TheInsider Picksteam writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Since you don't have all day to scour the web for noteworthy sales and discounts, we rounded up the best bargains for you to shop in one convenient place. For even more deals and savings across the web, check out our Coupons page.

1. Save 40% on women's workwear at J.Crew

Filling your closet with clothes for work can quickly become expensive, but J.Crew is helping the ladies save with a big sale. Until February 11, you can save 40% on select women's workwear by using the promo code "COFFEE" at checkout. The sale includes suits, blazers, pants, dresses, skirts, blouses, bags, and other accessories. Whether you have to wear business attire or can dress casually at work, you'll find many great pieces here. Check out other J.Crew coupons and deals here.

Shop the J.Crew sale now.

2. Get the Southwest Companion Pass when you open any of the airline's personal credit cards

When you open a new personal Southwest credit card, you can earn the best-ever sign-up bonus offered for the cards: 30,000 points and an unlimited Companion Pass, which is valid for travel through 2019 (to earn the bonus, spend $4,000 on any eligible purchases during the first three months with the card).

The Companion Pass lets you book a free ticket for a companion whenever you travel — all you'll have to pay is taxes and fees (which are typically as low as $5.60 each way). It's valid an unlimited number of times through 2019. This deal ends on February 11, so make sure to apply before then.

Learn more about the Southwest Companion Pass now.

3. Save up to 70% on clearance items at L.L.Bean

While L.L.Bean goes on sale from time to time, the brand currently has a sale with its deepest discounts. Now through February 13, you can save up 70% on clearance items including apparel, footwear, outdoor gear, and home goods. Prices are as marked, so you won't need a promo code to save. For more coupons and deals at L.L.Bean, check out our coupons page.

Shop the L.L.Bean sale now.

4. Save $120 when you buy three Fire HD 10 Tablets

As Amazon's most powerful tablet, the Fire HD 10 features a brilliant 10.1-inch 1080p display, hands-free Alexa voice control, and up to 32GB of storage. With the capability to stream videos, surf the web, and utilize Alexa, there's not much you can't do with them. If you want to get one for everyone in the family (or stock up now to have gifts on hand later), you can save $120 when you buy three. If you're interested in a smaller display, you can also save $60 when you buy three Fire HD 8s or $40 when you buy three Fire HD 7s. 

Shop all Fire Tablet deals on Amazon here. 

5. Save $40 on an Apple iPhone Xs Max Folio Case and get 3 months of Apple Music for free

If you own an iPhone Xs Max, chances are you decided not to buy an Apple case because of the price. But now, during Best Buy's Apple Shopping Event, you can get a (Product)Red Folio Case for $40 off. It's made of premium European leather with a soft microfiber lining and doubles as a wallet with slots for cash and cards. Plus, you'll also receive three months of Apple Music for free. Check out more coupons and deals at Best Buy here.

Apple iPhone Xs Max (Product)Red Folio Case, $89.99 (Originally $129.99) [You save $40]

6. Save 30% on the second generation Amazon Echo

Compared to its predecessor, the second generation Echo Dot has a sleeker design and much better audio quality with powerful Dolby speakers and dynamic bass response. While it has many of the same smart features as the Echo Dot or older Echos, this is the device music lovers will want in their home. For a limited time, you can save $30 on the second-generation Echo. You'll also receive three months of Amazon Music Unlimited for free with your purchase.

Amazon Echo Second Generation, $69.99 (Originally $99.99) [You save $30]

7. Save an extra 20% on final sale styles at Mr. Porter

If you have expensive taste in clothes but your budget doesn't exactly match up, Mr. Porter has the sale you've been waiting for. During the retailer's clearance sale you'll find massive savings on high-end designer brands like Dries Van Noten, Valentino, Prada, Burberry, and Lanvin. Prices are already marked down up to 70%, but right now you can save an extra 20% at checkout. 

Shop the Mr. Porter sale now. 

8. Save up to $210 on a Leesa Mattress

The average person will spend a third of their life sleeping, so having a comfortable bed is a lot more important than you might think. Online mattress startup Leesa has changed the way millions of people sleep with its award-winning mattresses and right now they're on sale. You can save $160 on the Leesa mattress, $210 on the Sapria Hybrid mattress, and up to 30% on other accessories like sheets, pillows, and blankets.

Shop all Leesa deals now.

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• The inequality gap between the top 1% and the rest of the United States remains at unstable levels, for a wide variety of reasons.
• A reason that should not go overlooked, argue the researchers behind "The Myth of Capitalism," is increased market concentration.
• They call for updated antitrust laws, which will have a side effect of reducing inequality on a structural level.
• This article is part of Business Insider's ongoing series on Better Capitalism.

A cultural side effect of the financial crisis was bringing inequality, decades in the making, to the forefront of American politics.

Economists like "Capital in the 21st Century" author Thomas Piketty wrote that, "the incomes of the top 1% collectively made up 11% of national income in 1980, but now constitute above 20% of national income, while the 20% of US national income that was attributable to the bottom 50% in 1980 has fallen to just 12% today."

Our era can justifiably be called the second Gilded Age, in which our income and wealth inequality mirrors the first one of the late 19th century. And there are many reasons for this — including changes in tax policy, deregulation, the rise of activist investors, shareholder primacy, deindustrialization, weakening unions, and globalization — but there's one that, while also a hot topic, often goes overlooked in the inequality conversation, argue Variant Perception's founder Jonathan Tepper and head of business development Denise Hearn.

"It is not low growth that is increasing inequality but the rise of market concentration and the death of competition," they wrote in their 2018 book, "The Myth of Capitalism." Its title refers to the notion that current increased market concentration is a normal side effect of capitalism. Market concentration is, they wrote, "the missing piece of the puzzle" when it comes to analyzing unjust inequality.

Is there a monopoly problem?

The term "market concentration" is used to describe how much market share companies can claim. High market share indicates that few companies, or a single company, claim more than their fair share. When market concentration is discussed in terms of its role in the US, the word "monopoly" is thrown around as shorthand, but the more accurate approach is homing in on oligopolies, where a small number of companies dominate.

There's currently a debate over whether there is indeed an oligopoly problem right now.

