Jeff Clavier

Founder of Uncork, one of the OG seed VC firms. Invested in 300 cos at scary early stage. Owner of Clos Clavier. @bernadette hubby, dad of 2, grandad of 1.

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

We’re thrilled to share that, after 18 months in the making, @Bernadette and I have launched @closclavier in Walla Walla, WA!
Our inaugural release features two wines: a Condrieu-inspired white and a Priorat-inspired red blend. Only 150 cases will be available this year - and 40% of our stock was already purchased by friends of ours in the last few days.
Visit https://t.co/Qb3xjOHIHo to learn more or buy some wine!

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

Happy podcasting anniversary to the one and only Patrick @NotPatrick Beja - 20 years behind the mic! I’m lucky to have stumbled onto https://t.co/6i8pSIhcsc in the early days, and grateful for this friendship that got me into podcasting almost 18 years ago. Here’s to the next 20! 👏😁

[Tripp Jones @thistrippjones]

I’ve known @kevinweil and @dpatil for nearly two decades. They’re two of the smartest people I know. So when they asked @uncorkcap to invest in their new company, we jumped at the opportunity.

Kevin and DJ, alongside Sol Reisberg and @manohar_paluri, are building something that could genuinely change millions of lives: a new approach to discovering medicines that brings together expert chemists, AI, and robotics.

Today, developing a new drug takes years and involves testing thousands of molecules, most of which don't work. And all those failed experiments contain valuable information that today's AI models largely don't have access to.

Warp is building the scientific infrastructure here in the U.S. to help researchers discover new medicines faster, with the goal of dramatically accelerating experimentation. The lab will also generate valuable experimental data to help train increasingly capable AI models.

This team could do just about anything, and they've decided to take on one of the hardest problems in science. Couldn't be more excited to be part of it!

[Tripp Jones @thistrippjones]

Incredibly excited to announce @uncorkcap's investment in Evos (@ai_evos), co-led alongside my good friend, @kerby at Field Ventures, as the company comes out of stealth with $9M in funding.

Logistics is one of the largest, most complex industries in the world. We've built incredible technology to track trucks and shipments, yet so much of what keeps the industry running still depends on the judgment of experienced people. And most of that knowledge lives in their heads.

@im_urav and the Evos team have built something really unique. Their autonomous AI operators learn how a business actually runs, then apply that judgment to handle operational work around the clock. Instead of telling businesses how to work, Evos learns how they work.

The early traction is extraordinary. Evos crossed $1M in ARR just four weeks after launch, and customers are already expanding how they use the platform.

I've spent years looking at logistics technology, and this is one of the first companies I've seen that could fundamentally change how these businesses operate. Urav is also just 23 years old and one of the most impressive young founders I've met. His speed and understanding of this industry are something else!

Also thrilled to be investing alongside @CrosslinkCap, @utopiacapitalco, and several angel investors.

https://t.co/LW1eoVAgmS

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@aadi_nash @phinity_ai So happy to see that announcement! Excited for what’s ahead.

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@sonyashijin @phinity_ai So happy to see that announcement! Excited for what’s ahead.

[Amy Saper @amy]

Thrilled to share that @uncorkcap led @phinity_ai’s $5.2M seed round!

Phinity is building AI systems to design, verify and eventually tape out chips. In seven years in venture, I’ve never seen a ramp like this: $0 to eight figures in annualized run rate in under three months.

I first met @sonyashijin and @aadi_nash late last year, when Phinity was only a few months old and had no customers or revenue.

Rather than simply layering coding agents onto existing workflows, Phinity is training AI models to design chips themselves.

Since then, they've assembled an incredible team from NVIDIA, Intel, and frontier research labs. Phinity's agents have outperformed experienced hardware engineers on power, performance and area, even when those engineers were using frontier coding agents, and the system produces verified designs an order of magnitude faster.

If you're at a frontier lab or semiconductor company and want to dramatically shorten your chip design process, the Phinity team would love to chat. And if you want to work on one of the hardest technical problems out there, they're hiring!

More on why we invested: https://t.co/NgpcSdpmnK

[Joseph Smarr @jsmarr]

After watching him back so many great startups over the years, I'm excited to finally have the chance to back* @jeff 's own new startup!

*by buying and drinking the amazing wine he's started making @closclavier

[Andy McLoughlin @Bandrew]

We have a bunch of AI co-workers at Uncork, all powered by our portfolio company @getskydive. Read about how most companies are only now getting ready for this next wave of work in this fun @WIRED piece (starring Skydive and co-founder @dhruvamin) 🤖 https://t.co/EPI8rymh3R

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

Thanks to my old friend @Jason for bringing me back on @twistartups. It was a fun episode arguing (a bit) with @jefielding and @davemcclure. Enjoy!

[This Week in Startups @twistartups]

Anthropic and OpenAI released cheaper models on the same day with Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6. Dave McClure of Practical Venture Capital, Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital, and Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures join Jason to debate what that means for open-weight models. They also get into why fintech and healthcare are suddenly on the VC sideline, whether Meta's Muse leaves any room for Instinct, why it's a buyer's market for secondaries, and why median seed valuations have more than tripled since 2017.

