Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Linda Yaccarino left X as CEO after two wild years trying to tame her boss Elon Musk. She may come across Christian Horner during her job search, who was forced out of Formula One’s Red Bull Racing team after two decades at the helm of it. What will they do with all of their sudden free time? One shot would be the UEFA Women’s Euro in Switzerland which is breaking records by doing what both tech and Formula One claim to love most: turning fans into a thriving (and paying) community. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Google snatches Windsurf talent in $2.4B deal after OpenAI fallout

Google is paying $2.4bn to license tech and hire top engineers from AI coding startup Windsurf, after OpenAI’s $3bn acquisition bid collapsed amid Microsoft objections. The move brings Windsurf’s CEO and elite coders into DeepMind, while the rest of the company is left adrift. It's another example of acquihires targeting talent over IP, and the brutal outcomes for non-core startup employees.

Germany launches €200m startup factory push

Germany is backing 10 new startup factories with €100m in public funding to turbocharge university spinouts and create 1,750 startups annually by 2030. Modelled on Munich’s UnternehmerTUM, the factories have already drawn €110m in private capital and include players like Berlin’s Unite and Bavaria’s Zoho Factory. It’s a rare national push to reignite the country’s innovation engine.

Musk’s xAI eyes $200bn valuation after turbulent Grok launch

Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly seeking a fresh raise at a $200bn valuation - just months after its Series B pegged it at $18bn. The Saudi-backed firm recently launched Grok 4, which stirred controversy after posting antisemitic content on X. Despite backlash, investor appetite appears strong, with xAI’s value soaring and a $245bn combined valuation with X now in reach.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Remote hiring and scammers

Some people turn remote work into a business model of being employed for multiple firms at once. The case of Soham Parekh brought extreme fraudsters back into the spotlight. As Paddy Lambros writes in this thoughtful post, these cases are just symptoms of deeper challenges with culture in hiring and leadership for remote work.

Five years to recover your marketing and sales spend?

It takes US public SaaS companies nearly five years to earn back their spend on marketing and sales efforts. These numbers shows how long the ramp up of many SaaS companies actually is and how much they rely on legacy customers to pay their bills…

Distribution over technical excellence?

In a world of AI where anyone can build anything, distribution is more important than ever. This provocative post argues that AI-native companies currently do not win because of defensible tech, but because of en edge in distribution.

Events happening this week

We constantly update this quarter’s must-attend events for startups in Europe list.

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Smart hack

From our Partners

Not All AI Notetakers Are Secure. Here’s the Checklist to Prove It.

You wouldn’t let an unknown vendor record your executive meetings, so why trust just any AI?

Most AI notetakers offer convenience. Very few offer true security.

This free checklist from Fellow breaks down the key criteria CEOs, IT teams, and privacy-conscious leaders should consider before rolling out AI meeting tools across their org.

Get the Security Checklist

From us

Most leaders talk a lot, yet listening often brings your further. As Dan Krenitsyn writes going on a listening tour across the company can work wonders. Ask every person the same three questions

• What’s your top priority for the quarter?

• What’s the stupidest thing we’re doing as a company?

• What’s your single best idea to improve the company?

One good read

Vinod Khosla on how the anti-green agenda could help climate tech

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

Internship: VC Analyst for AI and Industrial IT [📍Zurich], VC, Emerald Technology Venture [Apply]
Internship Communication [📍Zurich], Gen Z, Zeam [Apply]
Finance Data Analyst Working Student [📍Berlin], B2B Payments, Mondu [Apply]
Entrepreneur in Residence [📍Remote, Germany], Air Cargo, cargo.one [Apply]

Customer Success

Customer Success Manager [📍Remote, Germany], LegalTech, Harvey [Apply]
Senior Customer Success Manager [📍Remote, EMEA], Sales Intelligence, Amplemarket [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Marketing Manager, DACH [📍Munich], Documentation, Notion [Apply]
Digital Marketing Specialist [📍Lithuania], Fashion, Vinted [Apply]
Performance Marketing Manager - Paid Social [📍Remote Germany], Fashion, AMELI Zurich [Apply]

Sales

Account Director [📍Remote, Europe], Event Platform, Spotme [Apply]
Pre-Sales [📍Hybrid, Frankfurt], Production software, Operations1 [Apply]

Operations

Head of Operations (path to COO) [📍Berlin], Health Tech, Ovom care [Apply]

Product & Tech

Senior Product Manager [📍Hybrid, Germany], Scheduling, Doodle [Apply]
Director of Product [📍Remote, Europe], LLM platform, Deepset [Apply]
Lead Product Manager [📍Remote, Europe], Localization platform, Phrase [Apply]
Head of Engineering [📍Zurich], InsurTech, grape insurance [Apply]
Founding Engineer [📍Zurich], AI, Bloom [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!