Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,
The Austrian who rocked the internet with AI agent OpenClaw was hired by OpenAI. Is this time to celebrate the possibly first one-person billion dollar company, or to bemoan another European talent leaving for SF? Either way, it is a urgently needed win for Sam Altman. His arch rival is readying up: Anthropic sacked in $30bn in another funding round. The race for AI dominance continues. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.
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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party
Aleph Alpha founder teams up with Roland Berger for new AI venture
Jonas Andrulis, pushed out of Germany's once-hyped AI champion Aleph Alpha, has co-founded a new startup with management consultancy Roland Berger. The unnamed company will build "collaborative AI" that embeds expert knowledge into business processes. Roland Berger CEO Stefan Schaible is the sole investor and will serve as COO.
Legora in talks to triple valuation to $6bn in under a year
Swedish legal-AI startup Legora is raising at a $6bn valuation, tripling its $1.8bn October 2025 round. Founded in 2023 by 25-year-old YC alum Max Junestrand, Legora serves 600+ law firms across 50+ markets. Total raised to date: $266m. The valuation has increased nearly 9x since May 2025.
Mistral's revenue surges to $400m as Europe bets on AI sovereignty
French AI lab Mistral hit $400m+ ARR, up 20x year-over-year, and is targeting EUR 1bn revenue by end of 2026. The company is investing $1.4bn to build data centers in Sweden, its first major EU infrastructure push. As Europe's only frontier AI developer, Mistral benefits from growing concern about technological dependence on US providers.
What do you meme?
Food for thought
Is this code red for Europe?
US hyperscaler CapEx is projected at $660-690bn in 2026. European AI server spending: roughly $47bn. The EU's EUR 200bn AI Continent Action Plan still pales against US Big Tech spending alone…
We recently talked to Proton founder Andy Yen about the importance of tech sovereignty (Youtube / Spotify). And Judith Dada of Visionaries Club made strong points during our conversation on why Europe giving up on the model and infrastructure layers is a strategic mistake (Youtube / Spotify).
What do European founders actually earn?
Creandum released its fourth annual founder compensation report. AI-native founders at seed take home a median of EUR 110k. DACH founders lead Europe at EUR 130k median, while Nordics sit at EUR 95k despite Stockholm's hype. A fair pay worth all the hustle?
Which software moats survive?
Jake Saper laid out an impressive piece on the spectrum of software defensibility. The bottom line: seat-based pricing and workflow stickiness were the backbone of the last era. The next era rewards outcomes, context, and trust.
We recently talked to Laura Modiano of OpenAI about how AI is reshaping how companies build and ship products (Youtube / Spotify).
Smart hack
From our Partners
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From us
Most leaders obsess over hiring. Almost nobody has a system for what comes after. The result: employees leave the company after 6 months and the pain starts again. We built a framework to help you evaluate new hires honestly, with checkpoints across the first 90 days.
Two principles worth carrying with you:
Define success before you need to evaluate it. The time to set expectations is before day 1, not when things feel off. Work backwards from month 3: what does great look like? If you can't describe it, the problem starts with you.
Watch the slope, not the point. A person's position on day 30 matters less than the trajectory from day 1 to day 30. A steep learning curve paired with genuine willingness to push through hard moments is worth more than a polished start that plateaus.
Built from over 60 conversations with founders, operators and investors on our podcast.
One good read
A good read: Something Big Is Happening
For a good listen regarding the recent news of the OpenAI’s hire of Peter Steinberger, we can recommend his appearance on this podcast.
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 employer 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
Intern Category Management (m/f/d) [📍Berlin, Germany], Grocery Delivery, Flink [Apply]
Venture Team - Visiting Analyst [📍Berlin, Germany], Venture Capital, Atomico [Apply]
Customer Success
Customer Success Engineer - Commercial [📍Remote, Europe], Cloud / Kubernetes, Spectro Cloud [Apply]
Customer Success Manager (EMEA) [📍Remote, Germany], Warehouse Robotics, Locus Robotics [Apply]
Marketing & Comms
Product and Customer Marketing Manager [📍Zurich], InsurTech, grape [Apply]
Sales
Senior Account Executive - DACH [📍Munich, Germany], Manufacturing Operations, Tulip Interfaces [Apply]
Sales Engineer [📍Germany], Cybersecurity, XM Cyber [Apply]
Area Vice President DACH [📍Germany], Cybersecurity, XM Cyber [Apply]
Sales Leader [📍Germany], Cybersecurity, Pentera [Apply]
Senior Account Manager (m/w/d) [📍Berlin, Germany], Expense Management, Circula [Apply]
Head of Business Development & Strategy [📍Germany / Switzerland], Digital Health, Oviva [Apply]
Listen to our conversation with Oviva co-founder and CEO Kai Eberhardt (Spotify)on scaling a startup without losing its soul.
Strategy & Ops
Strategy & Operations - Product Growth [📍Munich, Germany], Procurement AI, Tacto [Apply]
Visting Analyst [📍London], VC, Balderton [Apply]
Product & Tech
(Senior) Machine Learning Engineer [📍Munich / Zurich], AI Pricing, PriceNow [Apply]
Machine Learning Engineer (MSA) [📍Geneva, Switzerland], Privacy Tech, Proton [Apply]
Listen to our conversation with Proton founder and CEO Andy Yen (Youtube / Spotify) on building a mission-driven tech company and the importance of European tech sovereignty.
Backend Software Engineer [📍London, UK], Digital Health, Early [Apply]
Senior Technical Support Engineer [📍Zurich, Switzerland], Industrial AI, Cerrion [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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