Good morning,
thank you for all your feedback on how to improve the newsletter in the poll. I will use it in my “August build” month. We also run events and one of the event series, Everyday AI Club, also got its own Slack channel that you can join. Do join if you are interested in applying AI to your daily work.
It’s clear that summer is in full swing — there are fewer events going on in town. But here is a great one: our panel at Apple Rosenthaler next Wednesday. I am also looking forward to meeting you tomorrow.
📌 Pinned
Is AI positively or negatively affecting the job market? Well, it depends on who you ask. If you go to the frontier labs, they will mostly tell you, "Sure, you need to get ready to change, and it’s going to be a big one." If you ask AI sceptics or people who have only ever seen an AI overview at Google or used free ChatGPT, they will probably say, "No way, get real." What does the data say? Actually, if companies adopt AI heavily, they actually GROW headcount.
👀 Jobs
This week the only improvement was further cleaning of the “other” category.
💸 Funded in Germany
Fuchs & Eule | Berlin | ESG data to renovation plans | €10M Series A | Careers.
Sherpa | Berlin | AI OS for external workforce | $2.2M pre-seed | Careers.
NextGO Epi | Berlin | Gallium oxide power semiconductors | €2M pre-seed | Careers.
reverse.fashion | Berlin | AI-powered textile sorting | 7-figure pre-seed extension | Careers.
Lissi | Frankfurt | EUDI wallets for regulated finance | €3.5M | Careers.
Birdsview | Leipzig | AI email agent for e-commerce | €2.5M seed | Careers.
Helsing | Munich | Defence AI systems | $1.8B Series E | Careers.
Proxima Fusion | Munich | Stellarator fusion power plants | €411M | Careers.
Project Q | Munich | Open-source defence integration platform | €15M Series A | Careers.
QuantumDiamonds | Munich | Quantum sensors for semiconductor defects | €15M | Careers.
Skalar | Munich | AI-native tax and accounting firm | €12M | Careers.
Finto | Munich | AI agents for accounting workflows | $3.4M seed | Careers.
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🍸 Make the most of your Thursday with after-work drinks at ESMT. Explore the historic campus, meet the community and enjoy meaningful conversations. Next Thursday at 17:00 at ESMT.
📅 Events
This week we reviewed 46 upcoming events and handpicked 11. Check all 26 events at luma.com/handpicked
From our partners
Berlin AI Day is a full-day event built around three tracks: organisation, revenue & operations, and product, each tackling a distinct, real challenge in AI adoption and automation. Speakers from AWS, HiBob, Revolut, HelloFresh, Mobile.de, FINN, and more, all early adopters, share what's working, where they've struggled, and lessons learned. 25% discount at checkout! | Tue, 15/09 9:00 | Festsaal Kreuzberg
How can your idea become a real business? We are back at Apple Rosenthaler Straße. This time we will explore how a raw idea can become a real business that (also) supports LGBTQIA+ communities. In celebration of Pride, I'll be talking with Nora von Breitenbach of Quouch and serial entrepreneur Dr. Steffen Zoller of Pinksummits to discuss the challenges, opportunities and courage involved, followed by a chance to network. Register for free! | Wed, 22/07 18:00 | Apple Rosenthaler
Our picks
tonight Pollinations AI Night | Thu, 16/07 17:30 | BLOCK1
Berlin Bald Together | Sat, 18/07 14:00 | Skalitzer Str. 47, 10997 Berlin
R&D Social Run | 5k Innovation Loop | Mon, 27/07 07:00 | GetCouped Technologies GmbH
🎫 Fck Ups in Product: Your Stories w/ Ravi Mehta & Michelle Parsons | Wed, 29/07 18:00 | Berlin, Germany
The Missing Piece in Agentic AI: Payments | Thu, 30/07 18:00 | Merantix AI Campus
Sober Brunch | BERLIN 🥐🥂 | Sat, 01/08 11:00 | Berlin, German
☕️ Coffee Talk
Ruth Weissmann is a founding editor of HEIST, a new Berlin English-language news source. Originally from Upstate New York, her journalistic path in Germany started with The Berliner, which she then left and formed Heist together with a few other colleagues. This is what she prepared for you:
Hansis Brot - Not to get too German about it, but this is the best bread in Berlin. It's a tiny Wedding storefront only open half the week, but it's worth the trip. On weekends they sell their Zimtsplitter, a flattened cinnamon croissant with a buttery, caramelised crust.
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City (I got mine at St George's English bookshop, but Dussmann or the ZLB Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek would certainly have it) - Published anonymously in 1954, this is the eight-week diary of a woman living in Berlin as the city fell to the Red Army. She's a journalist who knows some Russian, which saves her at times, and she documents the lives of those in her apartment block in all their humanity and depravity. It's a dark book, but a haunting primary source.
Go to a Bundesliga Baseball game - It's less MLB and more Little League, but Berlin has several 2. Bundesliga baseball teams, and catching one of their home games is a great excuse to get a very cheap loaded hot dog and sing Take Me Out To The Ball Game. My favourite is the Berlin Flamingos, but the Roadrunners or the Skylarks put on a good show too.
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
Kosh built an app: Snap a photo of any German letter (Finanzamt, Krankenkasse, Rundfunk) and Brievly explains it in plain English: what it says, what to do, and the deadline goes straight to your calendar. EU-hosted and privacy-first. Your first scan is free.
Last week's poll was me asking about what would make you open the Careers newsletter more, and the results are top secret, but it was a valuable exercise.
Feel free to submit your cool projects or anything that community could help with here:
🧭 Career compass
Signals from Monday: Helsing cleared to build a 300-job drone factory in Hallbergmoos [careers] - also see their funding round; Deutsche Bahn putting €50M into AI comms, a new app and passenger-info displays [careers]; Deutsche Bank got a Saudi regional HQ licence [careers]; Quantum-Systems set a 699 km/h battery-drone speed record [careers]
Looks like now Zalando will also be doing a return-to-the-office mandate. This is a common move done by lots of companies, also because it helps with natural attrition. Imagine if you joined as working remotely or being in the office 1-3x monthly and now being forced to go to the office 3-4x or 5x weekly. Sucks.
Related, Zalando is reportedly opening a hub in Romania and moving some roles to Bucharest.
Redditors discuss the state of Software Engineering in Germany and Europe. Beware that the Reddit bubble is in general very pessimistic and overly dramatic.
How should you answer to an executive when they ask, "Is the project tracking to finish on time?" Save this classic from Dave Kellogg.
Don’t miss
Need help with finding a flat, insurance, have problems at work or are you lost in career or life? Talk to our Handpicked Experts.
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.
