How to reach PMF faster
Plus: Does it take longer now to Series A?
· 686 words
Melanie Gabriel & Christian Woese
November 04, 2025 • Read time: 3 minutes
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Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,
Nvidia became the first company to ever reach $5 trillion in market value. Meanwhile, OpenAI struck a deal with Amazon committing the LLM maker to spending close to $1.5 trillion in computing resources. Reportedly, it is also preparing a blockbuster IPO in 2026, valuing it at more than $1 trillion. This kind of feels like sitting at a Roulette game having a run on red. Time to get up and leave? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.
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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party
Bending Spoons hits $11bn valuation with AOL buy and fresh funding
Milan-based Bending Spoons has surged to an $11bn valuation after raising $270m and borrowing $2.8bn to bankroll acquisitions, most recently snapping up AOL from Apollo. Revenue is projected to hit $1.2bn this year. Founder Luca Ferrari now joins the billionaire club, with his cofounders close behind. Once a scrappy app buyer, Bending Spoons is now Italy’s tech crown jewel.
Personio trims 10% of staff and exits U.S. market
German HR tech firm Personio has cut 165 roles, about 10% of its workforce, and shuttered its U.S. operations, including its New York office. It’s the company’s third major layoff since early 2024. The move is part of a pivot to focus exclusively on Europe and drive toward profitability, with cuts hitting teams across multiple offices.
Synthesia hits $4bn valuation with fresh $200m raise
AI video startup Synthesia has landed $200m in new funding, nearly doubling its valuation to $4bn in under a year. The round was led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), following last year’s $180m Series D. The raise signals investor appetite for European AI leaders remains red-hot, despite growing chatter about a frothy AI bubble.
What do you meme?
Food for thought
Forward deployed engineers: the hot new AI job?
A new profession on the horizon
Does it take longer to reach Series A?
Startupland is widely split: while AI companies get any funding they want, the rest is shivering. Peter Walker presents data illustrating that it takes increasingly longer for companies to reach Series A stage:
24% of startups raised their Series A in 1.5-2 years after the prior round
39% of startups raised their Series A 3+ years after the prior round
Are your AEs earning market rates?
Sales compensation is difficult, these insights by Dominic Blank provide some guidance on market rates and and OTE splits for Account Executives in Germany.
Wide ranges for top Sales reps
Events happening this week
We constantly update this quarter’s must-attend events for startups in Europe list.
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From us
How to grow an AI-native startup? Loveable’s Anton Osika has made this playbook to help founders reach PMF and traction faster - it follows these steps:
Phase 0 - Problem: Understand the pain deeply before building anything.
Phase 1 - Launch: Incorporate, bank, and ship your MVP in one weekend.
Phase 2 - Believers: Create content, build funnels, talk to every user.
Phase 3 - Product-Market Fit: Iterate fast, measure retention, default to profit.
Phase 4 - Scale: Pour fuel on the fire with diversified growth.