🚰 tap water, yes or no?
Issue #108 (01 Jul) – 20 Data, Analytics & Finance jobs; beta testing and help for Luis; Coffee with Otis; events in July; generalist vs specialist; small things that make Berliners happy.
Programming note: This week I experienced a Deutsche Bahn horror show with a six-hour delay on a four-hour trip to Cologne. It was truly bizarre—what would this mean in Japan or Switzerland? It’s also hard to pinpoint the problem: underinvestment, incompetence or both? It does make you wonder.
In other news, please:
🌟 Handpicked community
📨 Submit your input here. Inspiration for all the categories on the link.
🎪 Meet — tech & other events:
Berlin Product Meetup by Roosh Circle | Tue, 2.7 at 17.30 | Remerge
ProductLab: Strategy & Execution | Thu, 11.7 at 18.30 | Ahoy
Usability Testessen | Wed, 11.7 at 19.00 | Bling
😎 Show — Cool stuff / Shoutouts / Projects & similar:
Sifted opened applications for Sifted’s Germany Leaderboard, which ranks the country’s fastest-growing startups. You need to submit your data to get featured.
WiFi4EU - Free Wi-Fi connectivity across Europe - map of hotspots. Berlin isn’t a priority.
🔍 Ask — for a Service / Co-founder / Project help & similar:
(Inspiration: looking for co-founders, project partners or freelancers; search for tech & non-tech related service. Support for your hobby projects, ideas, and groups.)
Help Luis: “Hi! I am assessing an opportunity for "Taxfix for visas", and want to improve the visa application process. Click through after the first question to get to the actual questionnaire. Thanks!”
Jason is beta testing: “Improve your money mindset and earn cool rewards from Berlin businesses 💶 🏳️🌈 We are beta testing the first version of our free financial literacy app DailyCents.”
Looking for the submission link? It’s below the title ⤴️
👀 Handpicked jobs
5️⃣ from the rotation this week: Data, Analytics & Finance
The remaining jobs (also outside rotation) are in the Handpicked online database.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Otis Hagen Chevalier
I met Otis when he helped organise our first Substack meetup in Berlin. I enjoy his substack, The Greasy Pen, where he writes about food and the life around it. His suggestions are as refreshing, smooth, and free-flowing as his writing:
You need to start the Handpicked Coffee with... a lovely bowl of noodles! I wrote about this restaurant in an underground magazine last year and will gladly reintroduce LIU Chengdu Weidao's Nudelhaus. It is a mouthful of a name but worth every bite. If you are courageous enough to try their level 3 spice level, you deserve inner peace. Don't forget to try their dumplings in sweet and sour chili oil, it is all you need to live a fulfilling life.
After that, cool off by going to Bar Neiro. A Japanese jazz bar where they play vinyl through legendary Altec A5 speakers. This place has serious cocktails and is a haven for music nerds. Kick back, listen to that vinyl crackle with sake in hand, and get to know some cool cats, ya dig?
Maybe you caught yourself short in conversation at that jazz bar. No problem, I got you! I just dived into this lovely book, Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg and have found its teachings relevant and fun to apply. After all, good conversation stimulates the soul.
🇩🇪 Berlin & other good stuff
Remember our first Handpicked Mixer in early June? You check what you missed with this reel.
🏖️💃🏼🍻 What to do in July - TipBerlin (less, 🇩🇪) and The Berliner (more). Overlaps are Berlin Fashion Week, Poesiefestival, Sonic Pluriverse, Heroines of Sound, Staatsoper für alle and Christopher Street Day.
⬇️ Berlin was among the German cities losing their ranking in Economist’s World’s Most Liveable Cities in 2024 (#21 from #17 last year). Düsseldorf' (#33) also lost four spaces, while Hamburg (#27) and Stuttgart (#30) lost five (#27). Munich lost six spaces (#27). The top three are Vienna, Copenhagen and Zurich.
🚲
aka Drew Portnoy made this nice TikTok video of a nasty trick bike thieves use—in a nutshell, they cut the bike stand and put a sticker over it. Be careful out there!🚰 Based on the documentary Faszinierende Erde: Wasser, ZDF made this info-reel about tap water and why you should drink it more. Three reasons: 1. Cost (you get 2,500l for €10), 2. Cleanliness (bottled water can be dirtier), 3. Environment.