In 2017, Rice University's Gustavo Grullon, York University's Yelena Larkin, and Cornell Tech's Roni Michaely published a paper that used Census data to determine that, "More than 75% of US industries have experienced an increase in concentration levels over the last two decades," and that this has decreased competition.

The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice responded, saying antitrust law has never been about broad industries like "pharmaceuticals" but about specific, competing products.

Then the Roosevelt Institute, an economic think tank that works with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, responded. Marshall Steinbaum and Adil Abdela wrote that differentiating between industries and antitrust markets is valid, but that it is inaccurate to dismiss industry concentration as irrelevant. They also were able to compile a long list of specific antitrust markets that have been concentrated over the last 20 years.

Last fall, Stiglitz made an appeal to the FTC to update its antitrust laws, which have not been enforced strongly since the 1980s, and whose administration was further loosened under Obama in 2010.

Read more:Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says it's time for the US to update its antitrust laws

A fix could come as a side effect

Tepper and Hearn agree with Stiglitz, and believe that CEOs have used oligopolies to stifle their employees through simultaneous low wages and high prices, and to keep new companies from growing and competing with them.

"Every time a consumer spends money, they are transferring a little of their paycheck to the seller and paying a small toll," they wrote. "Monopolies of goods and services turn the disposable income of the many into capital gains, dividends, and executive compensation of monopolies."

Tepper and Hearn are not advocating for radical change, they wrote, but for a return to real capitalism. "Industries are becoming highly concentrated in the hands of very few players, with little real competition," they wrote in their introduction. "Capitalism without competition is not capitalism."

Raising taxes on the wealthiest citizens could alleviate inequality in the country, they noted, but it would not solve the structural issue at play.

"Government policy in antitrust enforcement should not have income inequality as an explicit goal," they wrote, but by focusing on making markets more competitive, they will in turn be helping the majority of Americans.

"Fixing industrial concentration will have the side effect of reducing inequality," they wrote. "Reintroducing competition to markets will reduce the growing inequality in America."

SEE ALSO: Big companies are crushing their competition in the US, and it's creating a dangerous 'fake capitalism' that hurts workers and consumers

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the massive gap in average income between the top 1% and the bottom 99% in every state

• Russia's military and state-sponsored media have reacted with a fire and fury of their own to the news that the US will exit the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaties, threatening to deploy a nuclear "doomsday device."
• The US found Russia in violation of a key arms treaty, so the US scrapped the treaty and announced it would create its own formerly banned weapons.
• Russia responded by saying it would build its own new nukes in retaliation, and its state-controlled media said nuclear war was now more likely.
• Russian media also floated the possibility of sailing an underwater nuclear doomsday device to the US's coast. Experts say this is perhaps the most dangerous weapon ever built. 

Russia's military and state-sponsored media have reacted with a fire and fury of their own to the news that the US will exit the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaties, one of the last barriers to a full-on Cold War-like arms race in Europe — and there's already talk of a nuclear doomsday device visiting the US.

The INF treaty banned land-based nuclear capable missiles with a range between 300 and 3,200 miles in 1987 when Russia and the US had populated much of Europe with intermediate-ranged nuclear missiles. The ban eliminated this entire class of missiles and went down as one of the most successful acts of arms control ever.

The US and all of NATO concluded recently that Russia had spent years developing a banned nuclear-capable weapon, thereby making the treaty meaningless. The US responded by saying it would withdraw and design its own treaty-busting missiles. Russia said it would do the same, though many suspect they already have the missiles built. 

Read more:France fires nuclear-capable missile in a rare show as Russia and US feud over arms treaty

But Russia's response to the US didn't stop there. 

A BBC review of Russian newspapers, some state-owned and all adhering to state narratives or censored by the Kremlin, revealed some truly apocalyptic ideas.

"If the Americans deploy their new missiles near Russia's borders, and in response we deploy ours, then of course, the risk of [nuclear] conflict rises sharply," an arms control expert told one paper. 

"If US missiles are deployed in Poland or the Baltic states, they'll be able to reach Russia in minutes. In such an event, the way Russia currently conceives using nuclear weapons, as a retaliatory strike, becomes impossible, since there won't be time to work out which missiles have been launched against Russia, what their trajectory and their targets are," he continued. "This is why there is now a temptation for both us and for them to adopt the doctrine of s preemptive strike."

This expert argues that the INF's demise means both the US and Russia now have to consider nuking the other at the first sign of conflict because missile attacks won't be as predictable as longer-range salvos from the continental US and Russia's mainland.

But the expert neglects to mention that US and Russian nuclear submarines can already fire from almost anywhere at sea, already confusing targets and trajectories and taking minutes to reach Russian forces.

Read more: In a fiery warning to rivals, Putin says any country that nukes Russia will 'drop dead'

Finally, Russian media turned to what's quickly becoming a propaganda crutch in communicating Moscow's might: The Doomsday device. 

Russia recently admitted to having built one of the more insane nuclear weapons of all time in the form of an undersea torpedo with a 100-megaton nuclear warhead that's designed to be unstoppable to all current missile defenses and create tsunami-sized waves and a radioactive hellstorm that stomps out life on earth for thousands of square miles for decades. 

Read more:Russia just showed off a potentially world-ending nuclear 'doomsday' torpedo that the US can't stop

Since they announced the weapon, they've already used it to threaten Europe. But now with the INF treaty in tatters, a military expert told a Russian paper that the doomsday device could see use.

"It cannot be excluded that one of the Poseidon with a 100 megaton nuclear warhead will lay low off the US coast, becoming 'the doomsday weapon.' Thus an attack on Russia, will become a suicidal misadventure," the paper states.

This paper also declined to mention that the US and Russia's current nuclear posture already guarantees any mutual nuclear exchanges would lead to the total destruction of either country.

Read more:A new Russian video may show a 'doomsday machine' able to trigger 300-foot tsunamis — but nuclear weapons experts question why you'd ever build one

Russia's Poseidon doomsday device doesn't change the mutually assured destruction dynamic between the Washington and Moscow, it only provides a way to destroy more natural life in the process. 

