how good is BER airport?
Issue #149 (19 May) – jobs; BVG leak; self-served artwalks; lists of top German startups, WFH pays less.
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Programming note #149: I will be at Gitex a lot. If you'd like to connect and discuss how to achieve world peace or something less ambitious, do approach me on LinkedIn.
Email subject answer in snippet #5. Not very good.
🌟 Handpicked community
is a place where we meet, share projects and ideas and look for help.
Meet — handpicked events:
Join “Is Solopreneurship For You?” with Ricardo Brito on June 26. A live, hands-on workshop to explore if going solo is the right move for your life and career. No hype, no fluff, no magic tricks, just real talk. | Thu, 26/06 17.00 | CIC*
🎈 Join Techspace’s Open Day, June 3rd! Expect breakfast, barista-quality coffee, 4K screens, and a midday yoga session. A no-fluff day built around focused work, connections, and fresh energy! For Founders, HR & Ops leads.*
Berlin, Germany - Small99's People, Planet, Pint™ | Wed, 28/05 19:00 | ŒLGARTEN - Beers & Bites
Quo Vadis Scale-Up Finance? | Wed, 28/05 18:00 | Spielfeld Digital Hub
No boring tech talks - Berlin | Wed, 21/05 18:30 | Roberto's Gentlemen's Suppliers (use HANDPICKEDGUEST for 25% off)
this could be your event - advertise it
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
A very warm recommendation! Looking for thoughtful, human-centered counsel to navigate the nuances of German labour law? Jean-Baptiste Abel, employment lawyer in Berlin-Kreuzberg, advises employees, employers and works councils in English, French and German — with clarity, empathy, and conviction. Better call Jean!*
Amplifier Effect is a women’s meetup in Berlin. We’re designing a leadership workshop for early-career women. Share your input to help shape it—and be the first to know when it launches.
📨 Submit your input for the community here. This section is also featured on LinkedIn in the weekly post.
👀 Handpicked jobs
is a rotating selection of jobs from companies I’d check out.
3️⃣ job highlights from the job board
The remaining jobs are on the Handpicked job board. (This week's focus was Sales, Customer Success & Ops)
Are you looking for new colleagues or work in HR? Submit a job.
✨ Handpicked deals
Your purchase or interest will help sustain this project.
💻 Startups, freelancers, solopreneurs! Looking for a fixed or flex coworking space or an office for your team? Here is the direct link to the discounts from betahaus, Ahoy, Industrious, Factory, Motion.Lab, The Drivery, Impact Hub, Space Shack and workish.
If you need an expert, check the Handpicked ones: (employee) relocation, employment lawyers, insurance and career coaches. Great people for great results.
Looking to pimp up your CV? Check my GEN AI guide.
☕️ Coffee Talk with Alina Kovalchuk
is where my guest contributes three links and I write a short bio. Permanent collection.
Alina has a very strong LinkedIn game, and no wonder that she is also building a marketing community, Haus of Marketing. Which is great, because this city lacks those. Here is what she prepared for you:
Kos House — This Greek tavern is the tastiest in town, where the staff treats us like old friends. We wanted a place where we would feel "local" - and this is exactly it. We've been returning monthly for the past 5 years.
The book “Pocket Full of Do” by Chris Do — A book about all things I love: entrepreneurship, creativity, people, beliefs, mindset, and marketing. The book design is incredible.
Berlin Museum Island — I moved to Mitte in 2020, and the museum island became my local place, where I would go for a lunch break, power walk, inspiration afternoon, or sunset spot. It is my go-to place to observe the tourists of our city, or sit by the river with a book.
🗞 Snippets
is a selection of links focused on Berlin/Germany, career, timeless content and business.
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
If you work in HR, you can still post jobs to the Handpicked Berlin job board for free. And it’s great, because I’ll be picking up to 5 of them to be featured in the newsletter as well. Submit it here.
In the first quarter of 2025, Berlin saw a 4.9% increase in residential property prices compared to the same period last year. Prices had decreased since their 2022 peak due to rising interest rates, but the market appears to be rebounding, particularly for multi-family homes, as investors return to the market. Rents are up 5% YoY.
If your data was a part of a 180k leak of customer data from BVG, you should have been informed by now. The personal data was stolen from the external service provider. Passwords and bank accounts weren’t affected.
💎 Berlin ArtWalk is a free app to explore Berlin’s street art with a curated map, custom walking tours, and summer essentials like toilets & water. iOS and Android.
BER Airport made it to the list of the Top 10 in the world. Just kidding. It was Munich, at position 9. BER was #58, just behind Dammam in Saudi Arabia.
Skytrax’s list of top 100 airports. Sifted has published a list of the 100 fastest-growing startups across Europe (self-reported revenue and numbers). Five Berlin companies are in top 10 (finmid, Nelly, Frontnow, n8n, Climatiq). A good reference point, but be careful not to rely too much on the data. Here is another list, from Viva Tech, with 36 German startups.
Career: Working from home can pay less and make promotion harder. “The findings indicate that employees who WFH are less likely to be considered for promotion, salary increase and training than on-site workers. The pay and promotion penalties for WFH are particularly true for men (both fathers and non-fathers) and childless women, but not mothers.”
Career: In a high-stress work environment, prioritize relationships. So true - don’t ever snap at people and burn the bridges because you meet everyone twice.
Timeless: AI tools can be very harmful, especially for people who struggle with the perception of reality. Not directly related, but very interesting: the perverse incentives of vibe coding. The more tokens you burn, the better for the model providers.
Briefly
Bad news: Microsoft -6,000.
Stats: In Q4 2024, only 5/16 German states increased their economic output. Berlin was negative (-0.3%). Lower Saxony grew by 1.4%, followed by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein. Hesse and Hamburg were also able to grow slightly.
Klarna backtracked on the AI in customer service and started to recruit humans again. I vividly remember the hype a year ago.
A short interview with Gunter Demnig, who has been laying Stolpersteine for 30 years. You can donate here. Interesting: they are forbidden on public streets in Munich.
14% of startup founders in Germany were born abroad. Among unicorns, the share rose to 23%. (Migrant founders monitor by Startup Verband)
Taco Bell isn’t coming to Berlin after all. (WiWo)
Wefox will sell its Italian units to J.C. Flowers.
SAP restricted its diversity programmes (40% women in the workforce goal), mainly because of fears of losing business in the US. (HB)
Bayer Q1 2025: revenue €13.74B (-0.1% YoY), EBITDA €4.09B (-7.4%).
If you feel like building submarines, you can join TKMS in Kiel (3+h train ride from Berlin). Their order book is full until 2040.
Weekly social
related: What if I want a faster horse? In some cases, for sure.
Twitter: How often did people ask, “Where are you?” 100 years ago?
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
is a list of companies that received funding over €1M.
MATCHDAY NUTRITION | Berlin | Sports nutrition | €1M Seed | Careers.
OroraTech | Munich | Thermal wildfire intelligence | €37M Series B | Careers.
Penzilla | Munich | Automated pension management software | €3.2M Seed | Careers.
akeno | Hamburg | AI production planning | €4.5M | Careers.
Scalara | Cologne | Digital property management | €6.5M | Careers.
desk.ly | Osnabrück | Desksharing cloud solution | €1M+ | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
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