♪ "press:here is sponsored in part by barracuda network, cloud connected. >> this week silicon valley companies in a toxic bubble of flawed culture. what the next big startup needs to do to avoid becoming the next uber. general motors makes a big change to its car on-demand service and a pot entrepreneur ponders the future. our reporters, laura kalodno and sarah lalsy this week on "press:here. >> good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. i would like the say i am appall by the revelations in the last few weeks about the behavior of men at some high tech companies,

but truthfully we've known. we've always known. it doesn't make us less angry, but if you are surprised you have not been paying attention. most of the focus has been on uber which has been the poster boy of bad behavior, but let me remind you benefits down the street from uber had to post a no sex in the stairwell. had to quit his job after he was not truthful about why he left google. reports say it was after allegations of improper behavior. bottom line, bay area tech companies operate inside a bubble that reinforces behavior and cultures that need to be changed to attract more diverse talent and retain them. those aren't my words. those belong to dr. christie smith of deloitte where she directs the leadership center for collusion. thanks for being with us this

morning. i was looking up the number -- we know they're started in garages and college dorms, but they have all been started by young men who bring a culture, usually two founders, into their company. it doesn't have to be a bad culture. certainly they're capable of bringing in good culture. what goes wrong in that moment between the dorm room and the first corporate office where things go south? >> i think it is the ends justifies the means. i'm going to create the great, new invention. i'm going to be first to market with that invention or that service or that product, and because it is going to make people's lives so much easier, doesn't really matter what happens in my company and i'm going to make a lot of money from my shareholders, and so it doesn't matter what happens in my company. so we've lived in this culture of the ends justifying the means, and, therefore, we have

culture run amok. >> i think it is also the value is so obsessed with pattern recognition. everyone is looking for ways to out smart things, what works here. >> the following is exactly the same. >> like. investors are looking. there's interviews with mike morris and john door, two of the most famous in valley history, where they say our success is correlated with young white guys who are nerdy. if that isn't a play book for unconscious bias breeding i don't know what is. you're exactly right. if this idea of faulty causation, where people look at steve jobs and say, well, steve jobs was a jerk. and it is like, well, what created steve jobs' genius? was it denying his daughter's existence and not paying child support? no. >> what do i do if i'm one of those founders, how do i get out of that cycle? >> i think let's not give a path on the unconscious bias thing. this is conscious bias. we live in an age where we have

been talking about these things over 40 years, and the tech industry happens to be a new industry we're shining a light on this. but no company in any sector has this right today. i think what you do about it is -- i think people are doing it through social media. i think that what differentiates today from years past is the fact that the ceo's reputation is on the line, and as an extension of that their brand is on the line. no longer can they abdicate the responsibility to h.r. or to a diversity officer because they're the one with the lime light on them. you see this repeated by with ceos and founders in the valley that they're being maligned for their behavior. i think actually that kind of transparency, forget about transparency always numbers, let's talk about transparency of

behavior. i think because there's suchl transparency accountability is heightened. >> it seems to me the only thing driving real change are victims coming forward and telling stories. we have seen the numbers. the numbers don't get better year onier and it doesn't affect anything. is there a way to make it easier for women to come forward culturally? >> i think it is easier. i think it is because of the brave souls coming forward today and they're having the outlet to do so. there are people in my industry seeking out the right information and, frankly, using the right analytics to look at where is bias or discrimination happening really in the organization and what is going on here and answering that question beyond numbers or programs or learning and development, because they just simply don't work. >> i don't think it is actually easier for people to come forward. they may have the tools to publish sort of about a scandal

or experience, but they're still not protected from retaliation and there's still not good numbers. you know, recrueltiers have all of these tools to find the best talent. why don't we see better diversity if they're applying data responsibly? >> i don't think it is ever easy to come forward when you have been discriminated against. i think, a, it is a personal decision. i think you have to take into account your family and the impact around you as a result from the socioeconomic stand point. so i don't ever want to suggest it is easier. i do think though that the accessibility of social media and the prominence of open letters is making it more -- it making it easier for individuals to have a voice. >> and it could make it much more difficult to give retaliation because people would be aware of what happened. >> that's exactly right. >> i wish i had written down who said it, but it is not necessarily diversity, diversity is the who, it is the inclusion

