Venture Investors Warm to Public-Safety and Law-Enforcement Tech
Startups are selling software to help solve crimes or free 911 dispatchers from nonemergency calls, among other things. This year they’ve raised $990 million, nearly double 2024’s total.
A crime scene unit in Brooklyn. Venture investors are increasingly backing startups whose software can help in government services, including law enforcement. Photo: Kyle Mazza/Zuma Press
Venture capitalists have made a flurry of bets on public-safety and law-enforcement technology startups this year, the latest sign of a shifting appetite toward companies that rely on government revenue.
Venture firms, including industry leaders Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, have invested in tech ranging from artificial-intelligence voice chatbots that handle nonemergency 911 calls to analytics software that helps detectives solve cold cases. The deals propelled the sector’s overall U.S. funding haul to $990 million this year through July 9, nearly double the amount raised for all of last year, according to data firm Crunchbase.
Venture Capital
Venture Capital news, analysis and insights from WSJ’s global team of reporters and editors.
Investors and entrepreneurs have long viewed plodding government sales cycles as incompatible with the hypergrowth many startups seek. But that’s changing. As AI supercharges the startups’ tech and lowers the cost of developing new products, founders say public-safety agencies are more eager and amenable to doing business with them.
Investors, in turn, are warming to young companies that rely on government sales. The recent success of defense-tech startups—many of them powered by AI—has demonstrated that startups with government-reliant revenue models can make it.
“The ‘Why now’ is AI,” said Nihal Mehta, co-founder and general partner of Eniac Ventures.
Eniac Ventures invested in San Francisco-based Hyper, which launched publicly this month and offers voice AI technology for nonemergency 911 calls. Voice AI has improved to the point where it can be used by police departments, Mehta said, which could save them money and free up human dispatchers to handle more critical calls.
“Historically this sector has had antiquated technology, and police departments were hard to sell into,” said David George, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “That has tipped relatively fast.”
2. A New Addition to Speculative Economy….56% Year Over Year Increase in Retail Investors Trading Futures
Barrons-During the second quarter, CME reported that more than 90,000 retail traders, a 56% year-over-year increase, traded futures for the first time. It was the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. This development suggests CME is creating a new class of customers, an incredible feat for any business but especially for an established exchange. Major bourses tend to rely on market volatility and well-established customers for growth.
Barrons
3. S&P Tech Sector Short-Term Overbought for 56 Trading Days
Bespoke
4. Capex at META Doubles in One-Year
Irrelevant Investor
5. Spotify Increased Free Cash Flow 100X in 2 Years
6. American Fast Food Managers Make More than European Developers
The promise of midday golf games and spending three hours drinking one cup of coffee at a McDonald’s is not enough to keep older Americans retired. As of last year, workers over the age of 75 are the fastest-growing group in the workforce.
Baby boomers (anyone in the 61–79 age range) are either refusing to retire or, increasingly, reentering the workforce. In some cases, they need to, as the cost of living increases and the Social Security eligibility age creeps higher. Additionally, only about 24% of boomers have defined pension benefits, and only half of private sector workers have access to employer 401(k) plans.
But some, especially white-collar workers, are choosing to spend their golden years in an office:
Industries like nuclear energy are desperate for seasoned experts as the country starts to bring plants back online.
Less labor-intensive jobs mean older people can work longer with more flexible schedules. Doing a desk job for extra money might be more attractive if you’re doing it from a nice office with central air.
Older Americans are also becoming entrepreneurs: As of 2023, nearly a third of new founders are 45+, and the percentage of businesses founded by people 55–64 is rising
Looking ahead…nearly 11 million older workers are employed right now, and that number is expected to jump by ~97% in the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.—MM
8. Ozempic and MAHA Hitting Snack Sales
9. American People Trust in Mainstream Media Trust Closing in on Single Digits But Still Above Congress
1. Capital Expenditures on AI Already Passed Peak Telecom Highs.
PROF G MARKETS NEWSLETTER–Big Tech is pouring money into them. Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google combined are on pace to spend roughly $340 billion on capex this year — more than the GDP of Finland.
The AI boom has become an infrastructure boom. Case in point: Capital expenditures on AI data centers are already more than the peak in telecom spending during the dot-com bubble and the buildout of 5G networksas a percentage of GDP.
Dr. Kurt Hong researches how what a person eats affects how they age.
Hong follows the Mediterranean diet, which has been deemed the healthiest eating plan for years.
His top tip is to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and wholegrains but not to overeat.
As an obesity doctor, a nutrition researcher, and a professor of medicine and aging, Kurt Hong has dedicated his life to understanding the link between our diets and longevity and helping patients avoid diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cancer.
But his career isn’t entirely selfless, he told Business Insider.
