With ken lerer and his son ben lerer about lerer ventions. I like building my company more than investing. I like doing it because i get to work with him and the team lv and ultimately it keeps me seeing things. I think when you start a company and youre building your business you think that you are the center of the universe and your companys the center of the universe and getting to invest gives me access to all these amazing people where i get to step outside of the vacuum of realists and see all these other businesses that ultimately make me smarter. Sometimes experience trumps brains. And so im able to look at an issue and go back in the files in my brain and ive seen a lot for better or worse and im able to say heres whats going to happen. And thats kind of what i bring to the table. But i cant keep up with him in a deep, in a big dive on a business issue about his company or about a lot of the companies that we back. Thats his job. Rose senator john mccain and internet entrepreneurs ken and ben lerer when we continue. Theres a saying around here you stand behind what you say. Around here, we dont make excuses, we make commitments. And when you cant live up to them, you own up and make it right. Some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where its needed most. But i know youll still find it, when you know where to look. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose john mccain is here. Hes been the republican senator for arizona since 1987 Senate Committee on Arms Services and foreign relations. Hes been a critic of the administration of ukraines policy consistently advocating tougher sanctions against russia. Hes just returned. President joe biden is in ukraine and spoke earlier today. We call on russia to stop supporting men hiding behind masks in unmarked uniforms sewing unrest in Eastern Ukraine. We have been clear that more provocative behavior by russia will lead to more costs and to greater isolation. Rose the pentagon announced today it would send 600 additional troops to poland in the Baltic States for training exercises. The United States has also pledged additional 50 million in aid to ukraine including funds to help run the president s election due on may 25th. Meanwhile president obama is in japan on the first leg of his asian tour, im pleased to have john mccain back at this table. Welcome. Thank you charlie. Rose i did not mention you were the nominee of your party for president. Thank you for not mentioning that. Rose was it a bad experience . Well, you know. Politicians have lines, you know. After i lost i slept like a baby, excellent two slept to hours and began to cry. Thats an old one. Rose you just got back. Yes from maldolva and the ball particulars. Theyre very very nervous because maldova, is eastern part of maldova Russian Troops have been there for years. The question is what does Vladimir Putin do now. Does he continue unfolding unrest there in the east. Etcetera awfully hard for the government to function and get their economy in order and all these things. Or does he go across the south and take odessa which is important to him or maldova and he continues to foment discontent and uprising and little green men. It makes its very difficult for the government to function and how difficult is it for them to have free and Fair Elections with the little green men running all over the place in Eastern Ukraine. Rose how do you stop him . Let me tell you how far off base this administration is. They said they would not give them defensive weapons. They said they would give them meals ready to eat. They wouldnt even fly them in on u. S. Aircraft. They had to use trucks on u. S. Military aircraft. They used trucks because they didnt want to provoke Vladimir Putin. Its crazy. Havent we figured him out yet. Isnt this guy continues to upset us whether it be snowden or whether it be these activities in yes or no ukraine or other places in the world. So the first thing, charlie, is understand Vladimir Putin for what he is and act accordingly. The same way Ronald Reagan understood breshnev. Anyway, go ahead. Rose or Ronald Reagan understood gorbachev. Yes. Rose heres the question for me. I suspect people in the whitehouse understand, i dont think they believe hes anything other than what he is. The question is not understanding him, the question is what are you presented prepared to do to stop him. Yes but first you have to understand him. They keep pushing the reset button charlie. Vladimir when im reelected ill be more flexible. What does that mean. Rose thats a line. He was talking about but see tell vladimir ill be more flexible. There is nothing that vladimir would like to hear more than were going to be flexible. What have we done in light of the absorption of crimea into russia . We have sanctioned 11 people and one bony. And one bank. Do you think that Vladimir Putin will see that, that will somehow return, of course not. Rose what would john mccain as president be doing at this moment when he marched into crimea, would you have said youve got to get your troops out of crimea or we will act in a way that will punish you . I would do a long series of steps. Helping ukraine become energy independent. Rose how long does that take. Well probably takes a couple