Office Hours: Volvo’s Subscription Model, The Debit Generation, Exploring Job Options, and Pre-Seed Investing

Scott answers a question about Volvo’s subscription service and offers a prediction for where the auto industry is headed. He then explains how ‘buy now, pay later' services deceive customers into debt, and gives advice for how to approach leaving your company. Scott also discusses the factors to consider when investing in pre-seed companies, and how to make smart money decisions with your partner. Music: https://www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Northwest Registered Agent. Your business identity is everything that makes your business legitimate and professional. With Northwest Registered Agent, you don't just form a business, you start a complete foundation built for privacy, credibility, and growth. That includes registered agent service, a business address, operating agreement, domain, website, professional email, phone number, and built-in privacy. In other words, your home address, personal email, and phone number stay private. Don't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for what you can get from Northwest for free. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/profgfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/profgfree.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser-Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 1:27Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to the Prof G Pod's Office Hours. This is a part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please visit officehours.profgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours.profgmedia.com. First question, and again, I do not see these questions before I hear them.

• 1:47Speaker 02

  Hey, Prof G, Richie here from Miami. Just wrapped up my second sprint with you in Section 4, this one on strategy. And on Tuesday, we were talking a little bit about rundles and the car market. Why do you think Volvo is the only major car company to continue to offer a recurring bundle for their vehicles where you can turn in your Volvo SUV every year and get a new one? It looked like Lincoln was starting to get into this space during the beginning of the pandemic with their hands-free delivery of vehicles. But why do you think more companies haven't gotten on board with this? Interested in hearing your thoughts.

• 2:32Scott Galloway?

  Thanks for the question, Richie. I love this stuff. So Volvo's subscription service is branded as Care by Volvo, starts at about a thousand bucks a month and includes maintenance, protection for tires, wheels, excessive wear and insurance coverage. The subscription offers a single vehicle model rather than a range of models such as some failed attempts at other car subscriptions. BMW, Audi, Ford, Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz all shuttered their subscription offerings and they all had one thing in common, the ability to swap vehicles on a regular basis at a pricey rate. So, okay, your question, why hasn't, why is Volvo kind of the only one here or why aren't more doing this? I think it's the classic innovator's dilemma and I haven't thought a lot about this, but

• 3:16Scott Galloway?

  usually my best thinking comes from when I don't think a lot about stuff. So the thing here, the innovator's dilemma is that you start protecting your legacy assets, you start looking at your existing business and thinking, we've made this huge investment and we need to monetize this investment and you run all strategic decisions and tactics through your legacy assets. So for example, banks. Banks have something like 50,000 branches across the US and about half of them have been closed. You need about $50 million in assets to support a bank branch, a real estate-based item, obviously. And so they haven't gone after young people because they're not interested in a student with $2,000. And even though it would be a forward-leaning, probably good investment, they can't build

• 3:57Scott Galloway?

  or support a branch on 25,000 consumers with $2,000 in assets. And so what's resulted in is that they've become vulnerable or their soft tissue or their rear flank has been attacked by these digital banks who come in without the legacy liability of a branch network that perverts their thinking and creates costs where they don't need it. And these companies are eating traditional banks' lunch, are a real existential threat now. The same thing, I think, is true. In this instance, and that is the automobile industry has this legacy liability called dealerships. You have these dealerships, auto dealerships around the nation that are privately owned. They have very tight legal relationships. So they dictate that Toyota cannot sell cars direct to consumer.

• 4:42Scott Galloway?

  They're contractually obligated, the way they price and sell their cars through the dealer network. So as a result, it is very difficult. The dealer network doesn't want to put up with a subscription service. Dealer networks now make most of their money, and I didn't know this, but until the chip shortage, where they got some pricing power with all the supply chain stoppage that's happened, they made the majority of their money on servicing the car as opposed to selling it. So does a subscription service work for a dealership company? It probably just increases their cost of goods sold. There's a headache for them. Managing the inventory is incredibly difficult. But I would bet that the legacy liability of dealerships, which makes this not a profitable model, and the dealership doesn't want to put up with a headache of having me call and say,

• 5:26Scott Galloway?

