why is the info about my bus/bahn wrong?
Issue #176 (1 Dec) - new Money Talk; raffle for a book; great gift ideas collection; Christmas markets worth visiting & new service portal bot.
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Programming note #176: Last week we had our first coworking session, and it was fun. I decided we will keep it very simple: work from 9.30 with a group lunch at 12.30 (not mandatory), followed by work until 17.30ish. If you’d like to join in the future, add yourself to this list (if you already filled it out, no need to do it again). The next session’s tickets will be available this week.
Please check out our sponsors: Surfshark, Techarena and Ostrom.
The email subject answer is in Snippet #7.
🌟 Handpicked community
Meet — 7 handpicked events:
AD | 🇸🇪 You come to Techarena to get inspired, network, and do business. You meet founders, investors, and executives. Zlatan is part of a lineup of 300+ speakers at Techarena 2026, hosted in Stockholm at the Swedish national football stadium. Get your ticket!
betabreakfast with p.ink door | Counselling organisation will shed light on the situation of sex workers in Berlin. Learn about their important work providing counselling and support for women in prostitution. | Thu, 11/12, 10:00 | betahaus
Reflect & Connect: A year end gathering (use HANDPICKED20 for a discount)| Wed, 03/12 18:30 | Mindspace Skalitzerstraße
Startup! – Exklusive founder insights - mit Andy Bruckschloegl & Jan Thomas & Gülsah Wilke | Tue, 02/12 18:30 | Hubspot
Out-Of-Office Club | Launch | Mon, 01/12 14:00 | OM Coffee & Brunch
Offline Hangouts 📵 | Donation-Based Community Gatherings | Thu, 04/12 18:00 | Café Engels and Café Vegardie
Radically Thinking OKRs (online) | Wed, 03/12 19:30 | Online (Google Meet)
This could be your event! Advertise it.
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
AD | I changed my electricity provider to Ostrom last week, and the process was really smooth, all in English. The best part is that I saved a couple of hundred euros, and it's the opposite of the typical German utility: "here is your 2-year contract you need to cancel at the right moment or else." You can cancel monthly. Use OSTROM2025 for up to €100 in credit.
Searching for affordable rentals in Berlin? Cheaphouz (in beta) is listing all affordable flats listed by Berlin's state-owned companies. Additionally, all listings are sent to your phone as instant notifications.
If you need support with Gründungszsuchuss or startup loans, I can only recommend Ingo from Statera. He helped me and also wrote an article about startup loans. Check it out here.
Something interesting to share? Go for it.
👀 Handpicked jobs
This time, all the jobs are on the job board. I focused a bit on marketing and sourced them all from the job boards of the companies.
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☕️ Coffee Talk with Jack Godau
You might have met Jack at an event in his trademark Hawaiian shirts. He lived in Australia for nearly 30 years before moving to Berlin and landing in the health-tech startup scene. He’s now building his company, supporting organisations with fractional CTO/CPO roles. Here is what he prepared for you:
Sagrantino Winebar/Italian - Absolutely fantastic Italian wine bar, great wines, great food, super friendly service! One of the few places in this area that's not a tourist trap. Great outdoor seating when it's warm and cosy inside for when it's not! Save space for dessert and checkout the photo wall in the bathrooms too!
Ground News - Ground News is a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias and break free from "big media" algorithms. They provide news AND above all the analysis of the news and who's point of view it's being presented from. It's an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers, and expand your worldview.
Mirko Lange - Mirko is building a Democracy Intelligence platform, using data and facts to analyse politicians’ speeches and work against disinformation. He gives politicians scores, similar to those on food products. Striving for truth in media and politics is something I can really get behind!
🗞 Snippets
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
New money talk is out: this time with Robin, a 24-year-old software engineer living in Wedding. I was fascinated by her frugal lifestyle and how far she had already made it by her age.
Daria and Cynthia, my guests at the first event at the Apple store this year, released a book with amazing women and their tips about Berlin, The Feeling of Berlin. I got my copy, and it’s a great gift idea, but also an inspiration to discover Berlin. To participate in the raffle for 2 copies, drop your name here. To increase your chances (one more entry in the raffle), comment and tag @handpickedberlin on your favourite post on the TFOB Instagram profile. I will announce two winners in the next issue.
Also because the idea of filing a lawsuit is more widely known, Berlin’s administrative court received nearly 2k lawsuits over delayed citizenship applications, 20% more than all of 2024 and 33 times higher than in 2022. Current state of the backlog: 40k + 75k new applications between January ‘24 and October ‘25.
Related, we now have an AI chatbot for the service portal. You can basically ask questions about any public service procedure in town. I asked for a pancake recipe, but it refused. Good prompting.
We might be getting some BVG strikes next year, since the negotiations with Verdi start in January. Verdi demands a 35-hour work week, a four-day work week option, 33 vacation days (up from 30), and doubled vacation pay (Urlaubsgeld) to €1,000 for BVG's 16k employees.
