NYE fireworks in Berlin?
Issue #128 (09 Dec) – jobs focused on HR & Recruitment; try Baugarten; Coffee with Elisheva; 9 ideas to plan your '25 holiday & winter date ideas; EU vs US & reasons why; LinkedIn applicant numbers.
Programming note: A warm welcome to all new subscribers and thanks to everyone who contributed to my Google profile last week. I was low-key worried I might not get any, but the number is just amazing!
🌟 Handpicked community
is a place where we meet, share projects and ideas and look for help.
📨 Submit your input here.
🎪 Meet — tech & other events:
EM Kata #7: Metrics That Matter: Measuring Efficiency in Engineering Teams | Thu, 12/12 at 18.00 | GotPhoto
BERLIN DESIGN CIRCLE Special with DDC| Thu, 12/12 at 20.00 | Jules B-Part
TE:AR - Digital Mirrors: Installation and Performance | Wed, 18/12 at 18:30 | Factory
this could be your event - submit it on the link above
😎 Show — Cool stuff / Shoutouts / Projects & similar:
Want to play a prototype of the first math world-building game? Welcome to Baugarten. Based here in Berlin and advised by Civilization creator Sid Meier, we're weaving math & science formulas into a game. Try it for free!
🔍 Ask — for a Service / Co-founder / Project help & similar:
we had no submissions; niemand hat sich gemeldet, schade
Looking for the submission link? It’s below the title ⤴️
This section is also featured on LinkedIn in the weekly post.
👀 Handpicked jobs
is a rotating selection of around 20+ jobs from companies I’d check out.
5️⃣ from the rotation this week: HR & Recruitment
The remaining jobs (also outside rotation) are in the Handpicked online database.
You can also submit a job.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Elisheva Marcus
is where my guest contributes three links and an explanation while I write a short bio.
Elisheva is a VP of Communications at pan-European VC, Earlybird. I’ve met her at several events and was impressed by how approachable she is. Previously, she’s worked for a science publisher, a startup, museums, company builders, and in VC. Here is what she prepared for you:
November: This brasserie gem is on Husemannstrasse, a charming street that famously preserved Berlin's European architectural heritage. At an Earlybird team dinner, we delighted in exquisite fish dishes, eggplant with incredible textures and flavors (hard to achieve!), and mochi green tea ice cream.
Go as a River: Captivating first-time novelist Shelley Read unveils a small town in Colorado threatened by a changing river and its social waves. Her compelling narrative emerges in the eyes of a young woman fiercely defiant and faced with hard life choices. Smell the farm peaches through the pages.
Neues Museum: Wander the halls of this world-class exhibition of Egyptian art on Berlin’s Museum Island. Step back in time among ancient Egyptian ruling families, deity representations, and cultural works of art. Then head to James Simon Gallery for a light lunch or coffee. Gain a new perspective.
🇩🇪 Berlin & other good stuff
is a selection of links focused on Berlin/Germany, career, timeless content and business.
Before starting my research, I expected more potential in vacation optimisation. It turns out it won’t be much more than taking 8 days to have 10 free. Still, here are 9 ideas for planning your holiday in 2025.
Now also Scholz mentioned Berlin’s
biggest playgroundformer airport Tempelhof as a potential location for building new apartments. I liked the explanation in Reddit comments that Berlin does not have space but the implementation problem. 100% agreed. Anecdotal data, but according to Redditor Joe_PRRTCL, the rental situation has loosened in the last few years. This October, they received 36 email notifications for certain listings compared to 13 in 2022.Unfortunately, we live in a society where 3000 police officers and 1500 other emergency personnel will be on duty on New Year’s Eve. Firework ban zones will be Alexanderplatz (Mitte), Sonnenallee (Neukölln), and Steinmetzkiez (Schöneberg), with extra attention being given to Nord-Neukölln and Gesundbrunnen. Anyway…
Sifted ranked 250 European startups with the highest percentage revenue growth over the past three financial years. It does not say much about the quality of the companies, but Berlin’s #1 is Charles (ad tech) in place 15. Finn (car subscriptions) & Orbem (AI-powered imaging) are top from Germany (4# and #5 respectively). I previously presented the findings for Berlin.
Related, Gründerszene Awards 2024 (🇩🇪, 25 finalists, 5 winners):
Climate Tech - Alcemy (Berlin): Software optimizing cement production,
Consumer Goods - Nosh.bio (Berlin): Meat alternatives from mushrooms,
Deep Tech & AI - Proxima Fusion: Green energy through fusion power plants,
Health Tech - Puray: Anti-infection catheters using light disinfection,
Newcomer - Colipi: Converting CO2 into sustainable plant oils.Winter date ideas in Berlin? (🇩🇪) Why not. From Mit Vergügen. Hopefully, we can try number 4.
This comparison is not entirely fair (US entrepreneurs have immediate access to much bigger markets, and in the EU, we need to deal with several different languages and also habits), but it is still telling:
But the reason could also be that the price of failure in Europe is too high! (warmly recommended read) Restructuring is just extremely expensive. And we aren’t really big risk-takers, are we?