three years. Rose in the meantime. Well you got to plan for it. And there are things other ways we can do to help them. Lithuania is just like Getting Energy from sweden and offshore natural gas establishment. They are able to do it. We can do it if we want to. Second, make it clear to Vladimir Putin that we will provide these people with weapons with which to defend themselves. If Vladimir Putin moves further into ukraine from Eastern Ukraine, i would at least give them the ability to defend themselves. Putins calculation is what is the cost for my taking further action. So far its been none. Rose so far he has the ammunition to restore russia to greatness without necessarily acquiring everything that used to be part of russia or part of the warsaw pact. Then can we ration. It looks like we work more closely with the nato members. Rose isnt the president trying to do that, work more closely with the nato members. I dont see any indication of it. He refused to fly mres in because it provocative i dont think theyre doing a hell of a lot. Rose you dont worry about provoking Vladimir Putin. If Vladimir Putin needs to be provoke. I mean, its crazy. The only thing that Vladimir Putin understands is peace through strength. Peace through strength. Pardon me. Rose acquisition through strength. Yes. Rose and he believes he uses his proximity geographically and troops on the border. Look, im not saying its easy and obviously, by the way i wouldnt keep saying dont worry were not going to have american boots on the ground. I would let him figure it out. Were not but i wouldnt keep saying it. But hes got to understand that there are all kinds of repercussions. Were the most powerful nation in the world by any measure. Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country. And so for us to get short term and long term programs to make sure that Vladimir Putin knows that this kind of adventurism theres a price for it. The president is saying do it or what. Or what, mr. Vice president. More sanctions . More people. Another bank. Rose john mccain would say or what, john mccain would say deeper sanctions with respect to iran. Sanctions, military exercises. Moving our troop positioning. Rose define weaponry to ukrainians. Absolutely. Rose what kinds of weapons. Well, first of all i would give them Light Weapons which they want and i would give them antitank weapons and probably antiair weapons so they can defend. If putin moves now across the south, its not going to stop him. Theres absolutely nothing to stop him. So why not say were going to give these people the ability to defend them says. When russia invaded afghanistan if you recall we started throwing weapons to afghanistan. Is that an exact parallel . No. When ronald Ronald Reagan saide was a missile in russian you can recall there were hundreds of theuses of people demonstrating against it but he understood peace restraint and thats what we have to do. And its so frustrating honestly to talk to these people. Rose these people meaning the whitehouse . No, in moldova and the baltics. Putin is putting all kinds of pressure on the baltics right now moldova particularly they are extremely nervous because they dont have the protection of article 5 of the north atlantic treaty. Rose if ukraine were part of nato we would have been committed by treaty. We would have been. And to be honest with you, if we didnt do it, thats the end of nato. That is the end. And frankly im not sure what this president would have done if ukraine had been part of nato. Rose what do you think is his philosophy. Putin . Rose no, obama. The president. Rose what do you think he says as his ingame here. I dont think the president believes in american exceptionalism. He won the nomination by going against the war in iraq. He gained the presidency on the pledge we would get out of all these wars, etcetera. Rose do you know he won the presidency or the nonnation. He won the nomination because of his vote against. But once he came to the presidency he wanted to get out. The tide of war is preceding well be out by 2017. Every time he announced a mild surge, he also announced that were leaving. Rose dont people support that . The American People need to be led. Rose dont they support . Dont poland say they were really tired of the war of afghanistan and they wanted to get out of both iraq and afghanistan had public support of that policy. Absolutely. And the public supported the policy after the vietnam conflict. We lost 55,000 young men in the vietnam war, a very large number. But nernses americans need o be led and two they need to understand whats at stake here and this president does not believe in american exceptionalism. Rose what do you mean by that. Exceptional nation. 