Have you hugged a veteran today? As we record on Veterans Day, Drill Sergeant Sowash breaks down ways to go beyond "Thank you for your service" and personally honoring vets you know.
Reality check over!
On this week's show, the boys talk about:
The show ends on a high note - pun intended - with the GOP apparently leading the charge on the legalization of marijuana.
Profits over politics, kids! Just so No was so '80s anyway. Like, gag me with a spoon.
TRANSCRIPTION SPONSORED BY: Disability Solutions partners with our clients to build best-in-class inclusion programs and reach qualified, talented individuals with disabilities of every skill, education, and experience level.
INTRO (1s):
eneHide your kids! Lock the doors! You're listening to HR’s most dangerous podcast. Chad Sowash and Joel Cheeseman are here to punch the recruiting industry, right where it hurts! Complete with breaking news, brash opinion and loads of snark, buckle up boys and girls, it's time for the Chad and Cheese podcast.
Joel (21s):
Oh yeah. In Texas, a monkey belonging to a UT football coach's stripper girlfriend bit a child on Halloween. Hey, Texas gunna Texas y'all. Hi kids, it's your favorite Cowboys and you are listening to the Chad and Cheese podcast. This is your cohost Joel "steers and beers" Cheeseman.
Chad (41s):
This is Chad "robo driver" Sowash.
Joel (44s):
And on this week, show Bullhorn prefers cubed over crushed, Fountain wants to help hourly workers, but they'd better not be a delivery driver at Walmart and a little buy or sell kids. Let's do this.
sfx (58s):
Holy Jesus. What is that? What the fuck is that?
Joel (1m 4s):
All right. So that, that intro wasn't what I originally wanted to do. I wanted to do sort of a nice little Veteran's Day homage thank you. And I ran it by Chad, as I do most things before the weekly show and, and he squashed it. Chad, what's up with that. Why do you hate Veteran's Day so much?
Chad (1m 23s):
Probably went along with me, squashing it because I am a veteran. I would assume that's probably the reason.
sfx (1m 28s):
No shit.
Chad (1m 29s):
So first off I want you on all of our listeners out there to understand and take this with the love that I'm sending it. Okay. Just so you know, this is all good vibes and this is education. So sit down, open your ears, open your heart a little bit. So when you say like, thank you for your service, what's the end game there? I mean, why do you say it?
Joel (1m 53s):
I mean, I think it's an acknowledgement of, I appreciate what you've done and the service that you've you've made to the country. I don't think that it's in a negative connotation.
Chad (2m 3s):
I say it was a negative connotation. I said, who, I mean, do you think that you were actually doing it for the veteran or yourself? Because I think most people do it for themselves and they get that hit of oxytocin for the day and they check their box and they thank their veteran on Veteran's Day. So here are a couple of things that I would suggest that you do instead of just saying, thank you for your service. First and foremost how about sitting down for a coffee and learning more about that person and how their military experience actually shaped them? I mean, if you care and you really want to thank them, then buy them a cup of coffee and have a chat and you know, it might be an uncomfortable conversation, but it's not about you, right?
Chad (2m 45s):
It's about the individual that you're, trying to, again say thank you to. And then number two, do number one more than just on Veteran's Day, do it regularly. So when you came out and said, Hey, I want do a thank you for your Veteran's Day thing my head kind of dropped because it's like, look, this isn't a one day thing. they're over there and they are there every single fucking day. So to thank them on one day, really kind of sticks in most veterans craw. And again, but it's good for the person who's saying it. So I just, say, I just thank them for their service and now I've checked my box for the day. Right. So think about them more than you think about you.
Chad (3m 26s):
The oxytocin hit is awesome. I totally get that personally. I would rather have uncomfortable conversations around, I don't know, the defense budget and how we spend more than the next nine countries combined and what we can actually do to help homeless veterans, or maybe, I don't know, give veterans healthcare as opposed to, you know, them going around without. So we should have more of those conversations as opposed to just thanking somebody, checking a box and feeling good about ourselvs.
Joel (4m 1s):
Now, when you see, obviously today, a lot of people are posting pictures of relatives that served or people they know, or even loved ones, like to you, do you drop your head when you see that also?
