Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory • Hacker News Board

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#11

Post by stigi » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 12:52 PM UTC

fs111 wrote: post #7

wowoc wrote: post #5

Is it possible to do a startup there for someone not knowing German?

The soundcloud guys are Swedish and wooga has AFAIK an English-as-company-language policy, so I guess the answer is yes.

true. but if you want to found your company in germany you better get a good german tax consultant & lawyer.

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#12

Post by phpnode » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 1:05 PM UTC

unwind wrote: post #2

Berlin is in Europe, so quoting the area as 10,000 m^2 (as in the original article) would have been nice. Are most HN readers really from the US?

Yes, assuming this is broadly representative http://hackernewsers.com/pages/map.html

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#13

Post by Henwys » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 1:06 PM UTC

I really like the idea of spaces like this. I would like to see one be successful in research triangle park, NC.

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#14

Post by leftnode » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 1:17 PM UTC

unwind wrote: post #2

Berlin is in Europe, so quoting the area as 10,000 m^2 (as in the original article) would have been nice. Are most HN readers really from the US?

Or, to satisfy both crowds, the title could have had " ... 10,000 m^2 (107,000 ft^2) ... ".

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#15

Post by planetguy » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 1:21 PM UTC

leftnode wrote: post #14

unwind wrote: post #2

Berlin is in Europe, so quoting the area as 10,000 m^2 (as in the original article) would have been nice. Are most HN readers really from the US?

Or, to satisfy both crowds, the title could have had " ... 10,000 m^2 (107,000 ft^2) ... ".

Or to satisfy both crowds it could have been either, and we could have assumed that the reader is smart enough to be able to know how many square feet there are in a square metre, to within the desired accuracy.

Ten and a bit square feet to the square metre. Know it, use it, love it.

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#16

Post by BvS » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 1:28 PM UTC

dualogy wrote: post #9

BvS wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will get along with English just fine although you will probably miss out a little with regards to your social life.

Not sure. The expat scene seems so vast whenever I'm back in good ol' Berlin (and more so every time). Flocks of English-speaking-people-of-all-accents everywhere I look (well inside the "groovy" parts of town of course). I wouldn't imagine anyone having to miss out on social life in Berlin, at least not due to language.

You'll be able to have a great time for sure but there will be still some locals you will have a hard time to interact with, some jokes you won't get, some shows which will make no sense to you etc. Nothing to worry about but it still can make a difference to know at least a little German.

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#17

Post by swombat » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 1:44 PM UTC

Nice idea, and I'm sure it'll be a nice building, and good fun to work in, but the magic ingredient in a "startup factory" is most definitely not office space.

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#18

Post by ironchef » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 1:46 PM UTC

nemesisj wrote: post #6

Can anyone name a successful startup not also located within the valley, NYC, or Boston that started from one of these coworking or incubator spaces? Not being snarky, but it may come across that way. Just genuinely curious.

I'm sure there's lots, but it also depends on your definition of success. Here in Chicago we've got groupon, threadless, braintree, thinkorswim, 37 signals, orbitz, and then, of course, a number of places which have cashed out to acquisitions (like feedburner).

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#19

Post by codesuela » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 1:49 PM UTC

nemesisj wrote: post #6

Can anyone name a successful startup not also located within the valley, NYC, or Boston that started from one of these coworking or incubator spaces? Not being snarky, but it may come across that way. Just genuinely curious.

Wooga, Soundcloud, Spreadshirt and maybe Amen come to mind (all Berlin based). Not to name the hugely successful Samwer clones like Zalando (biggest online shoe e-commerce business in Europe, Zappos clone).

Re: Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

#20

Post by pawelwentpawel » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 2:16 PM UTC

wowoc wrote: post #5

Is it possible to do a startup there for someone not knowing German?

I've spent 8 precious years of my childhood taking compulsory classes in german language. As it turned out later, most of young germans speak excellent english. I should have taken french. If you end up in a big collaborative space with loads of people from different countries, they will all end up speaking english anyway.