Thrilled to hear from brilliant AI leaders  Venkat Mocherla Midstream Health and Bobby Becker TeachShare on our next virtual event Sept. 25  Register Here:  https://lnkd.in/giU7pkKM We are planning the  Becker Business Media Technology and Business Virtual Conf for Dec 2025.

HealthTech venture funding heats up like Vinnie Johnson. “U.S. and European HealthTech startups raised $7.9 billion in venture capital in the first half, putting this year on pace to be the best funding year for the sector since 2022.” The Wall Street Journal. Great to interview Heidi High, MBA, BSN,

The economy- the good the bad and ugly. The good –retail sales and the stock market keep rising. The bad– GDP growth quarter to quarter has slowed. The ugly –unemployment and the deficit keep rising.

“The publisher of Rolling Stone has sued Google, alleging that the AI summaries that appear atop search results are illegally using its reporting and depressing online traffic.” The Wall Street Journal.

Tesla has had an amazing recovery and gained 70% over the last 6 months to put it back up YTD. Never bet against  Elon Musk-far better for Tesla now that he is not running DOGE. Oracle and Larry Ellison are having a break out year. The stock is up 84%

“Humanoid robotics company Figure raised its largest round of funding yet, a sign of growing investor interest in robots that are designed to work alongside humans in warehouses and factories.” TechCrunch. The valuation — $39 billion and led by Parkway Venture Capital. The CEO is Brett Adcock. Dash Bio has

The family AMEX is on pace for a rationale month. Slightly better control over spending than the US.

The federal deficit is expected for this fiscal year to be approximately $1.9 to $2 trillion. No improvement. The unemployment rate stands at approximately 4.3% and is poised to go up just like my handicap index.

Over the last year the S&P 500 has generally outperformed PE and VC. Over the mid term PE and VC slightly out perform the S&P 500. Over the longer term, PE and VC tend to outperform the S&P 500 by larger margins. This edge for PE and VC may be

90% of start ups fail within 5 years. The most common reasons cited are cash flow, market product fit and operational challenges. Worse than failing before 5 years might be staying in business far longer through self funding. I have made that error before. And see others do so too.

The 5 largest VC fund firms. Getting to invest in these funds as an individual investor can be harder than getting into a top medical or law school. Tiger Global Management 2. Sequoia Capital 3. Andreessen Horowitz 4. New Enterprise Associates 5. Lightspeed

The 5 largest PE fund firms. PE funds are having a tough time manufacturing exits. Rate cuts should help the PE business. 1. Blackstone up 5% YTD 2. Apollo down 16.43% YTD 3. KKR down 3.09% YTD 4. The Carlyle Group up 31.91% YTD 5. TPG down 2.27% YTD Carlyle

4 of the best performing stocks last week. Opendoor Technologies up 37%. Warner Bros Discovery up 55% Macy’s up 30.09% for the week. Still a hard store to love SanDisk up 24.61%

The 5 largest companies by revenues. Walmart + Berkshire keep improving. United is having a tough year. 1. Walmart up 14.5% YTD 2 Amazon up 4% YTD 3. UnitedHealth Group down 30.3 %YTD 4. Berkshire Hathaway up 8.93% YTD 5. Apple down 6.5%YTD

The 5 largest market cap companies. Like in Fiddler on the Roof, I wish I was an investor in Nvidia (ie, a rich man). We are mostly in index funds. NVIDIA up 32.4% YTD Microsoft up 20.97% YTD Apple down 6.53% YTD Alphabet up 26.75% YTD Amazon up 4% YTD