How to keep your friends when work gets crazy
Plus: The three things to increase your performance
· 590 words
Christian Woese & Melanie Gabriel
March 17, 2026 • Read time: 3 minutes
Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,
Berlin fintech Taktile placed a giant bronze lobster next to the Wall Street Bull, launching an applied AI research institute for financial services. Their first finding: AI models now beat human accuracy on complex banking tasks. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo with Scale AI's Alexandr Wang to quash rumors about his $14bn hire being sidelined: they’re still building. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.
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Swedish legaltech Legora closed a $550m Series D at a $5.55bn valuation, tripling since its $150m Series C five months ago. Led by Accel, with Benchmark, Bessemer, and General Catalyst joining. The company now serves 800+ customers including White & Case and Cleary Gottlieb. With 400 employees globally, it plans 300+ US hires by end of 2026.
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The US builds AI. Everyone else uses it.
The US is home to most of the leading AI companies but ranks only 20th in per capita adoption. Singapore leads, followed by UAE. There is a clear picture: building AI infrastructure and actually adopting it are two very different things. Where does Europe sit?
We talked to Proton founder Andy Yen about tech sovereignty and Europe's position in the AI race (Youtube / Spotify).
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From us
Startupland can take its toll. How do you keep your friends when work gets crazy? Steven Bartlett opened up about his ADHD diagnosis, the "hyperfocus" that makes everything outside of work vanish, and how he proposed to his fiancee and then immediately disappeared onto planes for a month.
We found his toolkit helpful on not destroying your relationships while being obsessed with work:
Establish a reunion ritual when you get home. Connection before unpacking.
Put phones away during quality time. No exceptions.
Make explicit check-ins non-negotiable. Don't assume your partner knows you care.
Practice quick repair attempts after conflicts. Speed matters more than perfection.
Create physical separation from work. Different room, different headspace.