set the bar this high? >> yeah. we were very specific about the fund's size we wanted to raise right? we wanted to make sure that we were, you know, ventures about business and wanted to derisk it as much as possible. so, you know, we're targeting employee companies in this portfolio invest roughly $1.5 million in each of those companies. so that's how we get to that $100 million we didn't expect we would get that much interest, as much interest, as we did and oversubscribed to 110 million. >> wow and adrian, you are the former mayor of my hometown, washington, d.c. you know a lot about cities,

politics what's happening locally, in different communities. how does that inform the types of investments that mac is planning to make, and the role that you hope to play in advising >> yeah. i think you can expect mac to make impact from investments just like when i was in politics, you want to make positive change. we want the same thing at mac venture capital. so we invest in companies that we think and know are going to make a lot of money for our investors, but we also look for ones that have both diverse founders and ceo and also will change the community in a positive way a fintech company, an aerospace company, even a company that makes it easier to protect the community. we're going to do, invest in software companies, and make sure they make an impact.

>> marlin, tell us a little more about which categories you're most interested in right now you talked about wanting to tap into cultural shifts what does that mean in terms of the types of companies you could be investing in? >> sure. so our -- our guiding or thesis we coin cultural investing, which essentially is a look at human behavior and shifts in culture. we believe that human behavior drives everything around us, and so what we try to do is identify emerging behavioral trends and do a lot of research to figure out which of the trends have stay power essentially what we're trying to figure out is where are people and businesses can go to spend their time and money in the future, and that's where we want to invest. so to date, you know, that's looked like exchanges such as pike or pure stream. it has looked like, you know, sleepy industries that are adopting technologies, companies

that are opening trade for the continent of africa. it has looked like a new wave of fashion technology that's better for the planet and companies like finesse we can go on and on. you know, essentially we coin ourselves as generalists that are guided by this principle of cultural investing. >> interesting generalists but with close ties to hollywood, my hometown here in los angeles you know, very close ties to the entertainment industry adrian, i am wondering how you aim to really tap into the value, either through the connections to amplify the message of some of your startups or to invest in companies that are disrupting entertainment. >> yes, well, certainly our consumer-based investments love the connection to hollywood that our partners, charles king and mike pallen have, because it helps to get notoriety to the company and to the product they're serving.

also, what is really great about kind of the hollywood talent agency model, and we kind of subscribe to that, is it is not just enough to invest in a company anymore. we want to be a venture capital fund known for helping the company after we have invested that's part of the services industry of hollywood, it is part of the services industry when i was in politics, and we've made a really bold statement that we're going to broaden the funnel of companies that we invest in. and so, you know, it is not enough -- silicon valley has gotten a couple of knocks for not investing in a broad enough, in a diverse enough group of entrepreneurs. we are broadening that top of funnel, not just because it is the right thing to do but because it is going to allow us to have even better companies at the end of the day >> right, and you guys are broadening that out in terms of geopolitics as well. i am looking at portfolio companies that span the globe, seattle, houston, nairobi.

just on that point, marlon, if you could pick up, were you not finding that diversity of culture within silicon valley or traditional tech hubs? >> so we have a saying within the firm that, you know, talent is ubiquitous but access to opportunity and capital is not so we're going to go and find the -- you know, those diamonds in the rough that are building amazing companies, that are today unheard of we are going to make them known and help them build, you know, world class institutions. >> adrian, i wonder what the next phase is in building communities, maybe even conferences, around the movement and focus that mac represents. i mean even in this move to increase representation in tech, i keep hearing over and over again, well, we are going to hbcus, and that's great, but i mean there's only so many hbcus, right, and there's all kinds of issues as you and i both know with that effort, and just

trying to flood in there and thinking you will find everything there what can be done, needs to be done, perhaps you guys are thinking about around formalizing, enriching communities and events as focal points for what you are also investing in >> yes, well, you know but it deserves to be mentioned that like power university, my law school alma mater, has a partnership with google where they are literally training computer science majors to be entrepreneurs. that's a start just like our fund is a start, you know there haven't been that many african-american-led firms that have raised $100 million from institutional investors. we know we're one of the first, but we want lots of others to follow our lps believe that we will show them deal flow that they would not otherwise have seen from any other fund, and so in that way that you approach it from the bottom like howard and google are doing and then

approach it from kind of the top where we're going to invest in more diverse companies, that's how you start to diversify silicon valley it is not going to happen right away, but you are starting to see real concrete steps i think. it is not just based upon doing what is right. it is really based upon, with a more diverse set of entrepreneurs and a more diverse set of investors like us, you will see better deal flow, which will end up making more money and be better for the community. >> we will have to come back with those companies as you invest in them thank you, adrian fenty and marlon nichols of mac. >> thank you meanwhile, morgan stanley and colleague google, quote, dark horse recovery pick raising the price target to $2,350 bullish in the company's advertising and paid search prospects. next, dorsey, pichai and zuckerberg are set to testify in front of congress. that starts in a few minutes

wl you the latest right after the break. stay with us if you're 55 and up, t- mobile has plans built just for you. switch today and get 2 lines of unlimited and 2 free smartphones. plus you'll now get netflix on us. all this for up to 50% off vs. verizon.

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big tech under fire today from all fronts. congress, senators and even chrissy teigen

the model on twitter telling 14 million followers that the social network no longer serves me positively and negatively deidre, she still hasn't quit instagram, she is still on there. you have to wonder if any of the departures from social media impact what all of the users and followers think. does it get her followers to drop the platform? >> that's a good question. how long it lasts, i mean for her to kind of come out and say this now, there's been lots of stuff in the past. but, you know, the question i have, john, is when does all of this start to weigh on the share prices of big tech or perhaps we're already seeing that. they haven't done a ton this year, but just before the break we talked about morgan stanley upgrading its price target for google, calling it a dark horse on the eve of this, you know, all-important hearing where the business model is going to be scrutinized. >> yeah. i don't think this hearing is important at all i mean as ylan mui told us earlier, democrats and

republicans far apart on this. if there's any change to 230, it can't come through reconciliation so they have to find common ground it is not happening any time soon the only way this hearing gets interesting is if somebody goes off script and they're not even in the hearing room under bright lights they're comfy at home. we'll see. we'll see. >> i should have used air quotes, all important. >> yes, air quotes, indeed that does it for "squawk alley". let's get to the judge all right, jon, thanks so much welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner front and center this hour, are we setting up for a great stock shapout? why it may be under way. we will debate money's next move joining me, tiffany magee is cio at pivotal advisers. let's go to the wall, show you what stocks are doing. they've been down across the board. russell is getting a bit of a lift but you see the dow is down 29, well off its lows, as has the nasdaq the ten-year note yield at 161, so rates have been falling, though tech is not reall