In the Age of AI, Execution Is Cheap but Taste Is Not | Laura Modiano, OpenAI

Описание: Europe doesn’t lack confidence. It lacks urgency at scale.
Founders underestimate how fast execution compounds once AI collapses build cycles.
Laura Modiano, Head of Startups EMEA at OpenAI, reframes what ambition actually looks like across European startups.

Follow the Gradient goes deep with Laura Modiano on how founder decision-making changes when speed becomes a baseline, not a differentiator. Drawing from her work with founders across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at OpenAI, she shares an operator and investor-adjacent perspective on startup scaling, technical literacy, and the trade-offs founders face when tools evolve faster than plans.

For founders and operators navigating early traction, European market complexity, and the reality of building under extreme uncertainty.

In this episode, we cover:
Why European founders systematically underestimate execution speed with modern AI tooling
How collapsing build cycles shift the bottleneck from ideas to decision quality
The hidden ceiling that appears when teams keep “building small” after early traction
Why technical literacy now shapes founder leverage even at the application layer
How fragmented European markets quietly train founders to think global from day one
What great execution looks like when models outpace product roadmaps
How taste, timing, and unlearning drive long-term startup scaling

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
02:03 Why Europe Produces Globally Competitive Founders
06:07 What Founders Miss About AI Acceleration
08:52 Building Real Companies Beyond Demo Culture
12:09 Why Technical Depth Wins In AI Startups
15:42 What Switzerland Gets Right About Ecosystems
20:01 Deciding Where To Build In Europe
23:01 What Strong Execution Looks Like Today
26:10 Discovering AI Use Cases Beyond Cost Cutting
28:55 Why Unlearning Becomes A Scaling Advantage
31:26 Maintaining Founder Intensity Without Burnout
41:40 Making High Stakes Decisions With Incomplete Data
44:57 Where Startups Should Focus As Models Advance
46:41 False Beliefs Holding European Founders Back

Our biggest takeaways, including Laura’s view on what founders consistently misjudge about speed and scale:
https://followthegradient.io/p/laura-...

Where to find Laura
  / laura-modiano  
Reach out at: [email protected]

🎙 Follow the Gradient: conversations about building a business from Europe while staying sane.

Hosts:
Melanie:   / melaniexgabriel  
Christian:   / christian-woese  

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