🤓 do you live or work in Berlin?
Issue #106 (17 Jun) – 20 HR & Recruitment jobs; Coffee with Nazlı; eleven date ideas; Berlin's ubers and bolts; vanishing of the U1; importance of references; is BER actually a good airport?
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Programming note: Have you or any of your friends had a good or bad experience with the tech bootcamps around Berlin? I would love to hear from you.
Last week, we organised another event—this time a tour of Berlin’s football culture with Davyd. Speaking of football, while planning, we didn’t pay attention, and our Urban Challenger event will happen exactly while Germany will be playing their second game against Hungary. This is an excellent opportunity for you to join and check out how empty Kreuzberg will be.
🌟 Handpicked community
📨 Submit your input here. Inspiration for all the categories on the link.
🎪 Meet — tech & other events:
🚨 Urban challenger game — Kreuzberg edition together with Berlin Events Weekly | Wed, 19.6 at 18.00 | Mariannenplatz
K.I.E.Z. Female Founders Happy Hour | Tue, 25.6 at 18.30 | Merantix AI Campus
Earlybird Vision Lab Demo Day | Thu, 11.7 at 14.00 | Data Space by SAP
😎 Show — Cool stuff / Shoutouts / Projects & similar:
Founders can apply for the KfW Awards until the 1st of July. In total, €35k will be distributed amongst several companies.
Adi from Arbeitnow wrote a step-by-step guide based on his application for citizenship.
🔍 Ask — for a Service / Co-founder / Project help & similar:
LUBYO.com (legal- & HR-Tech) is looking for a Chief Sales & Marketing Officer (CSMO). They are seeking a dynamic team member to drive growth. Compensation is offered in company shares until funding is secured.
Looking for the submission link? It’s below the title ⤴️
👀 Handpicked jobs
5️⃣ from the rotation this week: HR & Recruitment
The remaining jobs (also outside rotation) are in the Handpicked online database.
🤩 help me spread the word
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Thank you so much for reading and supporting me.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Nazlı from explores.berlin
Nazlı moved to Berlin 2 years ago from Istanbul and has been exploring the city almost daily ever since. She runs the explores.berlin Instagram channel for 1.5 years now and grew it to one of the most valuable resources about the city. Here is what she prepared for you:
Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (book, movie, and series): I read this autobiography of Christiane F. years ago, but only recently visited the places mentioned both in the book and shown in the movie. Visiting these places was an emotional experience. Zoo Station and its surroundings have changed a lot over the years, but seeing these places in real life was still very moving. The book is essential for understanding a darker slice of Berlin's history.
Lomography City Guide Berlin (book): I've always loved analog photography, and it's even better in Berlin. This book is a visually striking guide that takes you through Berlin via lomographic photos. It's not just a travel guide; it's also an inspiration for photographers and adventurers alike.
David Bowie's Apartment in Berlin (article): As a David Bowie fan, learning about his Berlin years is very exciting for me. This article taught me about his apartment in Berlin and the city's influence on his music & life during the 1970s. Then, I visited all those places myself and enjoyed it a lot.
🇩🇪 Berlin & other good stuff
Here is a reel from our Football tour with Davyd. If you don’t really like football, you can still join us on the Urban Challenger this Wednesday.
Eleven summer date ideas (🇩🇪) in Berlin from Mit Vergnügen. I can totally vouch for Aviv! But I'm not sure why MV always go with eleven things?
How did Berlin vote? Well, Green (19.6%), but they lost -8.3% since the 2019 vote. You can analyse your own Kiez on this interactive map by Tagessspiegel. I also found this map of voters in Germany by population density interesting. In absolute numbers, AfD is smaller than it appears, BUT we’re missing the second largest party in the visualisation.
After LaBo banned around 1600 Uber/Bolt cars in Berlin because of their lack of proper paperwork, the sketchy companies found loopholes around Berlin. So, if your Uber/Bolt doesn’t have a Berlin license plate, you can safely assume it is one of the sketchy ones. Related, you can now book regular Taxis with the Uber app all over Germany.
Why does Berlin's first U-Bahn line (U1) vanish between Schöneberg and Charlottenburg? Beata from has the answer. It’s also a reminder that Berlin is a bunch of cities/villages (Charlottenburg, Neukölln, Cöpenick…) that officially merged in 1920. (🇩🇪) Now, speaking of Berlin…
NGP Capital released its annual DACH startup report. The situation is stabilizing, and B2B is still dominating, while Berlin's funding nearly halved (47%) in the last 12 months. They highlight The Exploration Company, Spread, Robco, Daedalus, Aily, Aleph Alpha, Tacto, and Fernride as companies with the largest momentum in Germany.