Chad (4m 13s):
I don't think any of it's a no-no. First off I think you do things the way that you do things, but I want people to understand how it's received and if they do really care, then they should probably do a little bit more. No, I mean, they're proud of those people. My mom might post something with me and you know, my uniform or who knows. Right. That's cool. You're proud and I get it. But what we always do, we're such a cosmetic, we're such a surface kind of society that we need to take it deeper. And if we do care, let's care for more than just a day.
Joel (4m 48s):
It's sort of equated to Valentine's Day, right? Like you should love your spouse or your, whatever, the person you're with every day, not just one day a year, is that sort of, I guess, a parallel to what you're advising our listeners. Would that be correct?
Chad (5m 3s):
That's good for a relationship, obviously. And again, I'm not trying to tell anybody how to enjoy their Veteran's Day, but coming from a veteran and talking to veterans at the bar, this is what we talk about.
Joel (5m 15s):
Fair enough. So listeners, if you know of that out there, buy him a coffee or even better the alcoholic beverage categories, are probably good too.
Chad (5m 23s):
And do it on the regular.
Joel (5m 24s):
Dig in more about issues that they care about, I guess. Thank you, Chad. This is why our show rocks. I have a few shout outs for Veteran's Day. Number one is my Uncle Les! Uncle Les, Les Cheeseman passed away a few years ago. He served in World War II, fought in Okinawa.
Chad (5m 42s):
Wow!
Joel (5m 44s):
He used to tell stories about fighting the Japanese and foxholes at night and never sleeping, which are scarier than any Halloween story that I've ever heard. My uncle, Uncle Gene, who lived in Seymour, just south of you, was a Vietnam Vet. And unlike my Uncle Les, never talked about Vietnam. I heard stories about him coming home and not being able to sleep in a bed for a year because of the experience. And he actually died a few years ago as well. Although much younger than My Uncle Les, agent orange was never proven, but certainly he was around it. He had a COPD late in life and, and passed away from that.
Joel (6m 25s):
He was also a very regular smoker. Uncle Gene was always a mountain of a man to me, I guess, if you could marry the Marlboro man with Abraham Lincoln, that would have been my, my Uncle Gene. And lastly, another podcast, which I do recommend regularly History This Week. One of my favorite podcasts, if you listen to the more recent one entitled The Last Battle of the First World War, it talks a lot about America's involvement in World War One. Apparently when World War One broke out, we only had about a hundred thousand or so troops serving, which quickly escalated to 4 million troops that went over to Europe to fight the axis powers.
Joel (7m 5s):
So that was sort of the beginning of our, I don't know, super power efforts in the 20th century. So that's my first shout out, a little veteran inspired thank yous and shout outs to people that I know and love.
Chad (7m 19s):
I love it. I love it. A big shout out to the Sonderling family. If you remember, the EEOC commissioner was on the show just a couple of weeks ago?
Joel (7m 29s):
Love that guy.
Chad (7m 30s):
Keith Sonderling just had his first kid, little baby boy named Baron. So congratulations. Big shout out to the Sonderling family and Baron.
Joel (7m 42s):
Baron clearly named after the Trump kid.
Chad (7m 45s):
Wow! Had to pull that out.
Joel (7m 48s):
Yeah, yeah. Sorry, go Gators. Shout out to ZipRecruiter and Fiverr. If you didn't, if you weren't paying attention, both reported earnings this week, ZipRecruiter blew up a reporting 107% growth year over year. Fiverr also blew up this week, reporting a 42% growth year over year. Shout out to those companies in our space that are doing kind of well kind of, well.
Chad (8m 12s):
Not too shabby, not too shabby. Congrats to our Canadian sister and brother counterparts, Shelley and Serge for completing their 100th episode of the Recruitment Flex.
Joel (8m 29s):
Rookies.
Chad (8m 29s):
Joel scoffs at anybody who's under 500, but it's not easy committing to a podcast and most don't even make it past 10 episodes. So it's a feat! Congrats to the Recruitment Flex and here's to your next hundred episodes.
Joel (8m 42s):
I'm just lucky that you make it so easy to do a podcast Chad, you make it so easy. Shout out to just our space. Crunchbase had a story this this past week, reporting that since September 1st, that September of 2021, startups in the HR tech sector have seen nearly 2.8 billion in venture dollars. Come their way to put that in perspective, that is more than the total amount of the venture capital the industry saw all of last year, when 2.2 billion was invested. So just a little perspective that our industry is red hot and continues to be so, and we like reporting on it too.
Joel (9m 22s):
So shout out to the industry.
