In this episode, the boys deliver snarky takes on current events in tech and recruitment. They discuss the appeal of a down-to-earth political figure, shout out Snoop Dogg for boosting Olympic viewership, and promote their presence at Recfest in Nashville.
Theget ready for a critique of Intel's leadership amid layoffs, Tinder's failed live streaming, and question the hype around AI investments, particularly startups like Tezi and Ema. They also highlight ZipRecruiter's acquisition of Breakroom as a smart move, while expressing doubts about Skillfully's future in AI-powered hiring. It's time for sharp industry insights with a punch humor and punch.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION (AI did it)
Chad Sowash (00:00.965)
one day.
Joel Cheesman (00:30.762)
Just two guys gathered here today to get through this thing called life. Hi kids. It's the Chad and cheese podcast. I'm your cohost Joel weird cheeseman.
Chad Sowash (00:41.382)
this is Chad, Ambassador of Happiness, SOWASH.
Joel Cheesman (00:45.184)
And on this episode, we love big bills and we cannot lie. ZipRecruiter takes a break room and a little buy or sell. yeah, let's do this.
Chad Sowash (00:55.866)
So bad. Joel, I think the American people might have gotten what we wanted. And that's someone who looks like them, talks like them, and a guy that is really hard to hate. Grew up on a farm, he's a veteran, school teacher, high school football coach. How can you not fucking love that? And I believe both of his kids were actually born through IVF, in vitro fertilization.
Joel Cheesman (01:07.925)
Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (01:22.846)
At least one, I think, yeah.
Chad Sowash (01:24.836)
Yeah, I mean, I mean, he's your next door neighbor. That's what's been missing in politics. A real person that could be your neighbor. So this is to me is refreshing to see in politics, a guy who's just kind of like, you know, he's he's born. He's born. He does a lot of stuff, but he's boring. He's not bringing the chaos. He's not bringing a fucking flamethrower. You know, like I think Shapiro would have I think Shapiro would have brought up. But Walls, Walls is the guy next door. Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (01:51.946)
Supriro. Tim Walls, a name you can pronounce everybody and a candidate that Chad can get behind. do you get the typical American media there? CNN, MSNBC, you probably don't get Fox in Portugal.
Chad Sowash (02:00.41)
Yeah, I think so. I think so.
Chad Sowash (02:10.66)
Yeah, I mean I can get I can get pretty much whatever I want because VPN I can I can get it. Yeah, I can get whatever I want.
Joel Cheesman (02:13.31)
All right. VPN. Okay. So yeah. So the, so the, honeymoon is in full swing. everybody's loving it. of course, I think Trump's in sort of damage mode. I'm not sure what, if he knows what to do. but yes, the, the dirt will come out. stolen valor, is one of the things you'll appreciate that as a, as military vet. anyway, this will all come out. I think as a, as a nonpartisan opinion is
Chad Sowash (02:34.448)
That's so much bullshit.
Joel Cheesman (02:42.334)
These are two campaigns. One is clearly like, let's look to tomorrow. And the other is like, let's go back to yesterday. And as we both know, historically, the candidates that are talking about the future and at least making you feel good about where we're going. Fair much better than let's stay where we are or let's, let's go back to the past. remember Reagan's, were you better off four years ago than you are today morning in America? that's.
Chad Sowash (02:48.473)
Mm
Joel Cheesman (03:09.438)
That's a message Americans like and you, my friend are excited and that doesn't surprise me. Obama's change.
Chad Sowash (03:09.965)
Shining Hill.
Chad Sowash (03:14.979)
I'm just, just, I like happy. I like happy, I like boring, right? I don't want all the fighting and bullshit. And when you start talking about stuff like stolen valor, I mean, that's literally, you're trying to take your time.
Joel Cheesman (03:19.338)
Mm -hmm.
Chad Sowash (03:30.252)
away from the things that matter. And that's what's good for the people, right? I mean, it's just, it's a fucking smokescreen and people are sick and fucking tired of the smokescreen. They just want, they just want to talk to their neighbor, right? And he seems like a neighbor.
Joel Cheesman (03:32.596)
Mm
Joel Cheesman (03:38.282)
Yep. I agree. I agree. Well, they just.
I just want to talk issues. Honestly. mean, they're calling him tampon, Tim tampon, Tim. Have you heard that one? Cause there's some bathroom, some unisex bathroom thing. Anyway, all this stuff's going to come out, but I wish we would just talk about like the deficit, like real issues. talking to, we're just throwing mud and it's just, it's just, it sucks, but it's not going to change because the people get what they want. Fortunately, we also have the Olympics, which I know is making you feel very good. I will chime in.
Chad Sowash (03:48.24)
Yeah, yeah.
Chad Sowash (03:52.911)
Now I haven't
Chad Sowash (03:57.935)
Okay, whatever.
Chad Sowash (04:03.322)
Yeah.
Chad Sowash (04:12.943)
Hmm.
Joel Cheesman (04:13.512)
saying that the, the moonwalking, synchronized swimmers, from America. know you saw this, they moonwalked Michael Jackson and their feet were out of the water and they like moonwalked in the water is very cool. Very cool. think they won silver should have won gold just for that. but the Olympics I know is making you happy and it's a nice change of pace from all the politics that we're going to get once this thing is over. Thank God football is about to start. Thank.
Chad Sowash (04:20.513)
I did not.
Chad Sowash (04:31.994)
Fuck yeah.
yeah.
Joel Cheesman (04:41.738)
God football is almost here.
Chad Sowash (04:42.119)
The sportsmanship that's happening in the Olympics, mean, when we were brought up, we were brought up to really hate our competitors. And you see these guys, they're friends. They are congratulating each other. mean, Simone Biles and Jordan Childs after, you know, was it the Brazilian?