20th century was the american century. And i hope the 21st century will be as well. We lead, we lead and they will then. Right now you and i know that the europeans arent going to impose any real meaningful sanctions on putin. You know that because of the energy issue. But the president should step forward and say look were going to do this. And if you do business with these banks theyre not going to do business with us. In other words, a firm strong message to Vladimir Putin that were not going to sit by and watch him restore the russian empire. Rose youre saying you have to pay a price if you dont follow us here were going to lead but if you dont follow us youre going to pay the consequences ie in terms of your own trade policy and your own relationship from an economic standpoint in the United States, the largest economy in the world and a market for your products. Exactly. And it is incumbent with technology and things that are happening in the United States as compared with ten years ago, im not sure it would be five years before we could get some of the l and g over to them by the way. The excel pipeline we wont talk about. Rose whats going to happen on the pipeline, the keystone pipeline. A lot of smart people tell me after the elections. Rose after the mid terms. Hes going to turn it down. Rose turn it down. Turn it down. Rose s that because they didnt want to support it. He told john brass owe in wyoming that he was going to make a decision before the end of the year. Look a strategy to counter putin and that will be the end of the putin and the russian empire. Thats all we can can do. Its not world war three. Rose do what we did with respect to iran. The economic muscle. And it becomes the principal thing. Not only do you spot sanctions against russia but provide the energy that these countries are worried about because theyre not going to be able to get it from russia. I really believe that right now, im probably being repetitious. Im seeing putin sated in moscow in the kremlin and i see what the response would be so far. You cant help but be encourage. Rose let me take you down the road. If that doesnt work, as putin says at this table look the russians are top, they say look we survived leningrad. So dont think you can freeze us to death. Dont think you can starve us to death. You cant. Weve been there before. We tried to do that. Rose but at the time me where you go if sanctions dont work. I mean at what point. Depends on what he does. If he moves forward into say the baltics which are nato. Rose the issue here is ukraine. Yes. Ukraine. I would be making sure they got into the eu and negotiate the imf loan, provide them with defensive weapons. I would stand up for him. I cant tell you charlie, most americans dont understand how much it means to these people when we speak up for him. I once in burma had three guys, two of them 22 years in prison, some 18 years in prison and they came out and said knowing senator mccain you spoke up for us while we were in promise i been. They spent 22 years in prison. It meant a lot to them. Right now Vladimir Putin and the russians, this is very important charlie. Right now they have a total corner on the market in propaganda into Eastern Ukraine and other parts of the ukraine. And they are literally removing any television stations that might have a different viewpoint. Its a wash with russian propaganda. Weve got to get into the business of Radio Free Europe and use the new technologies that we have, twitter, facebook, all of these. Right now putin is doing a good job of Brain Washing these people in Eastern Ukraine. Rose this is what Michael Gordon rote. The abilities of the Russian Military has displayed are not only important to the high stake drama in ukraine they also have huge implications for the security of mold va, good, Central Asian nations and the Central Europe information nation that are members of nato. Hes one of the highly respect writers as you know even if its the New York Times. A joke, a joke. Its true. It is very true when hes saying that they will go as far as this, that they get a free ride. Rose heres the other argument and this was again from your favorite newspaper the new the New York Times. The tiger of quasi religious nationalism which putin has been riding may now take control. That would make it very hard for putin to stop this conflict where rational calculus would tell him to stop. Thats right. And i think its dangerous but again im sure this is the fifth time ive said it. He is calculating the cost benefit. He goes into moldova and nothing happens to him and takes away where theyve got 1400 Russian Troops just move into moldova and hes scott free. Then hes going to be encouraged particularly in the baltics. They really have two areas that the russians feel so strongly about. One is the baltics and the other is ukraine. They are going to do, if they can get away with it, whats necessary. Rose peter baker again from the New York Times said while mr. Putin seems to now be enjoying the globe of success he will discover how much economic harm hes brought on his country which obamas aides noted the fall of the capital flight of the country and reelectance of Foreign Investors to expand deals. Thats what the whitehouse is saying. Thats foolish. Yes, the economy is hurting somewhat. Put instance popularity has sky rocketed. Rose the way he did in the crimea. Sure. To say listen dont worry let this guy dismember nations because over time, hes going to fail. When kind of logic is that. Rose let me turn to another area. This is where its related to this because its a sense of how you see the president. Syria. More and more people say what you tried to argue. More and more people tell me that they really missed an opportunity several years ago which you