😱 Did this ever land in Spam?
Issue #80 (04 Dec) – marketing and comms jobs; 20 Percent rules; Berlin is climbing pricing index; best career advice in years; why a dinner costs 200€?; ideas for Christmas presents.
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Programming note: See you tomorrow at Christmas Market? I’ll be wearing warm shoes. If you are not subscribed to this newsletter yet, here is your chance:
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🌟 Handpicked Kleinanzeigen & Tech Events
🎪 Events:
📨 Startups Unite - Raising funds for victims of war in Gaza and Israel | Sun, 10.12 at 19.00 | Orangerie Neukölln
How do startup founders get stuff done? | Wed, 13.12 at 13.00 | Online - Sifted
Black in Tech Christmas Party | Thu, 14.12 at 18.00 | Sumup
😎 Cool stuff:
“Hi, I'm Isabelle, a student in UI/UX Design creating a financial education app for teens (12-17). I believe personal finance should be taught in schools but it's not, so I'm developing a tool for parents. Please help by filling out my survey (no personal data needed, only opinion). Thanks!”
“Hey! We (Nikita and Natalia) are working on a small hobby project/start-up in Berlin and we are launching a free Python course for everyone interested. The course will be conducted on our interactive learning platform with a flexible roadmap. We would be so thrilled to have some Berliners as our first students!”
🔍 Searching for roles:
Frédéric - “After spending the past year backpacking in Asia, I am back in Berlin and looking for a fresh start as a Data or Product Analyst, after having worked as a UX designer for the past 10 years. Available from Jan 1st.”
Gerard is a product designer based in Berlin with 6-7y of experience. After his work at payfit he is looking for cool projects to impact preferably big companies. My man loves cooking.
Mikairu (e-mail) - “Product manager with 4+ years of experience with stints in healthtech, data, and marketplaces. Obsessed with Berlin for all the wrong reasons and needs relocation support.”
🚨You can get featured, too! It’s free for all the three categories.
👀 Handpicked twenty-something
📨 HR going the extra mile & readers submitted
submit yours on the link; it’s free
🧞♂️ On rotation this week: Marketing and Communications
More positions (also outside rotation) in Handpicked online database.
📢 Shoutout to 20 Percent Berlin
20 Percent are one of the first “friends of the show” and I remain extremely grateful to and for boosting my motivation when I only had 450 subscribers. I cherish their brave political commentary and great writing style. Most of you will already know their excellent Tuesday & Friday digest of the most interesting things happening in Berlin; if you still don’t, subscribe and read.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
This is important. Substack had some glitches (?) and at least one subscriber I know simply disappeared from my list, plus some people told me my emails started to land in spam. 😞
The last one is an obvious joke, but to prevent this from ever happening, please move this e-mail from Promotions to Primary in Gmail and add handpickedberlin@substack.com to your contacts.
🇩🇪 Berlin & Other good stuff
🔒 Here is the overview of November with extras for supporters. You can also become one (there is a link at the bottom).
🗑️ A personal anecdote on dealing with Berlin public services. I sincerely hoped I would be able to write, hey, it’s not that bad, it works, but I can’t. If there’s trash lying around on the street, you can report it to Ordnungsamt (they even have an app). So when I was passing by this mattress for weeks, I finally tested the app. They replied it was already reported. But after a week, the thing is still there.
💶 Worldwide Cost of Living 2023 is out and Berlin’s at #42, moving up 31 places while the index increased to 73 from 66 (NYC = 100, the winners are the usual suspects, Singapore & Zurich at 104). One factor is surely housing and here, whatever some people might think, 101 of economics is at work—check this great explanation of elasticity of supply. (YT, 7 min) Replace SF with Berlin and you more or less have the answer. Housing is getting more expensive because the supply is inelastic—price increases a lot and quantity only a little.
Good news: in November, Berlin's inflation slightly decreased, with consumer prices rising by 3.4% compared to November 2022 but dropping 0.8% from October 2023. But: There have been 45 major insolvencies (companies with a minimum annual turnover of €50 million) in the first nine months of 2023, mainly in retail, healthcare, and machinery. This trend contrasts sharply with 26 cases in 2022 and 17 in 2021. The construction industry experienced the most bankruptcies across all business sizes. (via Allianz Trade)
👩🏻🍳 We’ve had fine dining here before. Here is an explanation from Nobelhart & Schmutzig why their menu costs €175 or €200. You pay for being able to take time and your food being made from scratch. And I am sure they don’t legally challenge Google reviews like some other sketchy places.
