how often do you use ChatGPT & co.?
Issue #90 (26 Feb) – 20+ Business & Strategy jobs; Coffee with Lalai; the best pizza in Berlin?; founders salaries; printable calendar; benefits of memorization; what does Chief of Staff do?
Programming note: We worked intensively on the Salary trends survey, which will be released next Monday. Can’t wait! This Thursday, you’ll receive the second Perspectives issue; this time, I’m starting a movement.
🌟 Handpicked Kleinanzeigen & Tech Events
🎪 Events:
📨 Debugging C++ Code: A Practical and Interactive Guide | Wed, 20.3 at 18.30 | Le Wagon
📨 How to Build the Company Behind the Product? | Fri, 15.3 at 18.00 | SAP Deutschland
Unboxing: The Future of Berlin | Thu, 29.2 at 18.30 | Betahaus
You can also submit your event. If it fits, I will add it to one of the three slots.
😎 Cool stuff:
If you built something in deep tech you can get a monetary award. Or money for your innovative B2B solution or funds for your improvements of learning or work.
Curious about the poetry/writing open mic scene? For techies & non-techies, writing newbies or experienced scribes - Read Wedding, is a monthly open mic for poetry, storytelling, and more in the north of Berlin. On the last Monday of the month AKA today (February 26th) at Vagabund Brauerei. Sign up for a 5-min slot at 19h.
🔍 Searching for roles/freelance gig:
(we had a lots this time, so I needed to shorten them)
Gabriel: Seasoned product lead, now freelancing. Expertise in fractional CPO, UX, and program management for BI, CMS, CRM. Known for seamless collaboration with founders, developers, and designers.
Sakthi: Recent ESCP master's grad urgently needs a marketing/business analysis role to avoid visa expiration and student loan debt. Open to immediate start.
Wan: Dynamic visual designer with a flair for vibrant designs and unique illustrations. Ready to elevate your brand with her creativity and humor.
Jeff: Experienced drummer seeking a major label touring opportunity. Over 5 years of diverse performance experience. In Berlin, looking for connections in the music industry.
Tamara: Veteran journalist and podcast host, with a decade of experience, including VICE reporting and CBC podcast production. Available for writing, editing, production, and strategic communication.
Anna: Problem-finding led designer with 5 years in UX/UI, research, and graphic design. Seeking roles in service design or user research to apply a comprehensive design approach.
🫣 Looking for a service/freelancer:
Pedro: We're looking for Salesforce developers/consultants who can help us implement certain functionalities in Salesforce that require advanced technical knowledge.
Need some for the Python script? A design? Something you always wanted but never found the time. SEO for your business? Whatever someone can solve for you fits here.
🫵🏻 You can get featured, too—submit on this link! It’s free for all categories.
👀 Handpicked twenty-something
📨 HR going the extra mile & readers submitted
We had no submissions from HR teams or readers this time. A pity.
submit yours on the link - you can stand out for free
🧞♂️ On rotation this week: Business & Strategy
I could only fit one position in the email before it would “break”. Thank you for checking the rest (also outside rotation) in Handpicked online database.
to support the cause
As you probably noticed, I have a supporter tier. Daniele of BPM fame told me he wondered why someone would pay for Handpicked. “To support the cause?” he asked.
Yes, to support the cause of bringing relevant information to a great audience. I will try to add more benefits in the future, but that’s it: you can support the cause.
And I’ll be grateful if you do.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
☕️ Coffee with Lalai Persson
Lalai is one of the people I cannot wait to finally meet in person. She is the co-author of the excellent weekend cultural guide “The Next Day Berlin” and the lifestyle newsletter “Espiral” (in Portuguese). Here is her excellent selection for you:
Boys Club (podcast/newsletter): I’m a big fan of this club. These girls behind it started the club as a podcast discussing the crypto world, but now they delve into the future of culture, tech, and commerce. Don’t miss their summit if you’re attending SXSW this year.
Watch This Guy Work, and You’ll Finally Understand the TikTok Era (read Wired): How to make someone go viral on TikTok and turn them into a celebrity overnight? It’s a long read, but this interview is a fascinating masterclass about Ursus Magana’s strategies, a talent manager navigating the ups and downs of the creator economy, with a frenetic formula for gaming the algorithms.
‘In the Eye of the Wild’ by Nastassja Martin (book): One of my
favourite readings of 2023. In this autobiography, the author recounts the bear attack she endured in Siberia in 2015, resulting in the loss of part of her jaw. It’s about collapse and reconstruction. Short, intense, and beautiful.
🇩🇪 Berlin & Other good stuff
🍕I rated Capvin’s pizza with 7.5/10 on my Instagram. What’s your favourite pizza in Berlin? Tell us in the comments.
🇹🇭 Thaimarkt is still on my to-do list, and from April onwards, it’s moving from Preußenpark to Würrtembergische Straße nearby. How this will work is currently unclear. (Tagesspiegel)
🚋 I enjoyed this geeky comparison YT video between trams in Berlin and Toronto. BVG does a lot of right. Related, BVB will be on strike from Thursday, 29th of February, until 14.00 the next day.