  you know, I'd like a seven series this month. This is absolutely where the world is headed. And this is what Tesla should be doing because they don't have those legacy liabilities. And they could come up with a more robust, flexible supply chain where they communicate directly with their consumers and say, okay, every six months you get a new Tesla. And if you want any Tesla, it costs X. If you want Teslas below this dollar amount, it costs 0.7X, whatever it might be. But I think that's where we're headed, where a guy like me knows the brand he wants, knows the type of car he wants, but would like to swap in and out more seamlessly and occasionally go down to a sedan just for shits and giggles. That is absolutely where it's headed. Good for Volvo. If they can show any growth in that program, or they can show it's growing in the faster core business, the public markets will recast their company as an innovator

• 6:09Scott Galloway?

  and potentially moving to more predictable subscription revenue and will give their IPO or their multiple on EBITDA a couple extra turns, which more than pays for Peter and his efforts. In sum, this is the way to go. Thank you for the question, Richie, from Miami. Next question.

• 6:24Speaker 03

  Hi, Prof G. This is Ryan from Brooklyn. I've heard you speak favorably about some of the buy now, pay later options growing in popularity at both online and in-person retail stores. As a member of the demographic that is swamped with student debt and for some loads of other types of debt, I want to know what I'm missing with these types of products that at face value seem to be taking advantage of people who already struggle with personal finance.

• 6:51Scott Galloway?

  Ryan from Brooklyn, my brother, so you got where I got sooner. And that is, I was very taken with the CEO of Afterpay. He's this Aussie kid, super smart billionaire now, they only did one round. I kind of want to be him. He's living in LA, had him on the pod, and this whole notion of the debit generation versus the credit generation, I bought into it. I think it's bullshit. I'm with you. The more I've learned about it, it's just credit under a different name. Now, they do transfer the interest cost to the retailer because Urban Outfitters likes offering people credit at the moment on the spot because then they go back and they buy more. So they're willing to pay the fee to Afterpay or Klarna or for any buy now, pay later.

• 7:36Scott Galloway?

  It's a good deal for the retailer because these young people immediately feel more confident and increase their spending. But brother, I am with you. This is just debt. There's just no, you know, it's different lipstick, but it's the same pig. You got to pay this money back. And by the way, if you don't pay the money back, the late fees can be much more expensive than interest rate on credit cards. And it creates, I wonder if it creates, it's granting credit to a generation that otherwise didn't access, didn't have credit at that moment. But there's no free lunch. And you're right, debt is debt. We can call it the debit generation, but it's still debt. Buy now, pay later accounts for 3% of e-commerce transactions in the US, 7% in Europe, and 10% in Australia.

• 8:18Scott Galloway?

  One in five Americans have used a buy now, pay later service in the past year, and global BNPL spend is projected to double to 680 billion in 2025. A 2017 survey of 18 to 34-year-olds found that one in every three millennials' biggest fear is credit card debt. Meanwhile, only one in five top fear is death and even fewer cited war. So it sucked to be killed on the battlefield, but as long as my credit cards are paid off. Which makes no sense. I think, to their credit, I think this is kind of genius marketing, and that is they've changed the nomenclature. They call it the debit generation, not the credit generation. I mean, there's definitely some gymnastics here and some kind of genius jujitsu moves here. I do think this is, there's definitely a genius here,

• 9:03Scott Galloway?

  but this whole notion that it's a new, more responsible means of spending money, come on, come on. Consumers using Afterpay are paying a 25% interest rate on a six-week loan. By comparison, the average annual interest rate on a credit card today is roughly 16%. The debit generation, quite frankly, needs a class in math. A recent study found that a third of US buy-now-pay-later users have fallen behind on one or more payments, and 72% of them said their credit score declined. In sum, Ryan from Brooklyn, you're more thoughtful and you're more insightful than I am or was. I think I fell into the trap of thinking this was different. It's not. It's not. Different nomenclature, different marketing, different

• 9:44Scott Galloway?

  presentation, no payment terms. But let's be clear, this is debt. This is debt. Thanks, Ryan. We have one quick break before our final two questions. Stay with us.

• 9:56Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Superhuman. The pace of modern work can be relentless. You're getting a constant influx of messages from a ton of different apps. You haven't closed all your browser tabs in a year. Everything seems urgent, and staying on top of it all feels like an impossible task. Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing, and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Superhuman Go, from the makers of Grammarly, help you be the best version of yourself at work. It handles the repetitive stuff so you can focus on the work that only you can do. Whether you need to summarize an endless email thread or prep for a meeting that's happening in five minutes, Superhuman Go works inside the tools and sites you already use, your browser, inbox, docs, and your project tools. And its AI chat is available

• 10:39Scott Galloway?

  on the side of your browser, and it's always ready. No new tabs, no switching apps, no losing your place. This is AI that works with you, not on top of you, so that you have the time and brain space to solve the problems that matter. Check it out. Find out more at superhuman.com.

