Ask HN: What do I need to know to move to Berlin? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What do I need to know to move to Berlin?

9 pointsspitfire5 comments

Per the thread earlier today Berlin has fantastic bones for building companies - talent, culture, cheap living costs, an international culture and access to the outside world.

Presuming you'r building a team from scratch, or expanding from North America. What are the things you'd need to know to move to Berlin?

Where do people want to live? Where to locate offices? Where do you find good talent? What are the legal steps to do so? Any pitfalls to avoid? Others should feel free to jump on this.

Here's hacker news' chance to package up everything you need to know to settle in Berlin.

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Berlin isn't a great place to hire developers:

1) Employees get lots more legal rights in Germany compared to the US. I don't know if this is the case among startups but certainly at larger german companies I've seen the programmers are unionized. So when you don't get that next round of funding and are forced to reduce headcount you'll pretty much have to fire the employees in the US office before you can fire the ones in the Berlin office.

2) Berlin in particular has a talent crunch, there aren't enough developers for the companies already there. Many of the top-tier developers are drawn to Frankfurt where the large companies are based (i.e where the money is). Many tech companies in Berlin resort to importing developers from elsewhere in the EU.

Re 2) Hiring in Berlin is indeed difficult. There's a great influx of talented developers from southern Europe though, and as long as your employees come from within the EU hiring them is not a problem.

Re 1) Not entirely true for startups - most developers joining startups know what they're at and are not unionized; still you can't fire people at will. Typically this problem is solved by limiting contracts to a couple of months and extending as long as there is money left.

You aren't encouraged to go to Berlin, as you can see, but there are other good choices in the EU. Romania can be an interesting place for a startup:

1. Good conditions to hire programmers (100% tax exemption for that kind of employees).

2. This is one of the main sources which supplies Berlin (and others) with programmers, so you may fight for the same programmers elsewhere, but you also may get them cheaply in their own cradle.

3. Cheaper living costs - this being also one of the reasons why you'd get those developers cheaper.

4. Good tech infrastructure. For example you'll find there one of the most competitive offers in the world for Internet connection, both in costs and quality (speed and bandwidth).

German.

Easy enough to get jobs in Berlin just by searching for start ups and contacting them directly. As long as you have some IT skills many companies are willing to offer jobs on the condition you promise to try and learn German. If cash is your motivation perhaps Berlin isn't the best option, but as a place to live life it most definitely worked for me.

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