believe and you argued for. Where is syria today in your judgment, giving you credit for basically saying we would not be here if we had done more to arm the rebels at a time when we could. It isnt there anymore. This is a perfect example of the presidency he doesnt want to give them the weapons they needed. They were winning until 5,000 hezbollah all of that was as plain as the nose on your face was going to happen and we watched this thing turn into a regional conflict. Extremist groups in syria and iraq. Have you looked at iraq lately, its in chaos. We are now inform providing some more weapons in the Free Syrian Army but im telling you these barrel bombs are horrible. Big canisters with all kinds of shrapnel and just kipping people. Rose the report of the use of chemical weapons. Yes. Would it surprise you if he was using chlorine gas which is not technically part of the agreement. I believe that history will show that the president s decision on syria not to strike was a moment that were liberated throughout the world. Thats why i can tell you i have talked to many foreign leaders who will say that was really a similar moment and they cant totally rely on this. Rose thats the point. You draw a red line or somebody cross a red line then your credibility and clearly the saudis and others made it clear. To make the decision he made and then go over to talk to king abdul, what are you going to i is a. Im sorry king i know you were ready to strike but we didnt even tell you. I mean, its sad. Rose so what is point of this in your harsh judgment of the president. I believe that the president does not believe that america is an exceptional nation. If america doesnt lead, other people do lead and it doesnt mean boots on the ground. It doesnt mean theres a whole gamut, the most powerful richest nation in the world can carry out a lot of measures to assert our leadership in the world. And we can do that. And i am convinced that we can but people like Vladimir Putin. By the way he sanctioned me, you know that. Rose i know. When we sanctioned some his friends hion sanctioned. Yes my spring break in syria was can dulled. By the way that shows how out of touch they are. Didnt Vladimir Putin understand that was the best thing that could ever happen to me, you know. So we have to lead. And again it means alliances. It means exercises, it means bolstering anyway foe, it mens whats china is doing in the east china sea. Rose the president s over there now. I think youre going to have to make it very clear to china that the fundamental principle of World Affairs is freedom of navigation of other worlds oceans. We cannot let them take it over. Rose the question always has to be is what are you prepared to do when the rubber meets the ground. I agree. What it also means is that if you are prepared, then they calculate this probably isnt worth it. I mean, the philippines right now, they have one coast guard boat. Thats all. So they cant challenge china but more interestingly is the japanese now because of their lack of confidence in us interpreting their constitution in a much more broad fashion. Rose become more and a lot of other things looking at whether they should have a stronger military. If they want a nuclear bomb as you know. Charlie, you ask very good questions and very challenging ones. Theres no good options, okay. Theres no good options. What options do we have that are least bad and can actually change the worlds environment today. And thats what we have to realize. In syria today, tell me a good option in syria. Rose what would you do in syria. Give them arms and weapons and train them. If syria continues in the way its going youve got a regional conflict. There are a million refugees in lebanon. Youve been to lebanon, ive been there. Its a small country. A million refugees. Rose what they have a jordan. Roughly that amount. Rose they can do nothing but destabilize. Exactly. So we have to be strong, we have to shore up our alliances. We have to take steps that convince the bad people in this world. And theres more than one that we will be prepared to work with our allies to make sure theres a very heavy price if they do things which are gross violation of international norms. By taking crimea, you know. There was a budapest agreement that russia recognized the fact that crimea was part of ukraine. So its a blatant violation. Rose with khrushchev. Yes. Rose youre good friends with henry kissinger. He had a very Interesting Program here and talked about russia and knows too well. And i believe hes had conversations with putin since this crises began. Hes your friend. Henry, yes. Ive never known a man of an intellect like henry kissinger. Rose fair enough. What does he say. He seems to recognize russia has some historic connection with ukraine. As much as i admire henry, you can go back in a history of every one of those countries. They were under moldova was under five different empires. Austria, ottoman. The back and forth there, they have a claim, the mexicans have a claim to texas. I mean, come on, really when you think about it. So its not rose tell about succeeding from the United States. If we get in the business of saying because theres a Large Russian speaking rose im asking you about one of the intellects. I