🇪🇺 Capital up, credibility down
Week 31. European startups roar while their leaders roll over.
This is your curated recap of the week — fully generated with AI.
The world’s moving too fast, so I summed it up for you. Let’s go!
n8n joins Europe’s unicorn sprint
What it says German automation startup n8n is set to raise $100M at a $1.5B valuation — just months after its €55M round. Current ARR: $40M. Users: 230k. Backers: Sequoia, HV, Felicis, Highland Europe.
What it means Another AI‑powered workflow darling gets a rocket valuation. The bigger picture: European startups are proving they can sprint to unicorn scale faster than ever. For growth marketers, expect a hotter fight for attention and talent — automation startups like n8n don’t just raise rounds, they reshape acquisition channels.
LinkedIn post from Seb Johnson | Financial Times
Europe folds to Trump’s tariff golf deal
What it says Von der Leyen signed at Trump’s Turnberry: 15% tariffs, massive US LNG buys, $600B EU investment in America. No use of anti‑coercion tools, deal closed in under an hour between Trump’s golf swings.
What it means Europe blinked. Hard. Brussels gave away leverage to protect German automakers, while trashing its credibility with China, Russia, and Mercosur. For anyone who negotiates deals: this is the masterclass in how not to do it.
Laurent Combalbert nailed it: von der Leyen negotiated at Trump’s pace, ignored coercion tools, and let German car interests override broader European industry welfare — concluding on the golf course between swings.
LinkedIn post from Laurent Combalbert
Max MRR: The metric that kills growth fairy tales
What it says Jason Cohen drops Max MRR, a metric showing the ceiling of your SaaS growth by balancing new MRR and churn. Buffer proves the rule: cut churn, lift your ceiling; ignore retention, hit a wall.
What it means Acquisition can’t save you if retention sucks. For growth marketers: Max MRR is your wake‑up call. Churn is the silent killer; lift NRR past 100% or enjoy running in place while competitors lap you.
Quick hits
- AI nukes the marketplace funnel (Casey Winters) AI agents collapse the entire journey from discovery to purchase, breaking CAC math. Marketplaces lose loyalty loops and retargeting. Translation: the funnel you know is dead — adapt to agents or vanish.
- Choose your team, or pay the price (Jean de La Rochebrochard) Busy Bees, Defensive Brigades, and Pretenders all avoid discomfort — and kill growth. Jean’s point: competence isn’t enough; you need people who take feedback and lean into the hard stuff.
- Ramp’s PM reset: Prototypes > Docs (Geoffrey Charles) Ramp took PMs off‑grid to rebuild product workflows with AI. No endless PRDs — just insights, landing pages, and live prototypes. The new mantra: show, don’t tell.
🧃 Wrap-up
Europe is living a split‑screen reality:
- Startups are scaling into unicorns faster than ever (n8n, Lovable, Fuse).
- Leaders are grinning through trade humiliations, handing Trump the leverage he demanded.
On one side, VCs are betting billions on European ambition.
On the other, Brussels is quietly proving how little backbone it has.
That’s the clash: VCs chasing the future while Europe’s leaders sell it off on the cheap.