is working 996 realistic for employees?
Issue #165 (15 Sep) – 5 major companies in Berlin; BoulderPals; auction adventure; 10 most expensive flats in Germany; subtle signs of bad people.
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Programming note #165: Is it just me, or did the events really kick off in September? I can barely keep up! Did you see my reel about saint sass? It’s interesting how being in front of the camera became less and less cringy over time.
Thanks to our sponsor, Vanta (if you work for a startup, check them out; they can help you with compliance).
My email service provider had some challenges in the recent weeks, so I am sorry if you have not been receiving the emails or if you were sent emails twice. The issue should be resolved this week.
The email subject discussion is in Snippet #9.
🌟 Handpicked community
Meet — 5 handpicked events:
Open doors & introduction at 42 Berlin | Thu, 18/09 17:00 | 42 Berlin
Berlin bio innovation day | Tue, 23/09 14:30 | CIC Berlin
Deep Tech Night | Thu, 25/09 17:00 | Lanolin Fabrik, Fraunhofer HHI
Build & Lead – Why Everyone Hates Training | Thu, 25/09 18:00 | Berlin Alexanderplatz
Morning walk & talk by Deep work | Wed, 24/09 8:00 | LAP Coffee
This could be your event! Advertise it.
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
Worried about using your home address publicly in legal notices? Keep your home address private and get a Berlin business address with scanned post instead. Use the address for your Impressum, marketing, letterhead and commercial register for only €49 net per month. Red Tape Translation has a simple and affordable setup.*
Check out BoulderPals, a Berlin-only app that helps climbers find climbing partners. You can post your plans, connect with others, and arrange meetups to climb together.
Nosh.bio is inviting you to try their new Hybrid Mince (Koji Protein + beef) at Speisemanufaktur, daily from Sep 15 - 19 from 11:00 to 14:00.
📨 Submit your input for the community here.
👀 Handpicked jobs
5️⃣ 3️⃣ job highlights of the week
The remaining jobs are on the Handpicked job board. This week’s focus was Business and Strategy.
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☕️ Coffee Talk with Constanze Ulreich
Constanze, the right hand of Verena Pausder, is one of the most active people I've ever met. Besides her regular job, she is also helping other startups, helps run a book club and writes a great newsletter - check it out and subscribe here. Here is what she prepared for you:
Material — One of my favourite spots in Berlin. It opens at 8 (big plus!), has the sweetest owner (always red shoes!), homemade pastries, really good coffee, and the best morning sun to sit outside and soak it all in. By evening, it turns into a day bar that stays open until 1 AM, and sometimes I’m the first and last customer. As for the wine: you just say the colour, they look at you once, and somehow bring exactly what you wanted.
Speaking & Being — Language defines how we see the world and each other. Maybe that’s why I’m obsessed with words that exist in one language but not in another and cannot be translated, e.g. saudade (Portuguese: the deep, melancholic longing for something absent), komorebi (Japanese: the play of sunlight filtering through leaves). Kübra Gümüşay’s Language & Being (or in German: Sprache & Sein) is my favourite book because it shows, beautifully and powerfully, how words shape our reality.
Dussmann book store — A different kind of Friday night: I love slipping into Dussmann in the evening (open until midnight!) - it feels like the best kind of Berlin nightlife. There’s something magical about wandering through the bookshelves, forgetting time and space… and always leaving with more books than I planned.
🗞 Snippets
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
I need your help: I am looking for networking pros for a potential collab on a project. Approach me anywhere or drop a comment here.
Did you know all or some of these 5 major companies with a presence in Berlin? The article includes their career page links.
Anarchists sabotaged power lines at the base of two electricity pylons in Berlin-Johannisthal, causing a major disruption in the area of Treptow-Köpenick. The outage lasted more than 60 hours. Complete repairs will take months.
🎥 For all the film fans: 12 film-related must see locations in Berlin and Potsdam (Tip Berlin).
If you’d like to go on an auction adventure and buy some old furniture or anything similar, try Auktionhaus Beier (on a weekly basis). They regularly sell BVG lost and found as well.
The times of arm aber sexy are long gone. On the Immoscout list of 10 most expensive flats for rent in Germany, Berlin took 7 spots, the most expensive one being above the Ritz-Carlton for €41.23/sqm. Not bad.
Source: Tagessspiegel (€) Why are so many famous Berlin clubs closing? DW video about a complex topic and a mix of increased prices, fewer people and younger people partying less.
Career: Plenty of good comments on the ways to battle YouTube addiction and procrastination. It pairs well with this article with ideas on how to motivate yourself to do hard things.
Career: 996 or even 007, as Harry Stebbings would say. Is it realistic for founders to expect the same grind from their employees? Discussion is also sobering (for the founders).
Timeless: Pay attention to your skin and visit your dermatologist regularly. Here is a fun, simple app to train your eye.
Briefly
Bad news: More children are now obese than underweight for the first time in the planet’s history.
Stats: Berlin's consumer protection center received around 52,200 complaints in 2024, with fake shops and dubious online coaching offers on social media being a particularly frequent problem.
On the 1st of January, the VAT for restaurants will drop to 7% from 19%. Do you think döner will get 12% cheaper?
Germany is currently opposing Chat Control. Good, but now the format negotiations start, so this is far from over.
The EU Commission fined Google for almost €3B for abusive practices in online advertising.
At the IAA in Munich, almost exclusively electric vehicles were presented, while Bavaria’s minister president, Markus Söder, wants to overturn the EU-wide ban on combustion engine sales in 2035. A short video from DW.
Urban Sports Club was now officially sold to Wellhub (€600M).
Meta has signed a multi-year contract worth more than $100 million to use technology from AI image startup Black Forest Labs (Freiburg).
Klarna finally IPOed and opened at $52 and closed at $45.82 per share. Scalable Capital got a full banking licence.
Hims & Hers, the US online weight loss injections giant, acquired Zava, a digital health platform. They plan an expansion in Germany, France and Ireland.
Weekly social
Reddit: TIL that huskies are better adapted to heat than regular dogs.
Reddit: Here is my favourite composite from last week’s blood moon.
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
German Cannabis Standard | Berlin | Cannabis technology and production | €10M | No careers.
Born (ex SLAY) | Berlin | AI friends social gaming | $15M Series A | Careers.
Meet5 | Frankfurt | Socialising app for 40+ | €8M Series A | Careers.
Proxima Fusion | Munich | Stellarator fusion power plants | €15M Series A extension | Careers.
PadelCity | Munich | Padel sports facility operator | €5M | No careers.
Pactos | Munich | AI workforce compliance platform | €2.7M Pre-Seed | Careers.
Hive Robotics | Munich | Robot swarm control systems | €2M Pre-Seed | No careers.
Matterr | Braunschweig | Polyester recycling plant technology | €30M (EU funding) | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
two types of tears
Igor Ranc
Founder & Curator of Handpicked Berlin
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