🎉 Wow, this is the fiftieth edition of handpicked!
Issue #50 (08 May) – a short holiday edition with good stuff! Jobs return next week.
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Programming note: I am finalizing this in Lisbon, one of my new favourite cities. I will be back to a full schedule next Monday. I expected to be able to do more for handpicked during my holiday, but then life happened.
🎉 I sent the first issue of handpicked a year ago, on the 2nd of May. The structure was similar, but I feel that the content improved significantly. A toast to the coming 50 issues! 🥂
❤️ I am extremely grateful for you reading it.
⛱️ Handpicked twenty return soon
🧢 skipping the jobs selection due to my holiday
🧞♂️ Outliers.
🎬 Projects & Product.
💾 Data & Operations.
🥇Interested in sponsoring handpicked?
🌟 Handpicked Kleinanzeigen
Submit yours here or leave a comment. Please be fair to the readers and me.
😎 Cool stuff:
Jenny is a freelance podcast producer and offers distinctive, high-quality podcast creation beyond interviews for organisations, companies or individuals.
Repeats from the last two weeks:
🔍 Searching for roles:
Mike (e-mail) is a Brit based in Berlin, seeking a molecular biology role in disease research. PhD candidate with prior experience at RKI and Public Health England.
Semone is an HR-experienced data analyst with >5yrs in start-ups & multinationals. Seeks a dynamic, collaborative team that prioritizes growth & learning.
Jacek is looking for a Lead/ Head of roles in all that is AI. “If you need AI in your company, I'm the right guy with 7+ YoE and a focus on NLP.”
Elise is seeking a marketing role in a startup that needs a hands-on marketer with XP in a strategic and lead role in the B2B software industry.
Tuhina is looking for a role in Recruiting with 10 YoE in Silicon Valley. Proactive, leadership-oriented and always ready to share a good time!
Olivia is seeking a Scrum/Agile role in a company that needs someone who can problem solve creatively and connect the dots!
Willie is looking for Biz Ops, strategy or operations for a Series B or C scale-up. He has a solid CV showing real impact in multiple companies.
Magdalena has 10+ years of customer service experience in Canada, seeking job opportunities in Berlin. She is flexible and ready to take on any job.
Anon is a Berlin-based UX designer with 4+ yrs experience looking to transition to UX Researcher. “I want to master gathering evidence through quantitative and qualitative methods.” (contact me for details)
📢 Shoutout to 🇵🇹
This is a shoutout to the country of Portugal. I mean, if you have never been, go. Still plenty to discover after two weeks. Highlights: Lagos, Lisbon, Cascais, west coast around Aljezur. If you are a couple, Tavira. Faro max one night.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
🇩🇪 Berlin & Other good stuff
🚂 If you have decided to take on €49 ticket, Exberliner prepared a nice list of suggestions for excursions from Berlin. Worth a save!
🥷HR people, beware. Over a fifth of younger employees considered leaving you, mostly because they are paid badly and do not feel appreciated.
🤑 Here is a summary of research on money and happiness. I like Nick’s conclusion: Increased income is associated with greater happiness for lower-income individuals. For high-income, unhappy individuals, further income is unlikely to increase happiness. For high-income, happy individuals, while more income could enhance happiness, the effort required may not be worth it.
🔐 I am surprised to see #7. Do yourself a favour: stop using similar passwords for different sites and use 2FA wherever possible.
😔 Bad news: CleverShuttle (Berlin) insolvent; Shopify 20% of employees (according to most of German org).
r/berlin choice of the week is an interesting Reddit AMA from an U-Bahn driver from a year ago.
💬 Briefly:
Getir wants to own them all and is reportedly buying Flink—enjoy it while it lasts;
Tier reportedly selling itself;
Vice News, a former alter news source loved by millennials and eventually copied by everyone, is in serious trouble;
TeamViewer from Ba-Wü posted 13% YoY growth (151M);
SAP wants to enter LLMs with an investment into Aleph Alpha—it will surely be expensive;
Lilium (Munich) needs/wants to raise €250M;
founder of once-hyped Gorillas, Kagan Sümer, is building something new in HealthTech called Mirror (no website yet);
his other three colleagues founded meal-as-a-service for restaurants, Tasty Urban.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Spread | Berlin | Engineering intelligence for complex mechatronic products | $16M Series A | Careers.
NetBird | Berlin | Cybersecurity firm creating open-source platform for easy VPN deployment | €1.1M | No careers page yet.
Sykell | Berlin | Zero waste packaging solutions for the food industry | €4.5M | No careers page yet.
recoupling | Berlin | Developing an app to accompany couples in all relationship phases | €150k Angel | No careers yet.
Prematch | Cologne | Content & stats app for amateur football players | €2.4M | Careers.
HelloBetter | Hamburg/Berlin | Digital therapeutics for mental health | €7M Series A extension | Careers.
Pinpoint | Chemnitz | Inside buildings positioning systems | €1M+ | Careers.
Testbirds | Munich | Crowdtesting platform | €1M+ revenue-based financing | Careers.
🤓 Timeless and useful
Gwern’s list of questions not only makes you appreciate the man’s intellect, but it is also a learning experience in itself.
😅 Meanwhile
Frankfurt (maybe ex HBF?)
This is a footer 🛤️ comparison between the US and Europe. I am sure it has something to do with Henry Ford.
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