Follow the Gradient

What happens when Europe stops apologizing for its ambition and starts executing at full speed?Some founders still believe Europe’s biggest constraint is confidence. This conversation challenges that idea head on.Follow the Gradient sits down with Laura Modiano, Head of Startups EMEA at OpenAI, who works daily with founders across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She brings a rare vantage point from inside OpenAI and from years of supporting companies from first prototype to real scale.This episode is less about hype cycles and more about how ambition, technical depth, and feedback driven execution actually compound over time. Laura reflects on what changes when speed collapses, tools feel like coworkers, and founders are forced to rethink how they learn, unlearn, and decide under uncertainty.We talk about:Why European founders systematically underestimate how fast they can go with today’s AI toolingHow collapsing build cycles shift the real bottleneck from ideas to decision qualityThe execution gap that appears after early traction and why “building small” becomes a hidden ceilingWhy technical literacy is no longer optional even for application layer foundersHow Europe’s fragmented markets quietly train founders to think global from day oneWhat great execution looks like when models evolve faster than product roadmapsRather than offering a playbook, this episode zooms out on how founders make choices when the ground keeps moving. It’s about taste, timing, and knowing when to ship, when to pause, and when to discard assumptions that once worked but no longer fit.Our biggest takeaways, including Laura’s view on what founders consistently misjudge about speed and scale:https://followthegradient.io/p/laura-modiano-podcast —Where to find Laura Modiano:https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-modiano/ Reach out at: startups@openai.com —🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us: Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradientLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/—00:00 Introduction02:03 Why Europe Produces Globally Competitive Founders06:07 What Founders Miss About AI Acceleration08:52 Building Real Companies Beyond Demo Culture12:09 Why Technical Depth Wins In AI Startups15:42 What Switzerland Gets Right About Ecosystems20:01 Deciding Where To Build In Europe23:01 What Strong Execution Looks Like Today26:10 Discovering AI Use Cases Beyond Cost Cutting28:55 Why Unlearning Becomes A Scaling Advantage31:26 Maintaining Founder Intensity Without Burnout41:40 Making High Stakes Decisions With Incomplete Data44:57 Where Startups Should Focus As Models Advance46:41 False Beliefs Holding European Founders Back

What actually breaks deep tech startups isn’t lack of vision, but running out of patience before reality catches up.Follow the Gradient sits down with Roland Siegwart, Professor of Autonomous Systems at ETH Zurich and one of Europe’s most influential robotics mentors. Over two decades, Roland has helped shape ETH’s spin-out culture and advised companies like Anybotics, BlueBotics, and 7Sense from research to real-world deployment .This conversation explores how deep tech companies are really built when timelines are long, capital is patient but finite, and founders must constantly trade ambition against survival.We talk about:Why abundant early-stage capital can quietly reduce urgency in deep tech startupsThe hidden cost of the last 10 percent from prototype to market-ready systemHow early revenue from “unsexy” applications can enable bigger long-term betsWhy Europe’s strength in hardware systems also makes scaling slower and harderThe role experienced operators play in grounding PhD-driven founding teamsWhen founders must step aside to prevent becoming the company’s bottleneckRather than offering formulas, this episode examines how founders learn to make irreversible decisions with incomplete information, balancing engineering rigor with the pressure to move before the window closes.Our biggest takeaways, including Roland’s view on where founders most often misjudge deep tech reality:https://followthegradient.io/p/roland-siegwart-podcast —Where to find Roland Siegwart:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roland-siegwart-85466912/ —🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us: Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradientLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/—00:00 Introduction 03:51 How Switzerland built a self sustaining robotics ecosystem 05:02 Turning university research into real world companies 07:39 Why Europe struggles to scale deep tech globally 09:46 Funding strategies for long hardware driven timelines 12:16 The painful gap between lab prototypes and products 14:09 Early signals that founders can survive the transition 15:37 Finding a first market with real customer pain 19:00 When pilots turn into scalable robotics businesses 20:47 Bringing business leadership into technical teams 23:24 When founders must step aside to let companies grow 31:49 Navigating dual use and ethical responsibility in robotics