“I always joke with my wife that I also do this for selfish reasons,” Hong said, “I’m always looking for ways to stay young.”
To the 52-year-old father of three, age is just a number thanks to lifestyle choices we can make.
“Your body may tell you you’re 52 years old, but you can behave or you can feel like a 35-year-old,” he said. “And it can be the other way around as well.”
He added, “A lot of the age-related chronic diseases are directly related to what you eat and your weight.”
Hong’s approach to harnessing our diets to age well is simple and centered on the Mediterranean diet. It consists mainly of fresh produce, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins and has been voted the healthiest way to eat eight years running by the US News and World Report.
Hong, who’s the chief medical officer of Lifeforce, a concierge preventive medicine company, and a professor at the University of Southern California, shared the four simple dietary rules he follows to stay healthy for as long as possible.
Eat your veggies
Hong’s No. 1 piece of advice is simply to eat your fruits and vegetables. He prioritizes getting enough plants, including whole grains, in his diet because they contain fiber.Diets high in fiber are associated with a lower risk of multiple types of cancer, lower cholesterol levels, a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and a healthy gut microbiome — the community of microbes that live in the colon lining and are thought to affect overall health.
“The other part of it is that by getting your fruits and vegetables, you also get a lot of the vitamins,” Hong said.Plenty of evidence suggests that people who eat more plants are likely to be healthier than those who don’t. In a 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, which followed more than 12,000 people for 29 years, those who reported eating about four to five servings of plants a day, and little to no processed or red meat, were 18 to 25% less likely to die prematurelythan those who relied more on meat and other animal products.
Eat a lot of fish
Hong’s main source of animal protein is fish, because it’s rich in vitamins, antioxidants, and protein. “I eat a lot of fish,” he said.Wild-caught salmon, albacore tuna, and halibut are his favorites, and he mostly bakes or poaches them.Fish contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for brain health. A 2024 meta-analysis published in the journal Aging Clinical and Experimental Research found that eating fish was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. The vitamins and minerals in fish, as well as omega-3, are thought to be brain-boosting, the authors said.
“Even if you don’t eat fish daily, try for just two, three times a week,” Hong said.
Don’t overeat
Hong also pays attention to how much he’s eating.
“You can eat all the right things, but if you still carry that extra weight, there’s still a level of systemic inflammation that’s contributing to your risk of chronic disease,” he said. “If your body’s burning 2,000 calories, but you’re eating 6,000 calories of fruits and vegetables, guess what? You’re still going to gain weight.”
Though it’s contested whether a person’s size is an indicator of their health, being overweight or obese is linked to a greater risk of several health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer.To meet his nutritional goals — which are to eat enough protein, plants, and healthy fats, while maintaining a healthy weight — Hong eats higher-calorie foods in moderation.
For example, he may grab three hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, eat the higher-protein whites, and remove the higher-calorie yolks from two.
“It allows me to hit my calorie goals a little bit easier but still allows me to make sure that I get to my protein goal as well,” he said.
“So it’s the right volume and also the right type of food,” Hong said.
Meal prep to avoid ultra-processed foods
Ultra-processed foods are typically packaged and contain ingredients you wouldn’t find in a regular kitchen. They’re generally convenient and cheap, but eating lots of them has been linked to a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, and dying early from any cause.
Hong understands that it’s nearly impossible to eliminate ultra-processed foods entirely because they’re “everywhere.” But to eat fewer UPFs, he meal preps as much as possible.
“I do still have business meetings out where I have to grab dinners and other things. But you do the best you can,” he said.
For people who are time-strapped, he suggested trying out a meal delivery service.
“They’ll ship it to your home, where you have to put everything together within about 20, 30 minutes. That can take away the ultra-processed component,” he said.
Corporate momentum. “Corporate Activities [are] firming up: S&P 500 revenue per employee hits new highs; Capex to sales is rising across sectors and leverage is at its lowest since 2014; Buybacks are up 16%, and dividends up 6% over 12 months; M&A and IPO value up +23% over last 12 months.”
8. Demographics are Destiny—China Closes 20,000 Kindergartens Last Year.
WSJ Kiki Wang, 28, a teacher from Jiangsu, was laid off last month. “It’s not that you are not a good teacher, it’s just we don’t have enough kids,” she recalls her principal telling her. She says she doesn’t know what to do next and is posting on social media for advice. More than 20,000 kindergartens closed last year in China, with nearly 250,000 teachers losing their jobs, government data show. In China, kindergartens are akin to preschools in the U.S., serving children ages 3 to 5.
9. Single Family Homes for Sale in South Above 2008 Levels.
In the South, dominated by Texas and Florida, inventories of new houses for sale spiked to a record of 312,000 in June, up by 6.5% from the already above-Housing-Bust-peak level a year ago, and up by 78% from June 2019.
