Tips for startups and digital companies to do business in Berlin. November 2015

1. Doing business in Berlin

2. Berlin

3. the basics and homework

4. language
English is enough
• translated website and profiles
• maybe German for B2B or long term vision
• German for B2C
• landing pages could be in German, but don’t create
expectations about something you can’t do

5. resources
learn at home as much as possible
• read: Silicon Allee, Berlin Valley, the Hundert, Berlin
Startup Guide
• contact: event organizers
• to be: coworking spaces
• corporate accelerators: new trend

6. prejudices
it doesn’t matter where you come
from, what you do is the key
• door to South America is partially true, not
important
• Spanish is not used, but there are many expats
• Spanish Startup scene is not known
• Spain is Barcelona
• Madrid was Real Madrid, now Google Campus

7. business culture

8. security
build trust to have success
• SCHUFA (maintaining good credit)
• insurances for everything
• think “inside the box”: it makes things easy
• anything new must be “in the system,”
if not: short circuit

9. efficacy
respect the time of others and also
yours
• get to the point: e.g. what’s your best success
• they will ask you why, including when you offer free
things
• honest feedback: you’ll get it, and sometimes it
hurts
• ask yourself how you add value to others

10. meetings
not very polite but effective
• 20 minutes is enough
• clear objectives: agenda may not be needed
• fast answers: do you get it or not
• 1st meeting: not difficult, 20min max
• 2nd meeting: you need to show something new
• decisions are made

11. digital market in Germany
real market, not Silicon Valley
• pros: solid ecommerce, startup2startup market
• pros-cons: good online marketing, coupons,
street actions…
• cons: datenschutz, inconsistent use of social
networks, small mobile market,
many merchandise returns in ecommerce
industrializing startups

12. Berlin

13. who’s here and who’s not
the German economy is not here…
• big companies didn’t used to be here, now more
are coming or at least are paying attention to what’s
happening here.
• less and less support from the city: also there are
institutions

14. who’s here and who’s not
… the startup scene is here
• accelerators and investors are here
• there’s talent: it’s not easy to attract and it’s really
complicated to keep in your project
• there are more interns than recommended
• programmers and CTOs are really demanded

15. lifestyle
good quality of life but the weather…
• cheap but not as much as in the past
• cozy, fun: depends on your lifestyle
• more people coming and many emerging
opportunities
• it’s easy to start but it gets more complicated over
time: house, language, bureaucracy

16. small barriers
starting in a new place requires
effort
• finding a house is not easy
• bureaucracy exists: you start from scratch and
you’ll do in a month what you’ve done in your
lifetime
• taxes are high (but things work)

17. future

18. the future is not clear
the city is maturing…
• and many may feel that it’s losing its spirit
• it should be the city of something... but,
it’s a good time to be here
the next 2 years will be exciting

19. the truth

20. wlappe@thebiztour.com
@theBizTour
www.theBizTour.com
MADRID EUROPE BERLIN
Wilhelm Lappe