@jason @davemcclure @jeff @jefielding

0:00 What seed rounds looked like then: Fitbit's $2M seed
3:15 Jenny's Techstars NYC years and the two-unicorn mug
7:51 All-In Summit: Trump calls Jensen Huang onstage. Staged or not?
8:56 P(doom) roundtable + Dave's AI sovereign wealth fund prediction
10:08 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://t.co/3AI7Pqn6rk
13:35 The AI intel error that nearly triggered a US-China incident
17:44 "McClure's Law": a human with AI is the real risk
19:59 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://t.co/da1OXz9cl5
21:37 Stripe + OpenRouter: an anti-fraud play, not a routing play?
23:07 Seed valuations: median $8M (2017) to $28M today
23:58 Instinct: $2.5B to a reported $10B in weeks
29:49 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://t.co/OvRGwT3nCs and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.
44:01 Opus 5.5 vs. GPT-6 Sol: the same-day price war
46:51 Gun to your head: open-weight models or frontier labs?
51:00 Secondaries: the top 30 names vs. everyone else
52:30 Why fintech and healthcare are unloved (and Jason's Robinhood bet)

🎥 Watch the full episode here 👇

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@andrewarruda 🙏

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@naynerz @Bernadette @closclavier Not yet, still chatting with them. I'll keep you posted.

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

We’re thrilled to share that, after 18 months in the making, @Bernadette and I have launched @closclavier in Walla Walla, WA!
Our inaugural release features two wines: a Condrieu-inspired white and a Priorat-inspired red blend. Only 150 cases will be available this year - and 40% of our stock was already purchased by friends of ours in the last few days.
Visit https://t.co/Qb3xjOHIHo to learn more or buy some wine!

[Susan @susanwliu]

Big congrats to the @Numeral team on their Series C! Very proud to have backed them since the seed.

@SpamRoss and Matt are some of the most impressive founders I’ve ever met. They’ve gone after a huge, mission-critical market dominated by legacy incumbents and have become the dominant next-gen player in just a few years, with 3,500+ customers across 90+ countries.

Couldn’t be more excited to invest more in this round!

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

Looking forward to it! PS: yes that picture is probably 10-year younger me 🤭

[This Week in Startups @twistartups]

Today on TWiST, we're joined by @jeff, Founder of @uncorkcap.

Over 20+ years he's made 290+ seed investments, including early bets on Fitbit and SendGrid (later acquired by Twilio).

This year, on Uncork's 21st anniversary, he just closed $300M across two new funds. Come tune in at 12pm CT. Link in comments.

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@thistrippjones @Erica_Wenger @uncorkcap @Postmates @eventbrite 22 at Uncork, 26 in the biz 😜😴

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@ImChauncey @Bernadette @closclavier Sorry, Chauncey. We are not shiping to CT right now.

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@naynerz @Bernadette @closclavier Thanks Ranee! We won't have a tasting room, but we may have a few bottles at the Thief at some point.

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@adeoressi @JoshSteinVC @closclavier Ah ah, I am old school: always getting my Liq Pref 😆 - chilled

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

@Erica_Wenger @uncorkcap @Postmates @eventbrite I saw that!

[Jeff Clavier @jeff]

A huge thank you to @Erica_Wenger for inviting me onto her podcast! I really enjoyed our wide-ranging conversation. Fantastic work!

Take a listen!

[Erica Wenger @Erica_Wenger]

My conversation with Jeff Clavier.

@jeff is the founder of @uncorkcap, one of Silicon Valley’s earliest seed-stage venture firms, with early investments in companies like Fitbit, @Postmates, and @eventbrite .

We discuss how he became one of the earliest dedicated seed investors, what it takes to raise a venture fund, the mistakes that turned an eight-week fundraise into a nearly two-year process, and what LPs actually look for when backing emerging managers.

We also discuss:

- Why the world doesn’t need another generic seed fund
- What emerging managers need to prove before raising institutional capital
- How to stand out when competing for limited LP capital
- Why winning competitive deals matters when raising a fund
- Why DPI matters more than paper markups
- How Jeff thinks about secondaries and returning capital to LPs
- What Jeff learned from passing on companies like @Uber and @twilio
- Why supporting founders across multiple rounds can compound your reputation
- How to successfully transition leadership at a venture firm
- Why AI startups are scaling faster than anything Jeff has seen before

Enjoy!
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
03:05 - The Fundraise That Took Jeff Nearly Two Years
08:38 - How Jeff Launched One of the First Seed Funds
13:26 - Why DPI Matters More Than Paper Markups
23:28 - What LPs Actually Want From Emerging Managers
26:26 - How to Build a Venture Firm That Outlives You
30:45 - Life Outside Venture Capital
36:46 - Why Jeff Is Betting on Deep Tech and Hardware
43:08 - Why Jeff Passed on Investing in Uber
47:45 - How Jeff Led the Seed Round for Postmates
51:09 - Trailblazer Trade-Offs