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Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory

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

#21

Post by ff7f00 »

pawelwentpawel wrote: post #20
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.

How difficult would it be for a developer from the states to try and get a job out there? It's been a dream of mine for a while to venture out to Berlin/Germany and work out there for a year or two. I was born in Germany but do not have a passport (parents moved to the states when I was a year old).

I've visited once before and the sentiment is right, everyone out there spoke english (at least the younger crowd). I've been following the Berlin Ruby User Group but have been struggling to find good resources beyond that. Any recommendations?

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

#24

Post by cs702 »

I tend to be skeptical of these efforts at engineering startup hubs out of thin air by building great new facilities. Many other complex, inter-related factors are necessary to have a successful startup hub.

As pg himself put it: "Building office buildings for technology companies won't get you a silicon valley, because the key stage in the life of a startup happens before they want that kind of space. The key stage is when they're three guys operating out of an apartment."[1] (He's covered this topic more than once -- e.g., see [2] below.)

--

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html

[2] http://www.paulgraham.com/hubs.html

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

#25

Post by doc4t »

wowoc wrote: post #5

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

I recently moved to Berlin from Denmark and it is fairly simple. Most of my problems are due do the risk of double taxation caused by EU stupidity.

You can found any type of company in Germany without having citizenship. But you will most definitely need an English speaking accountant. The forms/paperwork are only available in German and there is quite a long way from school German to understanding a discussion with the German tax authorities.

Be careful in choosing an English speaking accountant as the quality of their English abilities varies greatly. As with so many other things you get what you pay for.

The German tax authorities are generally welcoming and pleasant but you better have your papers in order and filled out correctly. Also expect to spend a considerable amount of time at the local registry. The lines are long and employees few.

If you come from outside of the EU you will probably have a more difficult time.

That being said it is not at all impossible. Berlin is a great city and lots of happenings related to start ups and development in generally takes place all the time. The German authorities realizes the value of foreigners starting companies and the have a really excellent website in English here

http://www.existenzgruender.de/englisch/self_employment/inde...

Also check out this site for a short intro

http://berlin.angloinfo.com/countries/germany/business.asp

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

#26

Post by stephenhuey »

planetguy wrote: post #15
leftnode wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wow, that seems so obvious now! Never occurred to me before, but I love it.

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

#27

Post by dualogy »

BvS wrote: post #16
dualogy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, being a native German speaker I still suffer from all of the above issues with "some locals" on a routine basis...

But yeah, true, sure, knowing languages is always useful and can make a difference :)

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

#28

Post by doc4t »

pawelwentpawel wrote: post #20
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.

While it is true that most younger Germans speak fairly good English I can not recommend enough to learn the language.

Once you venture outside work and start to socialize you will eventually want to speak German as it is much more fun to be able to understand everything.

Further German actually have roughly 35% more words than English. Because of this and the way it is grammatically structured a lot of fine detail is often lost in translation as the words simply do not exist in English.

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

#29

Post by CapitalistCartr »

Its too easy to substitute working on the tools and resources for working on the actual goal. I separate new managers that way: some focus on the job at hand, many focus on the setup of their office, the desk, chair, parking space, etc.

A building is the easy part to creating a startup incubator; its a tool/resource for the job. Money is just another resource, and the investor a vendor, unless they're like YCombinator. Groups like this bring much more to the table than money; their focus isn't on the building, either.

Build the project; you'll find the tools along the way.

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

#30

Post by skystorm »

doc4t wrote: post #25
wowoc wrote: post #5

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

I recently moved to Berlin from Denmark and it is fairly simple. Most of my problems are due do the risk of double taxation caused by EU stupidity. You can found any type of company in Germany without having citizenship. But you will most definitely need an English speaking accountant. The forms/paperwork are only available in German and there is quite a long way from school German to understanding a discussion with…

> You can found any type of company in Germany without having citizenship.

Are you sure this statement is true in general? In particular, what if you don't have a EU passport?

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