Joel Cheesman (04:58.622)
Mm
Chad Sowash (05:02.182)
Andre, after she won gold, they bowed down to her, called her the queen. That was the coolest fucking thing ever, man. I mean, leaning in, which, you know, Cheryl fucking Sandberg talked about years ago and never knew how to do. But these two did right in front of a huge stage. I mean, that to me, that is that's awesome. So you got you got the you got the the next door neighbor who's running and you got this going on. I'm in a good place. And I got sunshine for days. I mean, you just can't beat this, my friend.
Joel Cheesman (05:30.972)
This is, this is peak Euro chat. This is peak Euro chat and, premier league soccer is about to start, right? Like there's so much to look forward to, going into the future. Well, let's, let's get to shout out speaking of, of what's going on and what we're excited about. I'm going to start, I'm going to start with weed, Chad. if you live, if you live in Ohio, which we both know very well, marijuana sales kicked off this week. it's now legal.
Chad Sowash (05:33.648)
This is it. is it. yes. yes, you hit
Joel Cheesman (06:01.308)
recreationally to, do it, which means Chad, that our, our home state or your second home, guess now at this point, Indiana is now surrounded by three states that have legal marijuana use recreationally. Kentucky is still holding out. but, yeah, that's, that's just shout out to it. And in case you're wondering, Ohio is the closest state, to the three, to me. So just so you're wondering if I were not that I would cause
Chad Sowash (06:04.933)
Yes.
Mm.
Chad Sowash (06:12.229)
Yes.
huh.
Joel Cheesman (06:29.726)
Say no kids, but if I were to go get some, Ohio would be the closest place. So shout out to a state closer than Illinois, weed legal. Shout out to Ohio.
Chad Sowash (06:44.582)
And I mean if you couldn't have two shout outs that were more similar shout out to Snoop Dogg and happy times at the Olympics I mean obviously Snoop Dogg known for his weeds Last week you said that Paris Olympics viewership was down all Contraire Montfrayer CBN BCS and shit
Joel Cheesman (07:02.868)
Mm -hmm.
Chad Sowash (07:06.101)
CNBC, that's the one, reports that millions of viewers in the US are tuning into the Summer Olympics in Paris, and many of them are getting a big dose of Snoop Doggy Dog as part of the experience. Beginning with the opening ceremony, the five day total audience delivery average was 34 million viewers, up 79 % from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, according to NBC Sports Release.
Molly Solomon, NBC's executive producer of the Olympics referred to Snoop Dogg as the ambassador of happiness during a press call this week. So I guess all of the good, all is good in the hood cheese nizzle.
Joel Cheesman (07:51.776)
Cheese, cheese nizzle. Do you know Snoop's real name?
Chad Sowash (07:52.121)
You
Joel Cheesman (07:58.656)
Calvin Brodus, Calvin Brodus is Snoop's real name. Born in 1972. Snoop needs to create a PR firm to help people change their image. How in the world he went from gangster rap, fuck everybody, bitches and hoes, jail time, to America's, it's just a transition that just.
Chad Sowash (07:58.723)
God, no, I'm totally spake. Yes, yes, yes. Totally spaced it, yes.
Chad Sowash (08:20.666)
Martha Stewart.
Joel Cheesman (08:27.761)
never ceases to amaze me. yeah, shout out to Snoop and the dude is funny. I mean his commentary on on animal shit and what's going on is fantastic. yeah.
Chad Sowash (08:30.202)
Yeah.
he's awesome. He's hilarious. he's talking about the Dressage horses during the last Olympics. And he's like, look at them. They're Crip walking. He's talking about fucking horses Crip walking. Yeah. I can love it. Love it. good God.
Joel Cheesman (08:48.596)
Yeah. And the lizard running from the snakes or whatever that was on. think Jimmy came on like, just, snoop. All right. From one dog to another, this is going to be a great segue Chad that you're going to love. My next shout out goes to Dolce and Gabana. You know, I'm one for the high fashion. So a Dolce and Gabana shout out shouldn't, shouldn't surprise you. Anyway, the fashion, the high fashion designer launched a cologne for dogs this week. don't know if you saw this.
Chad Sowash (09:05.08)
Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (09:18.4)
Chad, that's right for just $108. $108. Mr. Peepers can smell of rich mahogany lounging around our many leather bound books. Chad, think of all the new jobs this industry is going to create. Perfume for dogs, cologne for cats. don't know what, know, perfume for pets. I'm pretty sure Chris Russell has already bought, you know, petperfumejobs .com.
Chad Sowash (09:19.771)
did not.
Chad Sowash (09:34.987)
shit. huh. Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (09:46.122)
This is going to be huge for the industry. Shout out to Dolce and Gabbana. We love it. We love it.
Can you sense the sarcasm in my shout out?
Chad Sowash (09:57.838)
Yeah, I can. Yeah, I can. And I think their number one seller is Sex Panther. One thing that you can't get on the Chad and Cheese podcast for free is Sex Panther or any type of cologne because we are not into that shit. But what you can get is you can get free t -shirts. Yeah. Our friends over at Aaron App have hooked up.
our listeners with the newest Chad and Cheese design t -shirts. They feel so good, they feel so soft. You gotta get one, but you can only get one at chadcheese .com slash free. If you register, much like the craft beer that you might be able to win, one listener per month wins.
Beer from Aspen Tech Labs, whiskey, two bottles of whiskey from our friends at Tex Kernel slash, who just bought them? Bullhorn, that's right, Tex Kernel. And if it's your birthday, you're gonna win some rum, possibly from Lomb. Rum from Plum.
Chadcheese .com, slash free. Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (10:56.842)
That's right, Chad. A few of our loyal listeners are celebrating another year around the sun. Shout out to Kevin Kirkpatrick, Bill Peterson, Jason Putnam, speaking of Plum, he's celebrating a birthday. Mark Dubel, Peter Simandal, Amy Chafin, Andrew Hyland, Patrick Morgan, Ilya Bratsky -Beat, our friend in Vancouver, Shane Bamfield, Lana Schuman, or Lana Schuman. By the way, did you know Lana backwards spells anal?
Chad Sowash (11:07.531)
Ooh, plum. Yes.
Yep.
Chad Sowash (11:16.41)
areas.
