Uncork Capital

?? Over 1,000 WordPress sites hit with malicious JavaScript that deploys 4 backdoors for persistent access. Even if one is detected, attackers can still control the site. Learn how this attack works and how to protect your website: https://lnkd.in/ggxePTpF

"Too many teams treat conflict like a bug when it's actually a feature." After observing hundreds of startups, I've noticed a pattern: the best teams don't just tolerate disagreement—they systematically design for it. In this piece, I break down: - Why avoiding tough conversations leads to weaker decisions - The three conflict styles that sabotage most teams (and how to fix them) - Practical exercises to transform tension into breakthrough ideas If your team agrees on everything, you might have a bigger problem than you realize. Thoughts? Have you seen this play out in your organization?

Huge congrats to Sam Ross, Matt D., and the rest of the Numeral team on their Series A raise, led by Chetan Puttagunta at Benchmark ! It's been incredible watching the Numeral team execute on their vision to transform the future of sales tax. Their ability to tackle one of the most complex (and painful) problems in finance is nothing short of impressive. I shared more on why we invested in Numeral below, but seeing their progress firsthand has only deepened my conviction. This is just the beginning, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead! https://lnkd.in/gPyzcbZh

Excited to share that Numeral has raised an $18M Series A led by Benchmark! We started Numeral two years ago to solve the nightmare that is sales tax for growing ecommerce brands. Simply put, sales tax was the last thing I wanted to think about when scaling my brands. There is a ton of work left, but it is worth reflecting on how far we’ve come in the last 24 months: ? Grown the team to 38 people ?? ? Raised over $22M+ in funding ?? ? Opened our new office in San Francisco ?? ? Increased ARR by 3x+ in ‘24 ?? ? Trusted by 1,000+ businesses, including many of my favorites like Ridge, Graza, and Immi ?? And now, with this fundraising, we are announcing that we support SaaS businesses, too! As more and more jurisdictions look to tax software sales, Numeral is ready with all of the integrations you’d expect. ?????????????? ???? ?????? ???????????????? ?????? ?????????? ??????. From rates to registrations and everything in between, we put sales tax on autopilot for ecommerce and SaaS brands. Thank you to all of our customers who’ve trusted us thus far and to our amazing team (we’re hiring)! And a special thank you to the wonderful investors supporting our mission: Benchmark , Chetan Puttagunta, Y Combinator, Gustaf Alstr?mer ????, Uncork Capital, Susan Liu, FundersClub, Alexander Mittal, Shaan Puri, Lenny Rachitsky, Moiz Ali, Nik Sharma, Alex Beller, Kyle Hency, Adam Turner, Maaria Bajwa, and so many others.

We're excited to announce our next panel, happening on 3/26 in SF! This time, our CTO Upal Saha will be facilitating a Data + AI discussion with panelists Jordan Tigani of MotherDuck, Karan Goel of Cartesia, and Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures. We welcome engineering leaders, product leaders, and founders looking to join for a technical conversation on trends and building for scale. Link in comments to apply to join us!

NEWS: We’re excited to announce the expansion of our AI-driven brand suitability measurement capabilities, now available for Snap through the company's new Brand Suitability Suite. This update empowers advertisers with greater control over their content adjacencies on Snapchat through tiered suitability controls, advanced ML technology, and expanded placement coverage—all independently verified by Zefr’s AI-powered solutions. Zefr remains committed to providing brands with the transparency, control, and insights they need to align with their values, protect brand reputation, and maximize performance across social platforms. Read more: https://bit.ly/41ssJ6B To schedule a demo, visit https://lnkd.in/dq_Sih3u or reach out to: [email protected]

A recent #funding boom in the #autonomous driving sector has seen #investment dollars reaching $9.06bn in 2024 - close to the peak achieved in 2021. Investors believe interest in #autonomous driving is back, with technological developments making these systems a real, commercial proposition. GCV's special features editor Robert Lavine sat down with Tony Cannestra, director of corporate ventures at DENSO, Josh Berg, managing director at Magna Technology Investments, Mitchell Yun, head of office at Hyundai MOBIS Ventures, and Veerbhan K., co-founder and CEO at Quadric, to discuss how this next wave of self-driving development would unfold and where the best #investment opportunities are. Here are some of the key takeaways from the discussion: https://lnkd.in/eCrF4c44 Watch the full webinar here: https://lnkd.in/ewqESiJY #CVC #startups #semiconductor #selfdriving #ai #robots #electric

The best ROI investment you can make right now is to study prompt engineering - don't sleep on this opportunity to enter the AI-rich crowd (versus staying in the AI-poor one). It's that simple. While AI models like GPT-4 are getting more powerful, their effectiveness hugely depends on how well you can "talk" to them - just like having a brilliant colleague who speaks a different language. The better you get at crafting prompts (basically, how you ask questions and give instructions to AI), the more value you'll get from these tools, with the gap between basic and expert users growing larger over time. The time to level up your prompting game is now, so you don't get left behind as these models become more advanced.

?? We're excited to launch a series highlighting airCFO's extensive network of 75+ VC partners. airCFO empowers portfolio companies to excel by offering comprehensive accounting, finance, people operations, and tax services. Kicking off this series is a look at one of our key partners: Uncork Capital. Known for its dynamic portfolio of over 400 investments across more than 270 distinct companies, Uncork Capital is at the forefront of the seed investment landscape. ??Location: San Francisco, California ?? Investment Stage: Specializing in Seed investments, with an Opportunity Fund for growth stages in existing portfolio companies. ?? Industry Focus: Uncork Capital supports an array of sectors, from B2B Apps and Services to Consumer Marketplaces, and pioneering Hardware and Frontier Tech. ?? Investment Philosophy: Targeting the exceptional, Uncork Capital partners with founders who are not only passionate about their innovative solutions but are also perfectly poised to disrupt large markets. As we build on this partnership, we look forward to propelling more pioneering teams within the Uncork Capital family toward extensive growth and success. Here’s to a future of shared achievements! ?? #VentureCapital #StartupGrowth #FinanceExcellence #airCFO #UncorkCapital