Russia's media may swerve into bombast, but Russia's actual military has already announced plans to build more weapons and extend the range of current weapons to counter the US in what experts peg as the next great nuclear standoff. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The US Air Force refuels combat jets in midair with a 'flying boom system' — watch it in action

• For the past couple of months, I've been using a 27-inch 4K monitor from LG and a 25-inch high-end gaming monitor from Dell as part of my new office setup.
• After switching between the two as my main monitor, and also using both at the same time, I thought it would be interesting to compare the two monitors to see which would be the best purchase for most people.
• Check out my full breakdown and conclusions below.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best smartphones that are worth your money

This past December, after many months of consideration, I decided to finally set up a new office space in my apartment.

I knew I wanted a Mac Mini as my main office computer: I wanted a desktop computer that could run MacOS, but I wanted to be able to provide my own monitors and accessories.

So, on Black Friday 2018, I purchased a 27-inch 4K monitor from LG.

Here's the monitor I purchased.

• Kenneth Jacobs CEO of Lazard, one of the world's largest asset managers, says the UK has been "frozen" by Brexit.
• The company sees Europe as more of a mixed picture, but suggests that domestic companies are more nervous.
• "Brexit is putting a lot of things on hold because we're getting closer to the point of no return," Jacobs said. 

Europe's economic malaise has had a real impact on investment and deal-making, says the CEO of asset manager Lazard. Brexit in particular, he says, is a key concern. 

"From an M&A perspective, Brexit is putting a lot of things on hold because we're getting closer to the point of no return," said Kenneth Jacobs, CEO of Lazard, one of the world's largest asset managers. "People are more frozen as a result of that."

Brexit has already seen considerable changes to the makeup of the UK's financial services industry. A number of banks and other institutions are leaving the country even before Britain officially leaves the European Union on March 29. 

Besides Brexit, investors have a lot more to fear when it comes to the economic health of the continent. There's weak manufacturing data, 'yellow vest' issues in France, and two of the continent's four biggest economies, representing a total GDP of more than $5.5 trillion, are on the brink of, or already in, recession.

"Domestic companies in Europe are a little more nervous," he said. 

Multinational businesses which have exposure to US markets are likely to be OK, Jacobs said. However, those with greater exposure to China and emerging markets are "probably more muted."

M&A has become an increasingly tricky market for active managers which are suffering from heightened regulatory and technology costs, fee reductions, and slower growth. Meanwhile, buyers are trying to gain scale for cost efficiencies, better distribution, and more products.

Lazard's $215 billion asset-management business hit a record $1.2 billion in revenue last year, according to earnings results released Tuesday.

SEE ALSO: Brexit isn't even here yet, but here's a list of the damage that's already been done

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NOW WATCH: Meet the three women who married Donald Trump

• Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 67 years since ascending to the British throne on Wednesday, February 6 2019.
• Her Majesty is the world's longest-serving monarch.
• She has outlasted 13 British prime ministers and 13 US presidents during her time as Britain's head of state.
• Here's a photo from every year of her record reign.

Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 67 years since she ascended to the British throne on Wednesday, February 6.

In her time as Britain's head of state, she has undertaken official overseas visits to more than 120 countries and outlasted 13 British prime ministers and 13 US presidents. 

To celebrate, we delved into the archives to bring you an iconic photo from each year of her reign.  

Read more: Prince Charles is 70 — here's the best photo from every year of his royal career

Scroll down to see 67 of the most incredible pictures of Queen Elizabeth II from every single year she's been on the throne.

Charles Clark contributed to an earlier version of this story.

1953: On June 2, 1953, Elizabeth was crowned at Westminster Abbey, making her the 39th sovereign to be crowned in the iconic church. Although she officially became queen in 1952 after the passing of her father, King George, her coronation wasn't until a year later. An estimated 27 million people in Britain watched the ceremony on TV.

1954: Since coming to the throne, she has held regular audience with 13 prime ministers. In this photo, the queen and Winston Churchill wait at Waterloo Station in London for the Queen Mother to arrive back from a month in the US.

1955: The queen plays a key role in maintaining diplomatic relationships with other countries. Here, she arrives by car at the Portuguese Embassy in London's Belgrave Square to attend a dinner party thrown in their honour by the visiting Portuguese president and Madame Craveiro Lopes.

• Victoria's Secret model Shanina Shaik has broken her silence on Fyre Festival.
• She was paid to promote the festival on her Instagram and appeared in its viral announcement video.
• She said she watched the Netflix exposé and cried.
• "The girls and I were just kind of dragged into it," she said. "We would never want to promote something like that or take someone's money."

You'd have to be living under a rock to not know how much of a disaster Fyre Festival turned out to be. Since the release of two documentaries about the epic failure, old wounds about who was responsible have been reopened.

Shanina Shaik, a Victoria's Secret model, was one of the influencers who promoted the festival in a video and on her Instagram account. She has just broken her silence on the issue, speaking to the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph about what happened.

"I cried when I watched it," Shaik said of the Netflix documentary.

"It is really horrific what happened. The girls and I were just kind of dragged into it ... We would never want to promote something like that or take someone's money."

On her Instagram page, posts from November 2016 show Shaik and other models arriving in the Bahamas and showing off the idyllic environment.

Read more:People have raised over $160,000 for a Fyre Festival caterer who was left broke after using her own life savings to pay staff

Shaik said she never would have promoted the event if she had known it was a scam. Before the video dropped, models and influencers were paid to post orange tiles on their social media to drum up intrigue. Now, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and others who appeared in the viral ad could be forced to reveal how much they got paid to promote it.

While she admitted she was paid for the ad, Shaik stood by her agency.

"When a client comes to my agent and has a vision or a project they want to work with us on, my agency always makes sure we are protected and looked after," she said.

The pitch presentation Billy McFarland used to entice potential investors was recently re-leaked on LinkedIn by Alvin Hussey. It includes some wild claims about what to expect at the festival, including how they owned $8.4 million worth of land in the Bahamas, which turned out to be a lie.

As the documentaries make clear, rather than the gourmet food, influencers, and big-name headliners they were promised, guests were greeted by wet tents, no toilets, and the now infamous cheese sandwiches. Workers were also apparently never paid for their time building the festival site.

As a result, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for multiple counts of fraud last year.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: There are serious health reasons why you shouldn't eat your boogers

• Congresswomen Ilhan Omar tweeted a video on Tuesday night reacting to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.
• Captioned "When I hear Individual 1 spout hate about immigrants," the video shows Omar dancing to "This is America," a song about racism in the US by Childish Gambino.
• "Individual 1" is how filings from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation refers to the president.
• In the address Trump called for unity, and slammed what he called "ridiculous partisan investigations."