Joel Cheesman (11:23.946)
Just a little tidbit of interest. Chris Muth, Kim Lusk, Jason Seidel, Carmen Hudson, and my sister from another mister, Abby Cheeseman celebrates a birthday, Chad. And I wanna add, have a new sponsor for our shout -outs. You might notice my Kiora t -shirt. That's right. You know them as, yes, I know, you know them as RECTEXT.
Chad Sowash (11:35.526)
Cheese man, yes!
Excellent. Yes.
Chad Sowash (11:46.906)
The fuck is Kiura?
Chad Sowash (11:51.812)
What?
Joel Cheesman (11:52.798)
You know them as rec text. That's right. They've changed their name to Kiara to be more all encompassing, not be strangled by just recruiting texts. And they are our new shout out sponsor. Now what we're going to do here, Chad, because our friends are from Canada, we're going to, we're going to send a lucky listener, some fine maple syrup, some of Canada's finest, but it's aged. It's aged in Pappy's bourbon barrels.
Chad Sowash (12:00.425)
my God. Okay.
Chad Sowash (12:09.274)
Yes.
Chad Sowash (12:16.04)
Hahaha
Chad Sowash (12:21.062)
No.
Joel Cheesman (12:22.154)
talk about luxury breakfast table talk everybody. So shout out to Kiora, our newest shout out sponsor. We've never had one before. That'll be starting in September.
Chad Sowash (12:24.73)
Yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Chad Sowash (12:32.752)
bourbon syrup. yeah, bourbon syrup. love that. Yeah. All I gotta say is...
Joel Cheesman (12:37.354)
Just in time for fall, baby. Flapjacks, Pappies, and maple syrup from our friends at Kiora. That's K -E -E -Y -O -R -A. We're not traveling to Vancouver anytime soon, but where are we going, Chad?
Chad Sowash (12:43.972)
Boys up north, I better have some when I get home. I better have some when I get home. I better have some when I get home. Yeah, so...
Chad Sowash (12:56.036)
They might be coming down though, because the first time we actually met the boys was in Nashville. And we're going to Nashville for Wreckfest, September 12th and 13th. Joel and I, yeah, we're gonna take a little time, get ourselves back in shape, our livers back in shape, get ready for Wreckfest. We actually had a call yesterday with the team over at Shaker. We are excited because we are going to be in the green room the entire time. That's right.
Joel Cheesman (13:00.66)
Hattie B's, yep.
Joel Cheesman (13:21.578)
So excited.
Chad Sowash (13:25.284)
know what that was. Anyway, anyway, so listen up listener. If you haven't heard Shaker's recruitment marketing green room at Wreckfest in Nashville, that's where all the speakers are going to go. Just to have a place to chill, not to mention they'll be able to talk with us even have a beer glass of champagne, sit down, pull up the mics, hit record should be a blast. Can't wait to see everybody at
Joel Cheesman (13:26.441)
Excited.
Chad Sowash (13:52.696)
Wreckfest, that's right, Wreckfest .com. We're also going to be hosting a VIP event with great people, higher clicks, and job pixel at the end of day one at Joel's favorite place, the Redneck Riviera. More to come on that.
Chad Sowash (14:11.066)
But you can't enjoy Wreckfest unless you go to Wreckfest. So go to chadcheese .com slash events, click register and get your ass to Nashville. It's gonna be a blast. From my understanding, it's gonna be about twice as many people that came from last year. I'm excited. I can't wait to start drinking beer in the green room with you.
Joel Cheesman (14:25.492)
Mm -hmm.
Joel Cheesman (14:29.588)
Well, hold on to your hats, Chad, because it gets more exciting than that.
Chad Sowash (14:35.016)
what?
Joel Cheesman (14:35.776)
That's right. mentioned football's coming, which means fantasy football is coming, which means Chad and cheese's fantasy football league is here. Sponsored by our friends at factory fix. we're currently taking signups, check out our homepage, check out our socials, DM, slide in my DMS, hit up Chad, whatever you need to do to get into the league. We've already got some great signups, some great personalities that we'll announce at some point, but you have your chance. Dean apparel last year's winner is looking to.
Chad Sowash (14:44.559)
Mmm.
Chad Sowash (14:55.088)
You
Joel Cheesman (15:05.288)
Repeat. I don't know. She'd be the first one to do it if she can but fantasy football is coming if you want to play Yeah, head out to chat cheese .com or hit us up on the socials. Can't wait for that. Can't wait for that
Chad Sowash (15:07.641)
That's right.
I think she can. I'm coming for her though.
Joel Cheesman (15:21.886)
Like I can't wait for more subscribers to our YouTube channel, channel, channel, channel, Chad. Listen, if you're, if you're just listening to us, you're missing out on the outfits, exclusives, editing that you can't believe, fun -filled editing, a total new spin on how we produce content, but you gotta go subscribe, head out to youtube .com backslash or forward slash.
Chad Sowash (15:26.52)
Hahaha
Chad Sowash (15:30.693)
Yes.
Chad Sowash (15:37.426)
outfits.
Chad Sowash (15:43.71)
Yes, that was fun. Good time.
Joel Cheesman (15:51.212)
at Chad cheese, make sure you don't miss an episode, which by the way, are we in, are we headed in recession or not? we're going to find out, think tomorrow chat, as we do another recording with, our friend, the Sasquatch of statistics, Toby Dayton over at, link up, he's going to make sense of all this stock market meltdown, bounce back Japan's crap, like all this stuff that's going on. We're going to have Tony or Toby make sense of all of it for us.
Chad Sowash (16:08.378)
Love it.
Chad Sowash (16:15.952)
Fucking Japan.
Chad Sowash (16:21.574)
Thank God for Toby.
Joel Cheesman (16:21.824)
Thank God for Toby and no thank God for the people who have to deal with. That's right, Chad. Layoffs, some big ones this week. Some big names cut some heads recently. Intel let go of 15 ,000 people. Didn't they just get some taxpayer money to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor? Anyway, Match Group, Match Group, the company behind Tinder.