because that's the how. it may have been you, but i apologize to whoever did. more than just let's do some diversity hiring. it has to be way more than that. >> it does have to be way more than that. today we're moving from an environment of diversity inclusion to belonging and safety. because of the social yo political and economic conditions we find ourselves in, workplace it oddly enough are the places where people are coming to look for some sense of belonging and safety. >> you wrote some about that when you talked about covering, which literally what it sounds like, i am covering up who i am, et cetera. there would be a balance there, would there not be though, that you should not cover your sexual orientation or your politics or your opinion. you ought to wear those things proudly, but this is a workplace where we're going to try to get a certain amount accomplished and that i'm a certain religion is not necessarily relevant to the task we have at hand? >> i think what is important about the work we did around

covering was not just to report on the incidents of covering that people feel that they have to do, to down play a stigmatized identity. we took the research further to say, how does this impact your sense of belonging to an organization? how does this impact your sense of opportunity within an organization? that goes directly to productivity and how i feel i can contribute to the workplace. if i'm spending the majority of my time working my identity instead of my job, you're not getting a lot out of me. furthermore, what we want to do is stop blaming the victim. we tend to always blame the victim, even in the conversation that we've had here. what we wanted to look at with our covering research is where does this demand to cover come from. it goes full circle to where we started. does the demand come from leadership or does it come from the culture that they create? and there we can shift

accountability from the individual being responsible for covering or uncovering to leadership in the cultures that they create, and that shift is significantly important in order to hold leaders accountable to the corporate environments that they create. >> do you think that we need more quotas? i mean there are other countries where there are certain quotas of over a certain size you have to have this much board representation of women or minorities, and it seems like those forcing functions are really only one of the places i see systemic change in countries, but america is very resist anlt to that kind of thing. >> i think it is a great question, and i think we're resistant because of historical reasons. i do think we ought to be thinking about quotas in this country. >> in private countries? >> yes, i think we should. >> i know aim he coming up against a clock, but we have a lot of startups that launch. let's talk about the "early start"up, the four-person startup.

what should they be doing tomorrow to make sure when they are 6,000 people that culture is the right culture? >> i think as they begin to build their service or their product or their innovation and they're sitting there with a white board and planning out their three-year strategy, they ought to have a people strategy they're spending just as much time from. >> christie smith is from deloitte. and you can find lots on the internet where you have given speeches and other ideas. i encourage people to take a look at it. >> thank you so much. >> up next, the cheapest way to drive may be to never own a car in the first place. gm shakes up the whole idea of car ownership when "press:here continues.

♪ >> welcome back to "press:here. general motors is in the car rental business, if places like

san francisco and los angeles you can walk up to certain gm cars parked strategically all over the city, tap an app on your phone and drive the car as long as you want and gas is included, and it is cheap like $8 an hour in some cases. gm just announced if you want to keep your car for a whole month, that's okay, too. they will cover the first $100 in gas, give you a parking space and insurance is included as well. dan grossman is chief operating officer at gm's car on-demand service called may have been. he is the guy that has to figure out where the cars are, who has them and when they're coming back. thanks for being here. >> thank for having me. >> gm is making it possible not just for me to buy a car but to have a car when i want. >> yes, sir. >> you realize that sounds like a bad idea, right? >> look, there are a lot of ways gm could look at this. they could provide incentives and throw a lot of money into marketing and create a scenario where somebody who doesn't want to buy a car is going to buy a

car. there's a number we could come up with, or they could take the same dollars and put it into other areas like car sharing and providing cars for ride-sharing and get people -- in fact, 78 person of our members are millennials. >> right, but by definition you are making fewer cars. if we're sharing cars, there are fewer to make, isn't there? >> it provides an opportunity to put somebody in a gm car that might not get into a gm car. so through this experience at maven, these opportunities go on in 17 cities across the country. it is that exposure gm thinks is good for the brand. >> is it your contention that a lot of people in this country do want to own their own cars? a lot of lyft and east bayer's valuation have been predicated on the idea of replacing car ownership. it sounds like you see it as something a slice wants. >> it is a piece of it. when you put a car into rideshare, it is a double win. you have somebody that might not

request, that is have a car new enough to earn a living. we provide a car they can earn a living so they get exposure to this car. at the same time they're picking up five, ten people a day. >> are people using maven cars as uber? >> we have a relationship with -- >> my question is will i be able to use it as -- >> with reach it is called express drive and we have a small pilot in san francisco with uber, those cars are made available. >> with a maven car. >> yes, those cars are made available for weekly or monthly rentales. >> i think of the 20 companies looking to get into autonomous ride-sharing in the future, most are automakers. i think the scepticism a lot of people have, besides the spending and this, is that car manufacturers are about as qualified to build an app

