During the week of June 22–26, I, along with two other team members from Rackspace UK, went on a discovery tour of Berlin’s startup ecosystem.

I serve as the Brand Ambassador to Rackspace’s startup program in Israel and my mission is to #BeHelpful by providing a great experience to startups, hosting credits, and once a startup has on-boarded, I add in some additional value added services in the area of PR / brand / messaging and content.

Rackspace is the number one Managed Cloud company, and our offer is differentiated from other providers based upon the profile of someone that is not DIY, but rather values removing the operational overhead of infrastructure and leveraging a partner that is a master in this area so that your business can focus on more value add activities like growth.

Back to Berlin. When I started this process, I did not know one single person.

I did my research on the Internet, searched for the logical key words, asked friends in the Israeli ecosystem to could connect me with good people to meet, and started engaging on Twitter and Facebook. From social, beget email, and from email, a few calls.

Within three weeks of diligent outreach and planning we had a full calendar, resulting in what I can only describe as series of wonderful meetings, being welcomed with open arms, and finding an immediate sense of camaraderie.

I had never been to Berlin before, and other than the historical importance of the city, I figured if Joe Jackson lived there, it had to be a wonderful place to live, work, and create.

For the purpose of this story, I am not going to drop names; mention the wonderful workspaces or accelerators, VCs and members of the media and blogosphere we visited and engaged with.

What I would like to share here is how awestruck I was with the bicycles, the sense of order, the incredible and clean public transportation and how this whole sense of design, form, function has lends itself the to the personality and great karma of this ecosystem.

We also saw some incredible buildings and workspaces that in a previous life, were used for different purposes. In some cases, it was like being on a movie set, whose historical exterior remained in place and a new vibe an energy taking over the old.

I live in San Antonio.

I also live in Tel Aviv.

And just two weeks ago, I moved to Jerusalem for the months of July and August.

I rent an AirBNB, figure out the neighborhood, and dive into the ecosystem.

I do this so I am not commuting, or driving by.

The week I was in Berlin, I was in a hotel.

I did, however, check out some neighborhoods, discovered some cool places to possibly live in Berlin for stints when I could embed and contribute to the city’s startup community during Jewish and Israeli national holidays when things slow down in Israel.

Berlin is a four hour flight from Tel Aviv. So, it’s an easy an low-cost commute.

It’s simple and easy to get to, then, and from what I learned, there’s even a subculture of Israelis and Israeli startups.

I am going to be returning to Berlin for the T-O-A — Tech Open Air festival that takes place July 15–17.

This time, I am taking a different approach.

Much like what I have done for years in being a speaker and participant at SXSW in Austin, I will plan a few meetings, but for the most part, I am a big believer in being in the moment, and letting the magic of the festival unfold.

Random does not become so random. We are all coming to Berlin with intent.

I am looking forward to my return.

I am looking forward to getting from here to there, and letting things unfold.

All photos by me.