✈️ Lufthansa will be adding environmental surcharges for flights from Europe starting in January 2025. The surcharge of up to €72 euros per ticket will apply to all flights marketed and operated by the Lufthansa Group departing from the 27 EU (+ UK, Norway and Switzerland). Depending on the route and fare, the amount will vary between one and 72 euros per flight.
Career: I’ve struggled with being a generalist until I finally realised that being a generalist also has significant advantages. If you have similar doubts, this Generalist vs Specialist comparison might help. Related and excellent, from HBR, When Generalists Are Better Than Specialists, and Vice Versa (focused on creativity).
Career: How to sabotage productivity is, at times, software-related but still valuable for others. How many from the list are you able to check in your company? If you see too many, run!
Timeless: Some great perspectives by
in The case against morning yoga, daily routines, and endless meetings. “Serendipity loves randomness and hates routine. This is why I’m so positive on sending outbound emails to interesting people, hosting dinners and events that bring together smart folks, and publishing any and all thoughts online. There’s often follow-up, and opportunities present themselves randomly.”Reddit choice of the week is what small things make Berliners happy. I found “When the floor on the tram/U-bahn/bus rotates just the right amount to give you a nice, small leg/hip stretch” and “insulting someone and simply getting insulted back instead of instantly getting threatened with violence” hilarious.
💬 Briefly:
😔 Bad news: Urbyo (Berlin, real estate) is bankrupt; Trade Republic is laying off dozens in customer service (see below).
Stats: We have 224 drinking fountains in Berlin, a massive growth from 45 in 2018. Running permanently, they consume 0.02% of Berlin’s annual drinking water consumption. (berlin.de)
According to Reuters, Bosch (BSH) is interested in taking over Whirpool.
Klarna will sell its Checkout business for around $520M to focus more on the core Buy Now Pay Later business (BBG).
More fintech: Scalable discontinued their Robo-Advisor; Trade Republic will outsource customer service, which, according to WiWo (🇩🇪) means dozens of layoffs.
Getir (now only active in Turkey) will raise $250M from Mubadala. The CEO & founder will step down as the Abu Dhabi fund takes control. (BBG) Was this it for instant grocery delivery businesses?
McMakler (Berlin, real estate) founder and CEO Felix Jahn is also stepping down.
Northvolth, an EU bet on EV batteries, is struggling. After BMW cancelled the €2B contract, plans for a factory in Sweden are now in danger. (Trending topics, 🇩🇪)
VW is investing $5B in Rivian, a US-based Tesla competitor. The cooperation includes software, control computers and network architecture. I'm unsure how this all fits with Cariad, a massive software investment in Berlin.
Siemens, founded in 1847 in Berlin and moved to Munich after WW2, will invest €750M out of €4.5B investment in Siemensstadt Square, a 76-hectare urban development project, aiming to create a space for 35,000 people to live and work by 2035.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Hive | Berlin | Logistics operations platform | €28.2M Series A extension | Careers.
LiveEO | Berlin | Satellite data for infrastructure risk management | €25M Series B | Careers.
Sanity Group | Berlin | Medical cannabis company | €17M Convertible loan | Careers.
Bling | Berlin | Youth financial services | $12M Series B | Careers.
Synthflow AI | Berlin | No-code AI voice assistants | $7.4M Seed | Careers.
Feather | Berlin | Expat insurance platform | €6M Funding | Careers.
Clypp | Munich | Video knowledge sharing for businesses | €1M Seed | Careers.
CUREOSITY | Düsseldorf | VR for neurological treatment | €3.8M Funding | Careers.
Zing Coach | Munich | AI fitness coaching app | $10M Series A | Careers.
Compredict | Darmstadt | AI for automotive durability analytics | $15M Series B | Careers.
EZE | Munich | EV charging infrastructure | Double-digit million investment | No careers.
😅 Meanwhile
✌️ Handpicked essentials and a treat:
- How to learn German and get over “Genau” and “mit Karte, bitte”?
- Signing a new employment contract in Germany? Read this before.
- Don’t make these mistakes with your side hustle!
- Berlin Salary Trends Reports: How do you compare?
- ❓Surprise treat for the curious
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
- Write it down now! Or why you should journal at work?
- What do hiring managers look for in CVs?
- Do you want to join the next event/meetup?
- Story of Handpicked Berlin in a podcast
✨ Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin ✨
♡ Did you like the issue? Let me know.
Team tap water applying to 5 families all day! Thank you for the coffee! ☕️🚰
Amazing, the köfte sandwich is the one!