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Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

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Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#81

Post by allendoerfer »

k__ wrote: post #28
alicelthwaite wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi there - I'm the author of this piece. I don't actually speak German. I'm trying to improve - however, I wouldn't say it's required in Germany to start something on your own. Many of the meetups are in English and everyone I've spoken to is fluent. I think it's another story if you're trying to get a job though...

Yes, the hardest thing is probably to get a flat and register a business without speaking German and these are one time things, no ongoing stuff. The start-up scene speaks English fluently and buying stuff etc. doesn't need much talking. The start-up I work with has 2 employees who don't speak German at all and they say it's only a problem when they are in smaller villages.

Registering a business is literally going to the "Gewerbeamt" and answering their questions about what you want to do. You will then be contacted by the tax authorities. I would then just search for a tax adviser, who speaks English.

If you want to incorporate a business, you do not necessarily have to do it in Germany, it is the EU after all.

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#82

Post by k__ »

allendoerfer wrote: post #81
k__ wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the hardest thing is probably to get a flat and register a business without speaking German and these are one time things, no ongoing stuff. The start-up scene speaks English fluently and buying stuff etc. doesn't need much talking. The start-up I work with has 2 employees who don't speak German at all and they say it's only a problem when they are in smaller villages.

Registering a business is literally going to the "Gewerbeamt" and answering their questions about what you want to do. You will then be contacted by the tax authorities. I would then just search for a tax adviser, who speaks English. If you want to incorporate a business, you do not necessarily have to do it in Germany, it is the EU after all.

Ah sure, yes I forgot that you can create a company in the UK and simply run it from Berlin without much hassle.

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#83

Post by doc_holliday »

alicelthwaite wrote: post #39
doc_holliday wrote: post #29

"My business is called The Echo Chamber Club — we curate articles that counter a traditional metropolitan viewpoint and send them to our hundreds of subscribers. It makes sense that I remove myself from London to understand new points of view and communicate them with my subscribers." With regards to "liberal metropolitan" viewpoints, Berlin won't challenge you anymore than London did. It's just another global city w…

Hmmm I kind of disagree there. I'm having to make new friends and get out of my comfort zone. In time I'm going to start exploring other areas. I'm really keen to get collaborators on board for instance. Nothing is perfect - this was just the best move for me at the time :)

Oh, you'll meet loads of great people and it is an experience getting out of your comfort zone and leaving behind old friends in the city you grew up in.

I was just meaning in regards to differing opinions to liberal metropolitanism it will be very similar to London. Best of luck in your endeavour!

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#84

Post by izolate »

DasIch wrote: post #24
hellofunk wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, my experience after a week of work in Berlin was that a lot of the restaurants I visited, the waitress couldn't speak English at all. Or taking a cab was sometimes quite an effort to communicate as well. Even more strange, Berlin (and perhaps much of Germany, I don't know), places much greater emphasis on cash than on electronic payments like credit cards. I gave a credit card to a vendor once and they looke…

Cash is much more popular however another big factor is that credit cards aren't really a thing. Instead Germany has its own system of EC cards which are directly tied to your bank account (which most people get as a child here) and work more like debit cards. The only reason to have a credit card as a German is for buying this outside of Germany.

I've just moved to Netherlands and noticed this. Cash & Maestro (Debit) cards are the norm here.

Credit cards aren't any more popular in the UK, but our debit cards tend to be Visa/Mastercard and we use them the same way. I think mainland Europe has some catching up to do to London as far as being a cashless society :)

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#85

Post by justinclift »

alicelthwaite wrote: post #57
TamDenholm wrote: post #50

Genuine question, Whats the business model for The Echo Chamber Club? I've always seen newsletters as a marketing tool for a business, rather than a business itself. Very interested to how you'd make money with it as a standalone business.

