Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

OpenAI introduced its new flagship model GPT-5 and humanity is torn apart. While one side is proclaiming the beginning of the end of SaaS - anyone can now build anything - the other one is flooding Reddit forums with cancellation announcements: they want their previous models back. Wasn’t Marketing playbook rule number one that any publicity is good publicity? Mission accomplished. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

US battery start-up takes over Northvolt assets

US-based Lyten is buying Northvolt’s bankrupt gigafactory, R&D site, and planned German facility at a steep discount. The firm aims to revive operations and expand into drones and data centres. Lyten bets on cheaper, higher-density lithium-sulphur tech to avoid Northvolt’s missteps. The deal still needs Swedish and German approval, with plans to rehire staff and win back former customers.

Destinus makes $225m move for Swiss AI pilot firm

Hypersonic drone maker Destinus is buying Zurich’s Daedalean for $225m, one of Europe’s biggest defence tech deals. Backed by over €200m in funding and fresh from supplying weapons to Ukraine, Destinus aims to boost AI for strike drones and aircraft. The buy caps a surge in European defence tech M&A, with giants like Helsing and Quantum Systems also on acquisition sprees.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Are you handing out too many advisory shares?

Equity can evaporate quickly: handing out too many shares to advisors or giving them to early employees without vesting schedules. As Wael Jabir writes, Carta’s founder report benchmarks the median founding team at 36% ownership after the Series A, only. Is this worth the hustling?

The AI-leveraged agency?

How will the next AI unicorn be built? An AI-native B2B SaaS company? As Greg Isenberg points out in this thoughtful post, it may rather be an AI-leveraged agency. The playbook: provide classic services to your clients, deliver them by doing them manually at first, then build AI agents around you later on.

USA - a better place for a startup?

Which country is the best place for entrepreneurship? As Ilya Strebulaev of Stanford University writes, a relocation to the US significantly increases the chances to obtain unicorn status. These numbers confirm what we’ve long known. Are you a founder outside the US? Email us and let us know your thoughts.

Big things start small

With Figma just IPOing and the tendency in startupland to create a narrative of the one-day-rocketship-success, it’s refreshing to read back Figma founder Dylan Field’s first application - they wanted to be a drone startup… Remember: you can do it too!

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

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From us

In times of constant availability and always-on tools like Slack, Discord or MS Teams, average working days can feel like responding to a relentless bombardment of messages.
In this all-time classic, Sifted outlines how to block time in your day for uninterrupted work. Key take-aways:

• Set clear goals and intentions to counteract urgent overrides of your blockers

• Create the right environment - a long-form strategy memo cannot be written with 30 tabs open

• Consciously plan your week: time blockers are not made up spontaneously, they are planned ahead

One good read

What does the AI startup of the future look like? Lessons from the SaaS boom

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.

👀 Looking for a job that is not on LinkedIn, try this simple magic and thank us later.

Internships

Automation Intern & Operations Ops [📍Munich], VC, HV Capital [Apply, Hiring manager]
Fullstack Developer Intern [📍Zurich], Real Estate, nestermind [Apply, Hiring manager]
Intern Market Expansion [📍Berlin], Healthcare, Sanity Group [Apply]

Customer Success

Senior Customer Success / Key Account Manager [📍Remote], Buyer Enablement Platform, Emlen [Apply]
Customer Success Manager - DACH [📍Remote, Germany], Security Platform, Pentera [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Developer Experience & Relations Lead [📍Copenhagen], AI, Interhuman AI [Apply, Hiring manager]
Marketing Ops Analyst [📍Hybrid, Amsterdam, London], Cybersecurity, Hadrian [Apply]

Sales

Sales Manager [📍Zurich], Robotics, Ascento [Apply, Hiring manager]
Global Strategic Account Director - Public Sector [📍Remote], Digital Assets, TRM Labs [Apply]
Director of Business Development [📍Remote], Space-based Signal Intelligence, Capella Space [Apply]

Strategy & Ops

Head of Product Strategy & Operations [📍Remote, Europe], Customer Engagement Platform, Emplifi [Apply]

Product & Tech

Senior Product Manager [📍Remote], Card Processing, Enfuce [Apply]
Senior Product Manager [📍Remote, Germany], Learning Platform, Degreed [Apply]
Senior Product Manager [📍Hybrid, Berlin, Freiburg], Space data platform, Constellr [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!