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Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Happy new year everyone! Whatever your New Year’s resolutions, we hope they didn’t break on the first day back in everyday life. While many of us were taking it slow during the year end break, Meta made another move on the AI front. It announced the acquisition of Singapore-based startup Manus for over $2bn. Also in 2026, AI will be the all-compassing topic. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Kraken to spin out at nearly $9bn valuation

Octopus Energy is carving out its software arm, Kraken, in a $1bn funding deal that sets its valuation at $8.65bn ahead of a 2026 demerger. Led by D1 Capital and joined by big-name backers, only $150m of the raise goes to Kraken itself, with Octopus pocketing the rest. Kraken powers utilities like EDF and Tokyo Gas, and a future IPO is now firmly on the cards.

Twitter and Pinterest alums launch “anti-social” app Tangle

Biz Stone and Evan Sharp have unveiled Tangle, an invite-only app for “intentional living,” aiming to counter the psychological fallout of social media. Backed by $29m from Spark Capital and others, the app prompts users to share daily intentions and support friends' goals. It's a striking pivot from founders who helped build the attention economy and are now trying to fix it.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Are your mind and body in a “prime” state?

Do you know the feeling when you are stuck on a problem, or a situation you can’t find a way out? It is easy to get into a downward spiral of negative thoughts. We loved the perspective of Tim Ferris, arguing how your emotional state influences your ability to work out solutions. Sometimes, a brisk walk can do more wonders than you think…

Are personal brands the next growth hack?

The new cohort of hyper-growth AI startups feature a unique component in their growth strategy: a team of operators with strong personal brands on socials, in addition to strong founder brands. Is this the new growth playbook: your team becomes your lead generation engine?

”Never quit” - is it all just bad VC advice?

Peer pressure within the bubble of startupland can be insane. Have you announced fundraising? Are you following the “usual” playbook? We found the views of Ripling CPO Matt MacInnis on the “never quit” mindset refreshing:

“We talk in Silicon Valley about never quit. But that is complete, absolute, venture capital bullshit. The incentive of venture capitalist is to put money into your company and milk you dry. The only logical desire that they would have is for you to keep trying against all odds. The Silicon Valley mindset is not pro entrepreneur - it's pro venture capitalist.”

Are you in a leaking boat?

Smart hack

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From us

SEO is increasingly becoming a game of the past, the new paradigm is to surface in the answers of LLM chatbots. How are the rules of this new AI game? Josh Grant of Webflow shared a key observation:

LLMs reward timeliness. In order to get cited in an answer provided by AI, it matters how recent your content is. A key factor will be to refresh content regularly to drive traffic: “AI-sourced traffic converts ~6x higher than traditional SEO.”

One good read

The relentless rise of YouTube

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.

Internships

Come work with us at Follow the Gradient: Working Student(s): Growth & Content [📍Switzerland, Remote], Podcast & Newsletter, Follow the Gradient [Apply]

Founder Associate [📍Lidingö, Sweden], Circular Economy, Rebaba [Apply]
Internship in Energy Analysis & Digitalization in the Building Sector [📍Zurich], Real Estate, Norm [Apply]
Internship Non-Financial Risk Management [📍Munich], Fintech, Scalable Capital [Apply]

Customer Success

Senior Customer Success Manager, Public Markers [📍London], Data, Ledgy [Apply]
Customer Value Team Lead [📍Hybrid, Munich], Supply Chain SaaS, Tacto [Apply]
(Senior) Enterprise Customer Success Manager [📍Germany], Spare parts management, Sparetech [Apply]

HR & Finance

Finance Associate [📍Stockholm], Transportation, Voi Technology [Apply]
People Operations Manager [📍London], CRM, Attio [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Marketing Events Lead EMEA [📍London], AI, Anthropic [Apply]
Influencer Marketing Manager [📍London], Video, Veed.io [Apply] - have you heard our conversation with its founder Sabba yet?👀

Sales

Founding BDR [📍Berlin], AI-native phone system, telli [Apply]
Head of Payroll Partnerships [📍Munich, Berlin], HR SaaS, Personio [Apply]

Strategy & Ops

CEO [📍Winterthur, Switzerland], Ecosystem, Swiss Startup Association [Apply]
Chief of Staff [📍Remote], Vector Database, Qdrant [Apply]

Product & Tech

AI Research Scientist & Engineer [📍Zurich], Robotics, mimic [Apply] - have you checked out our conversation with mimic’s CTO and co-founder Elvis already? 👀
Senior Computer Vision Software Engineer (Localisation) [📍Zurich], Robotics, Verity [Apply]

Final words — take what you need

Stay connected and spread the word! If you found this newsletter insightful, why not share it with your network? Thanks for reading, and we look forward to bringing you even more insights in the next edition!