Let\u2019s see how the arrival of WeWork<\/a>, a brand that is planning a lot of new spaces in the city, changes the situation. They are quite expensive but nearer to a business center than to a coworking, and with a professional environment and services.<\/p>\n Finding your own office<\/b> is also possible. If you\u2019re a team, that\u2019s a convenient solution, but that means getting involved in German bureaucracy and also wasting time finding it. I really appreciate the \u201cready-made\u201d proposal of coworking and business centers.<\/p>\n Despite the promise of coworking as a helpful community, don\u2019t expect a lot from this. People go to coworking for working<\/b> and they usually only interact with others at breakfasts or meetings designed for this purpose. In daily life this mingle usually doesn\u2019t happen either. In the beginning, this seems quite rude, but over time you learn that it\u2019s practical and efficient.<\/p>\n The German mentality is around. Practical – apparently not very friendly – but in the end convenient.<\/b><\/p>\n Accelerators <\/b>are much more than places to work, but they also work quite well. If you are running a startup with a team, and you\u2019re moving to Berlin you should consider this route. Also joining one of the existing accelerators is a good reason to come to Berlin.<\/p>\n As usual, they offer space to work, training and mentoring<\/b>, plus, usually, a small investment<\/b> between 25K-50K for 5-10% equity. The programs normally last 3-6 months.<\/p>\n You can find startup programs<\/b> like Startup Bootcamp<\/a>, Founders Institute<\/a>, Microsoft<\/a> and Techstars<\/a>, but the difference from other cities is that the Berlin ones used to be focused on an industry, adding value and focus to the mentors and contacts.<\/p>\n The 2015 trend was corporate accelerators<\/b>, where a big company would start one in the area. It represented big opportunity for startups, and still does, but don\u2019t forget that the time it takes for things to get done in corporations is different than for startups. You will face many unexpected delays.<\/p>\n DB<\/a>, Bayer<\/a> joined the group started by hub:raum<\/a> from Deutsche Telecom, Inmobilien Scout<\/a>, Axel Springer<\/a>\u2026 and also are appearing in joint ventures like Metro and Techstars<\/a>.<\/p>\n This trend of corporations joining startups is also present in some exchange days like Charit\u00e9<\/a> or events sponsored by them\u2026.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t seen that the programs are growing fast, and in the end they only impact a few startups (10-15 per year usually) but I think more and more big German and European companies will do these kinds of innovation-startup programs in Berlin in the future.<\/p>\n Of course there\u2019s high competition to be selected<\/b> into these programs but with a good team an MVP and some amazing metrics it\u2019s absolutely possible to get into. Where you come from will be not a problem, many times they\u2019re looking for international teams, but be aware that for the investment they usually work only with German, British or North-American incorporated companies.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a joke when we talk about having more accelerators than projects. I think that\u2019s not totally true, and they are doing a good job attracting talent to the city. What\u2019s suspicious is when you find a startup going from one program to another similar one, probably not getting the desired traction.<\/p>\n Definitely if you are starting in the city they are a great support, and if you are in one of the sectors looking for contacts with a big company they represent a really good opportunity for you and your company<\/b>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You can read more in: As in many other cities coworking is more than a trend, it\u2019s a reality. There are many places where you can work in many different ways: part or full time, flex or fixed, or with your own office. Personally I think it\u2019s much better working from one of them than staying at home, in order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,121],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-2962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berlin","category-insights","tag-berlin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2962"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3493,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions\/3493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"coworking\"](\"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/IMG_6312-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nDoing business in Berlin I<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin II: events and networking<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin III: coworking and accelerators<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin IV: market and trends<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin V: Incorporating in Germany<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin VI: Living here<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin VII: Salaries and taxes<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin VIII: Hiring in Berlin (and what to expect if you\u2019re looking for a job)<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin IX: final thoughts<\/a>
\nBrexit: an opportunity for Berlin to grow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"