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Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang became the FT person of the year, while Time magazine named the “AI architects” the person of 2025. No matter if you are team Boom or Doom, their impact will for sure be lasting. Disney has already placed its bets: it announced a $1bn investment into OpenAI. After all, we’ll have more time to watch movies when AI does all the work. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Eventbrite sells to Bending Spoons for $500m

Eventbrite is getting acquired by Bending Spoons in a $500m all-cash deal, handing shareholders a 82% premium at $4.50 per share. The Milan-based acquirer plans to inject AI into Eventbrite’s platform: smarter event creation, better search, and a resale marketplace. CEO Julia Hartz called it a growth play, the deal closes in H1 2026.

EU Parliament punts on startup reform, sparks backlash

The European Parliament’s legal committee backed a watered down approach to startup regulation, opting for a directive instead of an EU-wide legal framework founders have long demanded. Critics say it adds complexity instead of solving fragmentation. The proposal has no legal teeth, but all eyes are on the European Commission’s Q1 2026 plan.

N26 names UBS exec CEO amid fresh regulatory blow

N26 hired UBS exec Mike Dargan as CEO hours after BaFin hit it with fresh sanctions over risk control failures. The bank faces a mortgage freeze, new capital demands, and tighter oversight. A shareholder deal to strip founders of veto power is also nearing completion.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

The true potential of promoting internally

Promote an internal talent, or hire someone external who has already done the job? External hires seem like the safe option to many, but Paddy Lambros thinks otherwise. Internal talent already knows the team, knows how to get things done, and values opportunities. Things which are hard to get from an external person. Who are the future leaders in your own org?

VC math is simple

Data moat for Robotics?

Not only LLM companies need learning data, the fast growing space of Robotics even more. Sifted walks through the inside race of Robotics startups to obtain and leverage real world data in this insightful piece.

Smart hack

From our Partners

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• 7 high-impact AI strategies to accelerate your marketing performance

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From us

Shipping new product features can never be fast enough. How do you increase speed while ensuring quality? Geoff Charles from Ramp shared their playbook to keep the bar for builders high while not slowing down.
The key: any team can ship to early access customer tiers and only needs approval for general release. For this approval, the following questions need to be answered and signed off:

1. What did we build and why

2. What's the demo in < 3mn (Loom)

3. Did we meet our goals in early access (hex dash)

4. Are customers raving about this (think: LLM on Zendesk tickets, Sprig surveys, Gong transcripts)

5. Will customers easily discover and start using it

6. Is sales ready to sell, AM ready to activate, and support ready to troubleshoot

7. Do we have a clear rollout plan

One good read

a16z Big Ideas 2026: Part I, Part II, Part III

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

Working Student - Content Marketing [📍Remote, Europe], Revenue AI Platform, Weflow [Apply]
Communication and Content Creator [📍Paris], Energy Intelligence Platform, Kayrros [Apply]
Founder’s Associate [📍Berlin] HRTech, HeyJobs [Apply, Hiring manager]

Customer Success

Senior Merchant Onboarding Specialist [📍Berlin], Fintech, Payrails [Apply]
Customer Success Engineer [📍London], Compensation Platform, Pave [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

CRM Marketing Manager [📍Berlin], Healthtech, Amboss [Apply]

Sales

Regional Sales Director - EMEA (DACH) [📍Remote, Europe], Cybersecurity, SpyCloud [Apply]
Sales Manager B2B Partner Acquisition [📍Remote], Affiliate Marketing, We love X [Apply]

Strategy & Ops

Head of Operations [📍Munich], Space Exploration, The Exploration Company [Apply]
Senior Business Intelligence Manager [📍Munich], OTC Trading Platform, Enmacc [Apply]

Product & Tech

Staff Product Manager [📍Remote, Europe], User Discovery, Maze [Apply]
Senior Product Manager [📍Remote, Europe], Marketplace, Refurbed [Apply]
Senior Product Manager, Database Core [📍Remote, Germany], Data Analytics, Exasol [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!