The Census region accounted for 61% of total US new-home inventory, and also for 61% of total US new-home sales (a map of the four Census regions is below the article at the top of the comments).
Sales dropped by 6% year-over-year to 33,000 new homes, and by 15% from June 2019, despite the massive incentives by homebuilders.
Right or wrong, our economic system invariably creates haves and have-nots.
It’s a feature not a bug.
This feature has always been more prevalent in the stock market than the housing market:
The bottom 90% owns just 12.8% of the stock market1 but 56% of the housing market. The top 1% owns 50% of the stock market and less than 14% of the housing market.
The largest financial asset for the majority of middle-class households is their home.
My worry about the current housing situation is that it’s going to make it much harder for people in the middle class to keep up.
This is already starting to show up in the data.
Baby boomers make up by far the largest share of home purchases and sales:
Older people are responsible for nearly 60% of all housing sales and close to half of all purchases. This makes sense when you consider 40% of all homeowners have no mortgage.
Boomers have tons of equity to play around with, so high prices and mortgage rates don’t matter to them as much as they do to young people.
1. Earnings Misses Getting Hit at Higher Level than Historical
Dave Lutz at Jones Trading
2. NVO Gives Back All Weight Loss Gains Going Back to Late 2022
Google
3. Cash on Sideline vs. Total Market Cap
MMFs vs. SPX. “A lot is made of the ‘cash on the sidelines’ story when observing assets in money market funds; however, as a share of total equity market value, it’s significantly more subdued.”
Daily Chartbook
4. Stablecoins Hit $270B in Circulation
Jack Ablin Cresset-The stablecoin market has already reached $270 billion in circulation, with projections suggesting explosive growth ahead. Standard Chartered forecasts the market will reach $2 trillion within three years, while Citigroup projects $1.6 trillion by 2030. This represents growth of nearly 700% from current levels, driven by regulatory legitimacy and institutional adoption.
Cresset Capital
5. Figma IPO 40x Oversubscribed vs. Circle 20X
Bloomberg
6. Starbucks Yearly Revenue Growth
Macro Trends
7. U.S. Imports from China Have Been Cut in Half
Trade limbo persists
Semafor
An extension of the Washington-Beijing tariff detente remains subject to US President Donald Trump’s approval, one of several deals which are in limbo.Chinese negotiators earlier said the two sides agreed to a 90-day extension of their truce, but Washington said it hadn’t yet “given the sign off.” With a tariff reprieve expiring Friday, details over a US-European Union agreement have also been disputed, tariffs on India remain unclear, and African economies are awaiting news. Their dependence on Trump’s whims means “these deals don’t yet represent a new trade order,” The Wall Street Journal’s chief economics commentator wrote. “They are sort of a way station, more fragile and with less legitimacy than the system they have supplanted.”
8. Venture Needs to Exit Deals for Liquidity Growth
Pitchbook
9. I Would Expect A lot of “Fix Housing” Talk from Politicians Local, State, and Federal
Republicans and Democrats are joining forces to fix America’s housing affordability crisis. Here’s what’s in their plan. A bipartisan group of lawmakers propose cutting red tape and boosting modular-home construction to help more Americans buy homes
Home prices hit a new record high in June, putting homeownership out of reach for many buyers. Politicians across the aisle are trying to solve the affordability crisis.
The housing market is mired in a crisis of affordability. Can politicians fix it?
A new bipartisan housing bill introduced by Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Republican, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democrat, aims to cut red tape that they say slows housing development and will boost construction of modular homes.
The bill is lawmakers’ latest attempt to address today’s housing crisis.
President Donald Trump recently indicated that he wants to eliminate the capital-gains tax on home sales, which would in theory free up more housing inventory. Homeowners who have seen significant home-price appreciation would not take a tax hit if they were to sell.
The senators’ bipartisan bill comes as home prices just hit an all-time highand mortgage rates remain elevated, which has squeezed many first-time home buyers out of the housing market. Buying a house no longer feels like an attainable goal to many Americans, especially younger ones. The typical age of a home buyer hit an all-time high of 63 in 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The bill was advanced unanimously by the Senate Banking Committee. It’s significant because politicians from both parties are trying to address the issue of housing affordability, Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, told MarketWatch.
“In the past, when federal lawmakers talked about ‘affordable housing’ they were referring to subsidized housing for low-income individuals and families,” Sturtevant said. “However, the affordability challenge has moved up the income ladder and more and more Americans are struggling to afford to buy or rent a home.”
As high housing costs burden Americans across the country and across income levels, “elected officials from both sides of the aisle are hearing about those challenges from more of their constituents,” she added.
The bill, called the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act of 2025, seeks to address a critical issue the housing market is facing right now, which is a shortage of homes for sale. Even though supply has been rising sharply, homes are still too expensive for most buyers, and high mortgage rates make affordability even worse.