The Christmas Market season is back, and of course, I am adding this list of the nicest markets. Unfortunately, the article is paywalled, but here is the list with links to the ones that you can still attend, and I find most interesting: Scheunerei in Alt-Schönow, Weihnachtszauber am Gendarmenmarkt, Markt am Schloss, Kladower Christkindlmarkt an der Havel, Rixdorfer Weihnachtsmarkt am Richardplatz, Heissa Holzmarkt an der Spree, Lehmanns Bauernhof in Marienfelde, Lichtermarkt am Rathaus and Oberschöner Markt in MaHalla (6th and 7th only). If you want an official market overview, go here.
RBB has a good explainer on why incorrect info is shown on apps and at bus stops/platforms. Main problems: multiple incompatible systems and required manual interventions during disruptions. Interestingly, VBB's "live map" (used by Google Maps) isn't actually live—it shows estimated positions based on schedule data, not real GPS, causing "ghost vehicles" to appear. VBB plans to shut down the live map in 2026 and is working on harmonising all systems. I am a heavy public transport user, and my approach is to be a bit early. Especially bus drivers sometimes leave early.
Career: Did you ever wonder how is it to be a pop star? I found this write-up by Charli xcx to be a pretty good insight.
Career: It’s interesting to see how things change. If the US is the leading indicator as usual, the old mantra of “switch your job to get a raise” isn’t holding up much anymore and which also seems to signal a recession. Full article and a chart:
Career: Watch out. LLMs might kill your voice, even if you tell them to use your voice. Fantastic input, and it’s true: “Every post sounds like it was posted by the same social media manager.”
Timeless: I like this collection of gift ideas for techies by the Pragmatic Engineer. I found at least 2-3 things for my wishlist, and if you need some ideas for yourself or your loved ones… It’s a great inspiration without affiliate links.
Stats: Car usage in Germany is down. Half of all cars are not moved on an average day. In 2008, only a third of cars were not used daily. But as someone said in the comments: washing machines are also not used daily, are they?
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🇸🇪 You come to Techarena to get inspired, network, and do business. You meet founders, investors, and executives. Zlatan is part of a lineup of 300+ speakers at Techarena 2026, hosted in Stockholm at the Swedish national football stadium. Get your ticket!
Berlin-related headlines
DB halts construction over Christmas – more trains in service (read)
U1, U3 and U4 interrupted for four months starting January (read)
Seven new Berlin parking zones require payment starting Monday (read)
Greens demand return of €9 ticket Germany-wide (read)
Briefly on business, tech and economy
Bad news: Augmented Robotics (Berlin, AR toys upgrade) has filed for insolvency. Lieferando planned to replace 2000 riders with third-party service providers. They have now adjusted the number to 1500.
Berlin's unemployment rate fell 0.1% to 10.2% in November, but remained 0.5 points higher than a year earlier.
Chat Control is back on the table!
The ifo business climate index fell to 88.1 in November from 88.4 in October, missing expectations as companies grew more pessimistic about future prospects.
You can sign a petition on the recognition of work on Open-Source as volunteering in Germany.
Flink (Berlin, quick commerce) needs up to €87.5M in additional funding despite raising €150 million in September 2024.
Funding rumours: Black Forest Labs (Freiburg, image generation models) is reportedly raising at €3.25 valuation. In Munich, The Exploration Company (space startup) is also planning a new big round. Maybe smart to check their career pages.
Agile Robots (Munich) is acquiring ThyssenKrupp Automation Engineering, including assets in Europe and North America.
Five Guys, the American burger chain with 35 locations in Germany since 2017, is reporting million-euro losses in the German market according to its latest financial report. (OMR) I find it expensive.
Revolut reached $75B valuation after a secondary that allowed employees to sell shares while bringing in new investors.
Klarna is launching a stablecoin.
Bafin appointed a special commissioner to the C24 Bank over serious money laundering prevention deficiencies.
Weekly social and outside interests
Reddit: A few recommendations for spas around Berlin.
YouTube: I was sent this fun video about clubbing in Berlin.
Instagram: the silliness of Black Friday. I watched it after buying something for €29 I didn’t really need, but the 69% discount made me do it. So weak.
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
SereneDB | Berlin | Real-time PostgreSQL-based database | $2.1M | No careers.
Quantum Systems | Munich | Drone technology for dual-use applications | €180M | Careers.
EcoG | Munich | EV fast-charging hub operating system | €16M Series B | Careers.
Delta Charge | Munich | Truck charging and battery storage | $4.3M | No careers.
Rencore | Munich | Cloud governance platform | $15M Series A | Careers.
NutriUnited | Munich | Food sector buy-and-build platform | €8.5M | Careers.
Marble Imaging | Bremen | AI-powered earth observation and analytics | €5.3M | Careers.
Sonia Solutions | Hamburg | AI medical documentation and billing | €12M | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
computer science is a hard field to break into
Igor Ranc
Founder & Curator of Handpicked Berlin