Chad Sowash (16:32.336)
Layoffs? God damn it.
Chad Sowash (16:43.504)
Fuck!
Chad Sowash (16:47.408)
Yeah, imagine that. Yeah, imagine that.
Joel Cheesman (16:52.16)
match .com, okay, Cupid and others, which by the way, had downloads fall 12 % globally, is cutting 6 % of its staff blaming. Tick tock of all people and industry stall work. I Sims said goodbye to 69 of their associates, which equals about 5 % of their workforce. If my math is correct, Chad, what are you, what are your thoughts on all this head cutting?
Chad Sowash (16:53.606)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Chad Sowash (17:09.904)
Mmm.
Chad Sowash (17:23.876)
Yeah, mean, Intel, I mean, when Nvidia is printing money, Intel apparently is burning it. It's it's been outflanked and apparently rushed buggy buggy product to markets. I mean, if a CEO is going to chop that many heads, he's got to chop his own. I mean, it's it's it's all there is to it. So this is this is just ridiculous watching, you know, a CEO well up.
and say, really hate to let this many people go. Well, you're the first one that should go give somebody else a fucking turn for fuck's sake. Tinder. Wait a minute. They have live streaming services. They have a lot. I mean, were they trying to become only fans? I mean, why the fuck would Tinder? Whomever signed off on that shit should definitely be gone. And then on the iSim's front.
On the ISIMS front, mean, major leadership changes, CEO, CPO, and CTO. And one of the things I've learned in being in any organization from the US Army to Ronstadt is that whenever new leaders come in, they change shit. That's all there is to it. Sometimes there are moves. From my understanding, rumor mill says...
Joel Cheesman (18:25.769)
R2 -D2.
Chad Sowash (18:41.24)
and these are going to get hit in the next week or two. this is, I think, just the start of the arranging of the furniture in the new iSim's house, unfortunately.
Joel Cheesman (18:52.192)
Glad you said house and not Titanic. That would have been very, very foreboding. Jeez. That would have been very foreboding. $8 .5 billion of government money, went to Intel to like build a company, that was going to be world -class and compete with, the semiconductors in Taiwan. mentioned Nvidia. What in the hell is going on? There's going to be like Senate hearings. There's, there's gotta be some accountability, for that because that is fucked up.
Chad Sowash (18:56.261)
Hahaha
Chad Sowash (19:22.488)
Orange jumpsuits, baby. Orange fucking jumpsuits.
Joel Cheesman (19:22.752)
You can't take $8 .5 billion from the art, the government, and lay off 15 ,000 people, without some splannin today. So that's a major screw up. Yes. Match with live streaming. think live streaming made sense, in the pandemic because you couldn't meet up with, with people to date. So you had to do the streaming thing. And obviously.
People don't look, I'm not my best on video, which is why you should check us out on YouTube, but I definitely am not my best if I'm trying to date on live stream, dude. so that was, that was a bad idea. people hate zoom by and large. a lot of people black themselves out cause they don't like being seen. So yeah, that, that needed to go. If that was all I do, I do, I do find the tick tock, blaming interesting. I don't know if people are dating, there's no dating thing on tick tock. there.
Chad Sowash (19:47.142)
You didn't have to develop it.
Chad Sowash (20:03.161)
No.
Joel Cheesman (20:16.628)
I think people are just hit sliding into DMS and then maybe just they're dating on through tick -tock. know that people are trying to date through LinkedIn. So why not tick -tock? anyway, I, I don't know. And AI is going to be tough on them anyway. Once everyone can have automated girlfriends and boyfriends, do we need Tinder and, okay, keep it. I don't know. That's, that's interesting. I Sims. I feel bad for I Sims. know them. we root for them.
Chad Sowash (20:29.934)
And.
Chad Sowash (20:35.739)
Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (20:46.012)
but yeah, you, you, you can't deny the CEO jump and ship how leaving. mean, that man, that might've been fine. mean, Joe, a lot of people have left that we've known over the years and it just, it's just bad optics. and maybe some of this is coming to fruition. They should have gone IPO by now. They should have made some big acquisitions by now. Like it's just, things seem to be sort of stagnant and the new CEO needs to.
Needs to get his ass in gear if you know what I'm saying. So anyway, that is our light, our layoff playoff roundup. But let's get to the news, shall we, Chad?
Chad Sowash (21:18.19)
Yeah, this is bad optics.
Chad Sowash (21:26.116)
And stop it!
Joel Cheesman (21:28.256)
All right. Show us your big bills, Chad. That's right. Money, money, money. Big companies are spending big on AI chips, although apparently not Intel's, pouring 38 .6 billion into AI and machine learning startups in the U S in just the first half of 2024. How much is going into HR tech? You might ask 2024 has already passed 2023 is numbers totaling 3 .37 billion.
dollars across 65 deals. That's according to work tech money is so loose. Chad companies who haven't even launched a product are raising millions like Silicon Valley's Tezi that just raised $9 million in seed funding and they're not even launching until later this fall. Chad it's raining dollar bills. What are your thoughts?
Chad Sowash (22:11.408)
Mm
Chad Sowash (22:24.23)
Yeah, so high level as you were talking about 38 billion into AI and machine learning startups. Fuck. I mean, fuck Jesus. And then you take you back to the work tech article. Here's a quote. The 2021 vibes that we're catching here reflect the frothiness of AI investment where funding at 50 times ARR seems to be the norm end quote. OK, Joel, 50 times.
What is 50 times of zero ARR? It's sure the fuck not $9 million in seed funding for Tezi. I mean, especially when you don't even have a fucking product in the market. Like you said, they're going to expand their beta into later this year, right? So how the fuck does an early stage startup receive 9 million in seed? wait.
