"Sam Ross, the co-founder and CEO of Numeral, came up with the idea for his sales tax compliance startup while traveling the world after having worked as a product manager at Airbnb. "This was early 2018, where you didn't have remote work like you do today," he told TechCrunch in an interview. Direct-to-consumer businesses were a big trend then, so he supported his travel dreams by running several self-funded e-commerce brands from the road."
"Until 2018, e-commerce and SaaS (Software as a Service) companies didn't have to pay sales tax to states where they had customers, but no physical presence. But the Supreme Court ruled later that year that these businesses must collect taxes in the jurisdictions where their customers are located. "All of a sudden, I went from having to deal with collecting tax on my customers in California, to all of a sudden dealing with 40 plus states," Ross said. "That was painful.""
Sam Ross co-founded Numeral after experiencing sales tax complexity while running self-funded e-commerce brands during world travel following a product manager role at Airbnb. The 2018 Supreme Court ruling required remote sellers to collect sales taxes in customers' jurisdictions, expanding obligations to more than 40 states and creating significant compliance burdens. Ross pursued automation of sales tax management, applied to Y Combinator in 2023, and was encouraged by Gustaf Alstromer to build a startup addressing the problem. Numeral raised $35 million in Series B funding at a $350 million valuation, backed by investors including Mayfield, Benchmark, Uncork, Y Combinator, and Mantis. Ross intends to leverage AI to simplify sales tax for clients.
Read at TechCrunch
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