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Issue #42 (06 Mar) – 2000+ readers, the best of Berlin, a new section for supporters, Klarna & Revolut report different numbers and is HelloFresh any good?

Mar 06, 2023

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Programming note: The last poll about Berlin 2023 salary survey was a massive YES. I have started to work on it, and the results will be open-sourced. If you want to join me on this adventure/can help anyhow, email me. This week we also crossed 2000 subs, and I am testing if adding a new section for supporters at the bottom is doable.

Last week’s issue this way. To celebrate 2000+ subs here is some of your feedback:

👀 Handpicked twenty

I will start adding software engineering jobs. Because why not? (thanks for your feedback, you know who)

📨 readers submitted
🗂️ database with three more jobs this way

🧞‍♂️ Outliers.

🎬 Projects & Product.

💾 Data & Operations.

Benefits for supporters are described here. You can also gift a subscription:

Give a gift subscription

🥇Interested in sponsoring handpicked?

📢 🚨 Shoutout

Manuel reached out to me to advertise. But then we exchanged several emails and agreed that partnership makes more sense. I even went to meet him in person:

🙌🏻 He is a great guy and operates a curated community of 3000+ IT freelancers from the DACH region. If you need a freelancer, they will connect you to three candidates from the network within 48 hours. Think Fiverr/Upwork, but better. 🚀

🗞 Top inspiration snippets

🇩🇪 Berlin & Germany

Doctorly, a Berlin-based health-tech company raised $10M Series A. Careers.
Polyteia, a Berlin-based government/governance digitisers, raised €5M. Careers.
Snuggs, a Berlin/Prague-based period underwear company, raised $5M. Careers.
Secfix, a Berlin-based compliance and security company, raised €3.6M seed. Careers.
Mily Technologies, a Munich-based last-mile delivery company, raised €1M. Careers.
Edurino, a Munich-based digital learning platform for kids, raised €10.5M. Careers.
Impossible Cloud, a Hamburg-based you guessed it, a cloud infrastructure company, raised €7M. Careers.
VisionHealth, a Munich-based health-tech company, raised €3M. Careers.
When thinking about business, the mantra is often to “go fast and break things.” In the worst cases, people will say that agile means no need to plan. It is clear, as this internal e-mail from move-fast-break-things Zuckerberg shows, that long-form writing helps towards excellent/good/better decision-making.
Berliner Zeitung has a comparison of salary levels between east and West Germany (🇩🇪). Berlin is still poorer than the average of West Germany but much better off than the rest of East Germany.
🎶 When I first arrived in Germany Peter Fox and his album Stadtaffe helped me with my German (Guten Morgen Berlin, du kannst so hässlich sein). After 14 years the man released a new song, Vergessen wie. Like a proper nostalgic fart, I like “the old stuff more.”
💡 To do a successful career and easy career pivot you should be early. AI whisperer is the next big thing: prompt engineering will be a massive trend in the coming years. Either as a job or a skill. So start soon.
I published a new article on handpickedberlin.com: The best of the best in/for Berlin. Make sure to bookmark it, so you can say in three years… “yep, I had that bookmarked already in 2023.”
Throwing things into the canals seems to be a thing in Berlin, and it makes you wonder what is wrong with people. Did you ever throw a scooter or a bottle in the river/canal? Me neither.
💸 Revolut posted its first annual profits (£39M), but not everyone was impressed (photo). I do not really like the tone of the first tweet, but here is a helpful analysis on the same topic. The beauty of accounting! Similar to Adj. EBITDA. But that is for another time and place. Klarna, on the other hand, posted a $1B loss, a 47% increase from last year. According to Sifted, CEO’s remuneration increased by 35% to $1.3M. Nice.
layoffs.fyi & other sources: ThoughtWorks (500), SAP Labs in India (300), Peek & Cloppenburg & Sleeperoo insolvent; Alex Springer cutting at “Bild” and “Welt” and going all-in in the US (€), Amazon closing logistics center near Berlin. Also, Taxfix took over Steuerbot, and MYNE took over Villa Circle.
r/berlin choice of the week is a guide for Blue Card holders changing their job within 24 months. I really hit the jackpot with my EU passport; gosh, we really have it easy.
For foreigners in Berlin speaking German, it might make sense to learn some of the Eckkneipe slang. (🇩🇪) I take Molle and Tulpe/Kugel with me.
🥗 Not a big fan of this particular YouTube channel, but I liked this HelloFresh review. In sum: great recipes, but if you buy stuff yourself you will get more bang for your buck. Related, the convenience of food delivery is a promising business and is here to stay. This trend of restaurants gaining share from grocery stores is described in detail here. People simply cook much less?
Remember Wirecard, a former fintech darling of Germany? Here is an extremely long article from The New Yorker on how it all started and then went to shit. Worth a read and another proof we need badly need good journalists.
I also published all February 2023 snippets for supporters.
And finally, Exberliner published its excellent guide on what to do in Berlin in March. I want to try some teater!

Totally worth sharing, so just smash this button:

🤓 Timeless and useful

Are you looking for hard-to-solve problems? You could maybe help humanity by shedding light on some fundamental gaps in our knowledge. But what are those? Luckily, you can get inspired by Wikenigma. At the time of this writing, you have 966 gaps at your disposal. Where does April fools’ day come from?

😅 Meanwhile

wieso is lonely. I love German, such a cool language, really. Wegbier.

Submit a great job!

These are footer 😭 for you. When winning at the Olympics South Americans are by far the most emotional. No tears for men from Africa. Interesting!

If you have made it this far, don’t forget to like or comment on the post!

❤️ Encore (aka Zugabe) for supporters

This week I am serving you four additional links: