✈️ First world problems: Christmas lights and long-haul flights?
Issue #76 (06 Nov) – business and strategy jobs; Pub Quiz success; 400k a year in 10 hours weekly; Tagesgeld shopping; resilience can win you a Nobel prize; LEO satellites from Germany.
Programming note: Our collab-event Pub Quiz on Saturday was a great success. It sold out much faster than expected, so we decided to get a bigger venue: here are the photos (Instagram). Thanks to Arva and Vagabund Brauerei! Don’t miss our next events and subscribe:
I also really like the selection of jobs in this issue. Meta, Netflix and others.
🌟 Handpicked Kleinanzeigen & Tech Events
🎪 Events:
📨 How to apply for AVGS Founders Coaching and Gründungszuschuss | Tue, 7.11, 14:30 | Spaces Prenzlauer Berg
📨 Building Products with Generative AI: From Prototype to Production with Grammarly’s CPO | Wed, 15.11, 18:30 | Grammarly Berlin Hub
Women in Leadership & the importance of Allyship | Wed, 15.11, 18:00 | Lieferando
😎 Cool stuff:
Are you looking for someone to help you learn German/tandem? Offering a cool service? Organising a community? Starting a business? Do you need help? This is the place; submit for free.
🔍 Searching for roles:
Antoni is an experienced, Berlin-based frontend dev looking for a new challenge. He works with TS, React and the other usual suspects. Has led teams and scaled up startups. If you think you might get along, hit him up!
Irina is looking for a new adventure in marketing. 7+ years experience in tech, working primarily with early-stage startups/VCs. The only thing that annoys her is when people don't let her pet their dogs!
Fabio wants to make an impact on how people and communities get informed. Product manager with eight years of experience in news/media/edtech, a data-informed mindset, and a strong background in design.
Looking for a new dev bro to squash bugs on your team? How about a pal to yell beta whilst you crush purples at the nearest boulder gym?
Then, I need YOU!
Josh here, looking for work in the realm of web dev. Full-stack by trade. If this message tickles your fancy, email me! 😊
👀 Handpicked twenty
📨 Readers submitted
submit yours on the link; it’s freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
🧞♂️ Business & Strategy
More positions in Handpicked online database.
📢 Medianet’s People and Culture Fest
There are still a couple of free tickets available for the event this Wednesday in Kino Colloseum! You can expect 75 top-notch speakers and almost 2,000 minutes of programming across five stages, consisting of inspiring panels, keynotes, and workshops! The program focuses on the most important levers to counteract the demand for skilled and working professionals: Digitization, immigration, and tapping domestic potentials through women's employment and working beyond the retirement age. The complete programme is available here. Totally worth coming by!
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with ?
I liked the way this section developed and would like to invite you to suggest interesting people that you’d like to see here. Drop me an email or comment in the comments. I cannot promise Barack Obama, but … you could also nominate your interesting friend? (Maybe even yourself if you are brave?)
🇩🇪 Berlin & Other good stuff
👾 I am planning content work for the coming weeks, and I’d love your input:
🎄Such a first-world problem: The 4.2-kilometre-long Christmas lightning on Ku’damm, which would run from late November to early January, costs about €600k, and expectedly, nobody wants to pay (the fights about the funds are going back more than 40 years). There is a link to the crowdfunding campaign (at €1,431/100k at the time of this writing) in the article. (🇩🇪)
✈️ BER is a monument to a failed state, and it shows. Some will argue it’s historical (DDR), but the reasons also lie in the design of the new airport, which is at the wrong location to become a hub. Now both states are asking the Federal government for support (🇩🇪) in attracting more long-haul flights. Well.
via u/javajim96 🛰️ Germany also wants low-flying internet satellites that piss off astronomers! Munich-based Unio aims to deploy its Low-earth-orbit satellite constellation by 2030. They plan to launch over a thousand with an est. cost of €2B. If you feel like competing with Starlink, Amazon and others, here is their career page. (Handelsblatt)
🔥 The poster boy of VC excess, WeWork, is on the way to bankruptcy. They IPOed in 2021, and some investors surely made a killing, but their "Community Adjusted EBITDA" metric, which excluded significant costs like rent and salaries, raised many eyebrows. From $47B to nothing. Guess which magazine had Adam Neumann on its cover? The same one who did Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried. (Forbes)
🤯 We previously discussed Silent quitting, but just look at this world champion with his $400,000 a Year and 10 Hours A Week At Google. (YT, 15min) Possible with busy management that doesn’t really care or understand. It makes you think about the size limit of efficient organisations: some say it’s Dunbar’s number (150).
