is AI coming for HR?
Issue #174 (17 Nov) - new Money Talk; 7 events; no need for appointments at Bürgeramt; the problem with self-help gurus and more.
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Programming note #174: This week I realised that I am addicted to social media. After deleting Twitter from my phone months ago, I have now also deleted Reddit. It feels better, but I still don’t like somehow missing mindless scrolling as a part of my break from work. My idea of replacing the scrolling dopamine hit is to start reading books again.
Newsletter related: I’d like to push more short business snippets in the newsletter. This issue includes more than usual. What do you think?
Thanks to our sponsors who help this newsletter hit your inbox: Ostrom and Techarena! Please visit them.
The email subject is a speculation from Snippet #7.
🌟 Handpicked community
Meet — 7 handpicked events:
🚨 Join 12,000 founders, investors and business leaders in Stockholm on February 11-12 for Techarena 2026, Scandinavia's leading business and tech event. You can still get a great ticket deal: 45% off → get yours today! | February 11-12 2026 | Strawberry Arena, Stockholm
Share & Build — For early-stage builders - peer circle event with dinner included | Wed, 19/11 19:00 | ATworld Alex1
Turkish Product People in Berlin: What Space Telescopes and Bruce Lee Can Teach Us About Product Management | Wed, 19/11 18:30 | Otto-Suhr-Allee
🇩🇪 Gesundes & produktives Home Office - In 30 Minuten zum perfekten Arbeitsplatz für Deine Remote Teams | Thu, 20/11 11:00 | Free Live Online Webinar
Interview with Lawrence Leuschner (Tier) about why is he leaving Germany| Thu, 20/11 19:00 | The Delta Campus
TiME HACK - Europe’s Most Immersive Hackathon | Fri, 23/01 10:00 | Fraunhofer HHI
Something different: WHAT THE STARTUP Stageplay! Use ZJ5TGU code for a 20% discount on 11.12 and 12.12 | Premiere on Wed, 10/12 19:00 | Hotel Continental - Art Space in Exile
Wanna submit or advertise an event? Go for it.
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
Daniele is seeking a values-aligned co-founder for an EXIST grant (social innovation). The project explores how tech can foster more conscious, meaningful connections online. Funded year (salary + budget). If this resonates, check the link.
Côr Lumina Berlin is an international choir with a repertoire ranging from classical works to contemporary arrangements and fresh pop interpretations. Join their next live performance on 04.12.25. Proceeds go to charity.
Jennifer is building a recruitment platform to help companies hire more women in tech and leadership roles. She connects companies with verified talent and guide women to succeed in the job market. Help her with answering a couple of questions.
Something interesting to share? Go for it.
👀 Handpicked jobs
AD | Wanna join Almedia? Here is Jan: “Having recently joined as Strategic Growth Lead, I’m building a whole new department to accelerate our international expansion. The vision is to hire great people who can work across all our products, including market expansion, upselling, and cross-selling, not just in Berlin, but across APAC and the Middle East.” Check their 50+ open positions.
3️⃣ job highlight of the week
AD | A great opportunity at Cousin Labs - Senior Influencer Marketing Lead
The remaining jobs are on the Handpicked job board. This week’s focus was Data, Analytics & Finance.
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☕️ Coffee Talk with Brian Daly
Brian was one of the instrumental people helping grow Web Summit in Lisbon to what it is today. He also ran Techstars Berlin and is now working on a very interesting new project, AgeTechX. Here is what he prepared for you:
Milch Halle - My most-frequented spot in the city. Excellent coffee, zero pretension. I’ve watched the owners spin up their own roastery (Symple Coffee), and somehow the place became the VC epicenter. You’ll bump into half the tech scene on a Tuesday. That’s not why I go. It’s just genuinely good, warm, and consistent. And their staff is amazing.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts - A 900‑plus‑page monster by Gregory David Roberts that somehow never drags. Escaped prisoner, India, identity, chaos… every single chapter hits. This book made me fall back in love with reading. I read it on Kindle because the physical brick is… intimidating.
Read this book and leave Berlin for 6 weeks - Book pairing for your trip: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. It’s about going absurdly far to delight customers — applicable to, well, everything. And yes: get out of Berlin for six winter weeks. Sun, perspective and sanity.
🗞 Snippets
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
Money Talk is back. This time with Hannah and a bit of a different perspective compared with Anna and Albert.
I did a reel about CO2 levels and Stoßlüften. It went viral. If you want to buy the sensor (I do recommend it 100%), you can use my affiliate link so I can buy myself a coffee. There are also cheaper options available, for example, this.
The decision on how Berlin will spend €5.25B of the federal special debt (Sondervermögen) in the next 12 years was finalised. €1B will be spent on trees, €750M on social apartments, €678M on BVG, €600M on hospitals and so on. You can find the complete overview here.