Chad (9m 25s):
Talk about bloated. Oh my God.
Joel (9m 27s):
Double-time.
Chad (9m 27s):
Last shout out for me. This is for our friends over at Cornerstone on Demand. I believe the new cat anus logo that they've rolled out is actually probably the best marketing campaign they've had in history. Probably more attention than they've ever seen, but on the heels of the new colors and logo rollout, they've rolled out a new product called Explore. Did you hear about this thing?
Joel (9m 52s):
Oh, tell me more.
Chad (9m 54s):
Okay. So I've actually received rumors internally that that very tech Explorer just announced that they won't be able to actually demo or sell it for another three to five months.
sfx (10m 7s):
Oh hell no!
Chad (10m 8s):
On the heels of going from public to private, getting a new cat anus logo, now they have new tech that's not going to be ready. It's released with the press release, but not ready for three to five months.
sfx (10m 21s):
Well, no shit.
Joel (10m 21s):
All right. I got a couple of big tech shout-outs here that I'm going to combine. Number one is shout out to Snapchat. The company has answered ahead of TikTok as the preferred platform for US teens per a recent Piper Sandler survey. Instagram is now preferred by 22% of teens compared to 25% of last year. So they're dropping Twitter and Facebook come in at a distant fourth and fifth with just 2% of teens favoring those platform. And that rolls me into Twitter blue.
Chad (10m 54s):
Oh, God.
Joel (10m 55s):
If you haven't heard of Twitter Blue kids you can pay Twitter a little bit of money for some big time features. Let me tell you more. The Twitter Blue subscription service has been expanded to New Zealand and the US following its introduction in Australia and Canada earlier this year. Individuals who pay the $2.99 charge each month can read some ad free articles, sort, save tweets, view long threads in a more reader-friendly environment and edit content before posting. Who's ready to spend that $2.99 per month for Twitter Blue?
sfx (11m 33s):
Oh, hell no.
Chad (11m 34s):
You gotta spend money for a better user experience? That is the worst business model I think I've ever fucking heard.
Joel (11m 40s):
And speaking of great user experience, Chad, have you heard about free stuff on Chad and Cheese?
Chad (11m 44s):
No, I have not. Tell me.
Joel (11m 48s):
Well, I'll tell you more. You can get free shit from us. We're talking t-shirts from Emissary. We're talking beer from our new sponsor Pillar and we're talking bourbon, our buddies at Sovren, and also shout out to Ross Granger at Paradox for being this month's bourbon winner, Zoom call soon to be scheduled. We're still waiting to hear back from our beer drop winner, who I won't name if they never respond. So we'll give them another, another 24 hours or so otherwise we're going to another beer drinker. All right, now let's run into our fantasy football update. Chad, everyone loves a good leaderboard and this one's sponsored by poach.ai.
Joel (12m 31s):
From top to bottom, here we go with this week's football fantasy leaderboard. The wonderful Miss Q finally makes it to the top spot after teasing that spot for a few weeks. Jason Bateman Putnam comes in second, your boy Cheese, that'd be me everybody comes in third, followed by Benjamin Franklin Koontz. Chris Nipsey, Russell, Christy man on the moon, Michael McDonald Cox, Pistol Pete Suchi, Bill I'm not even supposed to be here today Fanning and last but not least in our hearts, Chad, is last.
Chad (13m 9s):
From, first to worst, from first to worst, baby!
Joel (13m 13s):
It's a marathon Chad. It's a marathon. And with that, let's get into some birthday shout outs. Celebrating a birthday this week, fans of the show, Jamie Carney, Victoria Conley, and someone near and dear to your heart. Chad and I know she's a big fan of the show, Kennedy Cook.
Chad (13m 31s):
Oh yeah.
Joel (13m 32s):
I hope you got her something.
Chad (13m 40s):
She's enjoying life in Budapest. She's fine.
Joel (13m 45s):
Yeah, she's fine. She's all good.
Chad (13m 48s):
Topics!
Joel (13m 48s):
All right. Bullhorn.
Chad (13m 49s):
Hello.
Joel (13m 50s):
Writer of software for staffing firms acquired cube 19, a London based provider of analytics and reporting software to staffing firms using Bullhorn. This is Bullhorn's 14th acquisition since its founding in 1999. You remember 1999 don't you Chad?
Chad (14m 8s):
Prince!