🥶 Because VAT will rise back to 19%, and the state price break is off, Handelsblatt prepared guidance of 20 tips on how to save gas (🇩🇪). They advise not more than 20 degrees in the living room, 17 in the bedroom, 18 in the kitchen, 15 in the hallway and 22 in the bathroom. It made me realise how small my apartment is compared to the regular HB readership. Also related, RBB has this info chart on how much electricity 1€ gets you:
💰 How much do startup founders earn in Europe? VC fund Creandum published a nice report. Not bad, founders, not bad.
🤓 I’ve noticed a paywalled article about the role of Chief of staff in 🇩🇪 and tried to find something for us in English. I found this long (and great) article by Harvard Business Review, which has a bit of a big corp spin but is a useful insight into the role. If you are ambitious and want to have a stellar career, go for it—a lot of startups also look for Chiefs. In Mercedes, my previous employer, a career fast-track was to become an executive assistant.
😶 Software engineering has been the most obvious well-paid career in the last 20 years, and this shows because it seems there is an oversupply of SWE in the US (anecdotal post on HN). It’ll be interesting to observe how this plays out. Will fewer engineers need to do more because of AI, or it’s just a blip, and it all goes back to normal? Huang (NVIDIA) thinks the former. So, I’d be interested to know:
👩🏻🔬 I enjoyed this gorgeous essay on How I Rewired My Brain to Become Fluent in Math, but it also saddened me: I realised I will need to repeat deklinationen endlessly if I ever want to speak amazing German. Memorization and repetition.
📅 Check out this printable calendar on a single page. I printed several for planning… and just because you never know. You can override the year by adding “year” parameter, e.g. https://neatnik.net/calendar/?year=2025.
r/berlin choices of the week are two videos: a cross-post of Everyone just wants to go home and this unsolicited circus starts up (I hope I never need to experience something similar!) and a normal day in Berlin. Loved it!
💬 Briefly:
😔 Bad news: l’herbivore (vegan meat from Berlin) and Lovely Day Foods/Perfeggt (vegan eggs, Berlin) bankrupt; sendmepack (eco-packaging, Berlin) bankrupt.
Just after Picnic launched in Berlin, there was a report in the media that Rewe’s partnership with Flink wasn’t going well. (🇩🇪)
Neura Robotics, a Metzingen-based robotics startup, decided to move production back to Germany from China.
AI mania exploded after the earnings report of NVIDIA. The chart looks like a shitcoin in the golden age of crypto. Why does this all look so familiar?
German football fans are disgusted by the concept of investors! Their strong protests derailed a $1.1B media rights deal.
Reddit publicly filed for a US IPO, disclosing ~21% revenue growth and a $91M net loss (!) in 2023 (RT). Reportedly, they plan to place a chunk of their IPO shares in the hands of their users.
In 2023, Berlin had 12.1M guests with 29.6 million overnight stays. That’s +15.9% more visitors and 11.5% more overnight stays than in 2022. (BB St.)
If you urgently need a job and have a bit of German, Deutsche Bahn is looking for 25k employees. In 2023, they posted 454k job advertisements for 68,7k positions. DB is one of the largest employers in Germany with 221k employees. (Tagesspiegel)
Apple is in trouble with the European Commission and might need to pay a €500M music streaming-related penalty. (CNBC) A dent in their $97B net income in 2023.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
Monite | Berlin | Payment automation software for B2B | €5.5M | Careers.
Kolonne Null | Berlin | Alcohol-free premium wines | undisclosed | Careers.
Embea | Berlin | Life insurance solutions | €4M | Careers.
Buycycle | Munich | Online marketplace for racing bikes | €20M | Careers.
Silencio | Munich | Sensor network to combat noise pollution | $1M | Careers.
Threedy | Darmstadt | Spatial computing technology for 3D apps | €9.6M | Careers.
Cyclize | Stuttgart | Recycling mixed plastic into synthetic gas | €5M | Careers.
Altavo | Dresden | AI-based speech rehabilitation tool | €5M | Careers.
Flower Labs | Hamburg | AI advancement through federated learning | $20M | Careers.
Acto | Paderborn | Data provisioning for B2B teams | €3M | Careers.
Xito | Ulm | Low-code development platform for robotics | €1.2M | No careers.
😅 Meanwhile
two diggas got a note... You will be redirected to Reddit (video).
This is a footer slice of 🦟 facts for you. Contrary to popular belief, insects do not confuse artificial light for the moon, but get stuck because they constantly try to orient their back towards the light.
✌️ Handpicked essentials:
- Signing a new employment contract in Germany? Read this before.
- Don’t make these mistakes with your side hustle!
- Berlin Salary Trends Report 2023: How do you compare?
- 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?
✨ Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin ✨
What’s your favourite pizza in Berlin? Tell us in the comments. And slam the like if you liked this post ⬇️
Thank you for the invitation. I’m happy to be here. :)