Rep. Ilhan Omar responded to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday with a hat-tip to the Mueller probe and dancing to "This Is America."

The freshman congresswoman posted a video to her Twitter account titled "My message to Trump," in which she dances to Childish Gambino's hit 2018 song, which decries the treatment of minorities in America. 

In the video, she wore a blue headscarf, a red shirt, and a white jacket — the colors of the US flag. Many female Democrats wore white to the State of the Union address as a political statement on women's rights.

The caption accompanying the video reads: "When I hear Individual 1 spout hate about immigrants."

"Individual 1" is how filings from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation refer to Trump. The probe is investigating whether Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Moscow.

In a follow-up tweet Omar, who escaped Somalia as a refugee, called the speech: "The most pedestrian speech we have ever heard. It didn't sounds like a presidential speech. It also didn't address any of the critical issues we have."

The speech "was a parade of American heroes, that he sort of used to manipulate the American people," she said.

Read more:Here's everyone who has been charged and convicted in Mueller's Russia probe so far

Trump used part of his State of the Union address to attack the Mueller probe, citing "ridiculous partisan investigations" as an obstacle to the "economic miracle" otherwise taking place in the US.

He called for unity between Democrats and Republican lawmakers to help break "decades of political stalemate."

Read more: 24 things you may have missed in Childish Gambino's 'This is America' music video

"We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions, and unlock the extraordinary promise of America's future," Trump said, "the decision is ours to make."

Trump then brought his speech round to funding for his border wall, an issue which started the longest government shut down in US history. Trump did not mention the shutdown during the speech.

"Walls work and walls save lives," he said, "so let's work together, compromise, and reach a deal that will truly make America safe."

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NOW WATCH: Michael D'Antonio reveals Donald Trump's 'strange' morning ritual that boosts his ego

• Roger Federer's latest appearance in a Uniqlo ad showcases his piano skills.
• Federer played piano as a child, but it was not long before tennis took over.
• Regardless, he wants to learned to play again so he can play a song for his wife, Mirka Federer, as a surprise.
• You can watch Federer play the piano in the advert below.

Roger Federer is renowned for his forehand, but how is his Bach?

Luckily, tennis fans can find out by watching Uniqlo's latest advert campaign, which features the 20-time Grand Slam champion playing the piano.

At the start of the ad, Federer can be seen holding a cup of tea and opening a black piano lid. He then settles onto the stool and plays a Johann Sebastian Bach melody, specifically the Prelude No 1 to Well Tempered Clavier.

Later, we find out that this is not the first time Federer has tapped away at the keys of a piano.

"My parents asked me to play the piano when I was younger,"he said in the Uniqlo ad published on YouTube. "Of course my head was stuck in tennis. For me, piano was always a bit more complicated but being back today was a lot of fun.

"I still feel like I have it to some extent," he added. "I still need some practice and honestly I can't wait until I have more time again to start playing the piano, because I'd like to surprise my wife one day and play a song for her."

Read more: You can now buy Roger Federer's entire 5-piece Uniqlo tennis outfit for $120

Watch the advert right here:

Of course, tennis remains Federer's primary focus and the 37-year-old is currently preparing for the Dubai Tennis Championships, a 500 Series hard court event held in the United Arab Emirates later this month.

Read more: Roger Federer has 15 near-perfect qualities but 2 glaring weaknesses, according to a tennis research group

Federer will be looking to bounce back following his failure to win the 2019 Australian Open, the year's first major, having lost in the fourth round to Stefanos Tsitsipas in January.

The Dubai Championships begin on February 25.

SEE ALSO: Serena Williams praised Roger Federer as 'the greatest of all time' after losing to him in a historic doubles match

DON'T MISS: Roger Federer cried during an interview when he was asked about the death of his former coach: 'I've never broken down like this'

UP NEXT: Roger Federer has 15 near-perfect qualities but 2 glaring weaknesses, according to a tennis research group

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NOW WATCH: Why hosting the Super Bowl isn't worth it, according to an economist

• Stocks have been on a volatile path for the past several months, and some Wall Street experts say recent weakness has created a prime buying opportunity for investors.
• In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, Kate Warne — an investment strategist at Edwards Jones, which oversees more than $1 trillion — explained why she's bullish on equities, and laid out her best future recommendations.

Ancient philosopher Sun Tzu famously said"in the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity." And while he was referring to warfare, that same principle can be applied to the stock market.

As stocks sold off during the fourth quarter of 2018 — a period that saw the S&P 500 shed 14% — that only made valuations that much more attractive. Now, looking forward, some Wall Street experts think the market has shaken free of the pressures that previously infected it, which has created immense upside.

Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edwards Jones, sits firmly in the optimist camp. The nearly 10-year equity bull market may have been pushed to the brink, and now she thinks it can carry on for the foreseeable future.

"[The sell-off] made expectations more realistic, and it's clearly improved valuations, even with the bounce we've seen since then," she told Business Insider in an exclusive interview.

She continued: "I think there’s more upside now than there was before December — that the pullback actually probably gave the bull market fuel for some period of time."

Read more: Baillie Gifford was an early investor in Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla — here are the stocks and themes the $221 billion firm is betting on for the future

With that established, it can still be a tall order to identify where the best opportunities are. One instinct for an investor playing a rebound might be to seek out the high-growth, mega-cap tech companies that have carried the stock market for years.

Warne says that's a flawed approach. She's more interested in "old" tech — or the reliable long-standing industry titans like Microsoft and IBM. While they may not offer the same explosive top-line growth as Facebook or Amazon, Warne thinks they're a safer bet right now.

"They’re benefitting from lower expectations in an environment where expectations have gotten high, compared to where companies can deliver," she said. "Some of the companies where the expectations are lower, where their businesses are bigger, where they aren’t so dependent on growth — those look like better opportunities today."

But legacy tech isn't even Warne's best stock-market investing idea for the future. Her top sector bet is actually healthcare— specifically big pharma and medical device makers.

A big part of that outlook stem's from Warne's view that healthcare is more insulated from external market forces than other areas.