Joel (14m 9s):
Bullhorn noted cube 19 has been a long-time partner in its Bullhorn marketplace. cube 19 currently employs around 40 people and members of cube 19'a executive team will join the Bullhorn leadership team. Terms of the transaction were not announced bummer. Founded in 2011 cube 19 has raised around $5 million according to Crunchbase. Chad, what do you make of this move by our friends at Bullhorn?
Chad (14m 36s):
Can you say wallet share? Bullhorn is primarily a platform for staffing company. So companies like cube 19 are an easy add on for staffing firms who need to be more efficient. Remember for talent acquisition recruiting is a job, but for staffing companies, it's a business, meaning they need a better way to focus on efficiencies, identify the best sources of hire and much more to drive better margins. So this is an easy one for Bullhorn, which would add nearly a hundred thousand dollars of ARR per 100 recruiters at the cube enterprise level.
Chad (15m 16s):
Also cube 19 is deeply integrated into Bullhorn, meaning Bullhorn can see just about everything that's going on from a revenue standpoint. It's a great marketplace play I believe.
Joel (15m 24s):
Chad did I mention that Bullhorn has been around since 1999?
Chad (15m 28s):
You did.
Joel (15m 28s):
A great year. Yeah. As you mentioned, Bullhorn is an apex predator when it comes to staffing software and they claim to have more than 10,000 companies on their platform and employ 1200 people. Now, I like to bang on Bullhorn for charging thousands for vendors to join their marketplace, which they have every right to do, of course. But I want to note that cube 19 was prominent in their marketplace, as they mentioned in their press release. Marketplaces as we know Chad, basically serve as incubators for companies who have features that platforms should add. So I only wonder, Bullhorn, how many more cube 19s are there that you could acquire if only they didn't choose a different platform to build on instead of yours?
Joel (16m 15s):
Answer, maybe a lot. Free the marketplace Bullhorn, free the marketplace.
Chad (16m 19s):
I say keep charging. I think this is actually a great guide for startups. Look at cube 19. cube 19 was incredibly disciplined and stayed focused on the staffing industry and their relationship with one of the biggest staffing platforms in the industry. They only took 5.2 million in funding, which means they weren't out of Bullhorn's reach for acquisition. Unicorn cash isn't always the answer kids. I think that's one of the things that we should be looking at when we see these acquisitions happen, we should be able to take a look at, okay. So how did this happen? There's a recipe that we've seen, week after week after week and I think these guys nailed it.
Joel (16m 59s):
Yes. If you're a startup and want to get acquired, find a marketplace where there's no competence or little competition, they don't have a native solution. And in Chad's case, put your eggs in that basket and do it really well and good things can happen to you without getting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. Let's move on to Fountain Chad. Oh, you're doing a webinar with them soon. Aren't you?
Chad (17m 22s):
This week, yeah, I'm doing it with Madelyn. She'll carry me like she always does.
Joel (17m 28s):
Yeah, she's a good kid. All right. San Francisco based Fountain, a hiring platform for hourly workers has raised 85 million in series C, bringing its total to almost 119 million that according to Crunchbase, “The world of hourly workers has never seen a more challenging environment like the one we are in now,” says Fountain CEO, Sean Behr. That's what he told TechCrunch. And he also added, “There was some hope amongst our prospective and current customers that once COVID-19 was over, whenever that was, that hiring would just become easy again. That is completely wrong.” end quote. Working with over 250 customers like Chipotle and live ops Fountain has processed more than 16 million applicants in the past 12 months and help customers hire more than 2 million so far in 2021.
Joel (18m 16s):
Chad, are you ready to jump into this Fountain?
Chad (18m 19s):
Yeah. I mean, this is the biggest underserved segment in the US right now and obviously it's hot, right? So this is from the Techcrunch article, quote, "Fountain’s technology also whittles down the median days to hire to 8.70 from the industry average of 36 days," end quote. So 36 days is an, was always ridiculous. The question is, can Fountain move from nearly nine days to hire to, I need someone tomorrow. That's what we're getting to and we're getting there very fast. So Fountain currently for most clients, they have a shared database, meaning they pretty much own the candidates themselves, which is, you know, incredibly important if you want to move to a more nimble model, like a gig platform, hint, hint.