service as google is to build cars. is it more competition in the future or is maven showing that you guys can build web products? >> i think it is the consumer side that's resonating right now. we marched 17 markets last year. it is a competitive business. look, i compete with bikes, light rail, car ownership, walking, biking, and we're finding very speedy adoption and utilization. our member rates are growing 56% a month in l.a., 31% in san francisco. people really like the product. these are loaded cars that you can get as little as $8 an hour. talking leather, apple car play, android auto,on star, which is like your concierge in your car. it is a great experience and we're getting phenomenal feedback from our members. >> and you have seeded the city with bolts as well, which is the all electric chevy, right? >> yes, the new bolt is available. >> you would not have the opportunity to drive a bolt

necessarily, but if it is a maven you can get in and say this is a cool car. >> yeah, you can go to l.a. and hollywood, for $12 an hour you can try a bolt. the reception has been really well. it is a really cool car and we even deployed them in rideshare here in san francisco. >> how safe are the drivers? i would think if you are not driving all the time maybe your skills degrade a little bit. >> yes. so in general the car share member is not the most frequent driver, but our cars have so many safety features. i mean at gm these cars are -- >> you just walked into a sales pitch. >> yeah, and you got a five star safety rating. tell us what sort of nightmare scenarios -- what's the most difficult thing about lending out all of these cars? they come back dirty, they come back wrecked, they come back not at all? >> it is all of the above, but we have programs in place. like we know wherexd the cars a. we havon star so we know where the cars on. in markets like san francisco, which is a well-saturated car share market, members treat the

cars really well. they understand they need to remove their debris, they need to leave the car in the condition that they took off in, that if it needs gas there's a gas card in the car. i pay for gas and we just ask if it has less than a quarter tank just fill it up and it is on us. >> and they don't steal your card? >> in general, no. >> do these services make sense for the rest of america outside of the dense urban areas? >> car share really fits in well in high, dense urban areas with great transit, where you don't have to own a car. there are areas, hey, we run a program in detroit and detroit has just kind of taken off with good transit, but the program works well there. we're in ann arbor, on the campus of the university of michigan. good transit, not great, but it is tough to park, it is expensive to park, you don't always need a car. this kind of supplements that. >> go ahead. >> is this scaffolding for an inevitable autonomous future where your consumer web service

will help people book anna ton must car? >> it seems all roads are leading to autonomous and gm is part of that as well. if that's the case, maybe at some point in the future you want your maven, instead of picking it up, it comes to you but you drive it. in the rideshare scenario, maybe it comes to you and it drives you. the sky is the limit, but right now we're focused on port ability. >> to be clear, at this point all of your cars, you have to drive them. the last thing i want to get to is the new announcement you will rent me the car for the month, insurance, a bit of gas and a parking space for a car for a month for how much? >> you get a volt for $1,100 or a tahoe for $1,500. we give you -- >> and it doesn't have five star -- >> it is a safe car, i gar an toe you. >> up next, an engineer who

found a drug trade when "press:here continues.

. welcome back to "press:here." the first time we talked about pot on this show i was struck by what an odd conversation it was. when i was in high school nancy reagan was telling me to just say no. i never dreamed i would be talking to people who sold drugs about their business model and their roi, but of course these days legal marijuana is a big business. it is an industry worth billions. california just legalized recreational use. suddenly the trump administration is putting all of this in doubt. jeff sessions, the new attorney general, says he will enforce federal law which still prohibits pot. ben curran is ceu of green bits. his company handle goes the point of sale of marijuana, the cash registers though it is more complicated than just ringing up

sale. law says each gran gram of pot has to be tracked and accounted for from plant to product to patients and greenbits makes it possible. to be specific, you are not in marijuana sales, you're in the sale of marijuana, you handle the transactions, is that right? >> exactly. there's a lot of regulation in the industry and my background has been building tools for small business. >> you were into it for a while. >> right, intuit, it helped people selling on ebay, online run their business and deal with taxes. if you think of my background, marijuana and the cannabis industry is one of the most regulated industry in all of the states that have legalized and state regulated. so i took my background and said, hey, let's build tools for you to run your retail store and behind the scene we can do the regulatory pieces with the government. >> how different is that state to state? i know investor rules are very different state to state. what about how it has to be

