# Startup life

From pilot to production: How scaling companies are making AI work

Experts unpack how companies can deploy AI without destroying margins or losing team trust

Europe’s most valuable board members, according to founders

Founders name the most useful person on their board

Europe’s ‘real’ founder factories: Klarna and Improbable

Working at a growth-stage startup — rather than a unicorn or Big Tech firm — is the strongest predictor of a founder's future success, according to a new study of over 50k startups

It’s time to start paying all your staff like your sales team

Why everyone should get revenue-based bonuses

The incubator launching Scotland’s next generation of tech: ‘We need to pull the bigger players into the Scottish market’

The Venture Builder Incubator programme, in partnership with Techscaler, is working to turn Scotland’s world-class university research into scalable commercial businesses

Why late-stage secondary offerings are transforming private market access

‘When we see an opportunity, we’ll go for it’: Harvey’s VP of EMEA on M&A, hiring, and pushing beyond law

The US unicorn has launched in new European markets this year with plans to double its headcount in the region by the end of 2026

8 stealth founders using AI to take on the industries they used to work in

They include a former Amazon supply chain operator and an ex-McKinsey consultant taking on the space sector

The 50 fastest-growing European startup teams in H1 2026

Sifted ranks the top 50 fastest-growing startups by headcount growth across the first six months of 2026

Boredom is a business risk startups can’t afford to take

I’ve founded six startups and exited two: the slow draining of curiosity at companies is an underestimated problem

‘I want to be the MrBeast of tech’: Why Max Tkacz left n8n to become a Youtube gameshow host

Frustrated that even the biggest startups struggle to break through online, this former product designer thinks the answer is "token-maxxing ice bath challenge"

Meet 2026’s award-winning women building deeptech startups

Last month in Brussels, three founders were announced as winners of the European Prize for Women Innovators

An AI agent was named after this 57-year-old Belgian credit analyst. Is he philosophical about it?

One analyst reflects on what it means to share his identity with a machine built to do his job

Alan Chang is hiring a ‘performance manager’. Should other CEOs follow his lead?

The Fuse Energy boss wants someone to keep staff performing at their best — I can already imagine the quandaries

The headcount paradox: How AI is forcing HR and finance to think as one

Employee count used to be the ultimate vanity metric for fast-growing startups. Now, it’s all about “capacity”

How Hong Kong can be Europe’s fast track into Asia’s AI boom

Hong Kong’s innovation ecosystem bridges legal frameworks, research and production networks and crucial market access gateways

Berlin’s Peec AI targeting $200m valuation in new fundraise, sources say

The startup last raised $21m in November

The French & Benelux startups making €100m+ in revenue

The companies are all featured on Sifted’s latest leaderboard of the fastest-growing companies in France and Benelux

Visionaries general partner Judith Dada joins AI startup Langdock as co-CEO

Dada hopes her move to become a VC-operator will “kick off a trend” among European investors

Exclusive: British Business Bank backs 10 VC funds with £90m pot

It’s the first time the UK’s state economic development bank has committed capital specifically for underrepresented groups

17 techies share their advice for thriving in the hybrid AI-human office

Sifted polls CEOs, investors, researchers, consultants, HR pros and operators for ways to stay ahead of tech that’s always improving

Andy Burnham was Manchester tech’s ‘hype man’. Will he be the same for Britain?

Over the past decade, Andy Burnham has overseen one of Europe’s fastest-growing tech hubs as mayor of Greater Manchester

How global hiring became a growth strategy for European business

Driven by the evolution of AI and flexible working, companies are increasingly looking beyond their local talent pool

‘Companies will have to go the extra mile’: How Europe is future-proofing its hiring strategy

As AI continues to reshape hiring and local talent pools dry up, European startups must embrace global hiring to survive the growing tech talent crunch