Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

A Delaware court reinstated Elon Musk’s $56bn pay package after axing it in 2024. Looks like Christmas for him came early this year, though we’re sure there will be legal sequels. Meanwhile, former ComplYant founder Shiloh Luckey is under investigation for allegedly spending VC money on a lavish Caribbean wedding and Super Bowl tickets. This might be a good week to reread your expense policy. If none of that screams ‘festive cheer,’ our handpicked books and videos below are a far safer way to spend the holidays. Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

PS: Has this e-mail been forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Lovable triples valuation to $6.6bn after explosive growth

Swedish AI coding startup Lovable raised $330m at a $6.6bn valuation, just five months after a $1.8bn Series A. The 2024-born company hit $100m ARR in eight months, then doubled it four months later. With Klarna, Uber, and Zendesk onboard, it now sees 100K+ new projects daily. Despite pressure to move to Silicon Valley, CEO Anton Osika says staying in Sweden paid off.

Yann LeCun seeks €3bn valuation for stealth AI startup

Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun is raising €500m for a new venture (Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs) targeting a €3bn pre-launch valuation. The Turing Award winner is bringing on Nabla CEO Alexandre LeBrun to lead the company, which aims to build AI systems that understand the physical world.

Oracle to lead TikTok US buyout in $14bn joint venture

TikTok is forming a US-based joint venture with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, set to close by January 2026, in a long-awaited move to separate from ByteDance. The deal values TikTok US at $14bn, gives American investors majority control, and installs a US board, while ByteDance retains 19.9% and profits from licensing its algorithm.

Germany launches €130bn fund

Germany unveiled the Deutschlandfonds, a €130bn fund-of-funds designed to channel pension and private capital into energy, defence, and DeepTech. Anchored by a €30bn state guarantee, the fund targets SMEs and scale-ups starved for growth capital. It's a major play to plug funding gaps and revive industrial competitiveness.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Is AI rewriting rules on growth?

Loveable’s Head of Growth Elena Verna’s podcast appearance at Lenny’s is a look into the future on how growth will look like in the AI era:
“The channels in which marketing right now works are changing quite a bit. […] When you’re talking about organic strategy, if you asked me that five years ago, I would have said: 'that’s SEO. […]'. If you ask me, what’s your organic marketing strategy right now To me, it’s all about social. What is my CEO posting? My team posting? What is my creator economy doing across all of the social platforms?”

Her episode is a gem for all things growth. We can wholeheartedly recommend it, find it here.

Ever higher and faster funding?

It seems certain to ever more people we are in bubble territory with AI. Either way, valuations are skyrocketing at breakneck speed…

Is LinkedIn changing the game?

LinkedIn is an important acquisition channel for many, but anecdotal evidence indicates reach has been dropping. Why? We liked this post diving deeper on the reasons and proposing direct action points to your posting behaviour. In times of AI algorithms reading your posts, is the classic Tuesday-before-noon post at the end of life?

Smart hack

From our Partners

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Google AdSense's Auto ads lets you designate ad-free zones, giving you full control over your site’s layout and ensuring a seamless experience for your visitors. You decide what matters to your users and maintain your site's aesthetic. Google AdSense helps you balance earning with user experience, making it the better way to earn.

Take control of your ads

From us

We found Steve Schlafman’s Annual Life Review incredibly valuable for end-of-year reflection, especially if you want clarity instead of vague New Year’s resolutions.

• Set the stage: block a few distraction-free sessions over a week, create a calm environment, and commit to being radically honest with yourself.

• Plot moments & milestones: map out the key events, wins, failures, and changes from the past year to see what actually shaped it.

• Reflect deeply: review successes, mistakes, relationships, and recurring themes to understand what helped you grow and what held you back.

• Assess your life today: score key areas like health, career, money, relationships, and growth to spot imbalances that need attention.

• Plan the year ahead: pick 2–3 clear priorities, define habits to start or stop, and translate insights into concrete next steps.

Melanie went deep on how she applies this framework every year in last year’s podcast episode, and we’ll revisit it again in this Thursday’s final podcast episode of the year. 

One good read

Companies are Desperately Seeking “Storytellers”

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

Come work with us at Follow the Gradient: Working Student(s): Growth & Content [📍Switzerland, Remote], Podcast & Newsletter, Follow the Gradient [Apply]

Working Student in Business Development [📍Munich], OTC Trading, enmacc [Apply]
Gap Year Finance Intern [📍Berlin], Fintech, Moss [Apply]
Business Development Intern [📍Berlin], Public transportation mapping, Citymapper [Apply]
Founder’s Associate [📍Zurich], Digital Sovereignity, Soverli [Apply]

Customer Success

Customer Success Engineer - EMEA [📍Remote, Europe], Fraud Detection, Fingerprint [Apply]
Customer Success Manager - EMEA [📍Remote, Europe], Trading, Alpaca [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Head of Brand & Marketing Design [📍Berlin], Fintech, Raisin [Apply]
Team Lead - Marketing Analytics [📍Berlin], Tax Software, Taxfix [Apply]
SEO & AI Agents/GEO Intern (France) [📍Paris], Fintech, Vivid Money [Apply, Hiring manager]
Marketing manager [📍London, hybrid] Media, Sifted [Apply, Hiring manager]

Sales

Team Lead Corporate Sales [📍Berlin, various], Employee Experience Platform, Staffbase [Apply]
Sales Engineer Leader [📍Remote, Germany], Security Validation, Pentera [Apply]
Head of Sales, DACH [📍Munich], Translation, DeepL [Apply]
Sales Director, EMEA, TradFI & Banking [📍Berlin, Amsterdam, Zurich], Blockchain, Fireblocks [Apply]

Strategy & Ops

Chief of Staff [📍Remote, Germany], Vector DBs, Qdrant [Apply]
Business Operations Manager (Commercial Operations) [📍Remote, Europe], Data Analytics, Metabase [Apply]
Office & Ops Specialist [📍Zurich], Robotics, mimic [Apply]

Product & Tech

Product Manager, Product Carbon Footprints [📍Berlin], Climatech, Climatiq [Apply]
Research Engineer [📍Zurich], Robotics, Flexion Robotics [Apply, Hiring manager]
ML Research Engineer [📍London], AI, Isomorphic Labs [Apply, One of your future colleagues]
CTO & Co-founder [📍Berlin] AI, Stealth Venture [Apply, Your co-founder]

Final words — take what you need

For the second time this year, we’ve consumed an irresponsible amount of tech books and documentaries so you don’t have to. Below are our top picks for the Christmas reading (+ one to watch) season. Share your favourites before we pretend to catch up on sleep.

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!