Joel Cheesman (22:56.477)
zero i think
Chad Sowash (23:19.82)
One founder was head of engineering at Covariant, CTO at Thumbtack, and also head of infrastructure at Pinterest. And the other VP of product at Instacart and head of product at Thumbtack. So we have seen so many smart and successful people come into this industry from other industries and get folded up like cheap card tables. I think it's important to focus more on the operators in our space than the glitz and glam from the outside. Don't get me wrong.
there will be some great ideas brought in from companies like Tezi, and those ideas and products will be bought on the clearance rack by companies who understand the space. This to me, as we talk about froth, I see more of this happening where well -connected people who are incredibly smart, and we've seen it before, get into this space with high hopes and they crash and burn incredibly fast.
Joel Cheesman (24:06.901)
Mm -hmm.
Joel Cheesman (24:16.544)
here's some numbers. Microsoft spent 14 billion on CapEx last quarter on AI. That's up 79 % year over year. Alphabet 12 billion last quarter. That's up 90 % year over year. And Metta spent 6 .7 billion. When that kind of money is being spent by the 800 pound gorillas, it's bound to filter into everywhere, including our industry. to me, this looks a lot like, well,
Chad Sowash (24:16.548)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chad Sowash (24:25.168)
Fuck.
Chad Sowash (24:29.317)
Mm -hmm.
Joel Cheesman (24:45.374)
If I'm to go way back, it looks like the .com of the nineties, early two thousands where money was just being thrown around, Willy nilly. And we saw some of us saw remember what happened or at least they've read about it. and, and encyclopedia Britannica or wherever they get the information from the past. it feels like the work from home thing, just people feeling like we can't miss out on this trend. We have, we have money to spend. We have to put it somewhere. We're putting it on.
Chad Sowash (24:58.885)
Yes.
You
Stone tablets.
Joel Cheesman (25:15.296)
work from home, global employment platforms. Like that was the 2020, 21 that however, was in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Like that was crazy money. This is, this is, these are tinier bits. It's still a lot of money, but it's tinier bets on more companies that are. So it's like, let's bet more on the craps table on more numbers and colors and hope that we hit on one as opposed to a whole bunch of chips on one, on one spot. So.
Chad Sowash (25:20.408)
AI. Yeah. yeah. Gotcha.
Chad Sowash (25:28.186)
Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (25:44.138)
There's going to be a ton of these companies go out of business. There's going to be a ton of these companies get eaten up. Most of them feel more like features to me than products. I'll get to Tesi in a second. it just doesn't feel like platforms. the best hope is that, you know, deal keep spending, like a drunken sailor on companies and acquires some of these businesses. because I don't see a lot of products here. I see a lot of features, a lot of hope that we get acquired. Tesi Tesi to me is like,
Chad Sowash (25:52.164)
Yes. Yes.
Chad Sowash (26:11.162)
Mm -hmm.
Joel Cheesman (26:13.948)
I read it and it was like, well, this is seek out or this is hire easy, or this is paradox, or this is kind of like, I felt like they were bits and pieces of other companies where they, where they are, guess really hitting is the co -pilot trend. Co -pilot, co -pilot, co -pilot. We're to hear more and more co -pilot going forward. We know Microsoft has one, a lot of bigger companies doing that's going to filter down here. If.
If we've talked about augmented recruiting, Tezi kind of feels like a co -pilot to help you recruit. It'll write the job description for you. You can interact with it in Slack. can say, Hey, Tezi, how's the interviewing going with the PHP developer job? And it will tell you like who the client, I mean, so it feels like a little assistant as opposed to just, I'm, this is going to do it and automate it. And I'm just going to interview the client or the candidate that comes through the pre -screening process.
So it feels a little different, but it's also very much what we've seen before. Time will tell. We'll see when it launches in the fall. 9 million is a pretty good chunk of money for a company that hasn't done anything. They're also from Silicon Valley. We haven't seen a lot of Silicon Valley excitement in a while. And we talk a lot about and buy or sell some, some Silicon Valley companies. So things are getting a little back to normal, more bets placed on more companies. We'll see how it shakes out. irregardless.
Chad Sowash (27:38.0)
Mm
Joel Cheesman (27:38.72)
It'll be interesting to see how all of it shakes out. The key will be at HR tech. Will we see any 100 by 100 booths a la eightfold? If we see some companies lose their minds and go ape at the conferences, then that'll be, that'll probably be a very, very telling.
Chad Sowash (27:44.206)
Nah, it doesn't even product.
Chad Sowash (27:52.442)
Ha
Joel Cheesman (28:01.962)
Well, let's take a quick break, Chad, and we'll get into the latest acquisition by ZipRecruiter.
Chad Sowash (28:06.052)
Okay.
Joel Cheesman (28:14.144)
I was trying to think of the last ziprecruiter acquisition. And the last one I could think of is the, the job board company, job board EO or yeah, was that the anyway, zip recruiter has acquired break room, a UK based employee review platform who had previously raised $7 million. This acquisition aims to enhance job seekers confidence by providing them with authentic and transparent insights into various employers, work conditions and culture.
Chad Sowash (28:22.65)
Jobboard.io. I can't remember.
Joel Cheesman (28:41.876)
BreakRoom, which collects data from frontline workers, will continue to operate independently while expanding its services to the United States. Chad, your thoughts on ZipRecruiter's acquisition of Break Room.
Chad Sowash (28:56.314)
Yeah, so you started with, know, breakroom collects data from frontline workers. We're talking about hours, flexibility, work conditions, culture, and more to provide more community powered ratings for jobs. The people I've talked to, they want to try to make this sound like it's more of a glass door. This is better than glass door. A breakroom provides more relevant signals to users where glass door really just provides unstructured nonsense.
It's a more simplistic and better version. BreakRoom doesn't ask for the drama that's happening at work. You can find that on TikTok these days, for God's sakes. They ask simple questions, multiple choice answers, and since all of the answers are standardized for the workforce, using the platform, they can aggregate user sentiment about the job, the culture, the pay, the organization, which is something that Glassdoor really tried, but I think it just went fucking haywire.
Joel Cheesman (29:52.416)
Mm -hmm.