Hey Tam - thanks for your question. So my target market don't generally want to hear the topics I'm posting. They have to trust that I'm as liberal as they are before they start taking me seriously. So it became clear that the most important part of the ECC was to create a trusted brand. Otherwise, I spent about a year trying to figure out a solution to the filter bubble. I was looking at RSS feeds, new types of algo…

Just to check, you've seen this?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12557500

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#86

Post by woodcut »

GunboatDiplomat wrote: post #80
woodcut wrote: post #61

Welcome to Berlin. :) I came to Berlin roughly 5 years ago before the investment started pouring in and most startups were existenz grundungs, this is when you get 50k from the government and you underpay some interns to build your MVP. It was pretty shabby back then, and things have changed dramatically in the intervening years, but most people came for this vague idea of living cheaply and doing what they want - yo…

>Registration takes ~3-5 months to get an appointment, god forbid you're a foreigner and have to also register at the ausländerbehörde and wait from 3am for the 1 of 50 tickets available that day. Your bureaucracy makes American bureaucracy seem amazingly efficient in comparison. I did not know such a thing was possible outside defunct communist states.

in part it's since the refugee crisis, there just aren't enough skilled administrators in germany to handle the number of people migrating here. That said, once you've got the paperwork, things are relatively easy.

What i mean by registration is that you have to register where you live, to do that you'll need your passport, copy of the contract and a letter from the landlord saying you have the right to live there. Sounds easy, but then not many landlords will rent to you if you're not planning on staying a long time or you don't have a permanent contract for your job...

you need the registration for everything here, you don't really exist without it, you can't get health insurance, you can't pay tax, you can't be paid your salary by a company, and you'll find it hard to open a bank account.

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#87

Post by alicelthwaite »

justinclift wrote: post #85
alicelthwaite wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Tam - thanks for your question. So my target market don't generally want to hear the topics I'm posting. They have to trust that I'm as liberal as they are before they start taking me seriously. So it became clear that the most important part of the ECC was to create a trusted brand. Otherwise, I spent about a year trying to figure out a solution to the filter bubble. I was looking at RSS feeds, new types of algo…

Just to check, you've seen this? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12557500

Oh dear - I've since moved hosting providers. Are you having issues now?

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#88

Post by TillE »

GunboatDiplomat wrote: post #80
woodcut wrote: post #61

Welcome to Berlin. :) I came to Berlin roughly 5 years ago before the investment started pouring in and most startups were existenz grundungs, this is when you get 50k from the government and you underpay some interns to build your MVP. It was pretty shabby back then, and things have changed dramatically in the intervening years, but most people came for this vague idea of living cheaply and doing what they want - yo…

>Registration takes ~3-5 months to get an appointment, god forbid you're a foreigner and have to also register at the ausländerbehörde and wait from 3am for the 1 of 50 tickets available that day. Your bureaucracy makes American bureaucracy seem amazingly efficient in comparison. I did not know such a thing was possible outside defunct communist states.

This is a recent issue particular to Berlin caused primarily by a terrible "grand coalition" city government (which is about to be replaced), and then exacerbated somewhat by an influx of refugees. It should be gradually fixed in the near future.

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#89

Post by allendoerfer »

izolate wrote: post #84
DasIch wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash is much more popular however another big factor is that credit cards aren't really a thing. Instead Germany has its own system of EC cards which are directly tied to your bank account (which most people get as a child here) and work more like debit cards. The only reason to have a credit card as a German is for buying this outside of Germany.

I've just moved to Netherlands and noticed this. Cash & Maestro (Debit) cards are the norm here. Credit cards aren't any more popular in the UK, but our debit cards tend to be Visa/Mastercard and we use them the same way. I think mainland Europe has some catching up to do to London as far as being a cashless society :)

Do we really need to put Visa/Mastercard in front of every transaction if we already have model working exactly the same way from a customers point of view?

I would say the opposite is true: If you need Visa/Mastercard, your country's banking system is broken. Sending cheques via physical mail is something nobody would even think of over here. I think I have never even seen one.

Re: Why a Brit chose to start a business in Berlin

#90

Post by m_t »

rubber_duck wrote: post #67
VeejayRampay wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you define "very good tax rates" though? Is it the same thing as "low taxes"? Are high taxes in Northern Europe "bad taxes"? Taxes are not theft you know, they're supposed to buy you and your fellow citizens things (health care, infrastructure, cheap education, services, etc), some of them highly beneficial to a startup.

Depends on what you need, but from a startup perspective they are stiffing and offer very little in return, if you're not dependent on the local market you're just increasing costs.

Proper health care, good infrastructure, all those sorts of thing can make a difference if the startup wants to have local employees - or even if the founder wants to benefit from them.
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