which companies pay the best in Berlin?
Issue #155 (30 Jun) – recently funded startup jobs; Dinner club; 30km/h zones; Hunger Games extras; arguing with a toddler.
Make sure to never miss another issue. Subscribe:
Programming note #155: Hey people, I am really excited… because Nathan is back in Berlin, we’re finally starting a project I’ve been wanting to do for YEARSSSS. A dinner club. We’ll explore the best restaurants in Berlin and meet the best chefs. This is not a “how you gonna scale and make money?” thing; it’s a passion project, and I’d love some of you to join us. We’ll have a very limited space, because one simply cannot fit 50 people in the kitchen!
Check out today’s sponsor: Feather’s Health Insurance Calculator. Also, I am offering 5.000€ to a successful applicant - check the jobs section.
The email subject is answered in Snippet #2.
🌟 Handpicked community
Meet — handpicked events:
SAVE THE DATE. We have an extremely cool event coming up on Wednesday, the 16th of July. You don’t wanna miss it. It includes tights and a discussion on how to get to the first 100 customers.
Migrant Founders in Germany: Overcoming Business Barriers | Fri, 04/07 11:00 | Online Webinar with Earlybird & Co.
Inside the lab - Black Forest Labs co-founder Andreas Blattmann | Wed, 09/07 18:00 | Merantix AI Campus Berlin
Impact Stakeholders Sundowner | Thu 10/07 at 17:00 | Impact Hub Berlin | Thu, 10/07 17:00 | Impact Hub Berlin
THURSDAY GATHERING #15 ReFashioned by Design. Join us to explore digital couture, AI agents & impact-driven innovation! Enjoy yoona.ai’s shows, panels on fashion tech, & network with 20+ innovators! Sign up here. | Thursday, 03/07 17:00 | CIC*
Summer Zine & Bookmakers Fair by re(a)d vvedding | Sun, 13/07 18.30 | Vagabund Brauerei Kesselhaus
this could be your event - advertise it
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
🚀 Invest like the 1%—without being one. NAO makes Private Equity accessible. Start with €1,000 to invest in pre-IPO companies. No bankers, no clubs. Download NAO now—use code PICK for a €50 bonus after your first €1k investment. Disclaimer: Target returns are not guaranteed. Capital is at risk.*
Fabio is founding a newspaper (unfolded.news) and looking for a journalist co-founder to rethink news: it's not about writing articles, but connecting the dots, explaining context, and tracking stories as they unfold.
📨 Submit your input for the community here. This section is also featured on LinkedIn in the weekly post.
👀 Handpicked jobs… two with a €5k bonus!
🚨 If you are a 1) software engineer or want to work as a 2) forward-deployed engineer (AI), do approach me. A promising company in Berlin is looking for you. I’ll split the bonus of €10,000 with you.
5️⃣ job highlights of the week
The remaining jobs are on the Handpicked job board. This week’s focus was on recently funded startups. I selected 38 positions. Go and check them out.
Feather: Which health insurance fits you best?
Choosing the right health insurance can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to navigate unfamiliar options.
That’s where Feather’s Health Insurance Calculator comes in. It simplifies the process, breaking down your options clearly, side by side, so you can confidently find the best fit for your situation.
Check eligibility: Know which plans are available to you, given your lifestyle.
Review coverage: Compare what each plan includes at a glance.
Understand costs: Compare pricing (even when including dependents).
If you have questions, Feather’s team is here to guide you - in English of course.
Health insurance is a big decision, but it doesn’t have to be a stressful one. With Feather, you’ll get clear answers, so you can make the best informed choice for your lifestyle.
☕️ Coffee Talk with Felix Benscheid
Felix is an ex-Berliner and the co-founder of Venmate, a startup with a focus on Customer Success Management. I've only ever chatted with him online, and I love his responsiveness. Here is what he prepared for you:
Buya Ramen — If there is one addiction I created over the years, it is one for Ramen... The comfort it creates makes it the single greatest food, and Buya Ramen is one of the best spots for it in Berlin. Ramen is also great for business lunch and to get new ideas.
Creativity, Inc. — Creativity, Inc. is a powerful blend of storytelling and leadership lessons from Pixar’s rise. It’s a must-read for anyone building creative, collaborative, and resilient teams. And it is also fun to read if your are interested in the story of Pixar. Highly recommended!
Baseball in Berlin — Go and have a great time at a weekend Baseball game of the Berlin Skylarks at Tempelhof. It’s fun to watch.
🗞 Snippets
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
💎 Speaking of a dinner club in the intro (don’t forget to apply)… we made our first plans last week over lunch in the excellent (!) Hanuman Thai Curry House. A warm recommendation.
