
Berlin's new 107,000 ft² startup factory - danielfrese
http://venturevillage.eu/the-factory-simon-schaefer
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unwind
Berlin is in Europe, so quoting the area as 10,000 m^2 (as in the original
article) would have been nice. Are most HN readers really from the US?

~~~
sasvari
_Are most HN readers really from the US?_

I ran a poll here a couple of months ago [0]. While far from being accurate,
it could at least be considered somehow representative for the HN audience (it
lasted more than 24h on the front page, so all time zones were covered). Even
though the non-US group seems to have caught up compared to a couple of years
back, the US still dominates the HN audience.

[0] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905>

Edit: typo

~~~
j_s
Circa 2009 (first Google result) non-US was 40%

[http://www.mattmazur.com/2009/03/a-brief-hackernews-
traffic-...](http://www.mattmazur.com/2009/03/a-brief-hackernews-traffic-
analysis/)

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nemesisj
Can anyone name a successful startup not also located within the valley, NYC,
or Boston that started from one of these coworking or incubator spaces?

Not being snarky, but it may come across that way. Just genuinely curious.

~~~
ironchef
I'm sure there's lots, but it also depends on your definition of success. Here
in Chicago we've got groupon, threadless, braintree, thinkorswim, 37 signals,
orbitz, and then, of course, a number of places which have cashed out to
acquisitions (like feedburner).

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wowoc
Is it possible to do a startup there for someone not knowing German?

~~~
pawelwentpawel
I've spent 8 precious years of my childhood taking compulsory classes in
german language. As it turned out later, most of young germans speak excellent
english. I should have taken french. If you end up in a big collaborative
space with loads of people from different countries, they will all end up
speaking english anyway.

~~~
ff7f00
How difficult would it be for a developer from the states to try and get a job
out there? It's been a dream of mine for a while to venture out to
Berlin/Germany and work out there for a year or two. I was born in Germany but
do not have a passport (parents moved to the states when I was a year old).

I've visited once before and the sentiment is right, everyone out there spoke
english (at least the younger crowd). I've been following the Berlin Ruby User
Group but have been struggling to find good resources beyond that. Any
recommendations?

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cs702
I tend to be skeptical of these efforts at engineering startup hubs out of
thin air by building great new facilities. Many other complex, inter-related
factors are necessary to have a successful startup hub.

As pg himself put it: "Building office buildings for technology companies
won't get you a silicon valley, because the key stage in the life of a startup
happens before they want that kind of space. The key stage is when they're
three guys operating out of an apartment."[1] (He's covered this topic more
than once -- e.g., see [2] below.)

\--

[1] <http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html>

[2] <http://www.paulgraham.com/hubs.html>

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CapitalistCartr
Its too easy to substitute working on the tools and resources for working on
the actual goal. I separate new managers that way: some focus on the job at
hand, many focus on the setup of their office, the desk, chair, parking space,
etc.

A building is the easy part to creating a startup incubator; its a
tool/resource for the job. Money is just another resource, and the investor a
vendor, unless they're like YCombinator. Groups like this bring much more to
the table than money; their focus isn't on the building, either.

Build the project; you'll find the tools along the way.

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Henwys
I really like the idea of spaces like this. I would like to see one be
successful in research triangle park, NC.

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jdcryans
If there's one thing that's always been proven true it's that startups are
made the same way objects are manufactured.

More seriously I do wish them success, the tech scene in Berlin seemed vibrant
when I was there for a conference and it's a beautiful city.

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swombat
Nice idea, and I'm sure it'll be a nice building, and good fun to work in, but
the magic ingredient in a "startup factory" is most definitely not office
space.

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nirvana
My co-founder mentioned there is some sort of german "self employment" visa,
that will allow you to get residency in Germany without having to work for a
local company. I don't know any more details bout that, but would love to hear
from someone who has actually gone thru the process, if anyone on HN has.

Berlin is becoming a bit of a startup hub for europe, and with the economic
issues this may increase if the other states start hurting small companies as
they try to shore up their budgets.

This is the kind of things I'd never use, probably, except for meetups and
stuff like that. But, unlike others, I think it is good that it is being
built. Yes, the magic happens when you're working from your apartment or
basement- and in fact, that's my preferred place to work (all founders under
one roof, zero commute times, etc.)

But why is it, whenever someone says "This useful thing for startups is
happening in some city" the responses are "You're not creating silicon
valley!!!" Nobody said they were replicating silicon valley. Why are the
defenders of silicon valley so defensive that every time something involving
startups happens out side of california, they have to pile in and say that
silicon valley can't be replicated? Hey, personally, that's great. I lived in
the bay area. It isn't a good place to do a startup on all the criteria that
matter to me (burn rate, employee availability, etc.) But it is certainly
great for people whom, for the first time in their lives, they have lots of
smart people to hang around with. If that's you, I can see why you'd love it.
It is also great if you're doing the "google acquisition target startup" and
need VC money, or a number of other possibilities.

But silicon valley does not have a patent on the idea of doing a startup, and
in this globalized world, the barriers for doing startups have dropped all
over the world, and thus it is GOOD that Berlin and other cities are becoming
good places to do startups.

Especially since many companies simply can't relocate to Silicon valley. For
instance, one of my co founders is not a US citizen. Silicon Valley is not an
option for us.

~~~
Vitaly
I went to our local embassy in Tel Aviv but they were not very helpful, quite
hostile actually. When I asked about the different kinds of visa, saying that
I can apply in different possible ways (as self employed, as an employee of my
own company sent overseas, etc) depending on which gives me the best chance to
get the visa they said literally "we are not here to help you get into
Germany, we are not a market for visas. you choose by yourself how do you want
to apply and we'll send it back home for approval/denial"

so, I found a german lawyer over the internet to get advice.

Long story short (this is not legal advice, btw ;)

\- self employment visa has some bizarre requirements like "investing 250K EUR
and employing 5 locals" to get it "automatically". you can still get it with
less but you'll have to prove your 'economic worth' to the region, which might
not be trivial and needs a lot of paperwork.

\- there is another kind of self employed visa, which is sometimes called an
'artist visa' and it is given to artists, teachers, engineers and some other
well defined categories of self employed people. The problem with this kind of
visa is that software engineers are not listed on the list, and are not
legally considered 'engineers'.

me, I'll probably take my chances with the first kind. going to start the
application process soon.

BTW, if anyone has any corroborating or conflicting evidence, I'll be very
glad to hear it.