Career: Landing a Job Is All About Who You Know (€), a good reminder from WSJ about how networks matter more than ever. In a nutshell, get a referral if possible! Not just via the application system, also try personal LinkedIn outreach; notice how the success rate of referred candidates is rising:
Career: Here is a really good Twitter thread by Matthew Bell on the current state of the gaming industry. More crisis than opportunity.
Timeless: 30 useful concepts from spring 2024 by Gurwinder are the usual good read. Take one or two, send them to yourself in Gmail, and snooze to be reminded about them in a couple of weeks. Repeat. A simple alternative to Readwise and other similar reminder tools.
Timeless: You Don't Need To Document Everything is an essay by Freya India that deeply resonated with me and my constant battle with my screen time. “So put the camera down. Don’t document everything. Stop selling your life off so cheaply to strangers. Keep some things sacred. Let some memories fade and look back at them through fuzzy nostalgia instead of the cheap glare of an iPhone camera roll.”
Reddit choice of the week is a discussion about BER airport after someone praised it (after it was named the best airport in Europe by British Eurochange). It’s not that bad if the security & luggage ausgabe is working well, but after listening to this excellent podcast series by Radio Spätkauf BER feels like a bunch of missed opportunities.
💬 Briefly:
😔 Bad news: Blickfeld (Munich, 3D-lidar tech) bankrupt; Lilium (Munich, airtaxi) looking for government support (HB); Ladenzeile (Berlin, e-commerce) closing end of June.
Stats: “In May 2024, 25.9 % more regular insolvencies were filed than in the same month of the previous year. Corporate insolvencies applied for increased by 5,209 or 26.5% in the 1st quarter of 2024 compared to the 1st quarter of 2023” (Destatis, 🇩🇪).
Clark (Berlin, insurtech) is reportedly looking to raise €100M. (FinanceForward, 🇩🇪)
Piran Asci (Founder and CEO) is leaving KoRo, Berlin-based food products.
Solaris and Trade Republic parted ways. Solaris managed TR’s escrow accounts. (HB)
According to QS Top Universities, FU Berlin ranked 4th among German universities and 97th worldwide. DE filtered list if you plan to enrol or explore.
MotionLab.Berlin is Berlin’s new Deep Tech Hub! In June 2024 MotionLab.Berlin is launching a new ecosystem membership to support deep tech companies.
The business operations of the luxury department stores KaDeWe, Oberpollinger (München) and Alsterhaus (Hamburg) are being sold to the Thai Central Group, which previously already owned 50.1% of KaDeWe.
WeWork concluded bankruptcy proceedings. They exited 170 locations. (Yahoo)
According to Handelsblatt (🇩🇪, €), Flix has paused the IPO preparation and is instead looking to sell 30% of the company to an investor (Swedish EQT).
M10 will potentially be extended deep into West Berlin (until Hermannplatz). But, no rush, probably in 2030s? A lot of discussions are still pending. Project details in 🇩🇪.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Dive | Berlin | Simulations software for engineers | $10M | Careers.
Restate | Berlin | Builds distributed applications | $7M Seed | Careers.
Cardino | Berlin | Online marketplace for used EVs | €4M Seed | Careers.
Black Semiconductor | Aachen | Makes graphene-based microchips for various applications | €254M Series A (government & private investment) | Careers.
Cognigy | Düsseldorf | AI agents for customer service | $100M Series C | Careers.
ARX Robotics | Munich | Non-offensive autonomous robotic vehicles | €9M Seed | Careers.
DeepSkill | Cologne | EdTech company focusing on emotional skills and holistic personnel development | €1.5M | Careers.
Isar Aerospace | Munich | Cost-effective launch vehicles for small satellites | $20M | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
PMs and engineers struggle…
✌️ Handpicked essentials and a treat:
- How to learn German and get over “Genau” and “mit Karte, bitte”?
- Signing a new employment contract in Germany? Read this before.
- Don’t make these mistakes with your side hustle!
- Berlin Salary Trends Reports: How do you compare?
- ❓Surprise treat for the curious
- 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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