Chad Sowash (29:54.646)
Last week, I lined out just how Ziprecruiter's new tools were a nothing burger. But this week, I'm a fan of this move. The thing is, what they should do and what it sounds like they're going to do from the press release is they're going to run this as a parallel business. This is what exactly
All these different companies should be doing this is the Netflix model you run the parallel DVD mail order date DVD, right? And you also have streaming going at the same time That's what you do You don't try to put these two together and make a product because it's just gonna end up fucking it Okay, so they could be smart enough to do that. The only problem here is Zip is public and They think quarter by quarter. They don't think long term and that's what's fucked them
And where you love seeing companies go IPO, I fucking hate it because they turn great companies into piles of shit. And unfortunately, that's where Zip is right now. So hopefully, please get rid of Ian, get somebody in there who knows strategic thinking, get a couple of COOs in there to fend off investors, right?
Joel Cheesman (31:03.86)
Mm -hmm.
Chad Sowash (31:06.136)
and just focus on doing business. They need to double down on this. They need the Netflix model more than anybody does. And this to me, they're bringing this platform from the UK. And I talked to a bunch of people in the UK, didn't know what the fuck it was, mainly because this is frontline workers and it's also younger workers. They've got a hell of a TikTok. They've got a great Instagram, all those different things. But, but they're trying to bring that.
Joel Cheesman (31:27.05)
Mm
Chad Sowash (31:33.028)
to the US. think what they're going to do is they're going to use their base of candidates and start to introduce them into breakroom and start to make that kind of like that split. So what I'm thinking, get rid of Ian, it might work.
Joel Cheesman (31:38.495)
Mm -hmm.
Joel Cheesman (31:51.072)
you mentioned the IPO. want to get out this out of the way. ZipRecruiter did report this morning as we were preparing for this show. more, more information may come to light, but they reported a fairly good quarter net income at $7 million and increasing job traffic. So maybe in macro economic thing, or they just might be doing some stuff, right? Stock was up around 3 % in pre -market. We'll see where it goes once everything shakes out. So.
They got lucky on this one. The stock was down around seven, eight dollars. So they really needed something halfway good to happen, which I guess it did. And far as far as break room, companies that try to create sentiment analysis of employees and what's going on have a really hard time because they all get lumped in with glass door. and everyone thinks, well, we have a, we have our Coke.
Chad Sowash (32:28.075)
huh.
Joel Cheesman (32:44.2)
And Pepsi and indeed in glassdoor, we don't need anything else. So job seekers find that we've seen comparably in the past. We've seen in her site, we've seen a lot come and go. The best thing that can happen is companies is getting acquired by a big company. because I would say on its own, break room would have a really hard time, gaining scale and getting to a level that was competitive on the skit on, on, on the level of glass store. And indeed, but they do things differently.
Chad Sowash (32:47.365)
Mm
Joel Cheesman (33:13.376)
they go internally into the employees and they ask questions. What I found shocking is that they said on their site, they say each month 20 ,000 people answer 30 questions about their job. How in the fuck do they incentivize people to answer 30 questions about their job every month? mean, are they giving away gift cards? Are they giving like, I don't, I don't.
Chad Sowash (33:33.702)
It's easy. It's easy. I don't know.
Joel Cheesman (33:39.006)
whatever that secret is, they need to, they need to bottle that and sell it because a lot of people would like to get that much engagement, with, with employees. anyway, if they can continue to do that, they're going to get some really rich data. They're going to be able to integrate it into zip recruiters, customer base, their job seekers. mean, they're going to be able to leverage that in a way that break break room on their own would not be able to do. So this is a big one. think huge win for break room, huge win. Most of these sites just.
Chad Sowash (33:48.464)
Mm -hmm.
Joel Cheesman (34:07.53)
fade away. remember fairy God boss. Yeah. These, these things just sort of go away and hopefully the same doesn't happen to break room because whatever secret sauce they got to get that much engagement, that's magical cause that's hard to do. so yeah, great win for break room. We'll see about zip recruiter. They don't have a real long history of acquisitions and making them work. So we'll see on that side. I love the EON needs, Ian needs to go rhetoric from you as always.
Chad Sowash (34:13.012)
yeah.
Joel Cheesman (34:36.426)
but yeah, this is kind of a, a wait or see moment from me. Well, let's get into a little buyer cell, which I don't think we've played in a while in case you missed it. Here's how it works. Kids. talk about three companies that have raised money recently and Chad and I will review them and break them down into a buy or sell rating. Chad, are you ready to play? Bye or so let's start with Emma San Francisco based Emma has added.
Chad Sowash (35:00.879)
Yes.
Joel Cheesman (35:02.976)
$36 million to its series a funding bringing its total raise to $61 million founded by former Google and Coinbase execs. Emma promises to be the ultimate workplace co -pilot allowing enterprises to delegate most repetitive tasks to a universal AI employee chatter you down with Emma or she a cell. I know your daughter's name is Emma. So I tried to be careful with that.
Chad Sowash (35:32.758)
Yeah, smart. Yeah, no, I do. love the name Ema with one My daughter's name, as you just said, Emma. I always thought the second was unnecessary. So EMA, perfect. On both founders' LinkedIn profiles, this is how they describe Ema. At Ema, we're working on groundbreaking technologies to enable a universal AI employee.
who can work hand in hand with human colleagues. Number one, it sounds like complete and utter bullshit. Universal employee, that means they can do any task. They're universal, Bullshit. Messaging, they need some help there. Number two, there are two, these are two incredibly smart guys. But I believe it's just plain dumb calling AI an employee. It's bad for optics.
internally and externally. You can tell the founders have product and development backgrounds because they don't understand the first thing about adoption and go to market. So I also believe that having founders, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and Roblox CEO David Buzuki as investors and hopefully advisors will give them a leg up. But at this point,
They're not from this industry. They don't understand how to sell into this industry. They got to get the messaging right. They got to get the go to market right. So sorry, Emma. Love you, sweetheart. It's a sell.