• 10:59Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Vanta. As AI adoption grows, so does your company's security risks and requirements. New frameworks, audits, and vendors keep piling on, but your team isn't getting any bigger. Most compliance tools promise automation, but you're really stuck doing all the work by hand, chasing screenshots, validating controls, and playing catch-up when audit season comes around again. Vanta works differently. The Regentic Trust platform is built to scale with you, not slow you down. With over 1,400 automated tests across 400-plus integrations, Vanta collects evidence and monitors your controls year-round, cutting your audit prep by 82%. Plus, you can access the Vanta agent everywhere you work, whether your team is in Vanta every day or living in tools including Claude or Cursor. Want proof?

• 11:43Scott Galloway?

  Over 16,000 fast-growing companies like Ramp, Ryder, and Harvey save time and resources while scaling fast with Vanta. Learn more at vanta.com/profg and get $1,000 off. That's spelled V-A-N-T-A dot com slash profg for $1,000 off.

• 12:06Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back. Question number three.

• 12:09Speaker 04

  Hey ProfG, this is Chuck from Rochester, New York. I've worked in big-four cyber consulting since graduating undergrad four years ago. Consulting has always been known for having high turnover, but turnover is especially high right now across all knowledge workers in the midst of the great resignation. I'm relatively satisfied in my current position, but as the rest of my colleagues quit, it feels like I might be missing out on the opportunity to secure a bigger comp package just by switching companies. You've talked a lot recently about the benefits of low- and middle-class workers finally having some decent leverage over the shareholder class. However, with the rest of my colleagues quitting, I can't help but think that there might be value in continuing to climb the ladder in consulting. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on if it's worth leaving consulting, or any knowledge position for that matter, to switch companies and take advantage of the increased salary employers are willing to pay workers just to get them in the door. Should knowledge workers take the bag and quit?

• 12:54Speaker 04

  Or is there any value to sticking it out and being viewed as a loyalty player who's stuck through this period of high attrition? Thanks for taking my question. I hope you continue your office hours even when you're palling around with Anderson Cooper on your new CNN show. Anyways, thanks a lot.

• 13:06Scott Galloway?

  I'm glad you brought up my friendship with Anderson Cooper. By the way, I just met Don Lemon for the first time. I went into this, I don't think I'm speaking out of school. Am I speaking out of school? I'm famous for that. Anyways, I get the sense we're gonna be friends. Not as close as Anderson and me. Not as close, but that's special. That's unique. You know, occasionally, like Anderson and I will say, should we bring in Don? Should we invite Don out? Should we invite Don out for Mexican? You know, like Anderson and I do every Tuesday night? None of that is true. None of that's true. But if we did, we'd say, let's bring Don out. Let's bring DL. We'd have a funny name for him. Let's bring in Del Lemon. Let's, a little Lemon with our Mexican, right? Anyways, it could happen. It could happen. Anyways, 4.3 million people quit their jobs in the US in August. The great resignation, according to the Labor Department.

• 13:50Scott Galloway?

  That's nearly 3% of the workforce and the greatest number on record dating back to 2000. More people resigned in the last month than in the last 20 years. At the same time, businesses had 10.4 million job openings in the country in August, down from a record high of more than 11 million in the previous month. Okay, so back to your question. Should you jump ship or switch ships in the world of consulting? First off, it's good to be you. You're an information age worker. How are you doing at your current job? Do you have senior level sponsorship? Do you like what you're doing? Are you learning? Do you feel appreciated? You know, do you have people actively championing your career progression? And usually that means you have a relationship that's not just professional, but someone genuinely feels emotionally invested in your progress. Do you like the people you work with?

• 14:34Scott Galloway?