Read more: One shocking chart suggests the biggest tech stocks are in for a rude awakening — and that sharp losses could be coming

"It’s an area where the companies are able to deliver because, in many cases, they have drug pipelines they’ve been building for years," she said. "They have a little more control of their destiny, in terms of being able to deliver solid growth, regardless of what happens in the economy." 

She added: "They’re also attractively valued because they sold off so much last year."

In terms of what specific companies she likes, Warne mentions pharma giant Merck and medical-device maker Medtronic. She says both companies are "less biotech-leaning" and less dependent on a drug-development pipeline — which makes them less risky.

Lastly, Warne says the companies she categorizes as "traditional" healthcare are less likely to face drug-pricing pressures from the political realm going forward.

"They've navigated this before," she said. "They can’t raise prices as much as they’d like, but they’re patient, savvy, and they’ll figure out how to get compensated for providing drugs, even if there’s a plethora of government proposals to limit what they can do."

SEE ALSO: Baillie Gifford was an early investor in Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla — here are the stocks and themes the $221 billion firm is betting on for the future

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We compared Apple's $159 AirPods to Xiaomi's $30 AirDots and the winner was clear

• The brother of Lauren Sanchez has denied leaking intimate texts sent to her by Jeff Bezos.
• Bezos' private investigator Gavin de Becker said earlier this month that he was looking at Sanchez as a potential suspect for the leak, which he believes was politically motivated.
• Sanchez has links to Roger Stone and Carter Page, both associates of US President Donald Trump.
• Sanchez claims he had nothing to do with the leak, and accused de Becker of leaking the texts himself.

The brother of former TV host Lauren Sanchez has vehemently denied leaking intimate texts sent to her by Jeff Bezos.

After the National Enquirer published Bezos' texts to Sanchez, the Amazon CEO mounted a private investigation into how the Enquirer got its hands on the messages.

The private communications provided a window on Bezos' affection for Sanchez, and were released into the public domain just days after the billionaire announced his divorce from Mackenzie Bezos.

Bezos' head of security Gavin de Becker heads up the investigation into the leak. Last week, de Becker told the Daily Beast that he had questioned Sanchez's brother, Michael Sanchez, after concluding that the leak was politically motivated.

Michael Sanchez is an avid Trump supporter and associate of Trump-linked figures including Carter Page and the recently-indicted Roger Stone.

Read more:Everything you need to know about Gavin de Becker, the security expert leading Jeff Bezos' investigation into his leaked text messages

Now Sanchez has hit back in a written statement to the Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos. Sanchez accused de Backer of telling "lies, half-truths, sloppy tabloid leaks, [and] crazy conspiracy theories."

In an interview with the Post, he added that his priorities are to protect his sister's relationship with Bezos and "to clear my name by telling the truth."

He also posited that de Becker himself could have been involved in the leak in order to "sabotage Mr. Bezos and Ms. Sanchez's love affair," thereby preserving Bezos' marriage to Mackenzie Bezos.

When contacted by the Post, de Becker didn't respond specifically to Sanchez's allegations, but said: "Since subjects of investigations often accuse their investigators, even the craziest litany of claims doesn't surprise me." De Becker concluded in his investigation that the leak was "politically motivated."

The National Enquirer also has links to Trump and has admitted to acting in ways which politically benefitted the president while he was running for office. The Enquirer bought the story of playmate Karen McDougall for $150,000 in order to kill it.

Trump's antagonism towards Jeff Bezos is well-known. Axios reported in March that Trump was "obsessed" with taking down Amazon, and the president often lashes out at the Washington Post for what he views as unfairly critical reporting.

When he learned of Bezos' divorce Trump told reporters it would be "a beauty." He later tweeted in praise of the Enquirer's exposé.

SEE ALSO: Meet Roger Stone: One of Donald Trump's most loyal supporters, who was just indicted by the Mueller probe

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• The US and EU are expected to start negotiating a trade deal.
• But with contrasting priorities on each side, experts doubt a compromise will be forged anytime soon.
• A Commerce Department report on the Trump administration's proposed car tariffs is due this month, which could make or break the start of talks. 

Ahead of anticipated trade talks between Washington and Brussels, expectations appear to be miles apart.

The two sides have long sought to rearrange their bilateral trade partnership, which is the largest in the world. But preliminary back-and-forths have suggested a resolution won't be any easier after a truce was reached in July.

"Successful negotiations are far from guaranteed," said Rachel Ellehuus, a former Pentagon official who now leads the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "The US and EU have different negotiating priorities."

The US has said it is focused on reducing the overall trade deficit with the EU, its second-largest after China, and increasing market access for US agricultural and energy businesses. But European officials have pushed back against the idea that the latter would even be on the table.

"We have been very clear that from the EU side that we will not discuss agriculture," European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said last month. EU negotiators, for their part, have prioritized lowering trade barriers for industrial goods, a potential uphill battle with a president whose core promises have included bolstering the US manufacturing industry.

The tariffs on steel and aluminum that prompted tit-for-tat retaliation from Brussels last year are unlikely to be lifted anytime soon, according to analysts, after remaining in place for North American trading partners despite the USMCA deal reached in November. And Trump’s threats to impose a 25% duty on European cars loom large.

"For the EU, much of this is about stringing out the process in order to prevent further trade war escalation, in the hope they can wait Trump out," said Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Center for European Reform, a London-based research institution.

While Washington said it wouldn't levy automobile duties while trade talks are going on, it's unclear if that will stand after the Department of Commerce this month concludes a Section 232 investigation into whether cars pose a threat to national security.

According to Bloomberg, the EU is prepared to retaliate with tariffs on $22.7 billion worth of American products if the Trump administration follows through with import taxes on cars. The potential escalation is expected to cover a wide range of exports and could set the stage for prolonged tensions.

"If the president imposes auto tariffs, it's going to make the relationship much worse," said William Reinsch, who served as a Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration. "The Europeans will probably walk away from negotiations."

Trump's threats to levy tariffs on cars have raised alarm in his own party at the same time that they have been seen as increasingly likely. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa recently said that while he isn't in favor of the duties, Brussels is "very afraid" of them and they could be effective in talks.

"I think the president’s inclined to do it," Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said last month of taxing imported cars. "It may be the instrument that gets Europe to negotiate."

