In partnership with

Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Anthropic is offering £340k packages to new hires in London. Not quite Silicon Valley numbers, though Hyrox classes are also cheaper in the city of Big Ben. Managed well, it could still cover the latest $200k beauty treatments Hollywood stars use to look half their age. Is the Forbes 30 under 30 list achievable again? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

PS: There was a slight typo in our last edition (it’s employers, not employees you need to impress to land a job) - thanks for the shoutout! Also: our new Q3 events list is out, see below.👇🏼

Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

N26’s investors push founders out after BaFin blow

N26’s top investors want founders Valentin Stalf and Max Tayenthal gone by year-end, following fresh regulatory warnings from BaFin. The supervisory board chair is set to take over as interim co-CEO. The shake-up comes as BaFin uncovered new risk-control failures, freezing a funding round and derailing plans to buy out 2021 backers.

Klarna’s losses deepen ahead of IPO reboot

Klarna posted a $53m Q2 loss - nearly triple last year’s - as it trims offices and gears up for a fall IPO in New York. Revenues jumped 21% to $823m, buoyed by US growth, but a real estate charge and rising loan loss provisions weighed on results.

Cohere raises $500m to pitch secure AI for enterprises

Canadian AI startup Cohere secured $500m at a $6.8bn valuation, adding ex-Meta and Uber execs as it targets privacy-conscious businesses. Unlike OpenAI or Anthropic, Cohere focuses solely on enterprise clients. Annual recurring revenue hit $100mn.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Meet your competitor’s CEO

In SaaS, 60% of exits happen through consolidation, meaning your competitor today may buy you tomorrow (or vice versa). CEOs who build relationships with rivals gain big advantages: (1) smoother M&A when the time comes, (2) de-escalation of toxic competition, and (3) insights into market shifts you can’t see alone. Add small information exchanges or a joint initiative, and suddenly competition turns into a strategic edge.
Competitors aren’t just enemies: they’re future partners, allies, or dealmakers.

CEO content as a new growth technique?

Content marketing, PR, corporate brands - what marketing techniques will truly convert in a future, where most of today’s growth strategies become commoditised by AI? Personal brands may be the answer. Personal, relatable, human.

Characteristics of great founders?

What thoughts do successful founders share? Harry Stebbings has a clear view:

• Superiority complex: they inherently feel they are better than others

• Self-inferiority: they constantly feel they aren’t doing enough, moving fast enough, achieving more

What’s your take?

GTM Engineering for Customer Success?

GTM Engineering is the new hot sh*t in sales teams. But customer success teams face many more tedious tasks taking up time. As Nick Mehta makes the case in this post, CS Automation Engineers will become the new must-have for any CS teams of the future…

From our partners

The future of AI customer service is at Pioneer

Position yourself at the forefront of AI customer service and join fellow AI leaders on October 9th, 2025 at Pioneer.

Pioneer is a summit for innovative customer service leaders to come together to explore the latest opportunities and challenges transforming service with AI Agents. We’ll be discussing the latest AI technology available, how it works, and the game-changing experiences it can deliver.

Plus you’ll hear real stories from AI customer service leaders at companies like Anthropic, Toast, Rocket Money, and more who have already implemented the latest technology, including successes they had, mistakes they made, and lessons they learned.

Save your seat today at pioneer.fin.ai.

Events happening this week

Our Q3 events list is out! Do not miss any event in Europe where your prospects hang out and save countless hours of your own research! Check it out here.

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

Getting journalists to cover your story, be it fundraise or new market entry, is tough. They get bombarded by everyone, why would your story make it?
Steph Spyro gave her view on how to leverage pragmatism to your advantage:

• Sundays and Mondays are underused in the newsroom, with the news flood being only a trickle

• Send your pitch deck to a journalist on these days and benefit from getting their attention as you are one of the only ones - and they might be craving for something to report

For more hands-on advice on how to deal with journalists:
Listen to our conversation with Sifted Editor Amy Lewin

One good read

How to Build a Career That Thrives Alongside AI

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

Founders Associate (Intern) [📍Berlin], Cybersecurity, revel8 [Apply, Hiring manager]
Full Stack Engineer [📍Zurich], Manufacturing, Manukai [Apply]
Founder Associate [📍Berlin or Zurich], MedTech, House of Charts [Apply]
Founder Associate [📍Munich or Zurich], MedTech, Resmonics.ai [Apply]
Robotics Intern [📍Zurich] Robotics, Roboa [Apply]

Customer Success

Customer Success Manager [📍Hybrid, Munich], Spendmanagement, Moss [Apply]

HR & Finance

Technical Recruiter [📍Zurich], AI Safety, Lakera [Apply]
Technical Recruiter [📍Zurich], Robotics, RIVR [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Marketing Lead [📍Zurich], LegalTech, Casus [Apply, Hiring manager]
Growth Lead [📍Zurich], Robotics, mimic [Apply]
GTM Strategy & Operations (Start-ups) [📍Dublin], AI, Anthropic [Apply]
Head of Growth [📍Zurich], AI, Rapidata[Apply]

Sales

Sales Director [📍Remote, Germany], Houseware, JosephJoseph [Apply]
Key Account Manager DACH - Collectables [📍Remote, Germany], Unique items Marketplace, Catawiki [Apply]

Strategy & Ops

Chief of Staff [📍Hybrid, Berlin], E-Commerce, SellerX [Apply]
Partnerships & Strategic Projects Lead [📍Zurich or Remote-USA East Coast], LegalTech, DeepJudge [Apply]

Product & Tech

Senior Product Manager - Analytics [📍Remote, Europe], Business data collection, Typeform [Apply]
Product Manager IoT [📍Remote, Hamburg, Berlin], CleanTech, 1Komma5 [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!