Programming note #178: I do this newsletter because I enjoy doing it. I am grateful that so many of you also like it. To make it even better, I prepared a year-end survey:

Please donate 3 minutes of your time to help me.

The email subject is in Snippet #1, as a follow-up to the article about recruiters last week.

🌟 Handpicked community

Meet — 3 handpicked events:

• Not many tech events are going on this week: if you crave a tech meetup, there is Santa’s Data Workshop happening on Thursday.

• SKRYNYA I Ukrainian pop-up charity market | Fri & Sat, 20/12 12:00 | Colosseum Kino

• Special craft Wednesday - Christmas cards | Wed, 17/12 19:00 | Antiquariat HENNWACK

• This could be your event! Advertise it.

Show cool stuff or Ask for something:

• Here is a great project for all the movie lovers: “OV-Berlin: Discover where to watch movies in their original language (OV/OmU/OmeU - no dubbing) at Berlin cinemas.”

• If you are looking for a great gift (in German), consider byuing Leo’s book with 50 special stories about people who achieved extraordinary things, but you have probably never heard of. They are based on his excellent weekly newsletter Zeitsprung.

• Marketers, participate in an annual survey: “The marketing industry faces a critical juncture where do-good intent must evolve into tangible climate action. Our annual Force For Good research report is dedicated to charting the industry's commitment to climate and social responsibility.”

• Here is a simple mobile app (LinkedIn link, see first comment) that makes it extremely easy to practice for your Leben in Deutschland / Citizenship test (Eibürgerungstest).

• Something interesting to share? Go for it.

👀 Handpicked jobs

3️⃣ job highlights of the week

• Arbio - Agent Engineer

• Qdrant - Chief of Staff

• Siemens Energy - Generative AI Specialist – Technical Product Design & Development

The remaining jobs are on the Handpicked job board. This week’s focus was business and strategy.

Submit a job for free.

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☕️ Coffee Talk with Alix Chausson

Alix is a co-founder of Nosh.bio a biotech and foodtech startup in Berlin. They are working on Koji protein based on mycelium. Their first product are meatballs mixed with plant-based protein. Here is what she prepared for you:

• Sofi — Sofi is tucked away in an alley, with a cosy, understated atmosphere that works for any moment of the day. I prefer to go very early before the rush. The sourdough is incredible, and their Copenhagen-style breakfast is one of my favourites. They call themselves a 'neighbourhood spot committed to honest baking' - and that's exactly what it is: unpretentious & delicious.

• Chopin — I usually put him on when I want a moment of beauty and softness, but I also absolutely love his sudden bursts of energy. He can play a quiet melody one moment and switch into this completely unexpected intensity the next. It feels brilliantly unpredictable and mirrors the rhythm of real life!

• Vipassana — It may sound like a relaxing retreat from the outside, but it's one of the most hardcore things I've ever done: 10+ hours a day of silence, stillness, absolute focus, zero distraction. By far the toughest resilience work I've done to date, both mentally and physically. You need real daily consistency to keep the results going - and they're genuinely powerful: a real levelling up in clarity, steadiness, and decision-making.

🗞 Snippets

Berlin & Germany, career & timeless

1. Are you interviewing for a job? Then please read this list of red flags I prepared after featuring recruiters last week. If you feel something is missing, drop me a note!

2. I’d love your help improving this newsletter. The survey takes 3 minutes and will help me understand what matters to you: fill it out on this link.

3. I’ve got another one on my Great Berlin Restaurants and Bars list: Bar Basta. I went because Arash Ghassemi earned the title "Host of the year" from Mixology. And it was worth it. A warm recommendation. I had beans with Cacio e Pepe sauce and a toast.

4. Good news: Anything that explodes is banned in Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain, but only before 18:00 on the NYE and after 7:00 on the 1st of January. Fines are up to €50k.

5. Berlin is surrounded by AfD territory and is currently run by the coalition of SPD and BSW. It probably helps AfD that crime by foreigners (in Germany, but surely elsewhere as well) is falsely inflated (by 3x for foreigners and by 4x by muslims) by the media (TV and newspapers):
   

   

6. Oh, the irony… Speaking of media inflating crime by foreigners, ZDF accompanied plainclothes police in Berlin looking for pickpockets and thieves. The annual reported thefts dropped from a 40k peak to 16k, with foreigners committing most of them. Be careful, it can happen anytime, especially on crowded public transport or even in restaurants and bars.

7. Berlin's parliament passed a new police law last week with support from the CDU-SPD coalition and AfD, expanding police powers to monitor phones and laptops and enabling video surveillance at crime hotspots. You can read the opinion of Reclaim The Net, a digital rights advocacy group, here. They aren’t impressed.

8. Career: A short Reddit thread on how is it to work at JetBrains. Apparently, speaking Russian helps.

9. Career: If one of your NY resolutions is to speak more and get invited to speak more, here is a guide on How to become a conference speaker that includes plenty of great ideas, also for non-developers. The approach is solid and can easily be amended to any topic.