But worries about unraveling relations with the US's largest trading partner abound. Escalations that would follow auto tariffs could ultimately lower global growth by 0.2 percentage points in 2019 and 0.3 percentage points in 2020, according to estimates from Citi.

"The size of the US auto imports from the EU and the interconnectedness of both economies with global supply chains suggest that a tit-for-tat tariff war scenario could have significant implications for growth, more so at a time when the EU is going through an economic slowdown and when business sentiment is still digesting the developments around US-China (trade) tensions," the analysts said in a research note.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal's editorial board wrote that Trump should scale back protectionist policies, including with Brussels, if he hopes to win reelection in 2020. The US can't expand at the White House's goal of 3% or higher if China and Europe aren't growing, they added.

"Mr. Trump thinks car tariffs are 'leverage' in trade talks, but they are also a reason to delay investment until supply-chain and input costs become clear," they wrote. "Tariffs act like Obama regulation as an economic wet blanket, as numerous CEOs attest on their earnings calls."

SEE ALSO: Trump trade-war comments give stocks meager boost amid thin trading during 'Year of the Pig' celebrations

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NOW WATCH: Bud Light's 'Dilly Dilly' just made a comeback at the Super Bowl with a weird crossover ad with Game of Thrones — here's what the phrase means

Many companies use the term artificial intelligence, or AI, as a way to generate excitement for their products and to present themselves as on the cutting edge of tech development.

But what exactly is artificial intelligence? What does it involve? And how will it help the development of future generations?

Find out the answers to these questions and more in AI 101, a brand new FREE report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, that describes how AI works and looks at its present and potential future applications.

To get your copy of the FREE slide deck, simply click here.

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• Women members of Congress got to their feet three times during President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, to celebrate how many women won seats in the midterms.
• Trump brought up the record number of women in Congress during his speech, leading to cheers and chants of "USA" which members of both parties joined.
• But Trump seemed taken aback by the reaction as, one Congresswoman said, he realized that the "joke was on him."

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted that the vast majority of the women legislators praised by Trump are Democrats.

The most striking moment of President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech Tuesday night was, unusually, something he had no control over.

Women in Congress repeatedly got to their feet to cheer Trump's mentions of successes enjoyed by women — including the fact that the 116th Congress includes a record-breaking number of female legislators.

Despite Trump being at the podium, the reaction appeared to get away from him.

The impromptu moment between Trump and Democratic women began when Trump said that "No one has benefitted more from our thriving economy than women."

The lawmakers, wearing white to honor suffragettes, then rose to their feet and cheered, leaving Trump to joke: "You weren’t supposed to do that."

And they rose again when Trump noted that there are more women in the workforce than at any other point in history.

Read more: Bernie Sanders called Trump's State of the Union address 'racist' and said he's trying to 'divide us up'

And, as they continued to celebrate, he said, to laughter: "Don’t sit yet, you’re going to like this."

Trump then noted that there are more woman serving in Congress than at any point in history, leading House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sat behind Trump, to take to her feet, and encourage lawmakers to join her, who then cheered, high-fived, and chanted "USA."

Trump then waited for things to settle, and said: "That’s great. Really great. And congratulations, that’s great."

The three-minute clip starts at 52:00 in C-Span's video:

Lawmakers from both parties took part in the celebration, and Vice-President Mike Pence and Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump can be seen standing and clapping.

But some Democrats saw the moment as one of celebration in spite of Trump, rather than with him.

Rep. Ann Kuster of New Hampshire told The Hill after Trump's speech that Trump ended up "ticked off" as lawmakers kept cheering, and that, ultimately, "the joke was on him."

"We were super-excited and high-fiving. And he really didn't realize what was going on — he didn't understand what we were doing," Kuster said.

"Part of it is that we wanted to draw attention to the contrast of our caucus, that reflects the diversity of the American people. … And we were hoping that just by wearing white, that the cameras would pick that up,” she said.

"We didn't realize that we've have a big opportunity to demonstrate that. ... Finally, he did [understand], because he got very — he was ticked off. ...

"I think he caught on that the joke was on him."

Read more: Trump took a veiled jab at the investigations into him during his State of the Union address — and some are drawing a Nixon parallel

And Pelosi noted to reporters after the address that Trump did not point out that the majority of women in Congress he celebrated are Democrats.

"He forgot to acknowledge it's only 15, what is it, 15 Republicans and 91 Democratic women in the Congress of the United States on the House side," she said, according to The Hill.

"So it was like weird you’re bringing this up," she said. "And I loved the way the women just rose to the occasion."

There are currently 113 women in Congress, more than at any other point in history. 102 are are in the House of Representatives.

Women account for 38% of all House Democrats and 36% of Senate Democrats, while they make up 8% of House Republicans and 15% of Senate Republicans. 

Read more State of the Union coverage:

The 'future' of the Democratic Party, Stacey Abrams, made her national debut in the party's response to Trump's State of the Union

Tiffany Trump wears white outfit to State of the Union address after Democrats encourage others to wear white in honor of women's suffrage

Trump calls for an end to 'politics of revenge' as he slammed his political opponents in State of the Union address

Trump uses State of the Union to announce venue, dates for second meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un

Trump leans into fear-based rhetoric on immigration in State of the Union as he pressures Democrats for wall funding

The complete history of the US State of the Union address

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NOW WATCH: Meet the three women who married Donald Trump

• Jack Dorsey has tweet stormed about his love of bitcoin.
• "I don’t see it as an investment," he wrote. It's a "currency."
• It's a strong endorsement for the cryptocurrency that's had a rough 12 months.
• He added: Bitcoin will "probably be the native currency."

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has restated his love of bitcoin.

In a strong endorsement of a cryptocurrency that's had a rough 12 months, Dorsey said he holds bitcoin and he thinks it's the future of money.

"I don’t see it as an investment," he wrote in a flurry of tweets on Tuesday. It's a "currency," he added.

In messages and responses to crypto fans, Dorsey outlined his reasoning: "Bitcoin is resilient. Bitcoin is principled. Bitcoin is native to internet ideals. And it’s a great brand."

He added: Bitcoin will "probably be the native currency."

It's not the first time Dorsey has noted his admiration for bitcoin. His fintech company Square has supported bitcoin for nearly five years, adding the currency to its Cash App in early 2018, letting users send bitcoin to one another. "Would love to see a digital currency thrive,"Dorsey tweeted in 2016.

