Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#151

Post by MrKurtHaeusler » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 5:19 AM UTC

NicoleSimon wrote: post #135

MrKurtHaeusler wrote: post #74

I am a foreigner who has been working as a developer or manager in the software sector in Germany for around 10 years. For a couple of years I have been trying to move towards self-employment, with some ups and downs, but I am making progress on a project together with my wife. Last year I had the chance to switch jobs and move elsewhere so I naturally targeted Berlin. I would like to keep working in a high-paying jo…

"The official work experience I have on my CV is more enterprisy stuff" That already is your point. You are coming from an enterprise thinking and payment structure - Berlin is everything but Enterprise. With your kind of payment expectations, they will simply expect you to step up the game, and that probably is at least CTO if not co founder. If you want to be your specialized dev, you need to be extra good to work…

I am not an enterprise thinker, but I have developed enterprise salary expectations. One of my current areas of interest is helping slow old large businesses be more effective by using e.g. Lean startup ideas.

To be honest though I am not a natural entrepreneur. Or at least I may have been while younger but I have become soft over the years. I only really started thinking about startups etc maybe 3 or 4 years ago and it's hard to break out of the comfortable employee lifestyle.

I am from an English speaking country with German ancestors, but I don't know if that background makes me more or less startup material. There seem to be roughly the same distribution if entrepreneurs here as in my home country.

But I am focused now on being founder rather than employee. Already CTO of a non-profit r&d team with my wife as CEO.

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#152

Post by fallenhitokiri » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 5:36 AM UTC

Argorak wrote: post #117

febeling wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people in private insurance claim that it is at least equally broken, with some saying it is worse. And some of those people I'm speaking about are MDs themselves. It is broken by German / first-worlds standards, of course, with people not having access to something similar laughing about these claims, if it was remotely funny.

Never get into private health insurance in germany. The problem is that once you are there, you cannot get back. Also, switching insurances gets almost impossible once you actually have a chronic condition. Public insurances have to accept you. The other problem is that the prices are on a steady rise - the only easy way for private insurances to raise profits is taking it from their clients. The way to go is public…

"Never get into private health insurance in germany. The problem is that once you are there, you cannot get back. Also, switching insurances gets almost impossible once you actually have a chronic condition. Public insurances have to accept you."

There are ways - one example: just make sure you are employed and do not earn more than (roughly) 4500€ / m and tada: back.

"The other problem is that the prices are on a steady rise"

The same is true for the public insurance, beside they do not pay for the same services, medicaments,... as the private insurances. There are also better ways to prevent paying >600€/m when you are over 60. Just a matter of the right company / contract.

"The way to go is public insurance with additional private extensions - it ensures that you can cancel your (sub)-contract without fearing about your general healcare plan."

100% agree on this. If you are an employee.

//edit: not sure if this discussion fits here or if we, if there would be any interest, should use IRC or something else.

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#153

Post by vellum » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 6:20 AM UTC

asdkl234890 wrote: post #128

urgeio wrote: post #10

Top 5 reasons why you should move to Berlin, now: 1. Lowest livings costs with highest quality of living. Stay in gorgeous, perfectly renovated apartments in pre-WWII residential buildings with high ceilings, right in the middle of the center and pay a fraction of costs of any other capital (even cheaper than any Eastern European capital). No need for a car—Berlin has one of the densest subway nets and wide streets m…

Lowest livings costs with highest quality of living. Stay in gorgeous, perfectly renovated apartments in pre-WWII residential buildings with high ceilings, right in the middle of the center and pay a fraction of costs of any other capital (even cheaper than any Eastern European capital). Why is this true? Honest question, how can a great large Western European city cost a fraction of other, even Eastern European citi…

Berlin's cheap because it's located in the middle of former East Germany, which has cheaper rents than West Germany. Also, most of the business centers are located elsewhere in West Germany. Frankfurt is the finance capital. Cologne is the media capital. Munich has a ton of large companies like Siemens, etc.