10. Career: A good reflection for leaders amongst you, specifically focusing on how you show that you care for people working with you.

11. Timeless: A more visual topic this time: 100 top photos from 2025 from Time. Many of them are simply excellent.

12. Stats: Berlin has 11,480 streets, private roads, bridges and squares. 17.3% of street names appear at least twice, and 284 have numbers in their names (e.g., Straße 123). The most common street name is Waldstraße (11x).

Berlin-related headlines

1. Tenant association sees "structural problem" with owner-occupancy (Eigenbedarf) evictions (read)

2. BVG changes announcements and extends vehicles: From Sunday more space on three lines (U3, M5 & 147) in Berlin (read)

3. Dresdner Bahn finished after 28 years: 14 minutes from Südkreuz station to Berlin airport (read)

4. Excessive rents in Berlin: CDU and SPD plan reporting portal for suspected cases (read)

Briefly on business, tech and economy

1. Bad news: The ifo Institute lowered Germany's growth forecasts from 1.3% to 0.8% for 2026 and from 1.6% to 1.1% for 2027, blaming US tariffs, structural reform failures, and declining exports.

2. Helsing (Munich, defence tech) and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (Norway) are partnering to build a European sovereign satellite constellation.

3. I never imagined I would write this, but someone from former Yugoslavia, Milan Nedeljković, will take over at a DAX company, BMW, in 2026.

4. Funding rumour: Parloa (Berlin, customer service agents) is seeking to raise $200M at $2-3B valuation. (Bloomberg) They are hiring.

5. Parloa (€195M funding) is one of the five new German unicorns in 2025, next to Quantum Systems (drone tech, €310M funding), Isar Aerospace (space tech, €553M), n8n (workflow automation, €221M), and Black Forest Labs (AI imaging, €468M). (Gründerszene)

6. From March 2026, private operator GoVolta will run trains from Berlin to Amsterdam three times weekly. Tickets start at €10.

7. The total number of German unicorns decreased by five to 28.

8. Fintech startup Deblock is entering the German market with its wallet solution, merging banking with crypto wallets. Careers.

9. A great visualisation of current spending on AI. Way more than the Apollo program that landed us on the moon.

10. Related, a big German AI hope, Aleph Alpha is restructuring: ~10% of staff (over 36 people) left in recent weeks, including ten leaders.

11. Raisin (Berlin, fintech) was profitable for the second year. 2024 EBITDA up 69% to €34M, revenue up 50% to €237M due to growing customers and deposits.

12. dm launched an online pharmacy selling over-the-counter medications (like painkillers, Aspirin, Voltaren) and skincare products - around 2,500 medicines total.

13. The opening of House of Games in Berlin-Friedrichshain was postponed to the second half of 2026. The gaming industry hub will occupy 15,000 sqm across five floors close to Warschauer Brücke.

Weekly social and outside interests

1. Reddit: Someone made a Sterni price map. You can still find it for a euro.

2. Reddit: I agree that tipping culture got out of hand, and I rarely tip at the counter. It’s an interesting topic that keeps resurfacing, and probably the payment providers are mostly to blame.

3. elsewhere: Size of life by the amazing Neal (I found this one funny: “human - A highly social, relatively hairless bipedal ape that was once a nomadic hunter-gatherer, but has adapted to create websites”). Do not try his Simulation Clicker, I warned you.

💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany

1. Mondu | Berlin | BNPL fintech for B2B | €100M credit line | Careers.

2. LI.FI | Berlin | Universal liquidity protocol for assets | $29M Series A Extension | Careers.

3. CODE University of Applied Sciences | Berlin | Tech-focused applied sciences university | €7M | Careers.

4. Ficus Health | Berlin | AI documentation for rehabilitation clinics | €3M Seed | Careers.

5. Zentio | Berlin | AI manufacturing optimization platform | €1.4M | Careers.

6. FION Energy | Berlin | AI-optimized industrial battery storage | €1.4M Pre-seed | No careers.

7. Absora | Berlin | Lightweight perforated sheet metal alternative | €1.25M Pre-seed | Careers.

8. Amplifold | Munich | DNA-origami signal amplification for tests | €5M | Linkedin page.

9. Virtonomy | Munich | Virtual patients for drug testing | €5M | Careers.

10. Moonscale | Munich | AI revenue automation platform | €3.5M | Careers.

😅 Meanwhile

they profiled us well

Igor Ranc

Founder & Curator of Handpicked Berlin

Five articles with a treat:

• How to find an apartment in Berlin: 4 unconventional methods that actually work

• Best cafés to work in Berlin

• Eye contact in Berlin – a short guide

• CV writing guide in Germany: insights from 6 tech recruiters

• Don’t make these mistakes with your side hustle!

• ❓Surprise treat for the curious

• …all the rest of Handpicked articles

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