Investors in the digital currency saw its price explode in 2017 as cryptomania swept over the world. Bitcoin began 2017 worth less than $1,000 a coin, before soaring more than 2,000% to a high of $19,511. However, the year of 2018 was a different story. See the chart below:

SEE ALSO: Bitcoin sinks to its lowest level of the year

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NOW WATCH: We compared Apple's $159 AirPods to Xiaomi's $30 AirDots and the winner was clear

• It turns out the iconic cast of "Friends" could have looked very different if it wasn't for a last-minute audition.
• Speaking to The Guardian, Mitchell Whitfield, who played Rachel's jilted ex-fiance Barry Farber, said he got right down to the last stages of testing for the character of Ross on the show.
• At the last minute, he said the producers brought in one more actor to read — and it turned out to be David Schwimmer.
• Farber still landed a part in the show, but only appeared in six episodes.

What would "Friends" be without its original cast?

The iconic band of Joey, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, and Rachel made the show into the powerhouse that ran for 10 seasons and, last year, caused Netflix to spend $100 million for the streaming rights.

Arguably the most important plotline of the entire show was the Ross and Rachel saga, which has since become synonymous for a "will-they-won't-they" relationship.

That saga, the show, and, ultimately, Ross could have looked very different, though, The Guardian revealed on Wednesday.

As part of a series of interviews with some of the show's lesser-known characters, The Guardian spoke to Mitchell Whitfield, who played Rachel's jilted ex-fiance, Barry Farber.

Farber said that he originally auditioned to play Ross and Chandler in the show: "I went back multiple times, and then they realised Ross was the role for me."

Farber got to the very end of the auditions, which saw the producers go through hundreds of actors, and was even testing for the show when they decided to give one more actor a shot.

"At the last minute, they said: 'We're bringing in one more guy to read.' That guy turned out to be David Schwimmer," Farber said.

Farber ended up making minor appearances in six episodes of "Friends" across seasons one and two.

Other revelations from the interviews include Cosimo Fusco, whose character of Paolo has a brief relationship with Rachel in season one, saying that Jennifer Aniston "basically cried in my lap" when they announced the show had been commissioned for 12 episodes.

Jane Sibbett, who played Ross' lesbian ex, Carol, also said she had her real-life child just two days before starting work on the show.

"My son was born on 10 September 1994. The next day, my agent called and said: ''Friends' has come back around again; they've let go of Anita Barone and would like you to take over the part tomorrow,'" Sibbett said.

"I said: 'Wow, I’m kind of sore! I don't think so.' But my agent said: 'Jane, this is a huge offer. They've said they'll go easy on you, and you can bring your nanny.'"

Sibbett added that it was David Schwimmer's performance that convinced her to take the role: "I knew I had to work with him."

The recurring theme across the various interviews is how close the leading cast of six was.

"They were a united group. They would watch each other's work. If someone had a scene they weren't in, the others would watch it and laugh. It's very unusual to be so supportive of each other on set," said Christina Pickles (Judy Geller).

"They would make fun of each other. If someone made a joke and it didn't work, they'd all turn on the person and be like: 'You blew it, Lisa!' They would bust each other's balls," said Paget Brewster who played Kathy — Joey and then Chandler's girlfriend in season four.

Vincent Ventresca, who played Monica's boyfriend "Fun Bobby," summed up the show's continuous success, saying: "Things don't change as much as you think they do. What's important to us: friendship, family, community and laughing at silly situations. That's what 'Friends' is all about. And that's timeless."

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NOW WATCH: How Apple went from a $1 trillion company to losing over 20% of its share price

• Chime, founded in 2013, already has 2.3 million customers and aims to disrupt banking in the US. 
• The challenger bank offers a fee-less checking account offered through an app. No credit, no lending.
• “The big banks are easily the least loved brands in the US, and our investors are excited to disrupt a huge market," said co-founder Chris Britt in an interview. 
• Chime has attracted funding from major VCs including Menlo Ventures and Cathay Innovation.

Challenger banks have been gaining prominence across the US as savvy operators take on traditional lenders with disruptive product offerings. 

US challenger Chime is no different. It has made waves by offering its customers a fee-less checking account, a rarity in the traditional US banking market. The biggest US banks each make around $1 billion a year in fee-related revenues something that Chime is seeking to change.

"The current banking system is adversarial and out to punish you with a variety of fees," said Chris Britt, Chime's co-founder in an interview. "What our customers value is a mobile app that works, transparent pricing for our products and they don’t need to come and visit us in a branch — we have to be an authentic brand."

US banks charged around $34 billion in fees in 2017. 

Customers and investors have so far been impressed with the company's offering. Hailing from the world's tech mecca, San Francisco, Chime has more than 2 million customers and has attracted funding from major VCs including Menlo Ventures and Cathay Innovation.

“The big banks are easily the least loved brands in the US and our investors are excited to disrupt a huge market," Britt said. We’ve had tremendous interest from other investors about future funding as well.”

Read More: 'Food is the next major market that needs disrupting': Venture capital is piling into 'ag tech' in the race for the future of food

Alongside the fee-less checking account Chime also operates a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending system without fees which the company claim has been popular to date. 

In Europe, where cross-border travel is more common, challenger banks have focused on reducing currency exchange costs, while also seeking to reduce the cost of transactions while abroad.

For Chime, the US ambition is simply to serve its customers with a good service and transparent pricing but hopes to expand its offerings in future.

Chime says there's still a huge untapped market to explore in the US with its next goal being to move beyond its currently millennial-heavy customer base into other demographics.

"When we originally went out seeking investment, people would say: 'You are nuts, why not do credit or lending?' But we’ve been successful so far by forming a close relationship with core investors," Britt said. 

SEE ALSO: Revolut, the UK's $1.7 billion star fintech, has big dreams as it takes on the American market

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NOW WATCH: How Apple went from a $1 trillion company to losing over 20% of its share price

Here is what you need to know.

