are emergency vehicles too loud?
Issue #156 (07 Jul) – new event; Coffee with Delphine; Cum-Ex series; drinking fountains; how long to build a strong habit?
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Programming note #156: Did you save the date as suggested last week? Great, because you are now free to attend the second event at Apple Rosenthaler Straße, this time about reaching your first 100 customers. I have already met both guests and will spend the coming days preparing interesting questions. Can't wait!
Thanks to our sponsors, Apple and Hypofriend.
The email subject answer is actually a debate in Snippet #5. I changed my opinion.
🌟 Handpicked community
Meet — handpicked events:
Interested in a free September trip to Sarajevo and Tirana? Enpact is inviting Berlin founders & ecosystem enablers to join them on the exchange trip (expenses covered!) and explore top emerging markets in Europe. You can apply directly by Jul 14, or, to meet the decision makers, join their after-work drinks & chat briefing event. | Wed, 09/07 18:00 | enpact*
Earlybird Vision Lab hosts its 6th Demo Day. Eleven migrant-led startups will pitch bold ideas in AI, health tech, climate, and more. Listen to their pitches and meet lots of great people. Register here. | Thu, 17/07 14:00 | Delta Campus*
Rise & thrive: Let's get embodied: Reconnect. Reclaim. Remember. | Tue, 15/07 18:30 | betahaus Moritzplatz
Al for UX, UX for Al | R9. Berlin meetup #9 | Tue, 15/07 18:30 | Grammarly Berlin
see you at 🎉 The next 20% summer pod party | Thu, 17/07 19:00 | Berliner Berg Brauerei
Prime Intellect — a Decentralized & Open Source AGI Meetup | Fri, 18/07 17:00 | Location after registration
this could be your event - advertise it
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
Check out this cool project by Lara and Artyom, In Progress. They are hosting Supper Clubs, where they want to connect early-stage founders who want to start their own company soonish. Join their next event this Thursday.
Thinking of expanding to the US? Check out the free book and expansion playbook “Winning in the US” by Index Ventures. They analysed over 500 VC-backed companies and did 40+ in-depth interviews.
If you want to help digitise Berlin, you can help solve one of the two challenges: 1) recording and displaying the utilisation of sports facilities and 2) digitisation of contract award preparation.
📨 Submit your input for the community here. This section is also featured on LinkedIn in the weekly post.
👀 Handpicked jobs
3️⃣ job highlights of the week
The remaining jobs are on the Handpicked job board. This week’s focus was design & UX/UI.
🔥 Spotlight: Reach your first 100 customers
So excited to be hosting another session at Apple Rosenthaler Straße, this time with Julie Lepique (Femtasy) and Larissa Schmid (saint sass).
In an insight-packed session, we will touch on the complete founder journey and put a strong emphasis on strategies and ideas on how to win your first 100 customers.
You will also be able to ask questions and network with other entrepreneurs, freelancers and start-ups building great things.
Can’t wait to see you on Wednesday, 16th of July at 18:00.
☕️ Coffee Talk with Delphine Mousseau
Delphine is a familiar face in the Berlin tech scene and in betahaus. She is an e-commerce pro and now runs her own community, advises to investors, VCs and founders on how to scale their business. Unfortunately, she doesn't plan to write a Berlin guide yet (she did one for Amsterdam). Here is what she prepared for you:
Chamäleon Berlin — Cutting-edge circus blending cabaret, dance and acrobatics. Every show is unleashing new creativity making your moment memorable and inspiring. Visual storytelling transcends language barriers making it accessible to everyone.
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg — Rosenberg's framework transformed my approach to building personal and business relationships. It is simple and truthful, opening a new way to deal with constructive feedback and conflict through empathy. Why don't we learn it at school? So needed.
Rising Pineapples — Empowering women to rise to their fullest potential—this is my promise to those who join my initiative. Through expert-led workshops, engaging online content, and inspiring conferences, I create safe spaces where women can learn, grow, and connect. Because true growth happens best in sisterhood.
🗞 Snippets
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
🍽️ We are still accepting dinner club applications - put yourself on the list. We plan to start in September, but who knows... maybe we'll kick it off earlier. Questions? Let me know.