The bill now goes to the full Senate chamber for a vote. It is expected to be approved before Congress breaks for recess in August, Jaret Seiberg at TD Securities wrote in a note. If it passes the Senate, the House would vote on the bill, or amend it. The bill would then go back to the Senate, and if approved, to the White House.
To be sure, the legislation is still a proposal and far from a silver bullet that will solve the housing market’s current woes. But it does signal that politicians are paying attention to the problem.
“We view these provisions as helpful for housing, but they are not game-changers for home builders or mortgage lenders,” Seiberg wrote. “Many are pilot programs or narrow legislative changes. They are not going to change the economics of buying or building a house.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, agreed. In a social-media post, he said that while it’s “no game-changer … policymakers are finally in the game” in terms of responding to the housing crisis.
The National Association of Realtors, the Real Estate Roundtable, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Apartment Association all released statements supporting the bill.
10. How to Achieve Higher Performance in Your Everyday Life
Strategies to make self-discipline and focus feel easier.
Perceived effort isn’t fixed; factors like music or habit can make tasks feel easier.
Habits reduce perceived effort, which can ease daily tasks and boost self-discipline.
Experiment with ways to lower perceived effort for greater self-discipline.
When you think of high performance, you might think of a test or a race. However, we can also strive to perform at a higher level in anything we do in our everyday lives.
The focus of this post is on one particular mechanism to achieve this: When we reduce how effortful our tasks feel, we enable ourselves to sustain greater objective effort (and can achieve greater mental and physical endurance).
Perceived Effort (or Perceived Exertion) and Task Performance
Imagine you’re running on a treadmill, and someone is gradually notching up the speed. You’ll reach a point where the effort feels too much, and you’ll decide to step off.
It’s clear that our perception of effort will go up when what we’re attempting is objectively more strenuous. But, in fact, identical actions can feel more or less effortful depending on the circumstances. We’ve probably all felt this. Some days our daily routine feels harder than other days.
The topic of perceived exertion has been extensively studied in endurance sports (like long-distance running and cycling), but many of the same principles (and some of the same techniques) carry over to activities that only require mental endurance.
For example, we know that factors like caffeine and music can decrease perceived effort. Sports science tells us that cycling often feels less effortful when the rider is listening to music. Extrapolating from this, we can easily test for ourselves whether everyday activities like tidying up or washing a sink full of dishes feel less effortful with music.
In the sphere of mental effort, there’s an incredible range of what influences our perceptions of effort.
Expectation effects can reduce perceived effort. For example, when I learned that reading to children reduces feelings of stress in parents, I started to notice this. Reading to my toddler started to feel pleasant rather than like a slog. Knowing that research says this should reduce stress made this more true for me.
A core benefit of habits is that they reduce perceived effort. A behavior that’s a habit feels easier than when the same behavior is new to us. Habits and routines are such a powerful tool for higher performance exactly because they reduce our need for self-control.
Other options that can influence how effortful a particular action feels:
Whether you’re tired, hungry, or hot.
The presence of other people.
Being in nature or beautiful surroundings.
How long you expect to have to keep going at the same effort (an activity often feels easier when we know we’re almost at the finish).
Whether there’s a known endpoint (waiting feels more effortful when we don’t know how long we’ll need to wait).
The relative effort of a task compared to your other tasks (tidying up feels easier if the alternative is studying for exams than if the alternative is watching YouTube).
Fitness, or being accustomed to a certain level of effort. When we’re fitter, we perceive operating at near our max as easier. It’s less scary. Athletes and fitness enthusiasts who are accustomed to the physical discomfort of exertion tolerate it better. It’s conceivable that this principle also applies to people who are accustomed to high levels of mental focus and endurance.
(For a discussion of the underlying research, catch this podcast episode.)
Negative Self-Talk Adds to Perceived Effort
You can approach the problem of perceived effort by introducing factors that reduce it, or by eliminating factors that increase it.
Overly dramatic self-talk that amps up negative emotions (e.g., “This is so hard and miserable, I hate it”) can increase perceived effort, as can various types of overthinking, like second-guessing your plans instead of just executing them.
Approach Your Perceived Effort With an Experimenter’s Mindset
The ideas presented in this post represent only a small selection for you to explore. Once you recognize that you can influence your perceived effort, and get yourself to do more effortful behaviors if you can lower your perceived effort, you can easily experiment to see what works for you.
This is an ideal self-improvement topic to approach through personal experimentation. It’s especially relevant if you’re seeking to be more focused and self-disciplined. Knowing how to reduce your perceived effort can increase your persistence when you’re expecting a lot of yourself. (To learn how to be a better self-experimenter, see this post.)