1. Trump delivers his State of the Union address. President Donald Trump spoke for 82 minutes Tuesday evening, touching on numerous topics, including the economy, infrastructure, and border security.
2. A strategist at a $1 trillion firm says the stock market's recent meltdown was a good thing. The sell-off "made expectations more realistic, and it's clearly improved valuations, even with the bounce we've seen since then," Kate Warne, an investment strategist at Edwards Jones, told Business Insider. "I think there's more upside now than there was before December — that the pullback actually probably gave the bull market fuel for some period of time."
3. Snap rockets higher after its quarterly results top estimates. Snap shares soared more than 22% late Tuesday after the social-media company said it lost $0.14 a share on revenue of $389.8 million, both ahead of estimates, and that its number of daily active users held at 186 million.
4. Papa John's is hoping to get John Schnatter on board with the recently announced Starboard deal. Schnatter, who founded the pizza chain and owns about 26% of it after the deal, presented a competing offer that was rejected, CNBC said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
5. Apple's retail chief is leaving. Angela Ahrendts, Apple's head of retail for the past five years, is leaving to pursue "new personal and professional pursuits," the company announced Tuesday.
6. Iron ore jumps to a near 2-year high. A supply shortage exacerbated by the Vale mining disaster in Brazil has contributed to spot prices for benchmark 62% iron ore fines surging 33% since late November to $85.53 a tonne, its highest since March 2017.
7. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks. Powell will participate in a "Teacher Town Hall Meeting" from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET at the Federal Reserve in Washington.
8. Stock markets around the world are mixed. Japan's Nikkei (+0.14%) eked out a gain, and Germany's DAX (-0.41%) led the losses in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.29% near 2,730.
9. Earnings remains heavy. Eli Lilly, General Motors, The New York Times, and Spotify report ahead of the opening bell, while Chipotle Mexican Grill and GoPro release their quarterly results after markets close.
10. US economic data trickles out. The trade balance will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield was down 0.9 basis points at 2.69%.

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• Apple finally updated its MacBook Air last October.
• The 2018 MacBook Air features a Retina display for the first time, two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and more.
• But if you're considering the 2018 MacBook Air, you may as well consider the 13-inch MacBook Pro (with no Touch Bar), which only costs $100 more than the new MacBook Air, but offers better features.
• Take a look at the advantages the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar has over the 2018 MacBook Air.

SEE ALSO: I tried a 4K monitor and a high-end gaming display to see which is the best computer monitor for most people — and there's a clear winner

1. Both computers have the same size Retina display — 13.3 inches — but the MacBook Pro has better colors.

The MacBook Air features an standard RGB display, which was featured on all iPhones prior to the iPhone 7. The MacBook Air features a wide color display, which offers more colors and better accuracy.

Apple Insider has a good breakdown highlighting the improvements from sRGB to wide color displays.

2. The MacBook Pro display can get much brighter than the MacBook Air screen.

The biggest issue with the 2018 MacBook Air, when I first saw it in person, was that its maximum brightness wasn't bright enough for my eyes.

The MacBook Air screen maxes out at 300 nits of brightness, but the 13-inch MacBook Pro display can get much brighter, and is capable of 500 nits.

3. The 2018 MacBook Air features newer chips, but the 13-inch MacBook Pro is still more powerful.

The 2018 MacBook Air features eighth-generation processors from Intel, which can achieve Turbo Boost up to 3.6 GHz.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro features older processors — Intel's seventh-generation chips — but they have a better Turbo Boost of up to 4.0 GHz.

The MacBook Pro can also be upgraded to include a beefier Intel i7 processor, in case you want to do heavier tasks like video editing. With the 2018 MacBook Air, you're stuck with an Intel i5 processor, which could struggle under heavy load.

• We asked over two dozen venture capital investors to tell us which startups are going to boom in 2019.
• We asked them to name startups in their own portfolio they were particularly excited about.
• But we also asked for the names of startups they think will do well that they have not invested in, but are hearing great things about.
• What follows is a list of the startups, tackling everything from consumer health goods to life-saving drones, that are being buzzed about by tech's venture capital insiders.

You don't have to be an industry insider to know about tech companies with popular products like Snapchat or Facebook. 

But what about the up-and-coming tech startups that could become tomorrow's market leaders?

We asked more than two dozen venture capital investors to name the startups they believe are going to boom in 2019. After all, VCs are the experts scouting the landscape every day and hunting for the next big thing — if anyone has a finger on the tech innovation pulse, it's them.

We asked the VCs to name a startup in their own portfolios they were particularly excited about for 2019. 

But for every startup in their own portfolios, the VCs also had to name one they had no financial interest in. The best VCs are passionate about startups and meet more than they can fund, and we wanted to go beyond their immediate portfolio of investments. 

What follows is a compelling list of startups set for success in 2019. They range from fledgling companies working on a seed round to well-established companies that have raised many millions, but which are still flying under the radar. The funding information is according to Crunchbase and Pitchbook, keepers of such records.

SEE ALSO: 44 enterprise startups to bet your career on in 2019

AdQuick: an easier way to buy outdoor ads

Startup: AdQuick

VC: Niki Pezeshki, Felicis Ventures

Relationship: No relation. Just thinks it's cool.

Total raised: $3 million

What it does: AdQuick offers a marketplace for buyers and sellers of outdoor ad space. 

Why it's hot in 2019:"AdQuick is a mainly ex-Instacart team that is tackling the archaic world of outdoor advertising," says Pezeshki. As Google and Facebook continue to dominate online advertising, "many direct-to-consumer companies will start to look for ways to reach consumers in other ways."

Alma: co-working space for mental health therapists

Company Name: Alma

VC: Hayley Barna, First Round 

Relationship: Investor

Funding:$4.5 million 

What it does: Alma is a co-working office space specifically for mental health providers that includes access to the tech they need to power their practices. It opened its first facility in New York.

Why it's hot in 2019:"60 million people suffer from mental illness," Barna says and Alma offers therapists a "beautifully designed space, friendly digital tools and a supported community of therapists."

Applied Intuition: simulation software for self-driving cars

Startup: Applied Intuition

VC: Arif Janmohamed, Lightspeed

Relationship: No relation. Just thinks it's cool.

Total raised: $11.5 million

What it does: Build autonomous simulation software for autonomous vehicles. 

Why it's hot in 2019: Before more autonomous vehicles enter the public roads, their makers need specialized and heartier simulation software to test them. "A massive problem for the 21st century with an incredible team tackling a complex and high-value challenge," says Janmohamed.