Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Microsoft announced it was shutting down Skype. We didn’t know that stuff was still around - it certainly feels like the end of an era. No one wants people to say this about Europe at one point. Revolut’s Co-Founder is skeptical, though and thinks Europeans value work-life balance more than your US and Chinese counterparts, dragging competitiveness. Maybe we work smart, not hard? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Revolut being pushed for share sale at $60bn valuation

Investors are urging Revolut to consider a secondary share sale at a $60 billion valuation, up from $45 billion six months ago. The company is set to report a record $1 billion in profit for 2024 as it continues to expand into private banking, real estate lending, and crypto services. A public listing is expected by 2026.

Hypergrowth at AI venture “Loveable” brings funding

Stockholm-based Lovable secured a $15M pre-Series A led by Creandum, with backing from top angels like Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo. Its no-code AI tool enables instant website creation, driving $17M ARR in three months with 30K paying users. After turning down an offer from Y Combinator, it is now one of Europe’s fastest growing SaaS platforms of recent times.

Anthropic completes multi-billion funding round

AI startup Anthropic secured $3.5B in funding at a $61.5bn as it competes with OpenAI and DeepSeek. Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, the funding supports model development and global expansion. Anthropic prioritizes AI safety, with its Claude models directly rivaling GPT and Gemini.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

The end of software engineering as we know it?

AI has an outsized impact on software engineering. As Alex Turnbull points out, there is a growing rift between elite engineers producing ever more code with the help of AI - and all others. Will the divide get even bigger?

AI or not AI - that is the question (for schools)

If you’re not using AI, you’re falling behind—just ask school kids. Instead of restricting AI in homework, Estonia is giving students and teachers free access to top AI tools. Its AI Leap program is among the most progressive yet, setting a bold precedent. Is this the future of education?

The end of subscription-based pricing?

Long has SaaS booked 80% margins, but Andrew Davies points out AI’s rising costs are cutting them to 60%. Cost keep climbing, yet monetisation stays unchanged. What will be the fix? Moving beyond subscriptions. Customers won’t pay for AI itself; they’ll pay for results. In the future, pricing will have to be valued to real value - or: outcomes.

Mark your calendar

Spain

4YFN in Barcelona, 03-09 March [Program]

Switzerland

Verbier Summit in Verbier, 07 March [Program]

UK

Investing with confidence in London, 05 March [Program]
South Yorkshire Tech Summit in Doncaster, 10 March [Program]

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Smart hack

Your website is your shop window. For it to have people coming back, or book meetings, it needs to be two things:

• Clear: Does it explain your product effectively?

• Convincing: Do you have enough proof to back up your claims?

In this post, Marina Brühl shares this concise rulebook to assess your own website.

One good read

How much should I invest in RevOps?

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 [📍Remote], Data & AI, Morphais [Apply, Hiring manager]
Backend Software Engineer Internship [📍City or Remote], Industry, Hoshi [Apply, Hiring manager]

Customer Success

Customer Success Manager (German speaking) [📍Remote, Berlin], Hospitality SaaS, Canary Technologies [Apply]
Renewals Manager [📍Remote, Berlin], Cybersecurity, Wiz [Apply]

HR & Finance

FP&A Analyst [📍Berlin], SaaS, Taktile [Apply]
Finance & Investor Relations Manager [📍Berlin], VC, First Momentum Ventures [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Marketing Manager [📍Zurich], grape, InsurTech [Apply, Hiring manager]
Founding Marketer [📍Berlin], Accounting & Taxation, Integral [Apply]

Sales

Account Executive [📍Remote, Germany], Process Automation, Synera [Apply]
Head of Sales [📍Remote, Berlin], Fintech, Vivid [Apply]

Strategy & Ops

Chief of Staff [📍Berlin], Supply Chain [Apply]
Chief of Staff [📍City or Remote], FinTech, Upvest [Apply]

Product & Tech

Product Manager [📍Zurich], Blockchain, relai [Apply]
Satellite Cloud & Infrastructure Engineer [📍Lausanne], SpaceTech, dPhi Spacce [Apply]

Final words — take what you need