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Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

French police seems to have been working 996 schedules and have arrested two suspects from last week’s Louvre robbery. The stolen jewellery appears as elusive as UK startup Synthesia as an acquisition target. The founders reportedly rejected a $3bn acquisition offer from Adobe to go for an IPO. A new European Tech jewel in the making. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Quantum Systems acquires AI firm Spleenlab

Drone startup Quantum Systems has snapped up Jena-based Spleenlab, gaining 45 engineers and patents for autonomous, GPS-free navigation across air, land, and sea systems. The twist: Spleenlab’s tech is also used by Quantum’s rivals - existing contracts will remain. The deal bolsters Quantum’s defense ambitions and marks a key step toward its next big play, the “Neo-Prime” initiative.

Meta slashes 600 AI jobs to streamline superintelligence push

Meta has laid off 600 staff from its Superintelligence Labs, mostly affecting legacy research teams. Chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said the cuts aim to speed up decisions and increase individual impact. While older units shrink, hiring continues in Meta’s new TBD Lab focused on “personal superintelligence.”

Brussels plots EU-wide legal shortcut for startups

The EU plans to launch a “28th regime” in 2025, offering a single legal framework for companies to operate across member states. The aim: cut through fragmented tax, labor, and insolvency laws that stifle cross-border growth and fundraising. Backers say only 18% of early-stage investment is pan-European, underscoring the potential.

And if this all sounds very gibberish to you, check out our episode with Andreas Klinger, initiator of EU Inc.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

ACV is destiny?

“The hard truth: Getting to $20M ARR selling $15K deals is not that hard. Any decent product can brute force it. But scaling from $20M to $200M? That's when the ACV chickens come home to roost.” - Manny Medina summed up what growing is really all about:

• If it's not the CEO's #1 or #2 priority, don't build it

• Don't sell software. Own outcomes

• Pattern recognition at scale

Are collapsible teams the future?

Linear’s Tech unit works in different team structures…

Does vibe coding work?

Alex Turnbull has a strong opinion on vibe coding: “They're great for demos. Terrible for production. The difference will bankrupt you.”

Your take?

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:

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From us

Every startup seeks people with high agency. But how to spot them? We loved George Mack’s list on how to spot high agency people - some of our favourite points:

• The golden question - Who do you call when stuck in a 3rd world prison cell? That’s the highest agency person you know.

• Weird teenage hobbies - Teenage years are the hardest time to go against social pressures. If they can go against the crowd as a teenager, they can go against the crowd as an adult.

• Sends you niche content - A low agency trap is to look at the social engagement of content before deeming its quality. High agency people just look at the content. They spot upcoming trends very early.

One good read

Inside Oklo: the $20bn nuclear start-up without any revenue

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 voice agents, Telli [Apply]
Growth & Sales Intern [📍Berlin], AI energy, stealth [Apply]
Founders Associate [📍Berlin], Real estate, Matera [Apply]
Working Student - Engine Controller Software [📍Munich], space tech, The Exploration Company [Apply]
Working Student – Strategy & Business Development [📍Berlin], AI, Deepset [Apply]

Customer Success

Senior Technical Customer Success Manager [📍Remote, Europe], Cybersecurity, Horizon3.ai [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

CRM Lead [📍Stockholm], Health Tech, Neko Health [Apply] - and if you haven’t yet, check out last week’s conversation with their Chief People Officer Noa Perry-Reifer.
UK Communication Manager [📍London], Media, Substack [Apply]
Head of Marketing [📍Munich], OTC Trading, enmacc [Apply]

Sales

Head of Business Development Function [📍Germany, Spain, UK], Hotel Management Software, Duetto [Apply]

Strategy & Ops

Impact Investing Associate / Investment Manager [📍Munich], VC, Aurum Impact [Apply]
Head of Strategy & Analytics [📍Germany], Hospitality, Numa [Apply]
Investment Associate, Teachers' Venture Growth [📍London], VC, Ontario Teachers'​ Pension Plan [Apply, Hiring manager]

Product & Tech

Senior Global Product Operations Manager [📍Remote, Europe], Remote Working, Remofirst [Apply]
Senior Product Manager [📍Remote], GTM platform, Dealfront [Apply]
Founding Full-Stack Software Engineer (Robotics Infrastructure)[📍Zurich], Robotics, Laelaps [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!