What actually determines whether a founder scales or silently stalls?In this episode of Follow the Gradient, we sit down with Lina Chong, Partner at HV Capital, to unpack what she’s learned from being on both sides of the table: building and exiting companies, then backing some of Europe’s most successful scale-ups.It’s a candid conversation about decision-making under uncertainty, founder psychology, and the uncomfortable trade-offs that define real growth.We talk about:Why the best founders make fast, irreversible decisions, even without perfect clarityThe dark side of founder identity (and what happens after an exit)When loyalty to early employees becomes a growth constraint, not a virtueHow resilient founders respond when capital tightens and markets shiftGo-to-market lessons from companies like TravelPerk and FreshaWhen European founders should go global and why “home market first” is often arbitraryRather than playbooks, this episode focuses on how great founders think, decide, and adapt when the path forward isn’t obvious.— Our biggest takeaways, including Lina’s perspective on what most founders get wrong when scaling:https://www.followthegradient.io/p/lina-chong-podcast —Where to find Lina:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linachong/ —🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us:Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradientLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/—00:00 Introduction01:43 From Founder to VC03:05 Experimental Cultures vs Rigid Vision05:05 The Post-Exit Emotional Crash07:58 Founder Signals That Predict Scale11:40 Loyalty vs Scale14:58 When Caution Kills Growth16:28 How VCs Form Conviction21:07 Using Investors for GTM and Fundraising25:16 European SaaS Go-To-Market27:30 Global First vs Home Market32:53 Resilience in Downturns33:43 Personal Resilience

What do you keep when a year of founder advice contradicts itself? What actually sticks once the playbooks cancel each other out and you are left with your own judgment?Follow the Gradient closes out the year with a reflective episode from hosts Melanie Gabriel and Christian Woese, drawing on dozens of conversations with founders, operators, and investors across Europe . Instead of a guest interview, this episode turns the lens inward, unpacking what truly held up across a full year of building, scaling, and questioning received wisdom.The conversation surfaces how founders actually form convictions when advice is biased, context is messy, and no clean answers exist. It is less about what to do next and more about how to think when certainty is unavailable.We talk about:Why most founder advice is shaped by survival bias and how to tell when it does not apply to your companyThinking internationally from day one without losing focus on a home market that still needs to workSaying no as a growth skill and why focus becomes harder as opportunities increaseIntrospection as an underrated founder capability that quietly compounds over timeWhy venture capital is often treated as default advice despite fitting only narrow business modelsHow founders actually protect sanity through routines, relationships, and deliberate reflectionThis episode resists formulas. It treats building a company as a sequence of judgment calls rather than a checklist, shaped by context, timing, and personal limits more than by frameworks.Our biggest takeaways, including Melanie and Christian’s view on where founders most often mistake confidence for clarity:https://followthegradient.io/p/what-we-learned-from-interviewing-50-plus-guests—🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us:Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradient LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/ —00:00 Introduction01:10 Reflecting on a year of conversations and learning02:25 Why we started Follow the Gradient05:34 Our personal paths into entrepreneurship10:41 Thinking international from day one in Europe13:38 Why saying no is a growth skill14:55 Introspection as an underrated founder skill18:34 When venture capital is the wrong default20:15 Trusting intuition over generic startup advice21:55 How founders can work with academia24:02 Defining success beyond titles and outcomes28:38 How we convince busy guests to join31:53 Books and thinkers that shaped our thinking36:44 Habits that help founders stay sane

