From the Editor’s Desk

Trump has appointed a record number of VCs and tech executives to senior government positions. Here are five leaders tapped to define policy and reshape markets:

• Scott Kupor is nominated for Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
  • Who: Kupor was employee #1 at A16Z (eventually Managing Partner), former Chairman of the Board for the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), and the author of “Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How To Get It.”
  • Why it matters: OPM is the chief human resources agency and personnel policy manager for the Federal Government. The Trump administration is dead-set on reducing the size of the federal workforce.
  • What it means for tech: Cuts to the workforce are going to require the remaining employees and tech infrastructure to make more out of less, likely increasing demand for productivity software and the openness to experiment with new AI tools.
• Jim O’Neill is nominated for Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. He would serve as RFK Jr.’s #2.
  • Who: O’Neill comes from the Thiel universe. He held senior positions at both Mithril and Clarium before co-founding the Thiel Fellowship. O’Neill also served in HHS in the 2000s during the Bush Administration.
  • Why it matters: HHS has over 80k employees and an annual budget of ~$1.8 trillion. The agency includes FDA, NIH, CDC, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
  • What it means for tech: O’Neill has called for the FDA to focus on drug safety during the approval process and leave evaluations of efficacy for after they’ve been legalized. This could signal a shakeup in how the FDA oversees new pharmaceuticals. Additionally, given RFK’s push for a “Make America Healthy” movement, expect opportunities for startups in the food safety and food-as-medicine spaces.
• David Sacks will be the White House “AI and Crypto Czar” where he will focus on improving American competitiveness in those sectors.
  • Who: Sacks is a member of the PayPal Mafia, co-founded Craft Ventures ($3.3B AUM), and co-hosts the popular podcast All In.
  • What it means for tech: Sacks is chairing a powerful government-wide working group that aims to define a regulatory framework for crypto, with major implications for the future of the industry. He will likely have an influential voice on Trump’s proposed U.S. Bitcoin Reserve (theoretically separate from the new sovereign wealth fund). Sacks will also be closely involved with the Trump Administration’s AI work; so far, the team is prioritizing deregulation and private investment.

• Thomas Shedd has been appointed Director of Technology Transformation Services at the Government Services Administration (GSA).
  • Who: Shedd was a longtime employee of Elon Musk at Tesla, focused on software to operate automotive and battery factories.
  • Why it matters: Technology Transformation Services, or TTS for short, helps develop the digital infrastructure that powers many government services. TTS also oversees important internal federal programs, like the US Digital Corp, that historically brought tech talent to government.
  • What it means for tech: For startups working with government, long implementation and integration times are the norm. This could be an opportunity to modernize SDKs to help lighter-weight, tech-forward startups plug into government systems. So far, Shedd has begun building a centralized database for all government contracts and is looking to transition TTS to an “AI first” organization.

• Jacob Helberg is up for Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment at the State Department.
  • Who: Helberg is a noted China hawk who founded the Hill and Valley Forum. He has also served as Senior Adviser to Palantir CEO Alex Karp since 2023.
  • Why it matters: This role in the State Department specifically oversees America’s international efforts related to technology, growth, economic, energy, and food security.
  • What it means for tech: Expect continued pushes by Helberg and other tech-affiliated leaders to push Chinese products out of US markets. However, President Trump is a key wild card. Trump has laid out policies that, in his words, will “completely eliminate dependence on China in all critical areas” and restarted the trade war that kicked off in his first term, but also saved TikTok from an imminent ban (which was forced by legislation Helberg himself championed).

Market Momentum

We invested in Starbridge. Starbridge is building the GTM intelligence platform for government and education deals. They give sales teams a single feed of key buying signals—RFPs, strategic plans, board minutes, and competitor contract expirations. Beyond data, Starbridge helps turn signals into action—writing better outbound and drafting proposals —without leaving the platform. See the full press release and get in touch for a demo here.

Onebrief raised a $50 million Series C from General Catalyst, Insight Partners, Caffeinated Capital, 9Yards, and Human Capital, to build software for military planning and operations. Their product is being used on 3 of the US military’s 4 largest operational plans (OPLAN). They were founded in 2019 and participated in YC S21. Read more here.  

Earth AI raised a $20 million Series B to identify mineral deposits using AI, validate them with drilling, and sell multi-billion-dollar mining rights to large mining companies. Tamarack Global and Cantos Ventures co-led, with participation from Alpaca, Overmatch, YC, and Sparkwave Capital. The company cites a 75% discovery success rate, compared to an estimated industry average of 0.5%, and an 80% reduction in exploration costs. Read more here.  

Overhaul raised $55 million from Springcoast Partners, Edison Partners, and Americo to expand their cargo theft prevention and security platform. Their operations team can push real-time shipment data to law enforcement to improve the likelihood of recovering cargo in the event of a theft. The cofounders previously built and sold a cargo visibility platform called Freightwatch. Read more here.

Talk Around Town

The Institute for Progress published a policy proposal for reforming the H-1B visa, which has been hotly debated on tech Twitter and Capitol Hill. 85k immigrants come to the US on H-1B’s per year, less than 11% of the total application demand. Labor protectionism will likely be a major theme of the Trump administration: expect programs like H-1B to face new scrutiny. Read more here.

Bessemer Venture Partners released a list of ten principles for building strong vertical AI startups. Our favorite? “Serve customers with nuanced needs.” Government and critical industries have both nuanced customer profiles and enormous market opportunities— exactly the reasons why we are investing in pre-seed and seed-stage vertical AI startups. Read more here.

The Commonweal Team in the Press

Neil Chatterjee, former chairman of FERC under President Trump, was featured on Fox News TV in a discussion about residential solar.  

Edward Fishman, former Advisor at the State Department, published a piece in The Wall Street Journal titled “The World Has Changed Since Trump’s First Trade War. Other Countries Are Ready to Fight Back.”

John Gedmark, CEO of Astranis, was quoted on SpaceNews about the successful early testing and commissioning of their four newly launched broadband satellites. 

Juliette Kayyem, former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security under President Obama, was quoted in The Washington Post about FEMA’s crisis response capabilities. 

Mary Nichols, former Chair of the California Air Resources Board, was quoted on Alternet about the importance of California’s waiver authority, highlighting its role in advancing the U.S. automotive market by at least a decade and its critical impact on achieving climate goals.   

New Additions to the Commonweal Team

We added three new members to our advisory board:

• Brett Lambert, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy. Full bio here.
• Luke Bronin, Former Mayor of Hartford, CT. Full bio here.
• Richard Becker, Former Deputy Secretary for Health for New York State.

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