read henrys piece. Rose he came and told me what was going to be in the piece. Somehow ukraine exob saying to the russians look we recognize you have an interest here, you know and that people speak russian in certain parts of ukraine. But ukraine has to have certain kinds of neutrality and can be a bridge between the west and the east. Cant they decide what they want themselves. And what about estonia which has 40 russian speaking citizens. Dont russians have a claim to that . Theyve got to go in and protect. I went back and looked at adolph hitlers speak rose secretary clinton spoke to this idea and had to clarify what she meant which was not so much comparing him to hitler but saying that people i know youre comparing. Im comparing them to hitler. These are most Interesting Times charlie and i do want to work with the president. My friend, when you go to a refugee cam in jordan and see these thousands of children running around and the woman who is with me says do you see these children here, theyre going to take revenge on those people they think refuse to help them. Look, repercussions in this is going to go on for decades. Rose last thing. Your friend john kerry. It looks like all the effort he put into trying to make some deals in the middle east is not going to work especially with israel and palestinians. Nor is the socalled geneva conference which was crazy or ludicrous, one of the two. Because assad winning is not going to negotiate his departial from power in syria. Rose so john shouldnt have done this. I think he should have gone to geneva knowing full well of course it was a fools around. Bashar assad is winning and hes saying hes going to leave the kind, hes not. Rose hes already announced hes going to run for reelection. Sure, absolutely, absolutely. And so that and the israeli palestinian. And i hate to tell you this but i am not optimistic about the iron negotiations. In fact im very pessimistic. Rose why. Because i dont think the iranians are willing to give up the right to enrich and they have continued to have the centrifuges spin. And they i think one of their strategies may be just get right next to the nuclear weapon, get right next to it so that a matter of a few weeks you can build it. Rose there are some other countries. By the way, these are the same people that are flying in weapons to bashar assad, the same people that sent the Iranian Revolutionary guard into syria. Rose you favor denying their ambassador. Oh, sure thats a no brainer. Rose finally this. A republicans going to win control of the senate in 2014. I dont know. Because you and i in 2010 were having a little chat and i said were going to take the senate. So it depends on i think candidates matter and campaigns matter. Rose thank you for can coming, pleasure to see you. Thanks charlie. Rose john mccain from arizona. Back in a moment, stay with us. Rose ken lerer and his son ben is here. Ken is cofounder and former chairman of the Huffington Post and ben is cofounder and they started lerer vches. The strategy was simple, use bens connection in the start up world to fund the best ideas using kens connections in the finance world. As new York Magazine said ben knew the people who had the ideas and ken knew the people who had the money. The funded many companies. Im please to do have both of them at this table for the first time and i tell you i insisted they both come together with some reluctance father was finally coerced into coming. Thats a fair appraisal of what happened. Very fair. Well, what you do for your children. Rose exactly. Ken and i also are part of a group that meets and has some really wonderful people and we see each other that way as well. I just want to tell people this story because its one of the dumbest things that i have done recently in my life. One day you and i were walking in to lunch and you had just invested a lot of money in facebook. And i remember it was 16 a share. 19. Rose 19, okay. And i thought damn i should go and do exactly what he has done. What is it now . It went down the last couple weeks. It got to 70 and i think its at 60 now. I cant remember whose idea that was. Rose was it your idea. Im trying to remember. Ill give it to him. Rose all right. So growing up tell me what it was like growing up with this guy as your father. Well, terrible. We always, i think only in the last few years have i really been able to sort of appreciate how lucky i was. There was a lot i got to soak up just being sort of around the dinner table. That ultimately has really driven the way i think about business which is that forever now that i work with him, the question that he asks me about business are actually not business related. They are about, they are what makes me happy. Hes really focused on sort of me enjoying life and not the business questions that i think it really helps sort of shape the way i think about going to work and ultimately drives me to maker sure that im making the right decisions for my family and not for the company. Rose did you want to be a venture capitalists because he was. I dont necessarily want to be a venture capitalist at all. Rose what do you want to be. I like building my company more than i like investing. I think investing, i like doing it because i get to