Chad (19m 10s):
So this means embracing gig 1099s and FTEs. They'll have to grow. They have to have a shit ton of cash. So there's a good opportunity there because this segment obviously is not primarily FTEs. You're going to be looking for giggers as well. You need one platform that covers them both.
Joel (19m 26s):
Yep. To me, there's a little bit of a battle brewing in one corner, you have the gig economy and a lot of businesses are wondering if they'd be better off just contracting workers when they need them. And I liked that Fountain sees this threat and is sort of building, I guess, a hybrid model. Andrew Zloto, a director at SoftBank investment advisors told TechCrunch and the story quote, "sourcing and hiring hourly workers have been transformed by the rise of the gig economy, which has shortened the process of hiring and onboarding from weeks to a few days, Fountain has built on an essential toolkit for companies to keep up with and compete with this new hiring environment, by simplifying, optimizing, and automating the candidate journey to decrease time to hire.
Joel (20m 12s):
We believe the company's partnerships with large employers like Chipotle is a stamp of credibility of their further innovative platform and ability to execute." Surely there'll be some that prefer gigs. Some that prefer the full time or part-time traditional workforce. And there'll be companies like Fountain that sort of balanced both of those worlds. And I really like, I like what they're doing. And clearly a series C going from, I don't know, they raised roughly 10 to 20 before the $85 million round. Clearly they're doing something right. And one to keep your eye on and check out that webinar with Chad, there's probably more Fountain goodness, if you attend that.
Chad (20m 51s):
Fountain goodness research that aptitude research performed around high volume hiring, and we're going to be talking about that. So I think there's no question. This market is being disrupted and it's not just being disrupted by technology it's being disrupted by need. And that will actually push these these platforms very quickly. The question I have though is within these organizations, you have your full-time staff and then you have your giggers right? But then you also have corporate. So how many different platforms are you going to have to sew together to make this happen? When will or will there be platforms that can do all of this? And I'm wondering if Fountain's looking at being able to provide.
Joel (21m 36s):
Let's take a quick break, let that big brain of yours take a break here and we'll come back for a little buy or sell
sfx (21m 46s):
Holy Jesus. What is that? What the fuck is that?
Chad (21m 49s):
Is that a jelly donut?
Joel (21m 50s):
What a great movie.
Chad (21m 51s):
Yes.
Joel (21m 51s):
Just the first half of it is just amazing. All right, let's go to, well, our listeners of you don't know how this works. We take three startups that have gotten money this week. Some are not startups as you'll see, but they've gotten money recently. We do a little summary and Chad or I either buy or sell the company. First on the list we have Hirewell, a Chicago based staffing firm announced a $21 million strategic investment by technology firm Prytek as part of the deal Hirewell, will acquire ICV, a Tel Aviv, Israel based software company.
Joel (22m 31s):
ICV software scans public data records to build candidate funnels. It was founded in 2017 by Guy Bender around Rand Weiss and Ron former captains in the Israel defense forces. A little bit of Veteran's Day focus there. Hirewell is focused on providing staffing in the IT sales, HR, marketing, finance, accounting, and real estate segments. In the first 10 months of 2021 Hirewell says they've helped over 300 companies hire over 1700 employees. Founded in 2001, Hirewell employees, 86 people, according to LinkedIn, a 120% increase in head count from just last year.
Joel (23m 12s):
Chad buy or sell, Hirewell?
Chad (23m 15s):
You know what we're talking about here is an old time recruiting firm that is now starting to tech up. So will it automate? Yes. Will it scale? Yes. Do they have experience in this space? 2001? Yeah, they fucking do. So for smaller recruitment firms to survive, they will need to build a standardized tech stack and in this case they want to be more efficient with recruiters time by adding tech, that will speed up getting qualified candidates in front of clients faster with less of the recruiters time spent on sourcing, the recruiter then can spend more time with the human part of the recruiting process and give a better white glove service to the candidate and also the client.
Chad (23m 58s):
So if performed correctly, candidates will get into seats faster, more recs can be taken on because of less time spent on filling each rec, but let's just hope Hirewell, doesn't use this tech as an excuse to double the number of reqs recruiters handle. At one time, all agencies, all agencies should be doing this. So this one to me is an easy buy.
sfx (24m 28s):
Applause
Joel (24m 29s):
Oh gee a Midwest staffing firm. That's been around for 20 years and just raised money. How boring can you get? Well boring, unless you think longevity and profit are boring and they've apparently just found technology. So maybe real growth is just around the corner. This is a sleepy buy for me, but a buy nonetheless. Thank you for doing such a lengthy introspection of this company, because mine was pretty short. All right, let's get to Mogul. Diversity recruitment solution Mogul raised an undisclosed sum. Undisclosed? Yeah, that's bullshit. And this latest funding round to expand its global presence and innovate products for talent acquisition.
