Berlin Startup Map | Hacker News Reader

Berlin Startup Map

berlinstartupmap.com

101 pointslelf69 comments

There are so many entrepreneurs and startups in Berlin. There are probably even more startup events there than in San Francisco, it's a very vibrant scene.

However, there is just noooo money in Berlin. The reason for that is that there are no successful tech entrepreneurs who have been successful previously to fuel the ecosystem.

So all the money you have is money from Angels that are lawyers, dentists or who have a big family business.

Also, German young entrepreneurs just can't think big. There are a few that do, but the "taking-over-the-world" mentality in Germany is just not there as in the U.S.

They more like to create a cookie delivery business. (this just got six figures in funding)

> the "taking-over-the-world" mentality in Germany is just not there

The last time we've tried that, it didn't end so well…

slow clap for this lame joke.

On the other hand, I find it hilarious. Face it, what Germans did in WWII was so horrifying that it will be remembered and associated with them for a long time.

LOL

It's the perfect place to bootstrap a small not-technically-a-startup-by-certain-definitions company, though. Fantastic place to live, still quite cheap, etc.

It's close to the ideal environment for an indie games studio, for example. Not looking to make massive piles of money and scale to infinity, just explore creatively and grow slowly.

Oh yes it is, you can virtually "not" run out of money there. Sandwhich costs $3, you can a really big room with a double bed for $600/month.

If you pay $600/month for a room in Berlin you are doing something wrong.

or you are making decent money and you want a nice apartment and are tired of living in tief neukölln.

when things are on sale, buy the nice one

Sure you can also leave there for 200 Euros in Neukoelln but that was in the hip area Prenzlauer Berg, 25 m2 with a nice kitchen and bathroom. I payed 400 Euros for that.

Just to provide numbers: I pay about $650 for a two-room apartment about 15min by subway from Mitte, where I study, and I sublet the smaller room.

I end up paying a bit less than what my classmates pay for rent on average. This is still considered expensive by people who have been living in Berlin for just few years more. The rents are still rising since many people are coming to Berlin at the moment; and have been quite high in hip districts like Prenzlauer Berg for a while, but there is definitely no comparison to many other large cities in Europe like London (and none to the Bay Area at all, where you can literally end up paying $700 for a room shared with a stranger, next to the gap in general living expenses).

In a discussion on Quora over where the "next Berlin" will be, someone mentioned Warsaw, Poland. I replied that that's a ridiculous notion - rents here are already far higher than in Berlin.

do you have any data to support these assertions. I'm interested and not dismissing your opinions, but I'd love some backup information to this.

According to the 2012 Pan-European Private Equity and Venture Capital Activity report[1], DACH (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) VC funds invested only €0.8 billion in late stage, startup, or seed money. The US[2] invested $26.7 billion total, but only 65% or ~$17.36 billion was in seed, early or late stage funds.

Comparing the VC/GDP ratios[3]:

Aus+Ger+Swiss VC $/GDP= $1.1 billion/$4.43 trillion. US VC $/GDP=$17.36 billion/$15.68 trillion. 1.107/.248=4.46

So the US invests ~4.46x more than Austria, Germany, and Switzerland combined .

[1]: pg. 38 http://imgur.com/2yjXmxT http://bit.ly/19wRbSH

[2] http://www.nvca.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=articl... http://imgur.com/Axpz43j http://imgur.com/evITTbs

[3]: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD

Sweet. I actually just arrived in Berlin today, starting as a product designer for EyeQuant tomorrow. Looking forward to this. Any designers in Berlin here that wants to grab a coffee?

Welcome! Stop by betahaus anytime and you'll meet everyone you need. But don't forget about us at Somewhere too - email me and let's meet up (duncan /at/ somewhere /dot/ com etc...)

I'm tempted to up sticks from London and see if there re any interesting startups to join there.

The startup/tech "scene" in Berlin seems a bit immature compared to London. There seem to be a few companies doing interesting things, however the scale doesn't seem to be anywhere near London at the moment, which has a good mix of startups and established companies and massive amounts of capital flowing through the city. Berlin is great city though, and looks like things might take off in a few years!

it sounds like an interesting space apart from the tech. the artistic city and culture has a lot of buzz, but I've only heard this second hand because I've never visited.

Welcome, and congrats on the new gig! I actually spoke a bit with EyeQuant before I moved here—cool product, and seems like a great team too. I'm a designer at ResearchGate now, and I'd love to meet up at some point. Get in touch! (Email's in my profile.)

Something's broken. The map disappears when I click on a pin.

Even when it wasn't broken, the user interface is pretty bad. When you clicked on a pin you couldn't do anything else until you closed that pin. So to open a new pin you had to close the previous one, whose popup box might have been outside of the map region you were viewing.

I am voting up because I like this sort of aggregators and I would pretty much like to see it fixed - or open sourced maybe?

I always had the feeling that 9 out of 10 startups in Berlin are founded by business students from private universities like WHU. Is this a misperception or is the hacker-businesspeople-ratio really better elsewhere?

I can not answer your question, but I want to add that Berlin might be the city with the highest hackerspace density: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Berlin

The whole Bay Area has.. not that many (well, they have one biohackerspace).

I'm not from berlin, but my perception is the same. There are a lot of smart hackers in germany in general, but many of those do software for fun or idealism.

Because there are not many VCs in germany, those VCs (i guess) don't trust tech people as much as business people. There are a lot of successful ecommerce companies in germany, a little number of tech based (wunderlist/soundcloud) and a lot of stupid social networking companies that make no money at all.

I could be totally wrong, but that's my perception.

This was strongly my impression as well. A bunch of business guys who have seen The Social Network a few too many times chasing the worst ideas imaginable.