work with him and the team lv and it kees me seeing things when you start a company and building a business you think are the center of the universe and your company is the center of the universe and getting to invest gives me access to all these amazing people where i get to step outside of the vacuum of realists and see all these other businesses that ultimately make me smart. Rose what is it. Were a media focused business. Our belief is today digital provides an amazing opportunity to, if you think about print or you think about radio, if you think about television or you think about outdoor traditional media businesses, the transaction doesnt happen in those mediums and digitals the first place where content is consumed the same place someone can pull out their credit card and make a purchase. Our belief is media and commerce are going to come together in a very very real way. And so weve built a series of media businesses and media brands that help guys figure out how they spend their time and money in categories they care about. And ultimately the model is to not just provide content but also to figure out what products these guys might buy and actually fulfill that transaction. Rose this has got to be fun for you. Its great fun. Rose you have your son there and able to see him and talk about business. And my daughters in business too. Well heres the thing, okay. Hes smarter than me, seriously. And my daughter who just joined the firm is smarter than me. But i have more experience than them. And ive learned that sometimes experience trumps brains. And so im able to look at an issue and go back in the files in my brain and ive seen a lot for better or worse and im able to say heres whats going to happen. And thats kind of what i bring to the table. But i cant keep up with him in a deep, in a big dive on a business issue about his company or about a lot of the companies that we back. And his jobs. Rose whats your core competence . Well, i think, im not sure i have one but im pretty good at looking at a complicated set of issues and pouring it into a funnel and im pretty good at coming out with the nugget. Thats what ive always done and im pretty good at that. I have no idea why. Rose the nugget is the essence of. And how to mobilize the idea. The nugget is heres the bottom line. Heres what its all about. And here is how, and heres what we should do. Rose and take me then to Huffington Post. Huffington post, the other thing i might add is im, i like to invest and work on things that are optimists, things that i can understand. Rose characteristic of warren buffett. Well, hes a good model. Kerry campaign the drudge report is killing kerry about the vietnam war. And i watched it with great pain. And said to myself why does the drudge report the only guy around. This makes no since. I learned a long time ago if one person can io this, two people can do it. And that was the essence of the Huffington Post. Rose i heard Mike Bloomberg say that too. So it was very very simple. Rose if there is a drudgable effect you can do something else. Thats exactly why we started the Huffington Post to be a counter to drudge. Period the end. And then it grew. Rose i know drudge as well. Weve been visited by cbs this morning, come by with the word going public. Not going public in terms of an ipo but going public in terms of what were doing here. What all of us marvel. He captures at the moment people who read his blog ill tell you about that. They teach you at Journalism School a triangle and they teach you what the subject is up at the top. The key was drudge and at the beginning the key at Huffington Post was i would go to the 13th paragraph of the New York Times story and i would 2350eu7bd the headline in the 13th paragraph and put it on top. Thats not what they teach you at columbia Journalism School but it made for great digit al content nine years ago. Rose how did you know how to do that . I guess based on what i was doing previously in my life. I had a fact for it so thats what i did at the Huffington Post op until obama won and then i pulled back. Rose buzz feed. That grew out of the Huffington Post one of my partners, a very smart guy. Not having a great time being a little bored wanting to try a whole bunch of tech projects. And we didnt want him to leave so i said to him heres an idea. Start your own company and well back you and thats what he did. And buzz feed is now a great big company. Rose great big company. Bigger than Huffington Post. Rose wow. Yes. Yes. Rose way bigger. Yes. Rose and so you came out. And did you want to start a business because, i mean you lived in a business environment, its what was talked about, politics, politics, technology, business, media, right. Yes. Not so Much Technology growing up. I think you know, honestly i didnt think a whole lot about what i wanted to do. And i went and worked at a Boutique Hotel company for two years out of college. We had the idea for thrillus because i wished there was a better city guide for me. My mother and me read the same city god and didnt think it made a lot of sense. Wanted to build it for myself. I guess when i sort of went to my dad and my mom hey i have this idea, they were as supportive as could be and said do it. Like why not. Rose an