Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,
Berlin fintech Taktile placed a giant bronze lobster next to the Wall Street Bull, launching an applied AI research institute for financial services. Their first finding: AI models now beat human accuracy on complex banking tasks. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo with Scale AI's Alexandr Wang to quash rumors about his $14bn hire being sidelined: they’re still building. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.
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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party
Yann LeCun's AMI raises $1.03bn for "world models"
Turing Award winner and former Meta AI chief Yann LeCun launched Paris-based AMI Labs and immediately closed a $1.03bn seed round at a $3.5bn valuation. Backers include Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Nvidia, and Samsung. The company is building AI that understands the physical world, not just text. LeCun argues that LLMs are "fundamentally limited."
Legora raises $550m as legaltech goes mainstream
Swedish legaltech Legora closed a $550m Series D at a $5.55bn valuation, tripling since its $150m Series C five months ago. Led by Accel, with Benchmark, Bessemer, and General Catalyst joining. The company now serves 800+ customers including White & Case and Cleary Gottlieb. With 400 employees globally, it plans 300+ US hires by end of 2026.
What do you meme?
Food for thought
What are the non-negotiables for peak performance?
Andrew Huberman broke down what founders get wrong about energy management. The core insight: the real constraint isn't time, it's cognitive energy. Protecting the few hours where you can truly think clearly is the most valuable thing a founder can do. Sleep optimization, recovery protocols, and knowing when to rest are systems design problems, not willpower problems.
The US builds AI. Everyone else uses it.
The US is home to most of the leading AI companies but ranks only 20th in per capita adoption. Singapore leads, followed by UAE. There is a clear picture: building AI infrastructure and actually adopting it are two very different things. Where does Europe sit?
We talked to Proton founder Andy Yen about tech sovereignty and Europe's position in the AI race (Youtube / Spotify).
Smart hack
From our Partners
88% resolved. 22% loyal. Your stack has a problem.
Those numbers aren't a CX issue — they're a design issue. Gladly's 2026 Customer Expectations Report breaks down exactly where AI-powered service loses customers, and what the architecture of loyalty-driven CX actually looks like.
From us
Startupland can take its toll. How do you keep your friends when work gets crazy? Steven Bartlett opened up about his ADHD diagnosis, the "hyperfocus" that makes everything outside of work vanish, and how he proposed to his fiancee and then immediately disappeared onto planes for a month.
We found his toolkit helpful on not destroying your relationships while being obsessed with work:
Establish a reunion ritual when you get home. Connection before unpacking.
Put phones away during quality time. No exceptions.
Make explicit check-ins non-negotiable. Don't assume your partner knows you care.
Practice quick repair attempts after conflicts. Speed matters more than perfection.
Create physical separation from work. Different room, different headspace.
One good read
We just talked to the world’s #1 Robotics influencer Lukas Ziegler about the humanoid robots hype vs. reality, and where Europe fits in the robotics race (Youtube / Spotify).
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
Internship Founders Associate (m/f/d) [📍Berlin, Germany], Consumer Food, Koro [Apply]
GTM Working Student [📍Berlin, Germany], Data & AI, SynthFlow AI [Apply]
Marketing Intern [📍Berlin, Germany], Data & AI, SynthFlow AI [Apply]
Working Student People Experience (all genders) [📍Munich, Germany], Electric Aviation, Vaeridion [Apply]
Growth Intern (m/f/d) [📍Berlin, Germany], Brandback [Apply]
Computer Vision/Machine Learning Intern [📍Zurich, Switzerland], Scandit [Apply]
Working Student - Field Marketing (F/M/D) [📍Munich, Germany], Spatial Intelligence, NavVis [Apply]
Customer Success
Customer Success Manager (EMEA) [📍Paris, France], SaaS, Finance, Upflow [Apply]
Onboarding Specialist DACH - German speaking [📍Barcelona, Spain], Perk [Apply]
Marketing & Comms
Head Of Marketing [📍United Kingdom], Gaming & Media, Kyra [Apply]
Partnerships Manager Sweden (m/f/d) – Part-time, Fixed-Term [📍Berlin, Germany], Consumer Food, Koro [Apply]
Senior Experiential Brand Designer [📍London, United Kingdom], Synthesia [Apply]
Senior Marketing Manager, Partner Marketing FTC [📍London, United Kingdom], Food Delivery, Deliveroo [Apply]
(Junior) Marketing Manager (m/f/x) [📍Frankfurt, Germany], Data & AI, Rail-Flow [Apply]
Senior Copywriter [📍London, United Kingdom], Neko Health [Apply]
META Retail Channel Marketing Manager (m/w/d) Offenbach am Main [📍Offenbach, Germany], Deep Tech, PACT [Apply]
Sales
Senior Revenue Associate - London [📍London, United Kingdom], FinTech, Sequence [Apply]
Account Executive Germany (m/f/x) [📍Germany], eEye Digital Security [Apply]
Enterprise Business Development Manager (m/w/d) New Business [📍Munich, Germany], Yoummday [Apply]
Client Partner, Head of New Business [📍London, United Kingdom], Food Delivery, Deliveroo [Apply]
Manager, Business Development Germany [📍Berlin, Germany], Fintech & DeFi, Wayflyer [Apply]
Strategic Account Manager [📍Stuttgart, Germany], Sereact [Apply]
Strategy & Ops
Accountant [📍Paris, France], Fitness Tech, EGYM [Apply]
Strategic Finance Analyst [📍Barcelona, Spain], Perk [Apply]
Director of Financial Control [📍Stockholm, Sweden], Neko Health [Apply]
Product & Tech
Senior Fullstack Engineer -Moderation [📍Amsterdam, Netherlands], Video Infrastructure, Stream [Apply]
Software Engineer (m/w/d) - JavaScript [📍Munich, Germany], Digital Insurance, ottonova [Apply]
Robotics Researcher [📍United Kingdom], Consumer, Moonvalley [Apply]
Software Engineer - Internal Tooling [📍Stockholm, Sweden], LegalTech, Legora [Apply]
Process Engineer (f/m/d) [📍Munich, Germany], FoodTech, Planet A Foods [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!
Follow the Gradient is a weekly newsletter and podcast by the serial founders Melanie Gabriel & Christian Woese about how to scale a business from Europe while staying sane.
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