Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Another week, another drama in Startupland: Fintech Co-Founder Joseph Sanberg of Aspiration has been arrested for defrauding his investors of $145M. His future may not look so aspirational. Speaking of which: the SXSW event had Futurist speakers share their bets on the future and they ain’t all that pretty: “Polycrisis” is the word of the hour (right after AI, of course). We try to look at the bright side of life - after all, is there an alternative? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

Klarna files for IPO

Swedish Fintech Klarna has filed for a U.S. IPO, aiming to raise $1 billion at a $15 billion valuation. It’s bottom line improved to a $21m profit in 2024 after a $244m loss in 2023. The fintech peaked at a $45 billion valuation in 2021 before declining. Klarna has also cut costs by replacing Salesforce CRM with its own AI system, reducing its workforce from 5,000 to 3,500.

Northvolt files for bankruptcy

EV battery maker Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in its home base Sweden. Founded in 2016 by ex-Tesla executives and after raising over $15 billion from investors like Goldman Sachs, it struggled with market shifts and self-made operational issues. Despite restructuring efforts, including a U.S. Chapter 11 filing, it failed to secure needed funding. We recommend this read for an in-depth view of what went wrong.

Project Europe seeks to turn the tide

In a move to provide funds to young entrepreneurs, over 160 founders and famous investors around 20VC, Adjacent, and Point9 Ventures launched Project Europe. The initiative seeks to support tech founders under 25 with €200,000 for 6.66% equity and mentorship. CEO Kitty Mayo aims to reshape Europe's startup culture by backing young, technical founders with bold ideas and prototypes.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Disruption can mean different things

Benedict Evans looked at the share of trips and accommodation revenue of Uber and AirBnB, compared to their incumbents. You don’t have to dominate to disrupt…

Is Trump making Europe great again?

Trump’s antagonism is driving a European reckoning. A shift toward incentivizing AI development is underway, aligning more with U.S. approaches. As Project Europe takes off, European founders see this moment as a call for unity and leadership, aiming to build world-changing companies in the EU. Europe’s greatest unifications followed geopolitical shocks. Will Trump’s presidency be the latest catalyst?

Which VCs are successful?

If you have money left on the side, you may invest in VCs. But what is a predictor of a fund’s success? Venture is an outlier-driven game and data shows, early momentum matters:

• Top quartile funds at Year 5: 50/50 chance of staying or dropping.

• Bottom quartile funds: 70% remain at the bottom.

Mark your calendar

Switzerland

Investors Forum Geneva in Geneva, 19-20 March [Program]
START Summit St. Gallen in City, 20-21 March [Program]

Melanie will be on a few START Summit panels on Thursday and we might record a very interesting podcast on Friday - stay tuned 👀 Also: if you’re around, say hi! 👋🏼

UK

Wired Health in London, 18 March [Program]

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Smart hack

Landing a job can be tough - especially the good ones. Meredith Chandler broke down her key take away’s after landing a job over 1’400 people applied for:

1. Highlight how much you excelled in previous roles

2. Cut through the noise when it’s quiet

3. Mimick your hiring manager’s language

4. Make your cold outreach about your target company and their team

5. Study your target company like they were a gazelle and you were the lion

One good read

European Deeptech Report 2025: Summary, Full Report

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 Market Expansion [📍Remote, Berlin], Industry, Sanity Group [Apply]

Customer Success

Enterprise Customer Success Manager [📍Remote, Germany], Cybersecurity, Abnormal [Apply]
Customer Success Manager - Germany Speaker [📍London], HR Tech, Ravio [Apply]

HR & Finance

People Operations Manager [📍Munich], Space, The Exploration Company [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Demand Generation Manager [📍Remote, Munich], Electronics Supply Chain, Luminovo [Apply]
Growth Marketeer [📍London], Fintech, Light [Apply]

Sales

Country Manager - DACH [📍Remote, Germany], Cloud Storage, Wasabi [Apply]
Account Executive - Agent Success [📍Remote], RealEstate, GetAgent [Apply]

Product & Tech

Senior Product Manager (Growth Team) [📍Berlin], Fintech, Vivid Money [Apply]
Product Designer - Cash Flow [📍Several EU cities], Fintech, Pleo [Apply]

Final words — take what you need