interesting thing too, i dont know if you saw it the other day they ran a Media Company where the son and daughter, the son of murdock, the son of ralph roberts, the son of dolan, all. Right. Theres something b i actually talked about david carr about that piece. Theres something about Media Companies where it can be quite personal. And i can understand how the family would want to continue in that company, i get that. Rose grahams as well. Yes. Because it is personal, it is a point of view. I get that. Rose and then at the same time in some cases i mean Bryan Roberts started laying cable line. Right. Rose his father don graham started the same thing. Yes. Rose captain graham continued after him. I mean its an interesting thing. And i remember my father was a merchant and he would like Nothing Better than if i had said im coming back and work in the company business. Theres no way for me because i was in love with media. I have a ball working with benjamin and izzy, i really do. Rose and have both of them there. Its fun, it really is. Rose tell me how you guys see the future. Here we are with so much going on. We know, and i just talked to larry page at ted conference as you know. Just to talk to him you get excited about whats happening. In terms of where all the things that google is doing, same thing if you talk to facebook, same thing if you talk to amazon who i recently did a 60 minute piece on. These people are doing interesting things. These are big companies. You look at instagram and you look at so many Different Companies its the most exciting time for entrepreneurship. Its extraordinary. And my day is spent working with everybody under 30. With entrepreneurs who come in and say i have a great idea, they do or they dont to take the meeting and its enormous fun to give them some money where they can go pursue their idea. Rose you are right what percentage of the time . Whats right mean . Rose well right means that it is a Sustainable Business model that will make money. Within the fund, were doing quite well. We see, we probably invest in one in, what, 25 companies, one in 50 companies that we see. So were very select but so far so good. Rose the common denominator of all of them is what. The people. The people. Rose what do you know. You sit across the table from somebody. Rose and you know. You know. We sit across the table from so many people again and again that over time hopefully you get a sort of better gut for knowing the persons going to figure it out. Theres a lot of Business Ideas that people come and pitch are not great, are not perfect or maybe the market isnt something were in love with. Rose more than your money they need business. So you shake hands with the person, you look the person in the eye. You take a measurement of the person. You say this person, do i want to be partners with this person. And then if you get past that, you say can this person give it. Because ive never seen an idea that starts out at x and ends in x. It always ends at some other letter in the alphabet. And thats the real key. Can the person pivot when they come up against a brick wall. Rose has the Huffington Post changed. Its changed a lot. Rose how has it change from the vision you had . Well, i had a very small vision to produce an alternative to drudge. We then instituted verticals which is a very good move and we did sports and whatever else. And then it was time to sell and it was a good sell and it was the right time. Ive not been in touch with it at all but its gotten very big and sometimes big doesnt allow you to be as focused as you can when youre small. So i think its rose also global. And its globalment and they have a lot of verticals. And its still a great property but for me it doesnt have the passion that it once had thing i was doing politics there. But its s incredibly successful. Shes done a great job. Rose why did you pick her. Maybe we picked each other. She invited me at a gathering at her house which was very out of character for me to say yes. Kind of like coming here. But i did it. Rose you did it for your son. Thats right. I did it for my son. Rose thank you. I saw her moving and doing what she does and i said to myself shes drudge. Rose yes, shes drudge. It was like that. Rose see those are insights that you dont know. You cant teach that. Itsicurt of what your Life Experience has been. Bill murray said an amazing thing to me during a conversation which got a thousand comments about. Basically he said you just have to be alive and alert, alive and alert. Thats how you to live your life. Why i started to have a part, i was talking to norman lear. Hes a buddy. He says this is what you do. You set up an office. You dont disappear youre going to talk to people. Ideas will come across your desk. Grab one that you love and do it. Rose and that was it. That was it. About you it was great advice, great advice. Rose whats influencing for both of you. Ill start with you ben. In terms of whats out there changing the world. Obviously mobile is changing the world more than anything i assume and the cloud is changing. Those two things dont you think. Well yes, i think for what we see mobile, just the way all of us, how it changed all of our lives. Its unbelievable. Mobile is probably the biggest