Joel (25m 11s):
The investment came from SoftBank, which is Mogul's largest investor to date. SoftBank joins Hearst corporation. Get a load of this list Chad. Gary Vaynerchuk, Will Bunker co-founder of match.com, Michael Wolfson co-founder of the knot.com. Julian Brodsky co-founder of Comcast, little company most people have heard of, and others who are backing the company. Founded in 2014 and based in the US, they have a headquarters in New York. Mogul gives its clients access to 400 million diverse candidates across 195 countries. The site currently lists more than 920,000 jobs through its online community site candidates can connect with each other and with employers.
Joel (25m 54s):
Mogul also provides executive search services. They employ just over a hundred people. Holy shit. You're buying this one, right, Chad?
Chad (26m 6s):
OK. We set the tone with this quote from the article "patent pending software filters." Sexy, if it was in 1999. I read the story and I cringed when Will Bunker the founder of match.com called it match.com for top employers and candidates. That's the death kneel for any company in our space. I mean, what happened to e-harmonies for jobs? It's dead`. And what about all those Tinder apps? They're pretty much all dead or are on their way to dead. Then I went to the site and dude, oh fuck. I really want these platforms to kick ass and take names. They have a hell of a database, but employers are not going to be comfortable going to a quote unquote "hiring site"
Chad (26m 53s):
that looks like a hookup platform. They've got all the numbers, all the big jazzy names. They have no experience in this space. It's not going to scale. It's not going to automate easily. It's a sell for me.
Joel (27m 7s):
Oh Chad, if only all that stuff mattered. Listeners know diversity solutions are red hot right now. In the time I said that it just got hotter. As more companies actually budget for this stuff. The Mogul model looks like it's a pretty comfortable position for people to buy. And I love that they have a focus on executives. Let's stop the swapping spit and start hiring externally. Yeah. I just think it's a big wave. And as long as they have a pulse and a website that works, they're going to make money.
Joel (27m 50s):
A buy from me, man.
sfx (27m 51s):
Applause.
Joel (27m 51s):
Let's get to Seasoned. Cause I'm getting hungry. Seasoned announced an $18.7 million funding round for its talent platform for hiring restaurant workers. It brings total funding to more than 30 million raised since the company was founded just a year ago. The company reported it has connected with more than 300 national and local restaurant brands and is being used by more than 250,000 restaurant workers. There are two sides to the app. One a free community for industry employees to review openings, schedule interviews, and connect with peers. While a subscription-based hiring tool for restaurant managers works to lower onboarding costs and accelerate the timing between application and hire to within three hours.
Joel (28m 32s):
So Chad, are you ready to get a little flavor with Seasoned?
Chad (28m 35s):
So about the flavor will automate? Yeah. Will it scale? Yeah, I think so. Do they have experience? While they're CEO, you're going to love this. Joel, their CEO is an ex VP over at The Ladders. He was at The Ladders for six years. He spent a little time at Yelp.
Joel (28m 52s):
He's smart enough to leave.
Chad (28m 53s):
Yeah, he was smart enough to leave. He spent a little time at Yelp. So between that experience that he had at the Ladders, he found out what he shouldn't fucking do at Yelp hopefully being able to better understand the industry much like Fountain, Seasoned is in a hot sector that needs help quickly. Unlike Fountain, this is an app based platform that boasts, a community aspect as well. I believe Fountain should take some of that $85 million and start looking to acquire something like Seasoned. I buy it.
Joel (29m 29s):
Okay. Thinking it was a potential buy for Jobcase. Maybe that's just me.
Chad (29m 37s):
Oh goodie.
Joel (29m 38s):
Remember back in the summer, when over 4 million people, quit their job. Chad well, restaurants saw the highest level of quitting among restaurants and hospitality about 892,000 workers threw in the towel, leading to a 6.7% quit rate that month. I've mentioned my local BW3's was recently closed during lunch because of a lack of workers. I don't necessarily think Seasoned is lighting the world on fire. But I think so many restaurants need people right now they're in so much freaking pain that they're just going to write blank checks to Seasoned and anyone that they think can get them employees.
