Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
In Berlin, there is currently more complaining about start-up founders than about real estate speculators. The solvent young entrepreneurs are happy to settle in the trendy capital and thus drive up apartment prices. Because in Berlin there is supposedly all the young talent, the cool lifestyle, the affordable office space compared to other metropolises. And then there are all the creative ideas with which you can fill a lot of shared office space until you have to move out again.
Berlin has one of the highest start-up rates in the republic. According to surveys, 7.4 percent of 18 to 64 year olds are planning a start-up here. There is no area of the economy that is not supplied with fresh start-up ideas here. A start-up recently released an app for the construction site, which site managers and foremen can use to order building materials (if any are available again).
The problem with many start-ups: they have the future in mind, but the future is not yet up for grabs. Grocery delivery services had to lay off a number of employees because after the lockdowns people couldn’t decide to continue having all their shopping done by a bicycle courier. An operator of expensive exercise bikes has the problem that people are going back to profane gyms instead of training digitally. And news from the US shows that things could soon get even worse for start-ups.
Tech companies are laying off tens of thousands there, and stock market values are plummeting. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has asked his employees to “self-select”: Anyone who realizes that they don’t fit into the company should “decide that this is not for them.” Meta had previously stopped the free laundry service for employees.
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That is perhaps the most common. In Berlin, they had only just begun to adopt the corporate culture of Silicon Valley, according to which you only have to approach the employees like a full-service agency and they will do everything for you.
More columns by Tillmann Prüfer
For example, a condom start-up with a unique sabbatical arrangement has just made a name for itself in Berlin. In addition to regular vacation, every employee can take a month of fully paid time off per year or save up the months over several years and take time off at once – just like that. The first thing the founder wanted to do was take a break, and the “People Council” then decided that all employees should now be allowed to do so.
If you continue to orientate yourself in Berlin on how things are going in Silicon Valley, you only have to expand this rule slightly: The employees would then no longer get any money for the time off and would not be allowed to come back.
And then we can all wait for the next startup boom and meanwhile hate real estate sharks again.
More: How cooperation between medium-sized companies and start-ups can succeed