Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Northvolt, Europe’s electric battery star, is in hot water — announcing major cost cuts, factory closures, and layoffs to secure its drastically deteriorating financial position (its losses hit $1.2bn in 2023). The move highlights the difficult situation of Europe’s electric vehicle supply chain as the industry faces fierce competition from US and Chinese players. Will they survive the battle? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.

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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party

$1bn for a safe AGI

While his former employer OpenAI prepares a new financing round, AI superstar Ilya Sutskever is raising $1bn for his new venture, Safe Superintelligence — with a simplistic website but sky-high ambitions: "a safe superintelligence”. Backed by a16z and Sequoia Capital, the firm is already valued at $5bn. Looks like the AI funding party isn’t over just yet! 🥳

Acquihires - Big Tech’s antitrust workaround?

As antitrust laws tighten, Big Tech is finding creative ways to secure top talent and tech. Enter: reverse acquihires. Instead of acquisitions, major US tech firms are hiring founders and licensing their technology. Microsoft hired Inflection AI’s team with a $650m licensing deal, Google brought on character.ai’s founders, Amazon scooped up 66% of Adept’s workforce and repeated the move one week ago with Covariant’s AI robotics team.

European VC on the rise

London-based Atomico has raised $1.24bn for two new funds: $485m for Series A and seed rounds, and $754m for Series B to pre-IPO. Definitely a sign of continued strength of the European VC ecosystem: Balderton raised $1.2bn in August this year for a fund dedicated to European founders, following European VC firm Index ventures raising $2.3bn in July this year.

What do you meme?

Food for thought

The walking dead

About a third of U.S. tech unicorns - private companies valued at $1bn or more, are struggling with no profits and declining sales, reports the Wall Street Journal. The end of zero-interest rates has exposed companies that relied on buying growth without strong fundamentals. Dubbed “walking dead",” these cash-burning startups are no longer attractive to investors, with many at risk to fail or be acquired at a discount. What learnings do we take from this? Is now the time to start a business — profitable from the start?

If you survived August, it can only get better

August saw the lowest European startup funding since April 2017, according to Sifted’s data. While it’s usually a slow month, this year was particularly quiet, with startups raising just €1.8bn across 247 deals—compared to €4.8bn last August. The night is darkest before dawn.

“To be founder-mode, or not to be, that is the question”

Mark your calendar

Denmark

TechBBQ in Copenhagen, 11-12 September [Program]

Germany

Seamless in Munich, 10-11 September [Program: Payments & Fintech | Retail & E-Commerce]

Netherlands

IBC in Amsterdam, 13-16 September, Topics: Global Media and Entertainment industry [Program]

Founders Growth Night in Amsterdam, 10 September [Register here]

Switzerland

Swisspreneur’s Scaleup Cruise in Zurich, 12 September [Apply for a spot]

UK

Sifted Talks in London, “If these walls could talk: Tackling the work-life conundrum for European startups”, 12 September [Register here]

Online 

DartLabs webinar: What is the best legal structure for our US operations?, 10. September at 4pm CEST [Register here]

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

We've all heard how life-changing journaling can be. Let's be honest—who has the time to do this on a daily basis? Founder Maximilian Fleitmann felt the same until he made one simple change: instead of journaling every day, he spent 30 minutes on Sundays reflecting on the week. He asked:

▶️ What went well?
▶️ What didn’t?
▶️ How did I feel?
▶️ What did I learn?

Bonus perk? If you ever want to write your autobiography, you’ve got your weekly recaps ready to go!

One good read

An all-time classic - good to read the original piece (again):

Do things that don’t scale

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

Founders Associate – AI Sales and Strategy Internship [📍Zurich or Munich], AI, Resmonics [Apply]
Founder Associate - Customer Success [📍Zurich], HRTech, PastaHR, [Apply]
Founder Associate[📍Berlin], B2B SaaS, Buddywise [Apply]

Customer Success

Customer Success Manager [📍London], FinTech, GoCardless [Apply]
Customer Success Manager (German Speaker) [📍Amsterdam, Remote], Supply Chain Management, project44 [Apply]
Senior Customer Success Manager [📍Berlin, Munich, Remote], AI Customer Service, Parloa [Apply]

HR & Ops

Supply Management Officer [📍Amsterdam, Hybrid], HealthTech, MyTomorrows [Apply]

Marketing

Social Media Specialist [📍Manchester UK], B2B SaaS, Matillion [Apply]
Digital Art Worker [📍London, Hybrid] FashionTech, Lyst [Apply]
Senior Marketing Data Analyst [📍Paris], Fashion E-Commerce, Vestiaire Collective [Apply]
Content Manager [📍Berlin] HealthTech, Clue [Apply]

Product & Strategy

Program Manager [📍Lausanne], Hardware, Corintis [Apply]
Virtual Credit Card Product & Operations Manager [📍Berlin], TravelTech, Omio [Apply]
Product Manager [📍London] FinTech, Security, ComplyAdvantage [Apply]
Chief Product Officer [📍Bäretswil, Zurich], Robotics, Saeki [Apply]

Looking to land that Product role? Check out Leah Tharin’s insider guide on how she applied and landed the Product Director role at Miro.

Sales

Business Development Associate - Growth [📍Berlin], B2B, deeploi [Apply]
Sales Manager - Germany [📍Berlin], HealthTech, Corti [Apply]
Sales Manager - B2B Dach [📍Berlin, Cologne], HealthTech, Amboss [Apply]

Talk to you next week! In the meantime, we see you on LinkedIn, X, Insta and YouTube!

🫶 Melanie & Christian

Each week, a lot of work goes into the Follow the Gradient project to help you navigate this crazy jungle called entrepreneurship. Help us grow this community and we’ll make sure that you or your project gets a shoutout in the weekly newsletter!