Berlin is only Berlin in Berlin
Issue #117 (09 Sep) – Design & UX/UI jobs; we're open for business; Coffee with Nik; new marketing campaign; VW struggles; factory outlets; PMs giving up; top MBA schools; DJ firing himself.
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Programming note: Until recently, this newsletter was just a serious hobby project. This has now changed, which means even more handpicked stuff in the coming months. Starting this week, you can advertise and reach several thousand engaged readers. Media kit is available upon request. I also have straightforward options for cool small/upstart businesses below.
⛳️ You can still join us on afterwork minigolf this Wednesday at Tempelhof. It’ll be a refreshing end of the day—if the weather doesn’t hold, we will refund your ticket. Update, 9.9 at 14:57: the event was cancelled due to bad weather forecast.
🌟 Handpicked community
is a place where we meet, share projects and ideas and look for help.
🎪 Meet — tech & other events:
*Join our block party uniting Berlin’s startup and business scene! Expect networking, socializing, and plenty of fun. Powered by Ostrom. Use code BLOCKPARTY for up to 70€ off! | Fri, 20.9 at 18.30 | Close to U Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
Venturing Women - Pitchday | Tue, 22.10 at 14.30 | Google Berlin
Customer Success Management Panel talk | Wed, 17.9 at 19.00 | Venmate
*sponsored event
😎 Show — Cool stuff / Shoutouts / Projects & similar:
Raffle winners for the nocodeklub conference from last week are Vivek M. and Codee M. Congrats! 🎉 Those who didn’t win will get a pleasant surprise in their inboxes today.
“Calling all female & non-binary (wannabe) founders!! 📢” by SIB/avant now/Grace.
“We'll present the Dead Ladies Show at PodFest Berlin and would love to see the Handpicked crowd! The Dead Ladies Show tells the story of amazing women from history live on stage in English & German (and we're a podcast). Sept 14th at 16.00. Newsletter readers can get 15% off event tickets or day passes with PODFESTDLS24”
🚨 New submission form - community ads and advertising 🚨
I reorganised the old form, including basic advertising formats for paid events/services/products. It’s simple. If you get lost, approach me:
👀 Handpicked jobs
is a rotating selection of around 20 jobs from companies I’d check out.
5️⃣ from the rotation this week: Design & UX/UI
The remaining jobs (also outside rotation) are in the Handpicked online database.
📢 nocodeklub conference
Learn from the top companies using no-code & AI and Discover how forward-thinking companies use no-code and AI to accelerate growth and scale faster. September 26th in Berlin. Tickets here.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Nik Newcamp
is where my guest contributes three links and an explanation while I write a short bio.
Nik approached me with his newsletter, The Backroom Staff, and then accepted my suggestion to co-author an article about football in Berlin (in the footer). Since then, I have been following his newsletter, and he sure does give great insights behind the scenes of football. Check it out! Here is what he prepared for you:
All of my startup friends seemed to start talking about 'agency' at once. This essay from Cate Hall - she's a gold standard example for non-linear careers - is a good place to start.
VÖBB - the public library! Tons of locations, and they offer way more than just books - but I like it best for discovering new books like the lonely copy of So Many Olympic Exertions that ‘resides’ at Bettina-von-Arnim Library (S Schönhauser Allee) - it’s my favourite book in years. There are worse ways to spend €10/year!
Trivia is fun, and people are often impressed with random knowledge - Sporcle is the best all-purpose quiz site. Challenge me, your friends, family or coworkers in world geography!
🇩🇪 Berlin & other good stuff
is a selection of links focused on Berlin/Germany, career, timeless content and business.
Please participate in our three-minute 🪭 Event survey. You’ll get a 10% discount on paid events until 1.7.2025.
Berlin has a new marketing campaign (budgeted at €1.5M). Around 20 new slogans in different languages (examples) include “If we can't get anything together, why is everyone queuing up?” I enjoyed this well-made mockumentary (🇩🇪) about Berlinchen that closes with “Berlin is only Berlin in Berlin.”
What’s worth seeing at this year’s Berlin Art Week? Look no further: an overview from The Next Day in Berlin.
Related, at an annual Berlin Senat party, Berliner Hoffest, this year with the motto "Internationales Berlin", the DJ, unfortunately, emptied the dancefloor and made sure he would never get the sweet gig again by blasting L'Amour Toujours at 2 am. (RBB via Tagesspiegel) He reportedly said that it’s a good track and he won’t allow it to be ruined by Nazis.
For those with a sweet tooth, here are five factory outlets in the city for discounted sweets and pastries (Aseli, Bahlsen, Harry-brot, Lemke, Sawade, Storck and Tims Kanadische Backwaren). Related,
Only two “German” schools made it to the best 100 MBA schools for your career by LinkedIn. WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management at #14 and ESCP Business School (#47), founded in Paris but with a presence in Berlin. “The list is built on exclusive LinkedIn data looking at career outcomes of MBA alumni, such as job placement rates, advancement to senior-level positions and network strength.”
