Cringe or the best b2b marketing ever?

Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Being in the startup scene these days feels like being in one big AI bubble. Everyone is talking about it, yet no one really knows what it is all about. Will it take away all our jobs? Maybe. Will it make founding a company easier? Definitely. Let’s at least have fun while doing it and jump right in into this week’ edition.

Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

The most cringe moment or the best B2B marketing stunt in a long-time?

A lot of people are hating on the rap …. but which other B2B SaaS business has pulled this off? Design company Canva has done a different kind of product launch and staged a rap to introduce its new enterprise offering.

"It was supposed to be funny and it worked," said Canva's Co-founder & COO Cliff Obrecht when reacting to a post poking fun at the video. "Now everyone knows about Canva enterprise. The marketing team couldn’t have done a better job."

We imagine he is busy counting the exorbitant earned media value (EAM) while the haters are keepin’ on hating 👀

Germany has a new number one as its most valuable AI company:

Translation start-up DeepL announced a 300m financing round at a staggering valuation of 2 billion USD, led by Index Ventures.

This shows two things:

1. Europe can still “pull it off”. In times where most of the funding, especially in AI, goes into the US, a round of this size is a welcome sign that companies over here can attract investment

2. Most of the startup funding still goes into, well, AI. It is just the hottest topic for a while now and continues to be.

We are hearing rumors of another funding round of Paris-based Mistral. Let’s keep up the momentum!

A world of Memes

Food for thought

💡Tech = Self-fulfilment ?

— “So is it hard to poach people from big tech companies?”
— “Oh no. The way you poach people from big tech companies is you tell them that their career is meaningless and that they’re wasting their lives on something that doesn’t matter.”

Answer from Palmer Luckey, founder of autonomous weapons startup Anduril Industries Inc. to Bloomberg Originals Host & Executive Producer Emily Chang’s question.

💡No tip for Uber drivers?

We all love tipping friendly Uber drivers. When hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman discovered that his tip did not seem to be forwarded to his Uber driver, he took to X and caused an outrage.

Prematurely as it turned out: Uber later clarified that it does forward the proceeds, but does not necessarily show it directly on screen for the driver.

Yet: a case in point how quickly a sh*tstorm can emerge when the wrong message goes viral on social media.

Click below to read the full post.👇

Mark your calendar

Where the music plays this week in Europe’s startup-event-universe:

Germany
re:publica at STATION Berlin from May 27-29th. [Program]

Switzerland
Startup Days at Kursaal in Bern on May 30 [Program]

Did we miss an important event? Let us know by replying to this email.

Smart hack(s) and insights

Join the entrepreneurial journey

Are you ready to take your first steps into the startup ecosystem or seeking an exciting new opportunity? Here is a curated list of startup job openings across Europe for you to explore:

Internships 
Talent Acquisition Intern [📍Paris], HR-Tech, Brigad [Apply]
Product Intern [📍Vienna], Infrastructure, Bitmovin [Apply]
Graduate Program - Operations [📍Munich], SaaS, Scalable Capital [Apply]
IT Operations apprentice [📍Paris], SaaS, AirCall [Apply]

Customer Success 
Customer Success Manager (ES & PT) [📍Madrid], FinTech, Cobee [Apply]
Implementation Manager (UK) [📍Hybrid, UK], Future of Work, Writer [Apply]

Marketing 
Junior Inbound Marketing Manager DACH [📍Berlin], SaaS, PlayPlay [Apply]
Community and Brand Manager [📍Zurich], Manufacturing, EthonAI [Apply]

Sales
Relationship Manager, EDU [📍Remote], FinTech, Flywire [Apply]
Account Executive Mid Market DACH [📍Remote, Hybrid], AI, DeepL [Apply]

Talk to you next week! In the meantime, we see you on LinkedIn, X and Insta!

🫶 Melanie & Christian from Follow the Gradient