trend that we continue to invest into and the thing that we see, the best idea coming in around. Everything has to be noble first its not really the Second Screen anyone. Its why everythings happening. Rose what would you say . I would say that were in a time just like 1981 to 1984. Benjamin will remember that time because i think he was born in 1981. All right. So cable industry. Distribution is done. Pendulum swings back to content. All the Cable Networks were founded between those years all started by entrepreneurs and sold to big Media Companies. Right there with digital. All the distribution is done. Its all done. All of the social feeds are built out. Content now is extremely interesting. Now it has to be mobile first but its content content content right now. And its very exciting. I love content and thats a great place to invest. Rose just the content. The architectures all there. It really sets at the core of this. Facebook is the most Interesting Company in the world right now i think. I do. Rose i think googles the most interesting. Google may be the most interesting but tides are moving for facebook. Its become a mar more Effective Marketing than google. Rose because they learned how to advertise on mobile. I agree both of you. I think google is the most Interesting Company facebook is synonymous for the internet for generations coming online. Rose this is interesting im much older than both of you. It is the idea that a lot of people it is said young people are looking elsewhere other than facebook. They are. And snapchats an Interesting Company and there are a lot of Interesting Companies but for the moment facebook is it. That doesnt mean in four years from now theyre going to be it but right now they are. Rose billion, whatever the number is, three. And the fact they own other Interesting Companies. They really just i think sit at the sort of the center of human communication. Rose what do you think of the internet of everything . This whole idea of nest google bought nest. Yes did. We blend in. We have half a dozen investments. Were little guys. We have half a dozen investments in the internet of things and theyre all doing quite well. And it too sorry to be repetitive. Its obvious. Its inevitable. I work with Michael Milken a long time ago and he taught me one great thing. He didnt teach me by talking to me. I learned it by watching him. He looked at big trends and he invested in trends and he invested in the obvious. And that really has stuck with me. It makes an enormous amount of sense. Rose so the obvious here was first the internet per se. Then it was search and then it was social media and then it was apps. Mobile. Rose mobile, right. And then the cloud came so you could do all kinds of things. When you look back on it, youre going to go all right, thats pretty obvious, whats the big deal. Rose so you bought jack threads. Com. Bass that. Jack threads when we bought it was a small mens Retailer Online clothing accessories. The reason we thought it was interesting for us, i discovered them because they were an advertising. They were advertising because we covered them editorially and the guise they required through the coverage was big buyers, big spenders, big forwarders. Exactly the core they were going for and it made a lot of sense because our users were lien forward, we were Getting Service content figuring out how to spend their time and money and jack threads was the supply to demand we were creating and ultimately i think we were naive and said we cant get into commerce and bought chapters and theyre a very low company and we can make a buyer into a reader or reader into a buyer just by guise. Rose what do you think of twitter. Twitters going through a hard time right now at least in the market and they have a long way to go to, they is have a long way to do. The lock up is up in about three weeks so the stocks going to be a rollercoaster and well know better in the next year how the guys who are running it do. I think its a spectacular service whether its going to be a massive service, i dont know yet. Rose i think you would be just enchanted by the political imfact. Im enchanted by the political impact that doesnt mean rose youll invest in that. Yes. Rose but youre enchanted by the political impact. And the impact it has in politics and government and theyve adopted it and people talk through it paul the time. Im amazed, amazed. But they need to break out of that to people beyond that to be massive company. I think they probably will but its not clear to me how at this point. Rose thank you, ben, nice to see you. Thank you ken, a pleasure. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org this is nightly Business Report with Tyler Mathisen and susie gharib. Brought to you in part by. Thestreet. Com featuring stephanie link who shares her links and actions plus. You can learn more at thestreet. Com nbr. Pharma frenzy, more than 60 billion worth of deals, what is driving them and is the industry entering a new era . Changing the channel, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that could shake up the Television Business and change the way people watch and pay for their favorite shows. Where is the beef . Mcdonalds reports another disappointing quarter. What is