Europe's unfair advantages

Plus: Is Seed the new Series A?

Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

There is just one topic today: the US election. Judging from their Twitter (sorry: X) feeds, most tech people in Silicon Valley have stopped doing tech and turned to politics. Just in time for the election, OpenAI last week released its competitor to Google: ChatGPT Search. You will be able to ask ChatGPT for the results of the election tomorrow and it should be able to give you the answer - unless it hallucinates. In a world increasingly full of fake news and alternative facts, who are we humans to blame an AI for hallucination? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

PS: Has this e-mail been forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Big Tech earnings: Cloud boom and AI battles

Last week, GAFAM tech giants (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) reported earnings with a clear trend: cloud services and AI infrastructure are driving growth. Across the board, Big Tech is pouring billions into data centres, computing chips and energy to fuel its growth in AI services - including deals for their own nuclear reactors. While the long-term justification of the scale of these investments is disputed, short-term revenue growth numbers are impressive: 15% for Google parent Alphabet, 35% for Google’s Cloud division and 19% for Meta.

Large language models - doomed to fail in EU regulation?

With the EU Artificial Intelligence Act coming into force in January 2025, penalties and fines are looming for AI companies failing to comply (remember Mark Zuckerberg’s and Daniel Ek’s article on Europe’s incoherent regulation?). Language models will have to meet different criteria, e.g. adhere to privacy, transparency, accuracy and promote well-being. ETH Zurich now released research scoring current language models against these criteria. The bottom line: none of them fully pass the test. What this means for the ability to use these models in Europe remains to be seen, and whether this is bad for the affected companies or rather the European Union.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Europe’s unfair advantage to the US

Europe either stands accused of overregulation or underinvestment. It’s scattered market and growth gap brings some unexpected advantages, though: skilled talent is cheaper to get allowing to focus on finding product market fit before scaling; academic institutions are abundant nurturing scientific innovation; and the complexities of a fragmented market raise resilient founders. There is reason for hope.

Is Seed the new Series A?

Over the last ten years, startups have gotten older across the stages: a company raising a Seed today is as old as a Series A company was 10 years ago. What are the reasons: Less burn, higher professionalisation in funding, more interim rounds?

The power of scaling

Scaling can take a long time - yet when it happens, it is unstoppable…

Mark your calendar

Austria

Culttech Summit in Vienna, 5-6 November [Program]
Wolves Summit in Vienna, 6-7 November [Program]
Forbes Women’s Summit in Vienna, 6 November [Program]

Germany

This is Marketing in Frankfurt, 4-5 October [Program]
Gründerszene CHRO Dinner in Munich, 5 November [Register]
Startupland in Cologne, 6 November [Program]
Ada Lovelace Festival in Ludwisburg, 6-7 November [Program]

Netherlands

Founders Running Club Amsterdam, every Saturday [Join]

Spain

Norrsken Impact Week, 7 November [Program]
Sifted Breakfast during Impact Week, 7 November [Register]

Switzerland

SEF Growth in Bern, 5 November [Register]

UK

Turing Summit in London, 6 November [Program]

Accelerators & Awards

With “Accelerators” and “Awards” we’re introducing two new segments that can be a game changer for founders and startups.

Talent Kick is a free program for Swiss students and researchers to build impactful startups. Gain funding, a cross-university network, and hands-on experience to launch your venture while you study [📍Switzerland, Deadline: November 6, 2024 11:59 CET].

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

Do you like what we do at Follow the Gradient? Help us grow this community and share a like and add a comment to our LinkedIn post that just went live:

Smart hack

B2B Sales is a hell of a challenge. Gal Aga provides his insights on turning “Selling” into “Enabling Buyers” in this post - in a nutshell:

Don’t demo - give exclusive views into how peers solve problems
Don’t pitch - offer insights like a highly-paid advisor
Don’t just follow up - provide 'project management as a service'
Don’t rely solely on your champion - build CEO sponsorship early
Don’t send resources - orchestrate the decision process

One good read

Sifted's outgoing news editor shares some final thoughts on how tech companies can hurt entrepreneurship and independent businesses:

Join the entrepreneurial journey

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

💡💡 Show your future employee that you go the extra mile and let them know directly why you will be the perfect fit! We have added a link to the Hiring Manager’s LinkedIn where we think this helps. Do things differently - message them! 💡💡

Internships

R&D Intern [📍Schlieren, Zurich], CleanTech, Oxyle [Apply]
Founder Associate [📍Geneva], ClimateTech, Netra [Apply]
Visiting Analyst Climate Tech [📍Vienna], VC, Speedinvest [Apply]

Customer Success

Customer Success Manager [📍London], B2B SaaS, AirCalls [Apply]
Senior Customer Success Manager[📍London], MarTech, attentive [Apply]

HR, Finance & Ops

Head of Finance [📍Berlin], B2B SaaS, Shiftmove [Apply, Hiring manager]
People Data Analyst [📍London], FinTech, Cleo [Apply]
Operations Manager [📍Paris], Transportation, Voi [Apply]
People Ops Specialis [📍Berlin], B2B SaaS, Strava [Apply]
Senior Workplace and Culture Manager [📍Berlin], B2B SaaS, Tourlane [Apply]

Marketing

Head of Community & Content [📍Zurich], Video , Expeerly [Apply, Hiring manager]
Product Marketing Manager [📍Zurich], Drones, Wingtra [Apply]
Head of Marketing[📍Stockholm], AI, Supernormal [Apply]
Partner Marketing Manager [📍London], FinTech, GoCardless [Apply]
Marketing Associate [📍Zurich], AI & LegalTech, DeepJudge [Apply]

Product & Strategy

Principal Advisor – Launch Strategy & Market Expansion [📍Basel, Switzerland], Life Science, Axmed [Apply]
Data Product Manager [📍London], FinTech, Lendable [Apply]

Sales

Account Executive - Medium Accounting Firms [📍Paris], FinTech, Pennylane [Apply]
Account Executive, Mid-Market [📍Berlin], B2B SaaS, Figma [Apply]

Tech

Do you have a non-tech background but want to change that? Founder Manuel Buri who himself has an Economics background but wanted to learn to code put together a great overview of programs that help you achieve exactly that.

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

🫶 Melanie & Christian

Each week, a lot of work goes into the Follow the Gradient project to help you navigate this crazy jungle called entrepreneurship. Help us grow this community and we’ll make sure that you or your project gets a shoutout in the weekly newsletter!


The Gradient in maths is the direction with the most potential to improve. With Follow the Gradient, we aim to equip you with hands-on insights and real-life learnings to drive your biggest improvements, no matter where you start from: as a first-time founder, operator, solopreneur, aspiring student, or simply a curious mind.

Follow the Gradient and transform your trajectory.

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