What actually makes a startup work when almost every decision you make is probably wrong?Founders often believe success comes from better planning, cleaner structure, or safer timing. Béa Knecht argues the opposite.In this episode of Follow the Gradient, we sit down with Béa Knecht, co founder of Zattoo and one of Europe’s earliest builders of legal live TV streaming. Having founded the company in Silicon Valley and scaled it across Europe through multiple market shocks, Béa brings a rare, hard earned perspective on what actually holds under pressure.This conversation is not about frameworks or growth hacks. It is a deep examination of how founders think, unlearn certainty, and act when reality keeps changing faster than their plans.We talk about:Why European founders must treat internationalization as a day one survival skill, not a later milestoneThe difference between bravery and speed in decision making, and why waiting is usually just losing quietlyHow to tell a true must have product from a nice to have, using budget and pain as the only honest signalsWhy enforcing structure too early can kill the very thinking startups depend onHow rapid course correction costs far less than founders imagine, even after public decisionsWhat brutal downscaling taught Béa about leadership, dignity, and keeping a company aliveThis episode favors judgment over checklists, adaptability over certainty, and clear seeing over confident storytelling in environments where most signals arrive late and incomplete.Our biggest takeaways, including Bea’s view on what founders consistently misunderstand about must have products:https://followthegradient.io/p/bea-knecht-podcast —Where to find Bea Knecht:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beaknecht/ —🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us:Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradient LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/

What happens when you scale without chasing ambition, funding, or customers telling you what to build?Some of the most durable companies aren’t designed to grow fast. They’re designed to stay honest.Follow the Gradient sits down with Olivier Gaudin, co-founder and former CEO of SonarSource, the code quality platform used by millions of developers and the majority of the Fortune 100. Built without venture pressure for years and shaped by deep proximity to real developer pain, SonarSource followed a very different scaling path.This conversation unpacks the thinking behind that path, from resisting premature structure to making uncomfortable product calls, and from building culture without managers to deciding when that philosophy finally breaks.We talk about:Why SonarSource refused managers until 200 employees and what finally forced that shiftMeasuring traction through adoption and community pull instead of revenue milestonesThe risks of listening too closely to paying customers too earlyHow open source shaped trust, distribution, and long-term product directionThe moment internal language stopped meaning the same thing across the companyWhy pushing incomplete features exposed the wrong problem to solveThis episode is less about how to scale and more about when not to. It’s a window into decision-making driven by conviction rather than optimization, and how clarity erodes when organizations grow faster than shared understanding.Our biggest takeaways, including Olivier’s view on what founders consistently get wrong about listening to customers:https://followthegradient.io/p/olivier-gaudin-podcast —Where to find Olivier Gaudin:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviergaudin/ —🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us:Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradient LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/

What happens when scientific patience collides with startup urgency, and neither side fully survives intact?Follow the Gradient sits down with Andy Yen, co-founder and CEO of Proton, a 500+ person European tech company built around privacy, democracy, and long-term independence. Andy’s path runs from particle physics at CERN to building one of Europe’s most mission-driven scale-ups, and his credibility comes from having lived through both worlds.This conversation explores how values, identity, and pressure shape decisions when the stakes are structural, not just commercial. It is a discussion about speed versus permanence, trust versus convenience, and what founders owe to users, employees, and society when technology becomes power.We talk about:Why scientists underestimate urgency, and why startups die if they inherit that mindset unchangedHow crowdfunding 10,000 early users permanently reshaped Proton’s obligations and governanceThe logic behind placing a fast-growing tech company under control of a nonprofit foundationWhy building a platform matters more than features when competing with Big Tech ecosystemsHow Proton decides when to absorb financial losses rather than compromise on censorship or surveillanceWhy Europe’s tech problem is demand, not talent, and how public procurement quietly shapes sovereigntyThis episode is less about tactics and more about how founders reason when every option carries long-term consequences. It traces how conviction hardens under constraint, and how decision-making changes once trust becomes the primary asset you cannot afford to lose.Our biggest takeaways, including Andy’s view on what founders misunderstand about speed, trust, and compromise:https://followthegradient.io/p/andy-yen-podcast —Where to find Andy Yen:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-yen-03a9676/ —🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us:Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradient LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/

