Tootfinder

Unstructured, which helps companies prepare "really messy, sloppy data" for AI training, raised a $40M Series B led by Menlo Ventures at a $230M valuation (Rashi Shrivastava/Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivast

This Startup Cleans Up The "Ugly Underside" Of AI
Unstructured, which preps sloppy data for LLM training, has raised $40 million at a $230 million valuation.

Vendor Security: why I've mostly given up on the practice of forcing vendors to regnerate insecurely-transmitted credentials
(and a ridiculous conference call)
✍️ https://seancoates.com/blogs/vendor-security

Vendor Security
A few weeks ago I had to have a conversation with a vendor about credentials. Despite some push back from our side, they insisted that their Bearer Token style authentication key for HTTP requests was

How Mastodon made friends with Meta.
https://www.platformer.news/mastodon-interview-eugen-rochko-meta-bluesky-threads-federation/
🤦‍♂️

How Mastodon made friends with Meta
Founder Eugen Rochko on helping Threads federate, dodging venture capital, and why he hopes Bluesky abandons its protocol

Vice Media plans to create a joint venture with Savage Ventures, which will invest "tens of millions of dollars", to relaunch its sites, including Vice.com (Sara Fischer/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2024/05/09/vice-media-relaunch-savage-ventures

Exclusive: Vice Media partners with Savage Ventures to relaunch digital brands
Savage Ventures will invest "tens of millions of dollars" in the JV.

Anrok, which provides sales tax management tools to software companies, raised a $30M Series B led by Khosla Ventures at a $250M valuation (Kenrick Cai/Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2024/04/11/anrok-serie…

Anrok Hits A $250 Million Valuation With A Mundane Idea: Calculating Sales Tax
In 2019, recovering venture capitalist Michelle Valentine came upon an idea she wanted to invest in: a business to handle the rote work of managing sales tax on softwa...

The Fekete problem in segmental polynomial interpolation
Ludovico Bruni Bruno, Wolfgang Erb
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.09378 https://…

The Fekete problem in segmental polynomial interpolation
In this article, we study the Fekete problem in segmental and combined nodal-segmental univariate polynomial interpolation by investigating sets of segments, or segments combined with nodes, such that the Vandermonde determinant for the respective polynomial interpolation problem is maximized. For particular families of segments, we will be able to find explicit solutions of the corresponding maximization problem. The quality of the Fekete segments depends hereby strongly on the utilized normal…

Everything he touches...
Trump loses nearly $2 billion in net worth after Truth Social stock closes at new low - Alternet.org
https://www.alternet.org/trump-loses-net-worth/

Trump loses nearly $2 billion in net worth after Truth Social stock closes at new low
Former President Donald Trump's latest business venture is continuing its rapid descent since the debut of its initial public offering (IPO) in late March. The stock's slide has also significantly impacted the net worth of its majority stakeholder.Ever since trading at a high of roughly $80 per shar...

Sources: Paramount Global is in discussions to sell its minority stake in Viacom18 in India to Reliance (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-06/paramount-said-in-talks-to-sell-india-tv-st…

Paramount Said In Talks to Sell India TV Stake to Ambani’s Reliance
Paramount Global is in discussions to sell its stake in its media joint venture in India to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, as Asia’s richest man continues to consolidate his clout in one of the world’s fastest-growing entertainment markets.

Interviews with Garry Tan, Paul Graham, YC partners, and others about Tan reshaping YC in a "return to roots", as some founders complain about politicization (Alex Konrad/Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/20

Inside Y Combinator’s ‘Boom Loop’: The Startup Factory Goes Brasher, Leaner And Meaner
Former venture capitalist Garry Tan has slashed programs and turned up the mics in a bid to restore the famed accelerator behind Airbnb and Stripe to its full glory.

Email: Galaxy Digital's venture arm, which has long invested its own money, is raising a $100M fund with outside capital, focused on early-stage crypto startups (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/04/