🤔 How wealthy is Germany compared to other European countries? This chart reminded me of a stupid fight I had with my friend back in Stuttgart. Median wealth is lower (also!) because of the high share of people renting and because there is a massive difference between East (43k) and West (128k), so don’t fall for the first comment in this vivid discussion on Reddit.
😎 I am reading a great book and one of the chapters was about things being simple. This career advice from Barack Obama is simple and extremely valuable: “Just learn how to get stuff done!” (YouTube, 1 minute of wisdom pur)
🤝 Here is a good clip (Twitter) on five questions Matteo Franceschetti (EightSleep) is asking to identify red flags. A good reflection and preparation exercise if you are interviewing and an inspiration if you are hiring. (1. How did you find your job? 2. Your biggest achievement? 3. What has been the lowest point? 4. What will your manager say about you? 5. Why did you leave?)
🎁 I enjoyed this article with gift ideas from : Holiday Season Gift Ideas for Techies and already bought the creative block cards. Useful if you need inspiration—and I mean the cards and the article—a lot of good quality stuff!
🎬 Rocumentaries offers a collection of great documentaries that you should see. I was happy to see Man on Wire, but sad it didn’t work.
😔 Bad news: Fina (Berlin, neobroker for women) is bankrupt; Signa (incl. some sister companies like SportScheck) filed for bankruptcy—big impact on Berlin’s real estate!; Tier -22%, more below.
Reddit choice of the week is What is it that kids born after 2000 will not understand? I feel old, but fortunate that I experienced using maps, dial-up internet, Winamp, calling your friend on a landline and getting your photos developed after vacation.
💬 Briefly:
Congrats to Faircado, a Berlin-based Chrome browser extension for cheaper 2nd hand items! They won a €1M Slush 100 startup competition award in Helsinki (and raised €500k a year ago).
Tier laid off 22% of the workforce signalling micro-sharing-mobility is a tough tough business—they expect to be profitable on an annual basis for 80% of their markets this year, but still ending with -15% EBIDTA. Mobility related: Uber now also started Uber Rent, enabling users to rent cars—bad news for Miles.
In 2022 N26 grew revenues to €236M (24%) but unfortunately also grew their losses to €213.4M. For this year they expect revenues to grow by 30% and decrease the losses to €100M. In the second half of ‘24, they want to turn profitable. (more, 🇩🇪) Rising rates could work in their favour.
Sono Motors (EV from Munich) found an investor and is back! Alive!
Reddit considering an IPO in Q1 ‘24 which is not a good sign for this unprofitable “forum” that many people love.
Seniovo (Berlin, specialised bathrooms) was bought by Hornbach. Numa (Berlin, travel & stays) took over Yays.
Grover’s founder and CEO, Michael Cassau, stepped down.
Five German solar companies - Enpal, 1Komma5°, Energiekonzepte Deutschland, Zolar, and Eigensonne - have formed an alliance to reduce dependence on Asian suppliers and boost European solar components. Together, they generate over €1B in revenue and employ over 8k.
European tech investments dropped from $100 billion in 2021 to $85 billion in 2022, expected at $45 billion in 2023. ClimateTech surpassed FinTech in funding. (State of European Tech 2023)
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Banxware | Berlin | Provides loans to platform merchants | €15M | Careers.
LiveEO | Berlin | Satellite data analysis with AI | $10M | Careers.
Veecle | Berlin | Shorten development times in automotive | €2.6M | Careers.
Sport Alliance | Hamburg | Delivers management solutions for fitness and sports facilities, with over 8000 clients | €100M | Careers.
Unchained Robotics | Paderborn | Develops AI-based control for robotics in electronics manufacturing | €5.5M | Careers.
Layla | Berlin | AI-powered travel company offering customized travel recommendations | €3M | No careers.
QuantumDiamonds | Munich | Specializes in quantum sensors for nanometer-precision mapping | €7M | Careers.
dunatura | Augsburg | Individualised micronutrient supply | €2.5M | No careers.
freshtaste | Heidelberg | Canteen alternative | €1.2M | Careers.
Sastrify | Köln | Supports the purchase and management of software solutions | Series B Extension | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
copy paste went wrong for Maik (via r/ich_iel)
This is a footer slice of 🏛️ history for you, based on this video showing how deadly CO2 can be. “The sacrifices—healthy bulls led down to the gates of hell—died quickly without human intervention, but the castrated priests who accompanied them returned unharmed.” (science.org)
✌️ Handpicked essentials:
- Don’t make these mistakes with your side hustle!
- Berlin Salary Trends Report 2023: How do you compare?
- Want to get reminded for the next salary survey?
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
- Write it down now! Or why you should journal at work?
- What do hiring managers look for in CVs?
✨ Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin ✨
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