Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

While demand for ChatGPT’s image generation models skyrocketed last week, social media was drowning in Ghibli-style portraits - we always wanted our skiing selfies to look like a Japanese anime. Social media feeds can be a weird place. Humanities other contributions have been Fitness influencers’ morning routines of 3.30am wake-up’s, facial ice baths and banana peelings. Doesn’t this sound just like the kind of thing Tech founders would do? 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

11x faces crisis in wake of widespread criticism

a16z-backed high flyer AI startup 11x is facing a crisis as stories have emerged of high customer churn, employee turnover and a buggy product. Its AI sales bot was marketed as superior to human workers upon launch in 2023. As CEO Hasan Sukkar defends the company’s intense culture, insiders describe it as toxic, with long hours and an extreme “tech bro” atmosphere. Employees reportedly worked on holidays, slept in the office, and faced relentless pressure.

Munich-based Isar Aerospace launches rocket

German startup Isar Aerospace attempted Western Europe’s first vertical orbital launch. Despite the rocket crashing after launch, CEO Daniel Metzler called it a success, citing key system validations. The venture is valued at $1B and part of Europe’s push for private-sector launch capabilities amid shifting defense priorities. It plans up to 15 launches per year.

Elon Musk’s xAI buys X for $33bn

xAI has acquired X (formerly Twitter) in a deal valuing X at $33bn and xAI at $80bn. The merger aims to integrate data, AI models and distribution, strengthening xAI’s chatbot Grok. The deal follows xAI’s recent $10B funding and intensifies its rivalry with OpenAI, as X’s real-time data could enhance xAI’s training.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

Focus as the key to success

We all have more things to do than we have time, yet figuring out which are truly important is key. As Netflix’s Marc Randolph puts it: “The worst mistake you can make is to try and do everything 5% of the way, rather than picking 4 and doing each of them 125%.”

The EU AI Act - more cost than benefit?

The EU AI Act risks crushing startups. For early-stage AI companies, spending 15-20% of their funding and most of their first year on compliance isn’t regulation—it’s a roadblock to innovation. Does Europe foster an environment that forms the next wave of AI entrepreneurs, or push for a bureaucracy that drives them elsewhere?

The rise of secondaries

Secondaries aren’t just a stopgap—they’re the future of venture liquidity. With IPOs and M&A lagging, venture capital is evolving to mirror private equity, where secondaries are a fixture. As the bar for IPOs keeps rising, will they continue to remain the dominant exit path?

Being the CEO and a parent - the Impossible?

Raising kids while making a career. Demanding or simply impossible? Amy Golding composed this beautiful-to-read post on the realities of running a company while being a parent. You will never feel like an imposter in your job as a founder or startup operator again!

Mark your calendar

Germany

ScaleUp and CVC Awards in Berlin, 2-3 April [Program]

Switzerland

Future Health in Basel, 7 April [Program]

Did we miss an important event? Let us know by replying to this email.

Do you like what we do at Follow the Gradient? Help us grow this community and share a like and add a comment to our LinkedIn post that just went live:

Smart hack

AI agents are the word of the hour. Behind the buzz lie the first agentic AI structures to automate workflows - and they can already be a huge benefit to any team.

Alex Berman shared how he cloned lead enrichment tool Clay with self-built AI agenda, see his post here.

More posts from the social media world showcasing the potential to self-build software (keep in mind that none of these are perfect or come easy, yet they show a glimpse into the future):

• Content automation

• Meeting transcription and follow-ups

• Social media automation

One good read

How I Spent 17,784 Hours in 5 Years as a Startup Founder

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

Founder Associate [📍Zurich], innovation management, rready [Apply]
Founder Associate Intern [📍Berlin], Fintech, bunch [Apply]
Working Student Public Affairs [📍Berlin], Transporta, Flix [Apply]

Customer Success

Customer Enablement Specialist - German speaking [📍Munich], Electronics Supply Chain, Luminovo [Apply]
Senior Customer Success Manager [📍Remote], Healthtech, Corti [Apply]

Marketing & Comms

Marketing & Growth Director [📍Zurich or Remote], LegalTech, DeepJudge [Apply]

Sales

Sales Development Representative [📍Remote], App Store Optimization, AppFollow [Apply]
Sales Development Representative [📍Remote, Switzerland], Industry, Get More Brain [Apply, Hiring manager]

Strategy & Ops

Startup Operations [📍Helsinki], Startup Ecosystem, Slush [Apply, Hiring manager]
Director, Strategy & Operations [📍Berlin], Transportation, Via [Apply]

Product & Tech

Product Manager [📍Remote], Software productivity, Linear [Apply]
Product Lead [📍London], Fintech, Codat [Apply]
Founding Machine Learning Engineer [📍London], HR Tech, Dex [Hiring manager/co-founder, Apply] - Note, Paddy has been on our podcast - you might want to check it out before you reach out to him 👀🤫

Final words — take what you need