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#154

Post by radiospaetkauf » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 8:56 AM UTC

Here's a shameless plug: Listen to the Radio Spaetkauf podcast if you want insights into life in Berlin from an international perspective. http://www.radiospaetkauf.com

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#155

Post by coldarchon » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 10:39 AM UTC

mekwall wrote: post #13

iconfinder wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"which no one studies in school" In Denmark we can select German classes in both elementary and high school.

Same goes in Sweden. It's quite easy for us Scandinavians to learn German since our languages are closely related (all except Finnish are Germanic languages). In fact, its the same with English, which is also a Germanic language.

Finnish aren't Scandinavian btw, they belong to the Fenno-Scandinavians but this excludes the Danes and Icelandic people.

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#156

Post by juri » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 1:49 PM UTC

notJim wrote: post #148

barry-cotter wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

male/female maennlich/weiblich i.e. We'll employ you regardless of your genitalia.

That's what I thought. Can employers in Germany actually choose to hire men or women for a position? And under what circumstances is that allowed or common?

The use of f/m or w/m results from the fact, that most of the job titles are gender specific, as are german nouns in general. An example: Programmierer is a male programmer, Programmiererin is a female programmer. So "Programmierer (w/m)" is a shortcut for "Programmierer oder Programmiererin"

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#157

Post by bpyne » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 2:06 PM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #113

bpyne wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll start with health care. I'm referring to the overall system and its premise. The problem is that the system is based on employment and the government fills in for certain populations during unemployment. There are 4 large problems in that simple statement. One is that employers are even involved in shopping for health care. If I own a company that makes software for the education market, for example, why should…

Most of your criticism is of a particular part of the American financial services sector, not of health care. Finally, according to the WHO, the US ranks 37 in the world for system efficiency. WHO rankings are predominantly a measurement of inequality of marginal costs of health care. The WHO's measurement is so flawed that one can make all sorts of pareto improvements (e.g., make 50% of the population live 10 years…

My criticisms are about the health care system, emphasis on the "system" part. Having a large number of citizens without health care is a failure of the system.

The issue is a socio-political one. It's about the distribution of health care and who our culture deems worthy of receiving it.

"Most of your criticism is of a particular part of the American financial services sector, not of health care."

This seems to almost be a tangent. Please explain.

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#158

Post by pimeys » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 2:24 PM UTC

webjunkie wrote: post #93

Home for start-up business? Yes. For tech start-ups? I don't think so. I have yet to meet one engineer-driven tech start-up from Berlin. Most founders I met and know are some business guys with oh-so-clever ideas looking for just the right CTO guy to make their plan reality. And most German developers I know also never thought about working for a start-up. They happily flock to every large German company you may know…

In our company, SponsorPay, we have a strong developer culture. The whole IT team is rock solid.

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#159

Post by pmoehring » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 4:30 PM UTC

JVIDEL wrote: post #124

This seems interesting, but I have one question: what about taxes? Any tax breaks for tech startups? what about employee/healthcare costs?

Almost no tax breaks for startups, and healthcare and employee taxes are regulated very closely to normal German laws. Shockingly, recently the govt seems to have decided that angel investors and even founders will not be eligible for certain tax breaks, and instead will be taxed on income tax level for capital gains.

Re: Is Berlin the new home for tech start-up business? [video]

#160

Post by pmoehring » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 4:33 PM UTC

alexro wrote: post #14

In the UK there is no consent among the investors where the action should go. I was quite surprised to learn than basically every credible accelerator has it's own view of where my start-up should be based. Oxygen - Birmingham Ignite100 - New Castle Seedcamp - London I get their desire to improve local culture but hey this is just ridiculous to ask me to settle somewhere because you gave me some money. Also, start-up…

I work at Seedcamp.

We don't force anyone to move their startup to London. We do suggest the new teams spend some time with us here, as it's valuable to them to be part of what is going on here - a lot of the teams come from eastern Europe where there is much less of a tech (and investment) scene. Being in London for some time enables them to take part in that, make the right connections, and then move back, here, or on - often to the US.