Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

While adult entertainment platform OnlyFans is in talks for an $8bn exit and President Trump’s media venture plans to raise $3bn to spend on Crypto, the rest of us looked on as Jeff Bezos and his fiancée roamed the boxes of Formula One in Monaco. Maybe one day YC’s new Spring batch will be up there, too - just as long as they avoid landing on the Forbes cover. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

OpenAI snaps up Jony Ive’s startup to design AI hardware

OpenAI is acquiring Jony Ive’s io Products in a $6.5B all-stock deal, bringing the ex-Apple design chief onboard to create next-gen AI devices. The move aims to sidestep Apple and Google by building OpenAI’s own hardware platform. Ive and Altman teased a prototype they call “the coolest piece of tech the world will have ever seen.”

OpenAI opens Munich office

Opening its first office in Germany, OpenAI’s new Munich office cements its push into Europe’s largest economy. Germany is now OpenAI’s top European market, boasting the most ChatGPT users and ranking in the top three globally for paying subscribers and API developers.

Builder.ai collapses after lenders seize $50M

Builder.ai, long embroiled in scandals of its business practices, has entered insolvency after creditors froze access to $50M in debt funds, derailing its turnaround. CEO Manpreet Ratia accused lenders of pulling support despite promising progress. The sudden cash sweep left the company unable to meet payroll or operate.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

The biggest disruption to the web in a while?

Google revealed its plans to introduce a “Shop with AI mode”, including an agentic checkout and a virtual fitting room. Shopify shares dropped 5% - is this the end to classic e-commerce as we know it? How will website owners benefit from user traffic if humans delegate their browsing to an agent?

What does it mean to be a working parent?

Working and being a parent can be tough. As Maggie Hott writes in this beautiful and touching post, being a working parent is all about ruthless prioritization and forgiving yourself. Our favourite line:

Fewer people prioritize more and get s*** done than a working mom.

Are many meetings a bad sign?

Sometimes, full calendars are seen as the ultimate sign for hustling. Yet, as Roei Samuel makes the point, they might just be a sign of not having your things together…

Have you already written your own obituary?

Most of us know how it is to not feel good enough: Self-doubt and the search for meaning can leave a mark on us. Paddy Lambros shared the technique of writing your own obituary. Sounds morbid? Maybe, though we think it is more about radical honesty.
Find the exercise instructions here.

For our conversation with Paddy about hiring, see here. For our conversation with Adrian Locher about mental health, see here.

Events happening this week

We constantly update this quarter’s must-attend events for startups in Europe list.

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

B2B Sales is all about finding the right levers to close your deals. “Champions” can be key in the process of internally advocating for the new product you are trying to sell. Yet identifying them and finding the best ways to work with them, eludes many. Mark Treacy put together this concise presentation outlining the following:

• Definition of a champion

• Identifying a champion

• Building a champion

• Assessing a champion

One good read

Can Google still dominate search in the age of AI chatbots?

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

Business Processes Intern [📍Berlin], Delivery Services, Flink [Apply]
Entrepreneur in Residence Intern [📍Munich], Supply Chain SaaS, Tacto [Apply]
Working Student/ Intern Legal Investment and Pension Products [📍Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich], Open Banking, Raisin [Apply]

Customer Success

Key Account Manager [📍Remote, Germany], Process Automation Platform, Synera [Apply]
Senior Customer Success Manager [📍Remote, Berlin], Construction, Cosuno [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Product Marketing Manager [📍London], Compensation data platform, Ravio [Apply]

Sales

Director of Sales, Central EMEA [📍Remote, Germany], Cybersecurity, Aqua Security [Apply]
Senior Media Sales Manager - Travel Advertising, EMEA & APAC [📍London], Travel Software, Rome2Rio [Apply]
GTM Engineer [📍Remote, Europe], Cybersecurity, Maze [Apply]

Product & Tech

Senior / Staff Product Manager, AI Team [📍Remote, Europe], Automation Platform, n8n [Apply]
Product Manager - Limited Service [📍Spain, Germany, UK], Hospitality industry SaaS, Duetto [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!