Joel Cheesman (37:08.512)
All right. So, you know, I love a good wave and you know, I love that surfing a good wave means that even if you kind of suck, you're in a pretty good position to win. We're going to hear a lot about co -pilots over the next 12, 36 months and beyond. Microsoft is hitting it big. Emma says, quote, they serve every role in your organization. However, they don't have a recruiting.
automated like they don't have a recruiting co -pilot. hello, Tessie. Hello, Tessie acquisition. Anyone, acquisition anyone? again, when I think Tessie is a feature that someone like Emma is going to acquire to make sure they do actually have every role covered in your organization. Cause they currently don't. And that's false advertising chat. And I don't, I don't like that. However, every big.
SaaS business on the planet is going to have a co -pilot and they're all going to have to have something that is competitive with everyone else's co -pilot. Did you know SAP has a co -pilot named Jewel, for example? Jewel, however, doesn't do recruitment. That's a problem. So if Emma could buy Tezi and then SAP could buy Emma, then we're all good because everyone's fat and happy and acquired. So again,
I agree with you, like they got a lot of work with messaging and they don't come from this space, but they are riding one hell of a wave and all these big companies are going to be looking to gobble up some copilot software. And Emma is going to be front and center when the checks are being passed out. for me.
Emma is a winner. Sorry, I had to do that. Had to do that.
Chad Sowash (38:54.483)
Well, I can tell you're not a surfer because there can actually be too many surfers on one wave. Just so that you're clear on that one. And there are a lot of motherfucking co -pilot surfers, dude. A lot.
Joel Cheesman (39:02.462)
Yeah, I don't know shit about surfing, but it's a hell of an, if, if, if you have a better analogy, I'm all ears, but surfing is all I got right now. Is there a skiing, skiing reference? I don't know. Anyway, hit me up on the DMS with a better analogy. all right, let's get to higher cell company. Number, number two, when that's right. The company's name is when that's W H E N not, not
Chad Sowash (39:16.047)
Keep using it.
Still too many skiers on the hill.
Joel Cheesman (39:32.032)
W I N the Chicago based AI off boarding solution has raised $4 .6 million in seed funding to expand its AI capabilities, add new offerings and grow its customer base. The platform offers a co -branded portal and a healthcare severance solution, replacing Cobra subsidies, promising to help employees navigate post -employment transitions. Chad buyer sell when.
Chad Sowash (39:32.831)
Mm -hmm.
Chad Sowash (40:01.328)
So the worst part of being a part of the workforce is letting people go. It's horrible, it sucks. But making parts of that process easier, like picking cobra plans, which is just fucking horrible. You get fired and then you have to pay tons of money to be able to keep your fucking healthcare. Welcome to America, kids. This seems like something an ADP would buy up quickly after they demonstrate just a little bit of traction. It's a buy for me.
Joel Cheesman (40:29.632)
So offboarding businesses suck. They're boring. They're depressing as hell. No one wants to think about mass layoffs and having those people hang around. It's like watching sausage be made. And in this case, I guess it's Chicago sausage. But you know,
Chad Sowash (40:36.09)
They do? yeah.
They are.
Chad Sowash (40:51.462)
I thought you were going for a Pornhub reference.
Joel Cheesman (40:56.296)
I'm sorry. We were doing this show in the mornings now with Chad being in Europe. So I'm a little, I'm a little slower than I usually am. but you know, what's, you know, what kind of businesses are usually profitable, Chad, boring businesses that are depressing and no one else wants to do. So for that simple reason, we need off boarding companies. There aren't that many of them. companies want to feel like they're letting people go in a soft.
Chad Sowash (41:21.339)
Mm.
Joel Cheesman (41:25.248)
landing kind of way and a company like this, called when, is weird. but anyway, this, this definitely for me is a big, big buy because nobody loves depressing and dumb more than your boy here. All right, let's get to our third contestant on buyer sell goes to skillfully another San Francisco startup skillfully has raised 2 .5 million in seed funding to expand operations.
and development efforts. company's platform allows employers to hire from a diverse pool of candidates through virtual simulations and assessments. Chad, grab your Oculus and tell me if Skillfully is a buy or sell.
Chad Sowash (42:11.152)
So I gotta start out with this. Here's a quote from the press release. Our team has successfully developed a cutting edge hiring platform that integrates advanced AI tools with a modern skill taxonomy designed for today's workforce. End quote. Okay, whoever wrote that shit needs to be fucking fired. You're throwing that shit right into fucking chat, chat GPT or something like that. That's, they, come on people. Anyways, I'm a huge fan of testing.
and actual work -based assessments instead of using a resume for entry level or even mid -level positions. A resume isn't proof you can do the job. Proving you can perform the tasks demonstrates you can do the fucking job, right?
I like this, right? I actually advise a company called Tadio. They do this. The problem is with Skillfully, they are creating custom simulations for every client and that takes time and it's costly. They need to find their niche and sell the hell out of those niches. They're trying to be too wide on the total addressable markets. So looking how young they are and their current go -to -market formula, unfortunately it's a sell for me.
Joel Cheesman (43:23.936)
First of all, I miss all the L Y companies. Remember when every company was L Y, I'll refresh your memory. Remember talent Lee, remember brainly, maybe Grammarly was the only one that, that made it out. I can't think of any more that are still around. So, so this one was just, it was fun to see another L Y company do that. So first of all, when I thought it was a VR startup,
Chad Sowash (43:37.39)
yeah.
Chad Sowash (43:49.658)
You
Joel Cheesman (43:53.416)
I was like, this is a sell, this is really bad. But it looks like that's not what it is, thankfully. Because if you're relying on more Oculus as being sold, you're in trouble.
They've been around since 2019, according to their LinkedIn profile. They've only raised $2 .5 million. They haven't grown much terms of headcount. Their founding team doesn't have much core competency in employment. The 2 .5 really feels sort of like a bridge loan or like a little money from somebody to help them get through to the next, to maybe another round.
Chad Sowash (44:06.682)
Yes.
Chad Sowash (44:26.982)
Mm
Joel Cheesman (44:35.306)
They have a ton of competition, a ton of competition. You advise one of one of them. like for me, dude, I just, this is a major, major sell for me.
