How to spot high agency people for your startup
Plus: Why Linear works in collapsible teams
· 694 words
Melanie Gabriel & Christian Woese
October 28, 2025 • Read time: 3 minutes
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Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,
French police seems to have been working 996 schedules and have arrested two suspects from last week’s Louvre robbery. The stolen jewellery appears as elusive as UK startup Synthesia as an acquisition target. The founders reportedly rejected a $3bn acquisition offer from Adobe to go for an IPO. A new European Tech jewel in the making. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.
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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party
Quantum Systems acquires AI firm Spleenlab
Drone startup Quantum Systems has snapped up Jena-based Spleenlab, gaining 45 engineers and patents for autonomous, GPS-free navigation across air, land, and sea systems. The twist: Spleenlab’s tech is also used by Quantum’s rivals - existing contracts will remain. The deal bolsters Quantum’s defense ambitions and marks a key step toward its next big play, the “Neo-Prime” initiative.
Meta slashes 600 AI jobs to streamline superintelligence push
Meta has laid off 600 staff from its Superintelligence Labs, mostly affecting legacy research teams. Chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said the cuts aim to speed up decisions and increase individual impact. While older units shrink, hiring continues in Meta’s new TBD Lab focused on “personal superintelligence.”
Brussels plots EU-wide legal shortcut for startups
The EU plans to launch a “28th regime” in 2025, offering a single legal framework for companies to operate across member states. The aim: cut through fragmented tax, labor, and insolvency laws that stifle cross-border growth and fundraising. Backers say only 18% of early-stage investment is pan-European, underscoring the potential.
And if this all sounds very gibberish to you, check out our episode with Andreas Klinger, initiator of EU Inc.
What do you meme?
Food for thought
ACV is destiny?
“The hard truth: Getting to $20M ARR selling $15K deals is not that hard. Any decent product can brute force it. But scaling from $20M to $200M? That's when the ACV chickens come home to roost.” - Manny Medina summed up what growing is really all about:
If it's not the CEO's #1 or #2 priority, don't build it
Don't sell software. Own outcomes
Pattern recognition at scale
Are collapsible teams the future?
Linear’s Tech unit works in different team structures…
No permanent teams
Does vibe coding work?
Alex Turnbull has a strong opinion on vibe coding: “They're great for demos. Terrible for production. The difference will bankrupt you.”
Your take?
Events happening this week
We constantly update this quarter’s must-attend events for startups in Europe list.
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From us
Every startup seeks people with high agency. But how to spot them? We loved George Mack’s list on how to spot high agency people - some of our favourite points:
The golden question - Who do you call when stuck in a 3rd world prison cell? That’s the highest agency person you know.
Weird teenage hobbies - Teenage years are the hardest time to go against social pressures. If they can go against the crowd as a teenager, they can go against the crowd as an adult.
Sends you niche content - A low agency trap is to look at the social engagement of content before deeming its quality. High agency people just look at the content. They spot upcoming trends very early.