  Is it a good platform? You know, are you growing your salary fast? Kind of add up all those things. Now, having said that, I don't think it's a bad idea to kind of every two or three years, maybe every three to five years, if you just love what you're doing, to test the waters. And that is, if you get a call or you know someone who's at a company that trinched it in, you know, most people think they're so awesome that their, the phone's just gonna get, you know, ring off the hook. And if someone does say, hey, I'm working over here, would you like to come interview? Do it every once in a while and just see what's out there. Price yourself at Stern, at NYU Stern. And this is like not a perfect analogy. When I started teaching there, I had sort of a revelation or midlife crisis or early

• 15:17Scott Galloway?

  midlife crisis around 2000 and decided I wanted to change my life dramatically. And left all my boards in San Francisco, got divorced, moved to New York, had nothing to do, and decided I wanted to teach. My first year at NYU Stern, I made $12,000 as an adjunct professor. And slowly but surely, over the course of the next, I don't know, six or eight years, I got up to about 200K plus, plus good benefits and all kinds of goodies. And the reason I got there was, one, I'm a fairly competent teacher and I could put a lot of butts in seats. School is a business, they gotta pay their bills, and if you draw a lot of demand and create a lot of gross margin dollars for them, you have leverage. And two, what I did, on sort of, I call it every five to seven years, not every two

• 16:01Scott Galloway?

  to three years, I would get an offer from a competing university. And this is what you do if, in fact, you get an offer or you're talking to other people. Be transparent and don't be a jerk. Go in and say, "I have an offer from X. You know, I wanted you to know," or "I'm interviewing at Y, I'm just checking it out, and I wanted you to know." And that can backfire. That can say, "Well, that's great, we've been meaning to speak to you, we think it's time for you to move on." That can happen. But oftentimes, what they do is they say, "Well, why are you going there?" And you say, "Well, I'm gonna make 150,000 instead of 130." And they've been, "Well, boss, you know, we would have no problem paying you 150." Companies, this is true relationships, too.

• 16:46Scott Galloway?

  People don't tend to see your value until there's a credible threat or reality, I don't wanna call it a threat, I'm not suggesting you threaten them, that you might leave. So if you're seriously considering leaving and you have someone there you trust, I would go to that person, if it's your boss, and say, "Look, everyone's leaving for greener pastures, and I'm contemplating interviewing elsewhere because I'd like more money," or, you know, whatever it is. But oftentimes, what I've always said to the people I work with is, "I never wanna be surprised. If you're thinking about leaving, I get it, but tell me why, because it might be things we can fix." Sometimes people come in and say, "Well, I want..." Wanted to manage people. I'm like, boss, I'm happy. Here's eight people, young people who are fucking chocolate mess. Go manage them.

• 17:30Scott Galloway?

  Or I'm interested in working in Europe. And I'm like, well, we have a London office. Why didn't you raise your hand? I would have sent you on the next plane tomorrow night. So it's okay to leave. What you don't want to do is leave for the wrong reasons and leave for somewhere that's kind of the same dog, different fleas. Sometimes the best company to go to is the company you're at. Anyways, Chuck from Rochester. Thanks for the question.

• 17:52Speaker 05

  Next question. Hey, Prof G. What's up, dog? Well, obviously I listen to you a lot and end up somewhat talking like you, less swearing though. I also attended a strategist sprint, which I definitely enjoyed and learned a lot from. So keep up the great work. My question is the following. I'm invested in a company at pre-seed stage. Company is growing and now seeking seed funding for its go-to-market. I'm keen to add more money, but my wife, who happens to be very smart in the financial brain, is mostly against it. Well, her rationale is that this next investment would be too diluted and much less interesting than the initial one. So we'd be better investing in another early-stage company.

• 18:36Speaker 05

  Well, I guess there could be mathematical analysis to it, but I'm keen to get your opinion and see how you'd approach things. About the company, if that's relevant, operating at the intersection of health and tech. It's the first connected at-home dispenser, providing an on-demand personalized blend of supplements in 100% liquid form. So it's pretty much your, you know, supplement Nespresso machine. Anyway, anyway, thanks in advance. And by the way, I reckon you should be able to guess where I'm from. Despite your aging brain and declining accent recognition capabilities. Cheers and thanks a lot.

• 19:15Scott Galloway?