Tagesspiegel listed the highest-paying companies in Berlin (€) based on 2024 Kununu data. The top 10 in terms of median salary are: Cariad (€89,266), Pfizer (€84,807), S-Kreditpartner (€78,461), Sanofi-Aventis (€78,300), 50Hertz (€77,592), Delivery Hero (€76,118), IBM Deutschland (€74,380), Vattenfall (€74,343), Bayer (€72,779), and DB Systel (€72,663).
Cars, cars, cars. We’ll get 550 new nighttime 30 km/h zones across 440 streets starting in August to reduce traffic noise, mostly in Mitte and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. At the same time, CDU wants to remove daytime 30 km/h zones on several main roads where air quality has improved, aiming to restore the default 50 km/h limit. Hm. How about implementing an idea from NYC: wildly successful congestion pricing? Who will campaign for that in the next elections?
The Senate banned weapons and knives on buses and trains. Expected enforcement is from mid-July. It sounds strange, but it means that police will be able to search people without concrete grounds for suspicion.
Ever wanted to be an extra in a movie? Here’s your chance: they will need thousands for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Register here. Note the special conditions.
If you are into stand-up comedy, you should probably check out Berlin Fringe, which will enable you to experience several acts from the upcoming Edinburgh Fringe.
This one deserves a premium position. German truly is a special language. (To be fair to German, other languages also have similar examples.)
via Reddit Career: 8 great lessons for product managers (and others—worth checking out!). I found “always being available makes you look junior” an excellent point.
Career: 60+ Stats On AI Replacing Jobs. Here are a couple: more than 7.5 million data entry jobs will be lost by 2027; 25% of all work tasks could be done by AI; 52% of people aged 18-24 are worried that AI will negatively impact their future careers.
Timeless: How to win an argument with a toddler? You can’t.
Briefly
Bad news: Autodoc’s IPO failed for the second time. There weren’t enough buyers.
Stats: Between 2009 and 2024, the number of people with citizenship of the new EU member states in Germany rose by 2.15 million from 966,000 to 3.11 million. BUT! “According to the statistics on foreigners, more people with citizenship of the new EU member states emigrated than immigrated in 2024 and their employment also declined slightly.”
Kadmos (Berlin, fintech) was acquired by a Japanese shipping group. Kadmos specialised in payment problems of the maritime industry.
Coinbase got the European MiCA license, which means it can now compete with EU crypto providers in all 27 markets.
Bird, a US-based e-scooter company, is returning to Germany, but for now, avoiding Berlin.
Tesla’s sales in the EU dropped for the fifth month in a row; meanwhile, Xiaomi’s latest SUV had almost 290k orders in the first hour in China.
ReparaturBonus (up to €200 subsidy for the repair of electronic devices) is no more, because all the 2025 funds have been used up. The biggest hit was laptop repair.
Bundestag extended the rent freeze until the end of 2029. Without the amendment, it would have expired at the end of this year.
The Exploration Company (Munich) had a partially successful test launch of their reentry capsule. You can read more on their LinkedIn page.
Weekly social
"We basically have two countries..." What a… stand-up comedian?
✨ 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 our research and the discounts.
🚀 Handpicked Launchpad I'm offering selected startups access to our 27,000+ audience. Let’s build.
Looking to pimp up your CV? Check my GEN AI guide.
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
Enter | Berlin | AI energy renovation platform | €20M | Careers.
Synthflow AI | Berlin | AI voice agents platform | €17.2M Series A | Careers.
McMakler | Berlin | Real estate brokerage platform | up to €15M | Careers.
Lyceum | Berlin | AI cloud infrastructure platform | €10.3M Pre-Seed | Careers.
Climatiq | Berlin | Automated emissions data platform | €10M Series A | Careers.
Superscale | Berlin | Viral content marketing platform | $5M Pre-seed | No careers.
LAP Coffee | Berlin | Digitalised coffee shop chain | Undisclosed | Careers.
Isar Aerospace | Munich | Private space launch services | €150M | Careers.
DRIMCO | Munich | AI industrial requirements analysis | €4.2M Pre-Series A | Careers.
aedifion | Cologne | Building operations optimization software | €17M Series B | Careers.
Swarm Biotactics | Kassel | Military biotech mini-devices | €10M Seed | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
AI will help you make more money. Are we in peak bubble territory yet?
*sponsored
Five articles with a treat:
Experts for your needs:
Partners:
Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin
betahaus: 20% off for first three months on your Pro membership
Things you can do:
Join the discussion on Reddit.
Rate us @Google or send a testimonial. Thanks!
Want to do your own newsletter? Consider Buttondown.