- Follow the Gradient
- Posts
- Meta to use your social posts to train AI
Meta to use your social posts to train AI
plus: Federer about self-doubt and failure
Christian Woese & Melanie Gabriel
June 18, 2024 • Read time: 8 minutes
Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,
The European Football Championship has started and the weather finally shows some signs of summer mode. If we have learned one thing, it is that building a business is easier with an Apérol in your hand. What’s your favourite drink for tough times? Reply to this email and let us know.
PS: Has this e-mail been forwarded to you? Sign up here.
Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party
Wefox up for sale - Founders vs. CEO
The Wefox founders aim to oust CEO Mark Hartigan before a June 28 meeting, citing conflicts of interest and a potential £20 million bonus. Leadership is split: early investors and founders are against Hartigan, while late investors and Mubadala, a $300 billion Abu Dhabi fund, support him. Mubadala pushes for a sale of the company to UK insurer Ardonagh, valuing Wefox's core assets at €550 million. Just two years ago, Wefox was valued at $4.5 billion.
Meta plans to use Instagram and Facebook posts, excluding private chats, to train their new AI unless users object by June 26. Privacy groups, like the European Center for Digital Rights (NOYB), have filed complaints in eleven countries. Meta claims a legitimate interest in this data use, but critics argue it undermines privacy rights. Will you object or let Meta use your data? Email us!
Cash flood for Elon Musk
Following up on our recent story: Tesla shareholders have spoken and given their approval: Musk is set to receive a jaw-dropping $45 billion compensation package. Seems like he doesn’t have to worry about retirement. 💸💸💸
A world of memes
Apple partners with OpenAI who partners with Microsoft. But Apple will also partner with Anthropic and Google and others. Sounds like a complicated relationship.
Food for thought
Hire slow, fire fast
Me, myself and I: Now you can have a deep talk with a cloned AI version of yourself
“My thinking and everything I am saying comes from a custom GPT that is based on 20 years of Reid talking and making content. So I’ve read all his books, watched his speeches and listened to his podcast. I think it gives me a pretty good sense of how you approach the world Reid.”
Roger Federer about self-doubt and failure
Roger Federer’s commencement address is going viral. Watch the full video here, read our favourite part of the speech below:
“Perfection is impossible. In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches. Now, what percentage of points do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%.
In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot.
When you’re playing a point, it has to be the most important thing in the world. But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you. This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point and the next point after that. With intensity, clarity and focus.
The truth is, whatever game you play in life, sometimes you’re going to lose. A point, a match, a season, a job - it’s a roller coaster, with many ups and downs. And it’s natural, when you’re down, to doubt yourself and to feel sorry for yourself. And by the way, your opponents have self-doubt too. Don’t ever forget that. But negative energy is wasted energy.
You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments. That to me is the sign of a champion. The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It’s because they know they’ll lose again and again and have learned how to deal with it.
You accept it. Cry it out if you need to. And then force a smile. You move on, adapt, grow and work smarter.”
Mark your calendar
Germany
The smarter E in Munich, energy industry, 19-21 June [Program]
finance festival in Frankfurt, fintech, 19 June [Program]
Netherlands
HLTH Europe in Amsterdam, healthcare, 17-20 June [Program]
TNW Conference (the next web) in Amsterdam, 20-21 June [Program]
Switzerland
SEF.Growth Event in Zurich, 20 June
A3F Startup Breakfast in Zurich, established and young entrepreneurs exchange ideas and know-how while having breakfast, 21 June
Did we miss an important event? Let us know by replying to this email.
Would it be helpful to get a list of events one quarter in advance? |
Smart hacks
 colourscontrast.cc - Great way to test colors for screendesign development |  coolours.co - Try out color combos before you decide for a branding |
Join the entrepreneurial journey
Are you ready to take your first steps into the startup ecosystem or seeking an exciting new opportunity? Here is a curated list of startup job openings across Europe for you to explore:
Internships
Founders Associate [📍Zurich], Robotics, Flink Robotics [Apply]
Customer Success
Head of Customer Success [📍Remote], B2B SaaS (Product Management Platform), airfocus [Apply]
Head of Customer Success & Partner Delivery [📍Remote, Berlin, Munich], B2B SaaS (Conversational AI), Parloa [Apply]
Senior Customer Success Manager [📍Remote, Germany], B2B SaaS (Sales Enablement), Seismic [Apply]
HR & Ops
Chief of Staff [📍Remote], Online Marketplace, tagvenue [Apply]
Operations Associate & Executive Assistant [📍Munich], B2B SaaS (Procurement), Tacto [Apply]
Product & Strategy
Go-To-Market Strategy (Senior) Manager (x/f/m) [📍Berlin], SaaS (Healthtech), Doctolib [Apply]
VP of Product [📍Berlin], B2B SaaS (Steel Trading), Vanilla Steel [Apply]
Product Designer [📍Remote], B2C Software (Mental Health), Headway [Apply]
Senior Product Designer [📍Remote], B2B SaaS (Payroll), Remote [Apply]
Marketing
Head of Communications & Community [📍Paris], Startups, STATION F - the world’s biggest startup campus [Apply]
Sales
Sales Development Representative [📍Zurich or Düsseldorf], Manufacturing, Zippsafe [Apply in CH or GE]
Strategic Account Executive [📍Remote, London], B2B SaaS (IAM), Ping Identity [Apply]
🫶 Melanie & Christian
PS: Did you like what you read and know others who would appreciate it too? Point them to https://followthegradient.io
Reply