Is your pitch deck ready for the AI era?

Melanie Gabriel & Christian Woese
January 07, 2025 • Read time: 3 minutes

Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Happy new year! While we hope all of you have found some time to wind down and relax during the year-end break, we also hope you feel as energised as us to start into 2025. It is the Chinese year of the Snake, standing for wisdom and intelligence - two traits definitely useful for business (and life). If the year is going to be as spectacular as Shanghai’s New Year drone show, we are in for a bang. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Lilium hop, Volocopter flop?

Munich-based urban air mobility firm Lilium found a buyer for its remaining assets, turning around on its declared bankruptcy. Less than a week after most of its staff was officially led go, a EU and US investor conglomerate - Uplift Mobility - agreed to buy the firm’s operational assets. Shortly after, would-be competitor Volocopter filed for bankruptcy.

Elon Musk mingles in European politics

Elon Musk recommended German voters to select the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the country’s upcoming federal election. After a controversial guest article in newspaper Die Welt, his attention turned to the UK calling for Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage to be replaced. Since the election of Donald Trump, the billionaire has dramatically ramped up his involvement into politics. While it’s one thing for a tech mogul to exercise free speech and share his opinions, what ripple effects might arise for Europe’s startup ecosystem if conservative, right-wing policymakers begin shaping the very regulations that define its future?

Number of US VCs drops 25%

The number of US venture capital firms has dropped 25% since 2022. The capital being invested by Limited Partners (investors into VCs) is at a seven-year low. The metrics are closely connected to the industry’s challenges to return capital to investors, as activity in IPOs and mergers have taken a hit.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

A social network of AIs?

Meta’s move to push fully AI-generated users on its platform received a prompt backlash. So much indeed, they’ve deleted most accounts again - yet the vision will stick. Will we see social networks of AI agents posting about each other one day?

Bureaucracy as a shield against the outside world?

American Entrepreneurs have long been seen to have more vision and ambition than their European counterparts. Is it time to spread our wings?

Has the era of solo founders begun?