What are salary ranges for experienced engineers in Berlin and in Germany in general? Startup vs stable company is also interesting in this aspect.

Maybe someone with enough karma could create a poll...

its very low. €30k is average according to glassdoor. its better to hire here then be hired

For experienced engineers it would be around 40-70k Euro. Depending how experienced you really are, how the demand for the language is (e.g. higher for iOS), on the stage of the company and how much equity you get.

You need to factor in the cost of living when comparing this to US or UK salaries. For 600 Euro/month you will get a nice multi-room apartment in a central area without sharing it with anybody else. Lunch in a restaurant is about 5 Euro and food in supermarkets probably the highest quality for the cheapest price anywhere.

If you do it for the money, ignore German startups. The chance for an exit is 1% and usually employees don't get equity. The pay is low and you're forced to burn out. You will not work for the next Facebook, Twitter etc.

Instead join Siemens, Allianz or other blue chip companies to easily earn 60-90k with all benefits you can imagine.

Berlin is even more desperate as most of the German "tech" scene is. No money, no users, bad execution except the successful copycat-business of the Samwer brothers.

Interesting. Regarding burning out - I thought the overtime work was banned in Germany, no? (Quite recently actually, if I remember correctly).

Yes, I'm aware about non-existent exits, but I was hoping for more like a revenue sharing or similar agreement.

For a C++/systems/desktop engineer (no web), do you think other cities in Germany would be more suitable than Berlin?

Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Köln — that's where the money is made. Just look for job offers of large well-known companies.

If you want to see an area startup aggregator that's both beautiful and useful, check out Silicon Shire (Eugene/Springfield OR) http://siliconshire.org/

Thanks for sharing. I've heard great things about Eugene but didn't know it had much of a startup scene.

I moved to Berlin from London just about 18 months ago. The startup scene here is very good, it's a whole different feeling in terms of the spirit and the people.

Come visit us if you're in town, we often have people in to say hello :)

https://www.somewhere.com/suttree

Great timing, I actually started researching moving from Colorado to Berlin yesterday. This only adds fuel to the fire.

Ha, awesome! I moved here from Colorado last April, and I'm loving it so far. I highly recommend it. =) Get in touch if you want some pointers—I'm happy to help! (My email's in my profile.)

Is there a Colorado > Berlin movement starting? Am planning to visit there for a good month over the next year. :)

Here is a London equivalent: http://roundabout.io/

When selecting one of the startups map disappears and I can't make another selections.Looks broken...

Interesting. Definitely a lot going on over there. I almost expected to see all the markers centered on a handful of cafes in Kreuzberg[x] :)

[x] not that I've been to Berlin in a few years - just seems like the right place for the culture (ps, I love berlin)

Does anyone know a good immigration consultant in Berlin? I've been planning to move my side projects (now full-time projects) there for a few years... and they are now big enough to sustain me.

Cheers,

[email in profile]

I was in Berlin this weekend and absolutely loved it. Somebody knows some nice resources for jobs in Berlin? Im a Rails / Javascript / iOs developer.

My workmate wrote this service: http://marsjobs.net/jobs

Also, we're hiring Ruby developers (actually more Ruby than Rails in the future) right now: http://sponsorpay.com/careers

"intern" seems inordinately popular. what's that about - keeping wages low?

Mostly. If you're a great programmer/qa engineer/product manager, don't apply to those positions.

Especially popular among employers is offering unpaid internships. But, hey, you'll get experience, and you're passionate about your job, right?

We're looking for all three. https://www.contentful.com/jobs/

This looks helpful: http://berlinstartupjobs.com/

Yes this site gets a looot of traffic.

http://www.usv.com/jobs#location,berlin-de

There's a few FB groups besides berlinstartupjobs.com

Post your intention to want to work for a startup here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BerlinStartupJobForHire/

Read job postings here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BerlinStartupJobs/

General startup stuff here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/159595270791268/

And my previous employers are hiring some senior level Javascript and iOS devs - http://www.6wunderkinder.com/en/jobs

This was done in Paris 1 or 2 years ago. Some folks found the map and broke in those places to steal computers and stuffs.

Netherlands: http://dutchstartupmap.com/

Israel: http://mappedinisrael.com/

Why not use OSM as the mapping layer? It's good enough already to avoid depending on Google.

Here's the source from a similar project to make your own map https://github.com/abenzer/represent-map

Maybe you must look outside of Berlin to look for investors but the "Taking over the world" mentality is definitely (t)here. At least that's how we at Somewhere think.

The person creating that list was a bit too "greedy". I certainly wouldn't have added a well-established café like St. Oberholz to that list.

It's listed as a coworking space (there is one above the café), not a startup.

That place is a café, and a fairly noisy one at that. Calling it a co-working space is quite a stretch. It's just that a lot of people with Apple laptops frequent it. I don't think anybody gets serious work done there, by a definition of "serious work" that does not include Facebook and Twitter.

There's a coworking space above the café: http://www.sanktoberholz.de/?page_id=1514&lang=en

I was in Berlin. What I've found is that the most famous startup in Berlin is a todo-list. Jawohl! Make sure to visit the c-base if you're there.

Soundcloud is probably known to more people than Wunderlist.

Yeah the only innovative ones are Soundcloud and Gidsy. Then there is www.workhub.com, they are awesome and awesome founder, but they are still in beta. ResearchGate is also big, but they are more a data startup.

Wooga and Hitfox are the other two big ones, but they are game development companies, not a "real" startup.

Moving out next week to work on a tool for academics. Anyone up for coffee? Mail awesome[at]bohrresearch.com

Link: beta.bohrresearch.com

Visas for Canadians, Americans?

http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card-germany/

same here in Chrome and ie

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