Career: I really enjoyed all the lessons in this essay on “6 lessons I learned working at an art gallery.” There are a lot of lessons to take for artists and the rest of us. For example, what a difference simply replying to emails quickly (when needed!) makes.
Career: Should LinkedIn’s “500 other people applied” or “over 100 people clicked apply” discourage you from applying? Hell no! “if LinkedIn says 500 applicants then we get around 110-140 applications. Out of those 110-140, 80-90 aren't even from the same tech vertical.”
Career: How to give a senior leader feedback has some good ideas, but my experience is that you probably just shouldn’t. I've learned the hard way that the first of 48 Laws of Power (otherwise a strange book) holds: Never Outshine the Master – ensure that those above you always feel superior. What do you think? Comments are open.
Timeless: Underrated reasons to be thankful IV by dynomight.
Timeless: What’s your “I can’t believe other people don’t do this” hack? Mine is using text replacement tools—after extensive research and testing I bought Typinator because it was a one off purchase.
📱 Weekly Social.
Twitter: A pledge from a Japanese bank.
Instagram: On inventing gift cards.
Elsewhere: How to fix your lactose intolerance.
💬 Briefly.
😔 Bad news: Adjust (Berlin, in-app marketing), unknown number (but see comments from the readers!). Ride (Berlin-based fintech) halted operations weeks after being acquired from bankruptcy. 20+ employees are affected. (FFWD)
Stats: DHL is currently delivering 500k packages per day in Berlin and Brandenburg. If you want to ensure the delivery for Christmas, you should send them by the 20th. (RBB) Mad respect for the delivery guys. They look for many people (also as minijobs).
Did you know that DB needs to run 5-6 ICEs overnight around Berlin because it has nowhere to park them? Me neither. It does not help with the shortage of train drivers.
Google invested €20M in Usercentrics, a consent management company from Munich.
Delivery Hero will need to employ their freelance riders at its Glovo unit in Spain as full-time employees. They warned of a negative impact of €100M. (RT) Meanwhile, they upsized the IPO of its Mideast unit Talabat to $2B.
If you feel like a bit of green energy drama, here is 1KOMMA5°’s Philipp Schröder’s response to accusations from Business Insider that their numbers aren’t so rosy. (🇩🇪) Fishy?
Wefox, where I used to work, sold its insurance subsidiary to a group of Swiss companies led by pension service provider BERAG. That was it with disrupting insurance.
Bunch, a Berlin-based investment management platform, is expanding to the UK following their Series A funding. (FFWD)
Raisin, a Berlin-based soon-to-IPO fintech, hit €2-3B valuation after €100M of shares were sold in the secondary deal. (ibid.)Airbus, Thales and Leonardo plan a joint venture, called “Project Bromo”, to compete with SpaceX's Starlink satellite program. (RT) I find the name a bit funny, no offense, Mount Bromo.
Parloa, Berlin-based AI customer service startup, hired former Adyen CTO Alexander Matthey.
You legend, if you want to help me, rate Handpicked Berlin on Google (only a star rating helps too). Link is at the top.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
is a list of companies that received funding over €1M.
CoachHub | Berlin | Digital coaching platform | €40M | Careers.
carbmee | Berlin | CO2 emissions management platform | €20M | Careers.
NetBird | Berlin | Zero-trust network security solution | €4M | Careers.
Refoxy Pharmaceuticals | Cologne | FOXO3 activators for aging diseases | €9.1M | Careers.
FibreCoat | Aachen | Metal-coated fiber technology | €20M Series B | Careers.
Akhetonics | Munich | Optical processor technology development | €6M | Careers.
Planet A Foods | Munich | Cocoa-free chocolate producer | $30M Series B | Careers.
StrategyBridgeAI | Munich | AI-powered corporate finance platform | Series Pre-Seed | No careers.
metergrid | Stuttgart | Energy management software platform | €3.5M | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
in your late 30s too
✌️ Handpicked essentials and a treat:
- all the Handpicked Articles worth reading
- Berlin Salary Trends Reports: How do you compare?
- ❓Surprise treat for the curious
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
- Advertise in Handpicked
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Former Adjust employee here. Two things: 200+ people were laid off and the acquisition was not due to the bankruptcy. It has been done shortly before AppLovin went IPO, the acquisition deal was at 1 billion USD.
I believe we should also provide feedback to senior leaders—there’s no reason they should be exempt from it. One reason we see poor leadership in many companies is that leaders often don’t receive feedback and face no consequences for their actions.
In our company we conduct a leadership feedback survey several times a year. However, we are currently exploring what the next steps should be, particularly regarding consequences for managers, similar to those for employees. I'm part of the works council in our company :)
On an individual level, we need to find effective ways to give feedback. In smaller startups, it might be beneficial to encourage the company to introduce a feedback process. After all, how can individuals improve if they aren’t aware of what they need to change? Many people simply don’t know because they lack constructive feedback.
It’s important to remember that giving feedback doesn’t have to be negative; it can be done in a respectful and supportive manner.