Joel (30m 19s):
So for me, another great wave to be on. Buy, buy, buy.
Chad (30m 25s):
Did you just buy all those?
Joel (30m 26s):
I bought all of them. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in a very nice, good mood today, I guess. All right. Let's get to a huge gigantic corporation that hasn't gotten money in a long time Walmart. Walmart and Silicon Valley based Gatik, a company that specializes in autonomous trucking or operating two autonomous delivery trucks in Arkansas without a backup safety driver. Yes, Chad, I said without a safety backup driver. The two Gatik box trucks are shuttling goods for 12 hours a day, along a seven mile loop between a Walmart fulfillment center and a Walmart neighborhood market.
Joel (31m 6s):
It's the first time a self-driving truck has removed a safety driver from a commercial delivery route between a warehouse and the store. The program began last December after approval from the Arkansas state highway commission. The backup driver was removed from the route in August. Gatik, which specializes in B2B short haul logistics claims a 100% safety record across its operations in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and Ontario, Canada. Walmart also aims to begin AV deliveries along a 20 mile route between New Orleans and Metairie, Louisiana in early 2022. So Chad, I guess I should scrap that career in trucking at this point.
Chad (31m 49s):
Yeah. And this is only the beginning kids, a New York Times article said the biggest kink in America's supply chain is not enough truckers. The unemployment rate in Arkansas, which is where the story is happening is 4%. The bureau of transportation in 2019, as we start to say, well, you know, do we trust these robots driving? I don't know that we can trust humans driving for God's sakes. In 2019, there were 6.7 million car accidents, 2.7 million injuries, 36,000 deaths.
Chad (32m 31s):
So now instead of pointing our finger at AI and blaming it or these robot trucks, they might actually be the answer to having a more safe environment around us.
Joel (32m 42s):
So trucking and hiring truckers is a shitty business. We've detailed some of that shittiness over the years, I've mentioned my brother-in-law who is in trucking. And we have this driverless argument all the time.
Chad (32m 52s):
Oh do you?
Joel (32m 53s):
He thinks there's no way it's going to happen.
Chad (32m 55s):
Really?! Did you send him this?
Joel (32m 57s):
But stories like this, tell me, yeah, it is. No, I have not sent him this. He's not really a throw him a link and read an article kind of guy, but that's a different that's about guys. Truckers don't get FaceTime with customers. So it's easier to automate them than it is say a cashier. All the data says they're safer, like you mentioned, than humans and the cost savings and headache relief from hiring and managing truckers say the future of self-driving trucks can't get here soon enough for businesses. Sorry, BJ and the Bear, seventies reference there, time for a new career.
Joel (33m 45s):
Self-driving trucks are going to happen probably quicker than we think. And the amount of impact this is going to have on all kinds of industries is, is insane. Indeed alone has around 500,000 trucking jobs on its website. Schools that rely on accrediting drivers, people who make trucks. I mean, it's gonna impact so many, so many people in businesses and it's gonna happen really fast, I think.
Chad (34m 2s):
Agreed.
Joel (34m 2s):
And we'll talk about it on the show.
Chad (34m 4s):
Yeah. And you take a look at the supply chain issues that we're having right now. This is just going to move it to warp speed.
Joel (34m 13s):
YUP! And then you get that final mile shit, things rolling up to your house. Robots dropping shit off. Like it's happening people.
Chad (34m 19s):
YUP! It's happening.
Joel (34m 21s):
All right. Well, you know that final story that we talk about, Chad, I'm going to leave everyone in stitches. I'm not going to say what it is. You'll just have to wait till after we pay a little bills.
Chad (34m 40s):
I've got to inject something really quick. I just received this from Vos in the Netherlands. Apparently an Austrian brothel is offering free sessions to customers getting a COVID jab.
Joel (34m 51s):
I'm sorry. A session for just getting a shot. The risk reward on that is pretty unbalanced. I got to say, I got to say, I got to say, only in Europe. Okay.
Chad (35m 2s):
I love it!
Joel (35m 4s):
Okay. Chad, do you remember Nancy Reagan's just say no campaign?
Chad (35m 8s):
Unfortunately yes.
