In partnership with

Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Nvidia became the first company to ever reach $5 trillion in market value. Meanwhile, OpenAI struck a deal with Amazon committing the LLM maker to spending close to $1.5 trillion in computing resources. Reportedly, it is also preparing a blockbuster IPO in 2026, valuing it at more than $1 trillion. This kind of feels like sitting at a Roulette game having a run on red. Time to get up and leave? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

PS: Has this e-mail been forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Bending Spoons hits $11bn valuation with AOL buy and fresh funding

Milan-based Bending Spoons has surged to an $11bn valuation after raising $270m and borrowing $2.8bn to bankroll acquisitions, most recently snapping up AOL from Apollo. Revenue is projected to hit $1.2bn this year. Founder Luca Ferrari now joins the billionaire club, with his cofounders close behind. Once a scrappy app buyer, Bending Spoons is now Italy’s tech crown jewel.

Personio trims 10% of staff and exits U.S. market

German HR tech firm Personio has cut 165 roles, about 10% of its workforce, and shuttered its U.S. operations, including its New York office. It’s the company’s third major layoff since early 2024. The move is part of a pivot to focus exclusively on Europe and drive toward profitability, with cuts hitting teams across multiple offices.

Synthesia hits $4bn valuation with fresh $200m raise

AI video startup Synthesia has landed $200m in new funding, nearly doubling its valuation to $4bn in under a year. The round was led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), following last year’s $180m Series D. The raise signals investor appetite for European AI leaders remains red-hot, despite growing chatter about a frothy AI bubble.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Forward deployed engineers: the hot new AI job?

Does it take longer to reach Series A?

Startupland is widely split: while AI companies get any funding they want, the rest is shivering. Peter Walker presents data illustrating that it takes increasingly longer for companies to reach Series A stage:

• 24% of startups raised their Series A in 1.5-2 years after the prior round

• 39% of startups raised their Series A 3+ years after the prior round

Are your AEs earning market rates?

Sales compensation is difficult, these insights by Dominic Blank provide some guidance on market rates and and OTE splits for Account Executives in Germany.

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

From our Partners

Free email without sacrificing your privacy

Gmail is free, but you pay with your data. Proton Mail is different.

We don’t scan your messages. We don’t sell your behavior. We don’t follow you across the internet.

Proton Mail gives you full-featured, private email without surveillance or creepy profiling. It’s email that respects your time, your attention, and your boundaries.

Email doesn’t have to cost your privacy.

Ditch the Gmail data grab

From us

How to grow an AI-native startup? Loveable’s Anton Osika has made this playbook to help founders reach PMF and traction faster - it follows these steps:

• Phase 0 - Problem: Understand the pain deeply before building anything.

• Phase 1 - Launch: Incorporate, bank, and ship your MVP in one weekend.

• Phase 2 - Believers: Create content, build funnels, talk to every user.

• Phase 3 - Product-Market Fit: Iterate fast, measure retention, default to profit.

• Phase 4 - Scale: Pour fuel on the fire with diversified growth.

One good read

How OpenAI put itself at the centre of a $1tn network of deals

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

Growth Hacker Intern [📍Berlin], AI, telli [Apply]
Marketing & Impact Copywriter Intern [📍Zurich], FinTech, Inyova [Apply, Hiring manager]
Working Student: Accounting & Finance [📍Stuttgart], Robotics, Sereact [Apply]
Founder Associate [📍Berlin, Zurich, Frankfurt or remote] Storage, SaveSpace [Apply]
Visiting Analyst [📍 Berlin] VC, Visionaries Tomorrow [Apply, Hiring manager]

Customer Success

(Senior) Customer Success Manager [📍Stuttgart], Industrial Marketplace, Sparetech [Apply]
MedTech Customer Relationship & Success Manager [📍Vienna], AI, Flinn AI [Apply]

HR & Finance

Senior HR Partner [📍Vienna], AI, Prewave [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Marketing Coordinator [📍London], VC, Balderton Capital [Apply]
Head of Marketing & Communications [📍Stockholm], Energy, Flower [Apply]

Sales

Founding Enterprise AE [📍Berlin], AI, juna.ai [Apply]
Senior Account Manager — Ventures [📍London], Ecosystem, 11:FS [Apply, Hiring manager]

Strategy & Ops

Executive Assistant [📍Zurich], Bitcoin, Relai [Apply,Hiring manager]
Revenue Operation Specialist [📍Stockholm], Energy, Einride [Apply]

Product & Tech

Senior Software Engineer [📍Stockholm], Energy, Fever Energy [Apply]
Senior Product Owner [📍Ottobrunn, Bavaria], Spacetech, Isar Aerospace [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!