Happy Friday,
because of the public holiday, you are reading this today. I have big news: the event section will expand to around 30+ handpicked events. But since I can’t add all of them to the newsletter, you will see the complete list on the link (it’s in the event section). I am currently still tweaking the selection process, but expect a highly curated list of Berlin tech, startup and community events.
A short note to everyone who volunteered to be a volunteer: I will be sending more information soon.
📌 Pinned
In my corporate life I was a slide-making machine. In those days, it was practically impossible to show up at a meeting without a slide deck. Even simple meetings always had at least an agenda slide. And making good slides was hard.
Consultancies successfully displaced the memo and made a killing. In recent years the only big memo advocates left were at Amazon (because Bezos pushed it). I tried, completely naively, to introduce the Amazon memo way to the Stuttgart slides gang. It didn’t stick at all: also because it’s much harder to write good text. And let’s be honest: people are mostly too lazy to read and write a lot unless the big boss tells them to. We prefer slides, overviews and summaries.
With AI, text and slides are getting very cheap (now Amazon’s memo culture is also dying). And since I've seen how hard it still is to really edit and fine-tune a slide deck with Claude Design, it made me wonder: is an AI-generated memo coming back to displace the slide?
What do you reach for first to share AND SELL an idea at work?
(Actually, here is a completely free tip: try using HTML as a presentation method with AI! It works like a charm!)
👀 Jobs from our partner: Doctolib
At Doctolib, we aim to create a trusted, high-quality healthcare experience across Europe for both patients and health professionals. For patients, we offer a platform guiding them to the right care, centralising health data and knowledge, and using AI assistants with top medical standards. For health professionals, we reduce administrative work and improve care delivery through a unique suite of technologies that spans specialties and countries.
Check out these three
Nothing for you? They are hiring a lot in Berlin.
Some news on the new job board. I worked on the design this week, and it should be back online soon. Thanks for your patience.
💸 Funded in Germany
n8n | Berlin | Low-code workflow automation | €60M+ secondary from SAP at $5.2B valuation | Careers.
Elephant | Berlin | AI training for frontline teams | €5M | Careers.
CMBLU | Alzenau | Organic batteries for grid storage (now a unicorn) | €50M Series C | Careers.
Sedivention | Munich | Cryo-balloon obesity therapy | €2.9M seed | Careers.
Regulate | Munich | Workplace breathwork platform | €1.4M seed | Careers.
NVision | Ulm | Quantum-enhanced metabolic MRI | $55M Series B | Careers.
NanoStruct | Würzburg | Bacteria-detection chips for food | €2.6M seed | Careers.
💰 Salary Trends: Benchmark
This week I released the Company Benchmark. It’s for Heads of People and Talent leads at Berlin tech companies, or whoever owns comp bands, offers, RTO policy, benefits, or AI policy. At smaller companies that’s often the founder. It also works for recruiting agencies and consultancies advising Berlin tech clients.
📅 Events
From our partners
Better visuals drive more sales. Here's how to create them with AI: Prompting for Product Owners, an online workshop by Kittl. Join this live session to master AI prompting for brand assets — branding, packaging, marketing, and social content. | Tue, 19/5 17.00 | Online (bonus: use HANDPICKED25 for 25% off in any Kittl subscription)
Learn how to build an AI app in one evening! We still have a few slots left at our workshops: it’s the last Early Bird day. The first part is in person, and the second part is online, a week later. We also have a learning & development budget request template ready for you. You can join us on Saturday morning (23rd) or Tuesday afterwork (26th).
7 picks from the calendar
The Delta Cowork Weekend vol.1 | Sun, 17/05 10:00 | The Delta Campus
Discovery Day by Dunia | Tue, 19/05 09:00 | Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie
Deep-Tech Co-Founder Matching Night | Wed, 20/05 18:30 | Antler
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena: Proof of Concept for a New Class of Energy and Propulsion Technologies | Thu, 21/05 11:00 | MotionLab.Berlin
20% Berlin's 495th Birthday Party | Fri, 22/05 19:00 | Geist im Glas
Anthropic Berlin Dinner | Tue, 26/05 19:00 | tbd
Ship your first MCP App in one evening (Hack Night with pizza + prizes) | Thu, 28/05 18:00 | Mindspace
☕️ Coffee Talk
Elio Qoshi is a designer, running Ura Design. They do a lot of work on open source projects and organisations like Ubuntu, Mozilla, Tor, and Wikimedia. I found the idea of good design preventing unintended information leak especially interesting! Here is what he prepared for you:
Toskë & Gegë Tapas Bar - Lovely tapas bar with reimagined small dishes from Albania in a more modern setting. Great Albanian music playlists and lovely staff. Try the dessert, which is super simple, yet mouth-wateringly tasty.
Who Will Remember Us When The Servers Go Dark? - A thought-provoking essay on the state of technology: how archiving can harm humanity, how technology is weaponised against users in even small ways, and what our role as designers is. Features a personal story from Cade Diehm, a close friend and colleague I deeply respect.
Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts Album - Nine Inch Nails have been a major influence on us, from Rob Sheridan's macro photography to their pioneering Creative Commons releases, which made them the most prominent band to freely license their music.
Don't miss what Berlin's talking about
Thousands start their week with my Berlin weekly briefing. News, business, tech & culture you won't find elsewhere. Mondays, 7 AM. Free.
Most popular last Monday:
🌍 From the Community
Have an idea to solve a social or environmental problem? Social Impact Award applications are now open for their 12-week incubation program supporting young changemakers in turning ideas into real-world solutions. Apply by May 19!
Shift is a free 6-week program by INCO & PayPal helping small business founders in Berlin use practical AI tools to simplify marketing, sales and operations. No coding needed - just curiosity. Apply by 31 May!
Mascha is supporting a family failed by the system. Evicted in February 2026 despite paying rent, they’ve been working with three organisations and chasing support from Sozialwohnhilfe and Jobcenter, but nothing formal has come through. Any amount helps.
Simplify your Berlin Kita applications. Search listings, send personalized emails, track delivery in real-time, and set automated follow-ups. Finding the right childcare has never been easier.
In the last issue I asked if you plan to leave Germany. “Considering, but no concrete plans” was the winner with 44% of answers. Phew.
🧭 Career compass
In case you missed them: all funded startups in Berlin and Germany in April.
Someone asked on Reddit if you should tell recruiters your expected salary range. And the answer is probably no. This is also consistent with what I learned in my research for the salary reports and the negotiation tips that are included (in the footer).
For the software engineers amongst you, an interesting questions if SWE will still be a long-term career. Crazy how things change: in the 2010s and early 2020s, being an engineer meant almost guaranteed well-paid jobs. I also remember when everyone, including this newsletter, started to talk about “prompt engineer” as a job. Things change, so the most sensible way seems to be disembarking the hype train and keep using your brain.
Related, here is an excellent article from BBC on Why AI companies want you to be afraid of them? "The scale is far too grand and mythic for things like regulation or court law to get purchase on it. People believe all they can do is sit back and wait to find out whether these technologies turn out to be civilisation-ending demons or utopia-gifting messiahs." To be fair, Altman changed the tune a bit in the last weeks.
Don’t miss
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Going into a salary review or offer? Walk in with the numbers and 12 negotiation tips.
Handpicked Community talking about money. Plus ideas for your setup.
How to learn German? Three very hands-on articles.
Handpicked recs: a growing archive of recommendations.