Joel (35m 9s):
Yeah. Well, Ronnie and in particular Nixon, who sort of started the war on drugs, may be rolling around in their graves this week reported by Forbes, marijuana moment one of my favorite publications revealed last week, a draft bill called states reform act is being led by Republican Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, which would federally reschedule marijuana and create a regulatory blueprint i.e. make it legal. The draft legislation would federally reschedule marijuana from the list of controlled substances and it would impose a 3.75% excise tax on cannabis sales as marijuana would be treated similarly to alcohol, the treasury departments, alcohol and tobacco tax and trade bureau known as the TTB Chad would be the chief regulator for this market.
Joel (36m 3s):
Chad, this is not your daddy's GOP. What the fuck is going on?
Chad (36m 7s):
Well, it's about goddamn time. If you think about legalizing marijuana, let's talk about again, the issues that we're having, finding people to actually do jobs. And let's also talk about, you know, I don't know, maybe taxes. So if we decriminalized, we legalize and decriminalize. Imagine all the individuals who are sitting in jail today, who can actually get out and start doing a job and start earning a living for their families. Number one, right? Number two, California shattered marijuana tax revenue records in the last fiscal year.
Chad (36m 52s):
State reports collected $817 million and adult use marijuana tax revenue during 2020 and 2021 fiscal year. In January of 2021, marijuana sales continue to skyrocket in Colorado reaching $187.5 million. And the state of Nevada sold more than $1 billion and marijuana in 2021. What does that all mean? That means new jobs. So we start talking about a couple of ways that this could actually impact, directly impact the US. It could do it in jobs, and it could do it with individuals who shouldn't be in prison in the first place. They could get out, they could actually get good jobs and they could be productive citizens.
Joel (37m 32s):
Okay. So you're saying profits over politics, basically.
Chad (37m 34s):
The only thing that moves this country is profits.
Joel (37m 36s):
Cash money, baby. Yeah. All these truck drivers are going to need a job and maybe weed will be there to fill the void, which is good news. You know, one of the, one of the cool things about America is we have this, like, we have 50 laboratories where shit can be tested. And if it works out, the federal government can come in and say like, okay, let's just make this federally acceptable or legal or whatever. And I'm forgetting exactly when Colorado was sort of the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. And I remember at the time everyone is like, the state's going to go to hell. The world is ending. There's going to be crime increases.
Joel (38m 16s):
Kids are going to be addicted, yada, yada, yada right.
Chad (38m 20s):
2012.
Joel (38m 20s):
More serious drugs are going to be abused as a result. And none of that should happened as far as I know. And so, so more and more states adopt it. This was bound to happen. I'm gobsmacked that this has happened in my lifetime. When I say, as a kid in the eighties and/or seventies as a young kid, like drugs are bad. Just say no, they're a gateway to all things, horrible. Documentaries and PSA's that I had to go through. This is just 30, 40 years ago. And it's now going to be legal and my kids are going to be 18 plus, and it's going to be acceptable and legal and accessible.
Joel (39m 1s):
It's just crazy. It's just hard to believe in my lifetime. My dad, who's 82 shits when he hears about this stuff, because he's more, more old school even than I am. But anyway, yeah. Money, money, money, people out of jail. People being able to manage pain better, glaucoma, cancer patients. By the way, if you haven't seen Dopesick on Hulu, it's a great show. Michael Keaton, one of the more underrated actors in my lifetime. And if you haven't seen Mr. Mom, you know it to yourself to do that. And Gung-ho was very predictive of the world, the world today. And as I'm talking, I'm really getting the munchies and I'm realizing that it's time for lunch.
Joel (39m 47s):
So Chad, that's all I've got on weed. And as far as I'm concerned in regards to this show, I'm going to play one more sound bite from full metal jacket.
sfx (39m 60s):
Wow. No shit.
Joel (40m 1s):
And say,
Chad (40m 2s):
We out.
OUTRO (40m 40s):
Thank you for listening to, what's it called? The podcast with Chad, the Cheese. Brilliant. They talk about recruiting. They talk about technology, but most of all, they talk about nothing. Just a lot of Shout Outs of people, you don't even know and yet you're listening. It's incredible. And not one word about cheese, not one cheddar, blue, nacho, pepper jack, Swiss. So many cheeses and not one word. So weird. Any hoo be sure to subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Google play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts, that way you won't miss an episode. And while you're at it, visit www.chadcheese.com just don't expect to find any recipes for grilled cheese. Is so weird. We out.