We Raised $10.5M from Costanoa, DFJ, and Google’s Gradient to bring Conversational Commerce to Main Street. Part 1.

We will either find a way or we will make one

— Hannibal

Today, we announce Part 1 — our funding. Costanoa, DFJ, and Google’s Gradient Ventures made a big bet on NumberAI. Part 2 is even bigger news but I can’t share it yet.

Why now?

Humans send 80T messages to each other every year — it is how humanity connects. But how many of those messages are used to communicate with businesses? Outside of China, almost none.

What’s happening in China? WeChat. 1B active users who message just about every business imaginable: to order car service, get food, ask retailers questions, pay for their bar tab. No one calls a business. It’s called Conversational Commerce.

What about the US? 89% of Americans would rather message than call a business. People hate calling. 63% of calls to businesses are not even answered and 80% of modern consumers don’t return voicemails from businesses. Don’t call me to tell me that my prescription is ready, because I am not really listening.

NumberAI helps businesses embrace and promote messaging from consumers. We take the business phone number and make it ‘textable.’ And if someone FB messages the business — we’ve got you.

Messaging is just the start. Helping Main Street businesses run better is more critical. Help them get more food orders. Help them be more responsive to customers. Save labor costs by using AI. Help them take appointments. NumberAI is making this happen for Main Street businesses.

What’s the plan?

In 5 years, we will look back and laugh at the days when we called businesses. This market is enormous. There are 75 million US business phone numbers that will be made textable. We intend on being the winner in enabling those businesses. While Amazon, Google, and FB fight for the consumer side of this equation, we will customer-obsess and deliver the best software for the business side. The market is new and it’s big and will teem with dragons and unicorns.

The NumberAI Phalanx

Who invested?

Today we announce our Series A financing led by three incredible investment groups — Costanoa, DFJ, and Gradient (Google’s AI focused VC). Picking investors is a personal decision. We are lucky. Welcome:

• Mark Selcow of Costanoa: Serial entrepreneur (started Babycenter and Merced systems) who was peerless in his belief in the market and our team. A founder whisperer extraordinaire. Check out his view of this investment.
• John Cowgill of Costanoa: Rare talent of IQ and EQ with an immense passion for helping NumberAI win.
• Andreas Stavropoulos of DFJ: Decade long mentor, calming influence, the best foxhole investor ever created. Love you.
• Zach Bratun-Glennon of Gradient: Passion to help bring AI to small businesses across the world
• Hrishikesh (Rish) Joshi of Gradient: Cerebral yet with natural entrepreneur instincts. Looking forward to the adventure.

Who is NumberAI

• Joel Grossman (Founder, President): Business development, operations, strategy, sales. Force of Nature (FON). Makes us run. Fast.
• Andy Ruff (Founder, Chief of Product, Technology and so many other things): Most unique 360° understanding of company-success architecture: product, design, marketing & customer acquisition, tech architecture, PR, HR etc. The central nervous system of NumberAI.
• Steven Ginn (CTO, VP Engineering): 3X VP Eng who can scale from early to IPO. The humble, hardworking, and resilient engine behind everything that our customers love.
• Dan Hodges (Product, Design): Our cerebral product secret weapon who has designed multiple products generating cumulative $1B in revenue. We thrive on his quiet positivity and humility.
• Andy Smith (Star Engineer): Young but an unstoppable force. Relentless. Emerging Tim Groveresque-cleaner. Tackles all problems with the ferocity of the Krav Maga champion that he is. Our future.
• Mapolo Buessing (Elite Jack-of-All-Trades): Whip-smart with beast of a work ethic that excels in product management, customer success, project management, and customer relationships.

Special thanks to our advisors and friends — Jason Finkelstein (an early founder, advisor, and still our marketing consigliere), Mark Kapczynski (BD and vertical markets guru), Mark Collins (big brother, strategist, and telecom expert), Bill Best (guiding light), Adam Goldenberg (friend of NumberAI and best startup real estate partner), Chris Greco (phalanx member extraordinaire), Iggy Ioppe (your spirit and support), Andrea Iannitti (helping us get pasta via text ordering!)

And, of course, much love to our pioneering initial business customers: your feedback, encouragement, and love drives us.