Hello there,
Iβd like to do a couple of videos to support the Salary Trends survey, and if you would be free next Tuesday afternoon to meet me in Mitte, reply to this email or send me an email. I will ask you about your salary and maybe a couple of other questions. In the video, you can also reply βI donβt feel like talking about moneyβ.
You can still participate and share it. I prepared some blurbs to make it easier for you. Also, a big thanks to Ravio, our benchmarking partner, and Factofly, our independent work partner, for supporting this year's survey.
πΈ Funded in Germany
Seven Education (formerly Sdui) | Berlin | EdTech platform and solutions | β¬95M | Careers.
Voyfai | Berlin | AI-powered freight forwarding | β¬25M Series A | Careers.
Finperks | Berlin | Global voucher platform | β¬3.3M Pre-seed | Careers.
UniverCell | Kiel | Specialized lithium-ion battery cells | β¬30M Series B | Careers.
RAYDIAX | Magdeburg | CT scanner for cancer therapy | β¬7.5M Series A | Careers.
Ark Climate | Munich | Climate consulting and IT | β¬2.1M Pre-seed | Careers.
Telura | Karlsruhe | Electric impulse geothermal drilling | β¬4M Pre-seed | Careers.
Cellbox Solutions | Cologne | Bio-inspired lightweight composite structures | β¬3.5M Series A | Careers.
Honourable mention, largest seed round ever in Europe:
Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs | Paris, NY, Montreal, Singapore | AI research and development | $1B Seed | Careers.
π Events
From our partners
We will raffle 5 tickets (talk + museum visit) for the Artist Talk with Phillip Toledano at Fotografiska. Heβll present works from his series Historical Surrealism and will be joined by Nisha Merit (Sleek Magazine) and Marie-Luise Mayer (Fotografiska Berlin) to explore AI as a creative tool. Who authors AI-generated images? | Fri, 27/03 19:00 | Fotografiska Berlin
Raffle winners will be notified on Monday, the 16th.You can still apply: {Tech: Europe} is organising a one-day Applied AI conference in Berlin on the 28th of May. Itβs for builders and teams running AI systems in production. They will sponsor three tickets for selected Handpicked readers. You can apply here. We will pick three candidates on Wednesday next week. You donβt wanna miss this.
Our picks
tonight: Women in AI x ML6 meet-up | Thu, 12/03 18:00 | Merantix AI Campus
Coffee. Marketers. Meetup. | Wed, 18/03 9:00 | Industrious
Scottish Connections Burns Night - A night of female voices & whisky | Thu, 19/03 19:00 | Kalle Halle, NeukΓΆlln
Gezellig sessions: Live in Spiegelsaal at ClΓ€rchens Ballhaus | Thu, 19/03 18:00 | Spiegelsaal, ClΓ€rchens Ballhaus
Co-founder of SumUp, Marc-Alexander Christ with GrΓΌnderszene | Thu, 19/03 18:00 | The Delta Campus
see you at Founders night #spring edition | Fri, 20/03 18:00 | location tbd
Berlin automation summit | Tue, 24/03 18:00 | Industrious
Build & Lead β When AI Executes, Leaders Decide | Thu, 26/03 18:00 | Near Alexanderplatz
Fireside chat with Daniel Krauss (co-founder of Flix) at CODE | Thu, 26/03 9:00 | CODE University of Applied Sciences
βοΈ Coffee Talk
Raquel Fedato is a founder of the Whole Festival and the party series Pornceptual, which is well known on the Berlin and international electronic music scene. I spoke with her while she was on her annual retreat in Brazil, and this is what she prepared for you:
ichi γγ‘ - A very small, very intentional Japanese restaurant that feels like a quiet insider tip. Seasonal menus, careful flavours, and a chef who clearly cares about every detail. Itβs intimate without being precious and the kind of place where you slow down, eat well, and leave slightly happier than you arrived.
Communion by bell hooks - βCommunionβ hits deep in the best way, thoughtful without being heavy. bell hooks explores love as a social practice, not just a feeling, connecting intimacy, community, and responsibility in a grounded, practical way. A clear reminder that care and connection are skills we actively build, not things we passively wait for.
Hagius - The prettiest gym Iβve been to that also takes training seriously. Bright, calm, and beautifully designed, it makes you want to show up. You can throw real punches in boxing classes with professional fighter Sidney Rosa or build strength and control in Barre with Seanal. High-quality training, great energy, no unnecessary hype.
Don't miss what Berlin's talking about
Thousands start their week with my Berlin weekly briefing β news, business, tech & culture you won't find elsewhere. Mondays, 7 AM. Free.
π From the Community
BREW Berlin is a privacy-focused builder program bringing together people curious to study and experiment with privacy tech. Join their kickoff event on March 23 to learn about the program & meet the community.
Feeling unsure how to navigate a situation or what step to take next? Simon offers deep, practical coaching to help you untangle what matters, make action-oriented decisions, and move forward with purpose. Book your free consultation.
Here are some stipendiums available for founders as a part of Berlin Startup Scholarships (BSS): SIBB, focusing on cybersecurity, resilient society, and a livable digital future and or at HTW Berlin. You can get β¬2,500 monthly for up to one year.
If you are based in Brandenburg and are an artist, you can get a β¬10,000 stipendium. Deadline 12th of April.
Our friends at Deep Work Club are sponsoring one founder fully (β¬6,900 value) for their 12-month Deep Work for Founder Fellowship, a transformation journey for Seed-to-Series A founders starting mid-April. More info here.
π§ Career compass
As expected, current and former Block workers say AI canβt do their jobs. Block recently laid off half of its 8,000 employees because of gains in AI productivity. Some of you still remember similar claims by Klarna well before their IPO. At the end, they rehired some people.
Anthropic released their labour market research on the impact of AI along with this chart. β1β means LLM alone can make the task at least twice as fast and β0β if the task canβt be sped up by 50% more using an LLM. I donβt know about you, but I donβt think that early and heavy adoption necessarily means that those professions are going to go first. But at least it is an approach!
If you prefer this in a bar chart, here is a link.
Excellent insight on adding complexity to get promoted as an engineer (and if adapted, anyone else). If you arenβt careful, brevity, getting to the point, and keeping things simple can sometimes be penalised.
Iβve seen the (in)efficiency of a big Konzern first-hand during my time at Mercedes, but the automotive, the engine of Germanyβs wealth, is indeed now probably blocking its future. Not a good look.
Itβs the first time I've seen it in a video: an initial recording of a human recording the video. I kind of get whyβ¦ the guyβs voice sounds like itβs fake! But thatβs not why I am sharing this. Itβs because itβs a great video on ghost job postings by companies on LinkedIn and their job boards. (h/t to the person who sent it to me!)
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