tracked? >> there are similarities between each state. there's different rules, like can you have -- can you weigh it in front of someone in the store or not. there's different commerce, you know, that you are allowed. our software, the way it works you can turn on and off certain features for each state. behind the scenes when we train people, it is the same model running a retail store. >> what is the weirdest regulation around the sale of pot you have encountered. >> i think it is fascinating every day this businesses have to give the government their inventory level. they have to say this is how much we did in audit today and it was adjusted. you have to do ever ooh single piece of it on the whole store every single day. >> in a way that a small shop owner would never have to -- >> yeah, these are small businesses. on average our customers in washington do $300,000. across the top they do two million store. these are stores moving small

batch products. think about wine but they only make it one barrel at a time or something. their inventory turns quickly. >> what are they trying to avoid with these regulations when we go seed to sale? is it just shipping out of state where it is not legal? is that what you're trying to prevent by tracking everything? >> yeah, i think we talked about nancy reagan. what i'm saying is there's an alternative to handling cannabis. it exists in society, what are we going to do. it is interesting there's five states if you're 21 and older you can purchase marijuana. the tracking is trying to say let's make sure we create a safe environment, make sure there's not money laundering occur, not selling to minors. if you can come up with an alternative system -- >> right, because if i have a marijuana store that i'm selling out the front, but really we're putting wrap on it and shipping it out the back to utah where i'm getting a lot more money because it is not legal there,

that's what your software stops. >> 100%. >> my question, we all when i was growing up knew the place you could go and buy liquor without being carded. it seems there's a lot of regulations around these things people don't follow. how much of the small business owner who may have never run a business before, who is running a small scale pot operation even knows he is supposed to be doing all of these things? >> it is a good question. that's what green bits does. we teach them how to completely run their store. you can turn our cash register into a mode you cannot sell until you swipe an id. there's transaction limits, you can only sell so much to someone at one time. it will not allow them to go over the limits. only managers or owners could override those things. we are building in controls to make sure it is safe. we want to build a business with the future of cannabis and up standing business owners not trying to do these things. we do not work with anyone like that and we work with outstanding businesses to create an environment we think is

better than the war on drugs is right now. >> do you think the felds will stay out of this burgeoning industry? >> it is an interesting question. you know, you hear definitely in the trump administration there's talk about it. you hear some say medical is okay, maybe rec. there's been no official stance coming out so you hear chatter. i hope they look at data. go to colorado and see that teen use is going down. >> you are hoping this administration will look at facts? >> i'm hoping as a society we make decisions based on logic and data f we have an administration that doesn't do that, i will continue to try to provide the facts and to provide the alternative. >> not the alternative facts though. >> exactly. >> do you have the band width to do any amount of lobbying? what do you do in d.c.? >> we don't spend energy on lob ooing. we are actually self-funneled. we have grown to cash grow positive, you know, depending on our growth rate. we don't have extra funds to go and just do lobbying at this

time. >> it has been difficult. we just have a short period of time left. it has been difficult for companies to find venture funding but you self-funneled yourself because you had pretty good luck in previous jobs. >> yeah, lucky enough i had a successful start up and sold it to good addie in the past. i took some money there and invested into green bits. it is a business that has, you know, decent cash flow. we have talked to investors. there are certain cvs that are open to it and certain that aren't. with our background and our attraction we are processing over $1.2 billion a year through our system, and with that we're starting to get a lot more interest. >> ben curren is with green bits. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> "press:here" will be back in just a minute.

♪ that's our show for this week. my thanks to my guests and a reminder, interviews with news makers are also available as a podcast. you can find this morning's discussion in a library of past

interviews on i tunes. search preesh nbc. thank you for making us part of your sunday morning. i'm scott mcgrew. search "press:here" nbc on itunes. "press:here" is sponsored in part by barracuda networks, cloud connected security and storage solutions that simplify. damian trujillo: hello and welcome to

"comunidad del valle," i'm damian trujillo. another exciting show today from immigration to education on your "comunidad del valle." male announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: they are military veterans who served their country. now, they're serving their community. with me on "comunidad del valle" are members of american legion post 809, armand guerrero and miguel gastelo here with the american legion. thank you so much for being on our show, and thank you for your service. before we talk about the post, talk about your military service before we get going. we'll start with you. miguel gastelo: my name is miguel, and i served in the army for 27 years. i retired in 1995 as an e-9 command sergeant major. i started my career in the military when i got drafted in january of 1968.