What if the ambition powering your startup is quietly working against you?What if being driven is less about purpose and more about fear you have not named yet?Follow the Gradient sits down with Jonas Muff, founder of AI healthcare company VARA, for a rare conversation about ambition, identity, and the inner cost of building. Jonas is best known for his essay The Curse of Being Driven, written after a personal collapse during a critical fundraising moment that forced him to question what was really motivating his success.This episode is not about productivity or resilience as performance traits. It is an examination of how founders construct self-worth, how fear hides inside ambition, and what changes when you stop confusing motion with meaning.We talk about:Why Jonas’ inability to get out of bed during fundraising was an identity crisis, not burnoutHow the need to stand out often masks a deeper belief of not being enoughThe subtle difference between purpose-driven ambition and fear-driven momentumWhy overthinking is an attempt to control uncertainty rather than face itHow meditation reveals the volume of inner noise instead of silencing itWhat vulnerability-based leadership looks like in real, uncomfortable decisionsRather than offering tools to optimize yourself, this conversation lingers in the harder territory founders usually avoid. It treats ambition as something to understand, not suppress, and leadership as a byproduct of self-awareness rather than force of will.Our biggest takeaways, including Jonas’s view on what founders consistently misunderstand about ambition and fear:https://followthegradient.io/p/jonas-muff-podcast —Where to find Jonas Muff:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonas-muff/ —🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us:Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradient LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/

Thomas is a veteran angel investor and board member with 40+ startup deals under his belt—and a front-row seat to what makes early-stage companies thrive or fall apart. He’s also the president of SICTIC, Switzerland’s largest angel network, and someone who’s seen the European startup scene evolve from local coffee chats to global Zoom deals.In this episode we talk about:•⁠ ⁠Why most first-time angels invest too soon—and too big•⁠ ⁠How founders can spot the difference between a project and a real business•⁠ ⁠What makes a healthy cap table at seed (and what absolutely breaks it)•⁠ ⁠How to activate angels after the wire hits—without burning yourself outA conversation about pattern recognition, post-wire dynamics, and the slow art of building trust between founders and funders.For more on early-stage investing and startup strategy, subscribe to our newsletter at followthegradient.io.

What does it take to give young founders permission to be audacious, before they have credentials to hide behind?In this episode of Follow the Gradient, we sit down with Kitty Mayo, CEO of Project Europe, an under 25 founder fund backed by more than 200 of Europe’s leading entrepreneurs. Kitty previously spent five years at Entrepreneur First, working closely with early stage founders at the very start of their careers.The conversation explores how ambition actually forms, why culture often matters more than capital, and what it means to build a founder movement without headquarters, playbooks, or institutional safety nets.We talk about:Why Europe’s biggest constraint on young founders is cultural permission, not access to capitalWhat Kitty looks for in founders that never shows up in pitch decks or metricsHow building without an HQ increases surface area and creates stronger founder bondsThe hidden cost of chasing venture funding when the ambition is not truly venture scaleWhy earnest obsession beats fashionable ideas when backing founders under 25What Europe should borrow from Silicon Valley, and what it needs to consciously rejectThis episode is less about frameworks and more about how beliefs, environments, and peer groups shape founder behavior long before outcomes are visible.Our biggest takeaways, including Kitty’s view on what European founders consistently underestimate:https://followthegradient.io/p/kitty-mayo-podcast —Where to find Kitty:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kittymm/ —🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us:Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradient LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/

Elvis Nava is a researcher-turned-founder building Mimic Robotics, a company developing general-purpose robot hands powered by imitation learning. After completing his PhD at ETH Zurich, Elvis realized the only way to scale his research was by turning it into a company. Today, Mimic is pioneering a new kind of robotics—flexible, AI-native, and already proving itself in real-world industrial use cases.In this episode we talk about:•⁠ ⁠Why some research only works outside the lab•⁠ ⁠How to build hardware that adapts—rather than hard-codes—the task•⁠ ⁠What it takes to raise a $16M seed round in Europe•⁠ ⁠How hackathons and ecosystem building accelerate deeptechA conversation about research taste, the myth of perfection, and what happens when you build both the model and the machine.For more behind-the-scenes from Elvis - including takeaways on fundraising and team-building - subscribe to our newsletter at followthegradient.io.

