Discover the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Berlin with eLab
Berlin is a creative capital with an entrepreneurial spirit ideal for a startup crash course. CIEE — the world’s leading international education provider — designated Berlin as an eLab hub for the same reasons so many other successful startups have chosen Berlin. Startups, big and small call Berlin home: global giants you are probably familiar with like Zalando, Babbel, or Soundcloud, as well as smaller early-stage startups — the giants of the future. Berlin is a robust hub of inspiration boasting a wealth of financial resources and support for fledgling startups.
Nathan Resnick, CEO of Sourcify, might as well be describing Berlin in an editorial in Entrepreneur Europe on characteristics of an entrepreneur: a passionate city, with perseverance, and full of resourceful, open-minded people. His final observation about good leaders is that they are “sponge-like,” which is among Berlin’s many innovative features. As Bloomberg has highlighted, the city was in fact designed to function as a sponge to address environmental conditions, Berlin is literally innovative from the ground up. Underscoring Resnick’s point — that successful entrepreneurs need to absorb all the knowledge and resources they can — eLab participants have access to Berlin’s constantly creating and cutting-edge startup community. Developing new business ideas in an energizing location is a surefire way to spark your inner innovator, and develop your passion project or learn how to grow business ideas into a successful startup.
That’s why so many entrepreneurs, thought leaders, venture capitalists, and creatives — have flocked to Berlin. Berlin the brand is thriving, both as a place to live, visit, and work, which is why we located the eLab campus in dynamic Kreuzberg, a flourishing and diverse area, long synonymous with both small business and entrepreneurial energy and supported by a proudly independent culture.
A healthy startup ecosystem needs more than Berlin’s creative spark– that spark also needs the fuel of startup funding. Berlin’s city government has partnered with many funds and started multiple city initiatives designed to help worthy startups. Lukas Wiese of the German Startup Association was quoted in an interview with Deutsche Welle saying, “Startups interested in coming to Germany should have a close look at the federal startup funding available.” He went on to say that Startup Association “…think(s) that the German startup ecosystem can really benefit from the influx of foreign founders,” citing that around 500 startups are founded here annually, and there’s no mystery why; after Silicon Valley, Berlin has the largest number of foreign-born startup founders, making it an excellent base for international entrepreneurship.
In recent years there’s been an influx of seed funding and tech incubation from venture capital groups like Project A, Berlin|Ventures, Kizoo, and HitFox, to name a few. Not only is there local incubator investment power in Berlin, but there’s also networking power and community focus. There is a wide range of dynamic events happen in Berlin every year that help startups share new business ideas, find talent, be hired, build a team or just simply be inspired. or if you are the talent, these events might help the right team to find you!
In March, Berlin hosted the Start Alliance’s first inbound accelerator program on FinTech. SolarisBank and N26 are two internet banks that have taken off globally. June sees a plethora of competitions, festivals, conferences, and meetups — so whether you’re interested in competing to save some green with Start Green’s competition for eco-startups or attend what The Next Web has called, “Europe’s coolest tech conference” – TOA festival– there are endless options for networking, so who knows, maybe you’ll meet your co-founder!
Berlin hosts a vibrant calendar of startup events to inspire you, put you in touch with other thought leaders, and open up a world of possibilities. We’re excited to be bringing a cohort of innovators together for eLab to access all the potential of this bustling entrepreneurial city. If you think Berlin’s entrepreneurial spirit matches your own, check out our accelerated startup programs and join us in Europe’s creative capital.
By Dagmar Hoppe at CIEE