💪 A remarkable story of the persistence of Katalin Karikó, a Nobel prize-winning researcher (mRNA); she was bullied/ignored for years by her superiors at Penn University—a truly inspiring story. Keep showing up, week after week!
💸 Time of higher interest rates means your money can work for you risk-free on your Tagesgeld account (savings account with no withdrawal restrictions). If you feel like shopping around, this is a good BS-free website. (🇩🇪, but they still probably get kick-backs/sell leads!) Interestingly, some of the highest rates are coming from car producers!
🚶🏻♂️You never know with studies published in the news, but a brisk 22-minute walk could offset the harmful effects of sitting seems logical. We were built for walking, after all.
😔 Bad news: Comgy (previously published here), Wunderkarten bankrupt; StepStone -215, 5%; Hallhuber (clothing) didn’t find a buyer and will be liquidated, but you can still buy the brand.
Reddit choices of the week: this comment on raising the topic of ombudsman when having problems with fintechs/insurance/banks. Form r/berlin, we have survival strategies in the long dark winter in Berlin. My suggestion is acceptance and to try living your best life. 😅
💬 Briefly:
Berlin-based health tech Biotronik will take over bankrupt Kenkou.
Klarna will outsource 500 jobs in customer services and operations. No data on how many people are affected in Berlin. Straight out of the cost-saving measure slides.
Aware has launched a blood testing clinic in Berlin, offering subscription-based preventive healthcare at €15/month. What’s your take on it? I’d be tempted to try.
Wefox (disclosure: I work there) raised $55M in debt, with a valuation of $4.5B remaining unaffected. Careers.
X is now worth only $19B, much less than the $44B paid by Musk last year. I see many threabois migrated to LinkedIn, which has now passed 1B users.
Meta is launching an ad-free subscription model for Instagram and Facebook in Europe starting in November.
Zalando's profit grew 72% ($23.2M last quarter), but revenues fell by 3.2% (€2.3B). Customer numbers (50.1M) slightly dropped for the first time. Full-year forecasts adjusted.
HelloFresh has announced a buy-back in shares, up to €150 million. Buybacks are usually a sign of strength & belief that the company is undervalued (if used by good management).
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Cambrium | Berlin | Biotech molecular provider for skincare formulas | €8M Seed | Careers.
Tupu | Berlin | Urban mushroom farming with AI and robotics | $3.2M | Careers.
Smalt | Berlin | Accelerating Europe's green energy transition via talent development | €4.1M Pre-Seed | Careers.
GlassFlow | Berlin | Simplifying event-driven data pipeline development | $1.1M Pre-Seed | Careers.
TVARIT | Frankfurt | AI-powered solutions for the metal industry | €6.5M Series A | Careers.
Graylog | Hamburg | Software for efficient data analysis | $39M ($30M in debt) | Careers.
Raydiax | Magdeburg | Advancing CT technology for minimally invasive therapies | €3.5M | Careers.
Rausgegangen | Köln | Digital guide for cultural experiences | €1.275M | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
Yusuf got called out on mentimeter
This is a footer slice of unwanted💩 (= diarrhea) prevention tactics when you travel. Spoiler alert: start with yoghurts and fruits.
✌️ Handpicked essentials:
- Berlin Salary Trends Report 2023: How do you compare?
- Want to get reminded for the next salary survey?
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
- What do hiring managers look for in CVs?
- Feedback for Handpicked?
- Do you want to join the next event/meetup?
✨ Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin ✨
Did anything in this issue make you think or piss you off? If so, let me know in the comments. Also, like it if you liked it. ♡ If you didn’t tell me why, so I can improve. Thanks 🙏
Awesome content. I love it all.