Fabienne Doerig is a former CFO and COO turned advisor, with 15+ years of experience helping companies - from pre-seed startups to public enterprises - scale their finance and ops. She’s led through hypergrowth, driven restructuring, and now helps founders automate the operational backbone of their business using AI.In this episode we talk about:•⁠ ⁠Why clarity, not code, is the first step in automation•⁠ ⁠How to build a 13-week cash forecast that updates daily•⁠ ⁠When to build, buy, or copy automation tools•⁠ ⁠What founders get wrong about scaling their back officeA conversation about the hidden power of finance operations, the messy reality of AI adoption, and why the biggest wins often come from the most “boring” use cases.For more insights from Fabienne—including practical examples that didn’t make it into the episode—check out our newsletter at followthegradient.io.

Noa Perry Reifer is the Chief People Officer at Neko Health, where she’s helped scale the team from 100 to over 500 in just five months. Before that, she spent nearly a decade helping build the culture and people systems at On, one of Europe’s most iconic consumer brands.In this episode we talk about:•⁠ ⁠Why culture is the most misunderstood scaling tool•⁠ ⁠How to build orgs that are bold, fast—and still deeply human•⁠ ⁠Why AI-native hiring needs both automation and judgment•⁠ ⁠What founders get wrong about org design in hypergrowthA conversation about leadership in the AI era, building cultural glue across wildly different teams, and how to design companies that don't just move fast—but move with meaning.For more insights from Noa - including examples that didn’t make it into the episode - check out our newsletter at followthegradient.io

What do robots, risk, and resilience have in common? In this episode, Roman Hölzl, founder and CEO of RobCo, shares how he went from elite freestyle skier to building one of Europe’s most capital-efficient robotics startups.We get into what it takes to sell robots to people who don't want to buy robots, how to say no to average and build a Champions League culture, and move hardware at software speed – all while staying sane under extreme pressure.And yes, we unpack that one night in 2012 that still shapes how Roman leads today.🟢 And before you go, subscribe to our free newsletter at ⁠⁠followthegradient.io⁠⁠. Twice a week, we break down startup and tech news, share exclusive insights from our podcast guests, highlight top job openings from European startups, and provide food for thought you won’t find anywhere else. 🟡

Christian Woese was one of Yokoy’s first employees and the architect behind its entire customer success organization. His philosophy is to transform post-sales from a support function into a strategic growth engine — connecting sales, marketing, and product around one goal: delivering real customer value.In this episode, we talk about:What customer success really is (and isn’t)When founders should hand over customer relationshipsHow to align sales, marketing, and product around the client journeyWhy AI will redefine customer success — but never replace the human touchA conversation about building sustainable growth through retention, turning clients into advocates, and staying sane while scaling fast.For more insights from Christian that didn’t make it into the episode, check out our newsletter at followthegradient.io

What does it really take to build ambitious companies in Europe when the system feels stacked against you? Is the problem a lack of talent, or the quiet friction founders are expected to accept as normal?Follow the Gradient sits down with Andreas Klinger, technical founder turned investor at Prototype Capital and one of the driving forces behind EU Inc. Andreas has built and backed companies across Europe and the US, and now finds himself working to remove the structural constraints that quietly slow European founders down.This conversation is less about policy details and more about how systems shape ambition, how founder energy gets wasted, and what changes when a community decides to stop treating friction as inevitable.We talk about:Why European founders lose momentum not from lack of ideas, but from repeated legal and operational dragHow EU Inc reframes incorporation as an acceleration problem rather than a compliance exerciseThe hidden cost of notaries, fragmented rules, and last minute investor dropoutsWhy ambition is a product of environment, not personalityHow small, intense founder circles outperform large but diluted ecosystemsWhat Europe could unlock by thinking in cross regional hubs instead of national bordersThis episode is an exercise in zooming out. Instead of chasing tactics, it explores how incentives, defaults, and shared beliefs shape what founders attempt in the first place, and why changing the system may matter more than motivating individuals.Our biggest takeaways, including Andreas’s view on what founders misunderstand about ambition and structural constraints:https://followthegradient.io/p/andreas-klinger-podcast —Where to find Andreas Klinger:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasklinger/—🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.Follow us:Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniexgabriel/ Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-woese/ Subscribe to our channels:Newsletter: https://www.followthegradient.io YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@followthegradient LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/followthegradient/ X: https://x.com/followgradient Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followthegradient/