A good reminder that we already published last year: 240 public drinking fountains. Useful when you plan your long runs. But the website could be better: you need to accept the cookies to see the map.
I'd like to recommend this great German-Danish series "Other People's Money" about the CumEx tax fraud that, between 2000-2020, cost taxpayers across 12 countries an estimated €150B! My personal highlight is the end of episode 7/8, when the journalist says that Scholz will never survive it. I guess that's why its genre is also comedy. Warmly recommended. It'll help your German, and it’s on ZDF Mediathek.
There is a serious oversupply of office space in town! There was a 42% increase in vacant office space over the past twelve months, totalling 1.75 million square meters or 7.9% of all Berlin office space. Great times if you are shopping for an office.
In this discussion, there are some cultured and interesting perspectives on the loudness of emergency vehicles in Germany. Initially, I was: “No brainer, too loud”, but when you read that some people still don’t hear them or ask yourself how you’d feel if you needed that emergency, it becomes a different story.
Nothing against cars, but just look at what happened after Paris curbed cars. Air pollution is a silent killer:
via WaPo ($) Moving on to micro-mobility: e-scooters aren’t really used a lot: in Q1 this year, average utilisation was 11 minutes daily per scooter, with two rides per day. E-bikes (w/o Nextbike) are even worse: on average, they are used less than once daily.
Career: What problems to solve? A beautiful letter by Richard Feynman to a student who felt he was not doing something worthwhile working on “humble” problems. “No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.” It’s the same with business ideas - not everything needs to disrupt <insert industry>.
Career: There is no perfect machine (=ATS) readable CV, and adding random keywords won’t help you. What matters are speed of application and accuracy (aim for 60% coverage of requirements). I also liked the idea of creating 4-5 tailored CVs for different position types. You can use my CV Guide for that.
Timeless: 21 days for introducing a new habit? More like 2 to 8 months.
Briefly
Bad news: Microsoft -9000 (over different divisions); Enter (Berlin) just raised €20M but also let mid-double-digit people go.
Stats: Sentiment among companies in Germany has improved, for the sixth time in a row. The ifo Business Climate Index rose to 88.4 points in June, up from 87.5 points in May. (ifo)
For all the football fans out there: A list of locations with public viewing of the UEFA Women's Euro 2025.
Targo Bank will launch a neobroker called “Joe Broker”.
Only 62% of ICE and IC trains were on time in May. Deutsche Bahn also intends to raise ticket prices and reduce the number of ICE connections by 25 per cent due to rising track access fees.
Berlin taxi drivers protested against Uber, Bolt & co, demanding equal pricing regulations and minimum fares to end what they call unfair competition.
RTL will acquire Sky Deutschland. HBO Max is coming to Germany in 2026.
Weekly social
Bro, today is July 2nd. We’re now closer to 2050 than to 2000.
Stories about Berlin that not many people know about. For example, “Neukölln was always a "problematic" place.”
I often rant about cars, but some cyclists aren’t much better. Here is a video proof from England.
Ready to stop renting and finally buy a home in Germany? Join 10,000+ Expats who’ve already made the move with expert guidance every step of the way. No German skills needed—just your dream of homeownership.
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
Talon.One | Berlin | Retail promotions and loyalty platform | $135M | Careers.
Peec AI | Berlin | AI search visibility analytics | €7M Seed | Careers.
Yuno | Berlin | Knowledge audio content platform | €7M | No careers.
Edurino | Munich | Digital learning for children | €17M | Careers.
Lidrotec | Bochum | Laser cutting systems for microchips | $13.5M | Careers.
ExpectedIT | Esslingen | AI server chip logic technology | €12.5M | Careers.
Venta AI | Munich | AI B2B sales automation | $2M | No careers.
Carelane | Bremen | Clinical trial optimisation software | €2.6M | No careers.
avoltra | Nuremberg | Intelligent energy procurement solution | €2.3M | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
I wish I were an AI researcher
*sponsored
Five articles with a treat:
How to learn German? Be better than “Genau” and “Mit Karte, Bitte!”
Football in Berlin: where to play, watch and how to get involved?
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