A Letter to the Berlin Startup Scene
This doesn&#x27;t really get to the big issue. Which is that Berlin being a startup hub is all marketing in the first place, it&#x27;s probably not very popular to say but somebody has to say it.<p>Berlin has no money, investors don&#x27;t come here. More than a couple of investors I jumped through hoops for eventually I made it all the way to the top decision maker who was forced to reveal &quot;oh we don&#x27;t have any money but in exchange for some equity we can hook you up with business connections.&quot; No small amount of equity. Double digits every time. And the same is true if you find an incubator willing to take you, expect very little money, a short tenure, and a double digit equity stake. This all is in line with the level of talent which exists here. If you take a look at the Berlin job market it&#x27;s all about legacy systems, some PHP, maybe Java if you&#x27;re lucky.<p>There&#x27;s no help available from the government. In fact if you own a startup your taxes skyrocket. Your health insurance doubles. If you&#x27;re trying to sort out a visa at the same time as all that, good luck! The government will subsidise a loan for you, but it has to be a personal loan. Which means banks are willing to give out risky loans. It&#x27;s the same thing that happened in the housing crash. Which is why it needs to be a personal loan, your company failing means nothing you have to pay it back.<p>Letters arrive in your mailbox claiming you owe them money, which apparently isn&#x27;t illegal. All scams. People you meet at networking events promise to hook you up with business connections for equity or money.<p>This is a market that sells shovels.<p>You want to buy a shovel and start digging there&#x27;s a hundred people around selling them. But you better hope that shovel doesn&#x27;t require Wifi because bars and cafes are held responsible for torrent traffic, which means none of them offer it. Therefore rent a co-working space [shovel] or an office [shovel].