Fireworks time is getting close. Unfortunately, there won’t be a ban, but the Senate plans to expand firework ban zones for NYE. I find it wild that an additional 3.2k policemen will be deployed just so that people can burn millions of euros up in the air. Or am I just an old fart? Possible.
Good news: there is no need to have an appointment for some services at the Bürgeramt. You can walk in for passport/ID pickup, registration certificates, criminal record checks, vehicle document address changes, and online ID function setup. But you will probably need to wait a bit.
Here is a cool blast from the past video about the logistics of German reunification by Wendover Productions.
The Economist had a nice chart on the rise of HR professionals. The trend was similar in Germany. They also speculate, paraphrasing: “Corporate layoffs are rising and companies like Amazon are cutting HR staff. DEI enthusiasm has waned in America, and AI poses a particular threat to HR roles compared to other white-collar jobs.” What do you think?
Career: Two concrete salary data points for someone deciding between FreeNow and eBay. Commentariat says take the money. Someone else asked about top-tier tech companies hiring in Berlin.
Career: Always be ready to leave (even if you don’t), or the advantage of good documentation. I find writing down things always helps me realise that there are things that I don’t completely understand.
Career: The problem with self-help gurus, a video from a former self-help guru. Worthwhile to watch. Did you know Huberman allegedly makes €40M from AG1 alone?
Timeless: I read this summary of “Four Thousand Weeks” and it hit so hard I immediately ordered it at an independent bookstore, Anagramm, to support the local business and virtue signal here. In a nutshell, your plate is full enough; relax more.
Stats: Crack consumption is rising in Berlin. According to police, over 23k instances of use were recorded in the city's drug consumption rooms in 2024 (roughly 9k more than in 2023). Related consumption offences more than tripled from 2015 (762 cases) to 2024 (2,474 cases).
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Berlin-related headlines
Every traffic light in Berlin fails on average almost three times per year (read)
Private railway wants to continue operating Berlin-Paris night train connection (read)
Rent control extended for all of Berlin by four years (read)
Pilot project: Beverage retailer opens parking lots at night for a fee (read)
Even more construction sites: Railway chief Palla: "It won't get better for now" (read)
Briefly on business, tech and economy
Is anyone surprised that TikTok’s algorithm is pushing political extremes?
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods.
The EU plans to eliminate the €150 customs threshold for Chinese e-commerce platforms like Temu as early as 2026. Get your orders in.
Another frontier lab, Anthropic, decided on Munich over Berlin.
Google announced a €5.5B investment in Germany through 2029, including expansion of offices in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich. Meanwhile, the EU Commission is launching a new investigation against them under the Digital Markets Act.
Related, Idealo (Berlin, comparison portal) sued Google for €3.3B in damages, claiming Google abused its search engine dominance for over 15 years by favouring its own Google Shopping service. The court ordered Google to pay €465M.
Vinted (2nd-hand marketplace, hiring in Berlin) will reach €10B in GMV and €1B in revenue in 2025, according to its CEO.
Parloa (Berlin, voice agents) is at “about $50M in ARR.”Libra (Berlin, legal tech) is being acquired by Wolters Kluwer for up to €90M.
Knuspr (Grocery delivery) now handles nearly 5,000 daily orders in Berlin, with monthly orders up 90% year-over-year to 125,000. (Exciting Commerce)
GEMA (German music rights organisation) won a copyright infringement case against OpenAI for using popular song lyrics without paying royalties.
Trump-affiliated video-sharing platform Rumble agreed to acquire German AI infrastructure company Northern Data in a $970M deal.
Trade Republic customer complaints increased by 133% from January to September 2025 compared to the previous year, according to Germany's consumer protection association. They also introduced crypto wallets.
FC Viktoria Berlin (2nd division, women) got a US sports investor, Monarch Collective.
Siemens Energy Q4: revenue €10.4 (+9.7%), net income €236M (vs. negative €115M last year)
Delivery Hero Q3: GMV €12.2B (+7%), adj. EBITDA not reported
Weekly social and outside interests
Reddit: Most languages have tongue twisters, but I do respect everyone learning Japanese. Have fun with 3 different alphabets.
Reddit: I also advise the same: join a Mieterverein as soon as possible, even before you sign your first rental contract.
A collection of shady design practices, aka dark patterns. Careful out there, friends.
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
Vay | Berlin | Remote-controlled rental cars | $60M | Careers.
4TEEN4 Pharmaceuticals | Hennigsdorf | Biomarkers for acute medical conditions | €55M ext. Series C | Careers.
Cerpro | Berlin | AI quality assurance test plans | €2M Pre-seed | Careers.
FMC | Dresden | Persistent memory chips for AI | €100M Series C | No careers.
dotega | Stuttgart | Platform for property owner associations | €1.3M | No careers.
😅 Meanwhile
the deals keep on coming
Igor Ranc
Founder & Curator of Handpicked Berlin