All right. Well, that has been another game of buy or sell everybody. We're going to take a quick break and talk about food, which we typically tend to do around lunchtime for me. So we'll be, we'll be right.
Joel Cheesman (45:05.376)
All right, Chad, let's talk a little food. Shall we? Buca di Beppo known for its family style Italian fare has filed for bankruptcy after closing 13 locations in July citing quote, a decrease in sales, rising food and labor costs and staffing challenges and quote family owned White Castle. One of my favorite burger joints has slashed the price of its famed sliders to the lowest level in more than a decade.
following $5 value meals from McDonald's and Burger King. And Yum Brands, the home of KFC, Taco Bell, and others, their second quarter results weren't much to write home about either. Chad, what do you make of all this food drama?
Chad Sowash (45:54.93)
Yeah, mean, anything that is like, you know, fast food ish or franchise ish, I would love to see just die. I love I want to see the the the family restaurants come back together where you got you got the wonderful, you know, family recipes that that that you can actually go to. mean, like St. Elmo's, for goodness sakes, in Indianapolis, that place.
has been around for gods. It's the oldest steakhouse in the Midwest, right? Those things are gems, right? Buca de Pepo, who gives a fuck? That thing goes away. Nobody's going to notice, right? What fucking White Castle, they've been boosting prices for for how long and now they're like, shit, now we got it. We got to bring people back in. What are we going to do? Well, we're going to have to cut into our profit margins a little bit. So I think from the standpoint of the US, we
really we're oversaturated with fast food as it is. And some of these like Bucatipepo's that are franchises, they're going to have to create better models or turn into family single or double location situations. I just look at the best ones that we ever go to.
and they're not franchises, man. It's that one place you go to in Philly, you go to an Indy, you go to wherever you go, man. That's just where you go. And that's not a fucking buk -a -da -peppo or a White Castle.
Joel Cheesman (47:22.964)
but can I interest you in a shining star in the fast food universe?
That's right. At Chipotle, however, revenue was up 18%. Same store sales numbers caught everyone's attention at 11%. They also opened up 52 new restaurants in the quarter. achieved their goal of promoting maybe most importantly, 90 % of people from within the company. So for every buka de bepo, there's a Chipotle that's a shining star. Wingstop and Texas Roadhouse are also doing very well.
Chad Sowash (47:56.421)
Ha
Joel Cheesman (48:00.062)
So here's my sort of quick take on restaurants.
Chad Sowash (48:04.668)
Cheaper? Cheaper, you think?
Joel Cheesman (48:05.62)
for what, Wingstop?
Chad Sowash (48:10.276)
Yeah, yeah. You think, I mean, it's like a cheaper version of BW3s. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Joel Cheesman (48:11.604)
B -dubs. Yeah. So, so to me, if you're like a niche player, you do one thing really well. Burritos, burgers, wings, whatever, steaks in this case, you provided at at a, at a fair price, good service, clean restaurants. Like you're going to win. You're a big winner. If you're big and can automate and replace people.
Chad Sowash (48:24.25)
Yes.
balls.
Joel Cheesman (48:40.308)
You're probably going to be a winner. McDonald's at the end of the day is going to be able to sell cheap stuff that tastes pretty good that people like, and it's going to be everywhere. So same as Burger King, Taco Bell, they're going to automate. They're going to cut head count. Like we've talked about that forever. Chipotle can't cut head count. Can you imagine going into in and out burger and not seeing people? Like no way. Like that's the brand is the people and like, so certain restaurants will have people and they'll be great. The fast food, like give me something fast.
Chad Sowash (49:05.274)
Yes.
Joel Cheesman (49:09.898)
They'll automate. They'll be fine. The losers, as you mentioned, are the Applebee's, the Outbacks, the Chili's, like the big companies that try to look like they're local. I remember Applebee's used to be like the neighborhood bar and grill or like where your name. And then they, they put in like the high school, you know, high school mascot on the door and like, so they try to make it look local. Everyone knows it isn't. It's like shit that they throw in the microwave and cook it.
Chad Sowash (49:22.051)
everything.
Mm -hmm.
Chad Sowash (49:28.571)
Yeah.
Chad Sowash (49:35.588)
Yeah, pictures.
Joel Cheesman (49:39.398)
And it, it's just not, there's no life there. There's no love. There's nothing, there's no emotion there. So Bucca di Beppo is right there. They try to make it look like a local place. They got all these pictures of Frank Sinatra and Italian people doing funny stuff and the kids with the penises in the bathroom, like, ha ha looks fun. so, but the food isn't that great. And the, the staff is not that excited to be there because it's just this stale restaurant. Like those are all going to go away.
Now I do think it's interesting. had a Darden who owns most other like stale ass, wannabe local food joints. I think they own Olive Garden. They just bought Chewy's, which I love. Chewy's is an Austin restaurant. They've moved all over, good food. it, it, love Chewy's and I'm afraid Darden's going to fuck it up because they're going to like cut costs and have shitty food. And I'm like, so Chewy's goddamn it. Don't don't suck.
Chad Sowash (50:18.02)
Yes. Yep. Yep.
Chad Sowash (50:26.023)
fuck yeah. Yeah.
Chad Sowash (50:34.458)
You
Joel Cheesman (50:37.844)
Please don't suck. Cause I do, I do love, I do love chewy's, young brands also Chad. I didn't, I didn't know if you know this owns pizza hut, which brings me to my dad joke of the week. Are you ready for the dad joke of the week? All right. What, what do a gynecologist and a pizza boy have in common? Chad? What do a gynecologist and a pizza boy have in common?
Chad Sowash (50:49.2)
Yes.
Chad Sowash (50:53.593)
Okay.
Okay.
Joel Cheesman (51:07.114)
They can smell it, but they can't eat it. That's right. They can smell it. They just can't eat it. It's lunchtime. I'm going to Chipotle. We out.
Chad Sowash (51:07.3)
Yum Brands.
Chad Sowash (51:22.768)
We out.
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