Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

It was the story of the weekend: An unprecedented IT incident saw over 8.5 million computers crash after a botched update from security vendor CrowdStrike. Though this is less than 1% of all Windows machines, it briefly threw us back to pre-computer times with handwritten boarding passes making a comeback. Two takeaways: 1) interconnectivity is deeper and carries more risks than we realise, 2) increased reliance on computers (AI) may hurt resilience. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail pool party

Silicon Valley and Trump - a new love affair?

Headlines have been increasing of influential Silicon Valley figures throwing their support behind Donald Trump’s presidential bid. Elon Musk, Doug Leone and Shaun Maguire of Sequoia Capital, Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures and Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of a16z all announced their public support for the Trump/Vance ticket. It is difficult to assess how representative these views are for a the wider tech scene, especially since 80% of its donations this election cycle have gone to the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the first European entrepreneurs are getting nervous, fearing an “America First” approach will hurt international business.

LinkedIn is looking to boost growth

LinkedIn is looking to capture a higher share of their users’ time. After introducing AI writing assistants recently, the platform has also rolled out AI career advice features and gaming functionalities. While numbers on monthly active users have steadily increased, revenue has stagnated in recent years. Are these numbers signs of deeper challenges? To some, LinkedIn does not seem now, what it used to be. When someone posted about what proposing to his girlfriend had taught him about B2B Sales recently, this seemed the tipping point of a longer feeling that the platform had gotten weird.

A world of memes

Food for thought

Modern day slavery of the modern AI tech

In 2027, virtual assistants like Sarah will handle our daily tasks effortlessly, but behind this lies a hidden reality. This documentary unveils the underpaid ghost workers who power our digital world, working for tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Uber. They label images, moderate content, and train AI, often earning less than minimum wage, remaining invisible and unacknowledged.

The Louvre for failures

What do FTX bobbleheads, a Theranos lab coat, a WeWork thermos, and cans of New Coke have in common? They all reside in venture capitalist Sean Jacobsohn's home office turned Failure Museum, the world's largest collection dedicated to business flops. Jacobsohn identifies six forces of failure: bad product-market fit, shaky finances, ignoring customer feedback, tough competition, poor timing, and people. His key takeaway: Failure is an integral, too easily ignored element of success. Anyone who wants to get something right should be aware of the many ways that it could go really, really wrong (but still do it).

Summer bites

It's summer, and it's vacation time—perfect for relaxing at the beach or with a glass of Apérol. Ready for some fresh inspiration? We've got you covered with our Top 10 vacation reads and podcasts to energize your mind. Dive in below!

Bites to read

Banking on it - Anne Boden
A fascinating memoir where Starling Bank founder Anne shares how she broke through bureaucracy, prejudices and endless setbacks to successfully built one of the first European neon-banks.

Burn Book - Kara Swisher
Silicon Valley's most feared tech journalist shares an entertaining account of the tech industry's rise. Blending memoir and history, she offers a critical look at its key players. Reading it feels like finally hearing the inside stories about the likes of Musk, Jobs and Sandberg.

Shoe Dog - Phil Knight
We love this one because it is a wholehearted and honest story on how insecurity, doubt and failure are part of every success story.

The Outsiders - William N. Thorndike
It is a book about some of the most successful CEOs you have never heard of and what made them successful - insightful and easy to read.

The Trillion Dollar Coach - Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
A former college football player and coach, Bill mentored people like Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. The book shares the principles Bill coached, and helps with hands-on stories how they can be applied.

Bites to listen to

Wirecard 1,9 Milliarden Lügen
Do you like to listen to true crime stories? Well then binge-listen to this fascinating tale [in German] about one of Europe’s biggest fraud cases.

Mr Beast at Lex Fridman
Mr Beast is the most successful Youtuber of all time and just 26 years old. No matter what you think of social media or his videos - this is worth a listen.

OMR with Jan Frodeno and Mario Konrad of Ryzon
Deeply inspiring story, honestly told, about how to start a sports and fashion business from scratch [in German].

Acquired: Microsoft Volume I and Volume II
Become a fly on the wall as Microsoft evolves from a teenage dream to a tech titan. These two riveting 4-hour episodes cover Bill Gates and Paul Allen's journey, from BASIC to Windows 95. Dive into the dramatic 20 years between 1999 and 2019, exploring the browser wars, the rise of Azure, and more.

Stratechery - Ben Thompson
There is too many good articles and episodes to list all of them and they certainly also fit into our reading bites. For those of you who want to get thoughtful comments about Tech and society - this is for you.

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:

Mark your calendar

Austria

ICML in Vienna, international conference of machine learning, 21-27 July [Program]
Salzburg Summit in Salzburg, the WEF of Austria, 24-26 July [Program]

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

Smart hack

Cold emails to VCs can be tough, but you can successfully reach out to investors without a prior introduction:

• Do your homework! Ensure the VC fits your sector, vertical, stage, region, and ticket size.

• Subject line is a make or break. Keep it under 60 characters, tailored to the recipient (ex. SaaS for construction industry) with a key fact (ex. funding round) and standout characteristic (ex. serial entrepreneur).

• Avoid industry jargon, assume the investor knows nothing about your industry.

• Track the email to check wether the email was opened or not, so you can time your (max. 3-4) follow-up emails accordingly.

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

PR/Comms Intern [📍Zurich], Beverages, No normal coffee [Apply, Hiring manager]
Innovation Manager Intern [📍Winterthur], Blockchain/SportsTech, ZATAP by collectID [Apply, Hiring manager]
Working Student - Machine Learning [📍Remote], AI Automation, Hypatos.ai [Apply]

Customer Success

Senior Customer Success Lead [📍Remote], Subscription Infrastructure, RevenueCat [Apply]

Marketing

Head of Partnerships & Community [📍Zurich], HR, maruu [Apply, Contact person]
Founding GTM Lead [📍Berlin, NY], B2B SaaS, Along [Apply, Hiring Manager]

Product & Strategy

Product Designer [📍Remote, Vienna], Health Tech, Hi Health [Apply]
Senior Product Manager [📍Remote, EMEA], User Research Platform, Maze [Apply]

Sales

Enterprise Account Executive [📍Remote, Germany], CX Platform, User Testing [Apply]
Founding Sales & Business Developer [📍Remote, Paris], Search Engine, Meilisearch [Apply, Hiring Manager]
Sales Development Representative [📍Amsterdam], CX Platform, Fiat Republic [Apply]
Head of Enterprise Sales [📍Hybrid, Berlin], Investment API, Upvest [Apply]
Regional Vice President [📍Remote, Germany], Fintech, Planful [Apply]

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

🫶 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!