In this episode, Nicole Büttner - investor, entrepreneur, and political leader - shares why Europe has all the ingredients for AI leadership, but still struggles to scale its breakthroughs into global companies.From navigating corporate partnerships without falling into “POC limbo” to reframing courage as a core leadership trait, Nicole breaks down the mindset shifts and structural changes founders need to succeed. She also shares candid reflections on the weight of responsibility leaders carry and how to sustain energy in the long run.You’ll learn:How to build collaborations that actually move the needle with corporatesWhy speed and courage matter more than perfection in scaling startupsHow to create defensibility in AI by going deep into real-world workflowsWhy European founders must shed local ambition and aim global from day oneNicole’s insights are a playbook for founders who want to build enduring, globally relevant companies out of Europe.Get bonus insights from Nicole that didn’t make it into the episode at ⁠followthegradient.io⁠.

In this episode, Jake Bornstein — executive coach to founders and co-founder of Studio Medis — shares how personal growth and leadership frameworks can unlock scale when startups hit the limits of chaos.From reframing coaching as a billion-dollar investment to building minimum viable structures that keep teams aligned, Jake breaks down what every founder needs to know to stop being the bottleneck.You’ll learn:How to measure the ROI of coaching in real business termsWhy trust is the non-negotiable ingredient in choosing the right coachHow to use radical responsibility to shift from blame to transformationWhat minimum viable structure looks like in practice — and why it drives speedJake’s insights are a playbook for founders who want to scale not just their companies, but themselves.Get bonus insights from Jake that didn’t make it into the episode at ⁠followthegradient.io⁠.

In this episode, Simone Rüschenberg - finance leader behind Gorillas, SoundCloud, and TIER - shares how she helped scale some of Europe’s fastest-growing startups by building finance teams that actually enable growth.From ditching Excel at the right moment to avoiding ERP nightmares, Simone breaks down what every founder and CFO needs to know to stay sane while scaling.You’ll learn:How to scale your finance function across Series A, B, and CWhy the first three finance hires are absolutely pivotalHow to avoid painful financial cleanups (and investor panic)What it means to lead with strategy - not just spreadsheetsSimone’s story is a playbook for modern finance leaders navigating speed, scale, and change.Get bonus insights from Simone that didn’t make it into the episode at followthegradient.io.

In this episode, Victoria Ransom, founder of Wildfire (acquired by Google) and Prisma, shares the scrappy, principled, and deeply human approach that shaped her startup journey - from asparagus farming in rural New Zealand to building and selling a high-growth tech company.Victoria opens up about how she scaled Wildfire from a humble tool to 400 employees, maintained a strong culture during hypergrowth, and navigated an acquisition without losing the soul of the company. She also shares the realities of co-founding with her husband and raising three kids while running startups — without burning out or burning bridges.You’ll learnHow to scale without diluting culture or valuesWhy scrappiness can be a superpower in startup executionHow to navigate acquisitions while keeping your team engagedWhat it takes to co-found a company with your life partnerVictoria’s story is proof that you don’t need a Silicon Valley pedigree to build something world-class — just grit, clarity, and a whole lot of heart.Get bonus insights from Victoria that didn’t make it into the episode at ⁠followthegradient.io⁠.