  Okay, Francois, I'm going to guess you're from the French-Albanian border, which does not exist. It sounds to me like you, I'm going to guess you were. Raised in a different place than you were born, I think there's a little bit of a little bit of a little spit of soup, a little bit of sauce, a little bit of salsa and chip and we've mixed, we've double dipped here. What I mean by that is I get the sense you have lived in a few different places and have an accent that is Pan Euro EMEA, so to speak. That's the best I can do. But Francois, I don't know, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say there's something, something French, French Algerian? Shit, I don't know. Anyway, okay, so I like your wife. I like your wife. And the wisdom of crowds and one of the reasons that we aggregate wealth faster in married households or households

• 19:58Scott Galloway?

  where people have partners is that there's a wisdom in crowds and that is group think works. If you have a hundred people and ask them a series of questions and 80% of them guess one way, usually they're right. And I like that you two are talking about these things. The number one source or cause for divorce is not infidelity, it's not a lack of shared values, it's money. And that is you need to be in sync with each other and openly communicate about money. You don't want to take risks that she doesn't know about, that she'll blame you for and vice versa. You need to be both be on sort of a level playing field or transparent with each other about your approach to money and your approach to spending and your approach to investing. My partner would every day

• 20:41Scott Galloway?

  sell everything we have and stick it in Krugerrands and Deutsche Bons and then stick them under fire retardant mattresses. This person is so conservative. I am not. I am very risk aggressive and I think that the combination between the two is a nice blend. Now, your decision around whether to do the kind of the next follow on round, there's a lot of questions here. One, how much money do you have? If it's another, if it's 10% of your free, of your liquid net worth to go into the, to the, to the seed round and it's at a good valuation, then I would say yes. And you have insight into the company, is the company killing it? Then I would say yes. If, if you have 30, 40, 50% of your liquid

• 21:25Scott Galloway?

  net worth in this company, and this is another 10% of your liquid net worth or 20%, I would say no, because one of the keys to building long-term wealth accumulation is diversification. And while there's a lot of well-publicized stories about Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Ballmer having 100% of their wealth in one company. Assume you are not those people and if the company does really well, you're going to do well, even if you don't participate in this round. Also, there's probably a happy medium where you might invest a little bit more. So it comes down to this. I'd say at your age, I'm going to guess you're around 30. You sound young, but you're married, so I'm going to say 30.

• 22:06Scott Galloway?

  You don't want to have more than kind of 20, 30% of your liquid net worth in any one thing, if you can help it. Sometimes you can't help it. When I started my own businesses, I just had no choice, but I ended up with a disproportionate amount of my assets in one company because I was the kind of the only person willing to fund it in the beginning. And then it typically shows some signs of success and you need to or have the opportunity to put more money in and before you know it, like the majority of your eggs are all in one basket. And then you get divorced and the dot com or dot bomb explosion happens and you lose 98% of your net worth. Just saying for a friend. Anyways, red envelope, 2008. That's what happened to the dog. That's what happened to the dog. Fucking scary moment for me. And then my first kid shows up. Oh, that's nice.

• 22:51Scott Galloway?

  I'm failing not only as an entrepreneur, but I'm failing as a father. Good times, good times. Anyways, the good news is I know how to get you rich. The bad news is slowly. Investments like this, investments in your career, investments in publicly traded stocks. But don't go all in on anything. Don't go all in on any one thing. The failure rate or the infant mortality on businesses is still like six out of seven businesses. You never know what's going to happen. And if you're wrong, then call me and kick yourself, but that'll be a good thing. It'll mean you made a lot of money instead of a lot, a lot of money. That's fine. So kind of my gut is I'm kind of with your wife on this. I wouldn't go too, it's easy to fall in love with these things and go a little too deep. Don't go too deep. Don't go too deep into the paint.

• 23:35Scott Galloway?

  Thanks for the question, Francois. That's all for this episode. Again, if you'd like to submit a question, please visit officehours.provgmedia.com.

• 23:50Scott Galloway?

  Our producers are Caroline Chagrin and Drew Burrows. Claire Miller is our assistant producer. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Thursday.

• 24:04Speaker 01

  Afternoon glare totally ruined my watch party for the big game. That's when my buddy recommended Blinds.com.

• 24:11Speaker 06

  With custom window treatments made to fit your style, space, and budget, customers who shop at Blinds.com experience overwhelming satisfaction. Side effects may include a fuller, deeper night's sleep and a sudden urge to host the watch party again. Blinds.com isn't a medication, but it can improve how you feel about your home. Visit Blinds.com to order your free samples today.

• 24:33Speaker 07

  They're running a Cover 2 defense. But you're running to get game day deals on Uber Eats. Keep everyone at tonight's watch party fed with deals from your go-to restaurants. Or stock up with deals on your favorite snacks and groceries. Whatever the occasion, get game day deals on Uber Eats all season long. It's not football without food. Uber Eats, order now. Terms apply. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.