VW dropped a bomb this week: factory closures in Germany are possible. Unions erupted, also because the management is considering ending 30-year job guarantees. VW employed nearly 299k people in Germany, acc. to the ‘23 annual report. Meanwhile, Germany's new car market is down 27.8% compared to last year (the drop in EV cars is 69%). (all German media)
But what really matters, as Adam Tooze has excellently explained, is, in fact, China (emphasis mine): “For a firm like VW, what is at stake in China, the way it is nowhere else /…/ is nothing less than the future of the industry. What is being decided in that market, in the current moment, is the future of auto-mobility for the next decade and beyond.”Career: Y Combinator, a famous incubator, published the directory of their 251-strong S24 batch. The two German companies are both from Berlin. Omnidock, a marketplace distributor, and Tabular, AI-powered accounting.
Career: For product managers, a very relatable story about how stopping doing product management can make you happier. For designers, five red flags in the job description.
Timeless: What is possible to achieve in three years of training? (drawing photo-realistically, Reddit) Fair enough, they are very talented but still very motivating!
Timeless: A few short ideas, for example: “The unsexy work, where there’s little competition, is where some of the biggest ideas are found.”
📱 Weekly Social.
Reddit: someone came to Berlin with a friend, got ditched, and got some pro advice on what to do.
Instagram: Millenials… scarily relatable.
Elsewhere: Nice camera trick for street art photos, suggested by one of the readers.
💬 Briefly.
😔 Bad news: In 2023, BVG reported an increase in the total number of crimes (14,825 vs 13,709 in 2022), the second-lowest in 10 years. This included +611 violent crimes (4,181 or 11.5/day). Vandalism costs incl. grafitti were €4.9M. Overall, the crime in Öffis has remained below average since 2014. (BVG, PDF in 🇩🇪)
Stats: Berlin made progress in solar energy adoption in H1 2024. PV power input increased by 13% (from 54 GWh to 61 GWh YoY), while the number of installations grew by 47.7% (from 18,122 to 26,769 YoY). Renewable energy accounts for 5.4% of total power input, with PV contributing 1.9%. Natural gas remains the primary power source at 65.1%. (St.BB) In 2023, Germany had a total PV power input of 59,900 GWh.
ChaGPT business version is used by 1M paid users, according to OpenAI. Meanwhile, Ilya Sutskever’s (ex-OpenAI) SSI raised $1B without a product. Now, that’s what “investing in founders” means.
A court in Munich has ordered three former members of Wirecard's Management Board to pay €140M in damages plus interest. The ruling is not yet binding. (MM, 🇩🇪) What a mafia! ← my LinkedIn post about Money Men book
The S9 and S45 lines will be interrupted between BER and Schöneweide from the 16th of September to the 14th of October.
Berlin-based SellerX, a former unicorn buyer of successful marketplace sellers and a Covid-era hit, will be auctioned off this week. Fin.
Vinted is expanding from second-hand clothing to the electronics market (consoles, accessories, etc). Lieferando will now also deliver in 45min from Rewe (Flink? their own delivery?).
N26 reached monthly profitability, according to their CEO, Valentin Stalf. (HB)
Volocopter’s (
strugglingair taxi company from Ba-Wü) CEO, Dirk Hoke, is leaving early next year. (HB) Former CEO of TeamViewer will take over from a founder in Munich-based Konux, AI tech in the rail industry.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
is a list of companies that received funding over €1M.
Lucid Genomics | Berlin | Genetic data for drug discovery | €1.3M pre-seed | Careers.
Monda | Berlin/Boston | Data monetisation platform | $5M seed | No careers.
Thryve | Berlin | Health data integration analytics | €4M Series A | Careers.
Reonic | Augsburg | Renewable tech integration SaaS | €13M Series A | Careers.
OceanScore | Hamburg | Maritime data compliance solutions | €5M Series A | Careers.
Zive | Hamburg | AI enterprise knowledge platform | €2.9M | No careers.
Lendorse | Munich | International student funding support | €10M debt | Careers.
Zählerfreunde | Munich | Energy management software | Seven-figure seed | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
who would have ever guessed?
I am experimenting with Instagram reels more than ever. Get on the train!
✌️ Handpicked essentials and a treat:
♡ 20% Berlin: all the Berlin news twice a week, in English! ♡
- Your CV from a recruiter’s perspective: Andreea Lungulescu
- What do hiring managers look for in CVs?
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
- How to learn German and get over “Genau” and “mit Karte, bitte”?
- Football in Berlin: all the links you will ever need
- Berlin Salary Trends Reports: How do you compare?
- ❓Surprise treat for the curious
✨ Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin ✨
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