What happens when Europe stops cheering itself on and starts taking responsibility for the outcome?

In this episode of Follow the Gradient, we sit down with Judith Dada, Partner at Visionaries Club, to unpack one of the most uncomfortable conversations in European tech right now. Drawing on her work as an investor, writer, and ecosystem builder, Judith brings a rare mix of conviction and realism to questions many founders quietly avoid.

This conversation is not about tactics or trend-chasing. It is about agency, moral responsibility, and what it really means to build companies in Europe at a moment when technology, geopolitics, and personal choices are colliding.

We talk about:

Why performative Euro-optimism can be just as damaging as constant pessimism
The hidden risk of Europe settling for the application layer while conceding models and infrastructure
How statistics about Europe obscure the difference between averages and outliers founders could still become
What founders miss when they treat Europe like a marketplace instead of something they help build
Why AI’s impact feels invisible to most organizations while accelerating at the frontier
The personal cost of ambition, from childcare trade-offs to deciding when silence becomes complicity

This episode offers a lens, not a manual. It explores how founders make decisions when the stakes are unclear, the odds are uneven, and opting out feels easier than staying in the fight.