What does a Zebra need in Berlin? A recap of the first Zebras Unite meetup

There have apparently been 11 unicorn companies born in Berlin, but did anyone count the Zebras?

One shy tweet promoted the first meetup of Berlin’s Zebras on Eventbrite, but the almost disproportionately large interest in the Zebras Unite movement started by four female US founders proved that the mission has hit a nerve in Germany’s capital. An old colleague of mine, among others, texted that he is thrilled to see Zebras in Berlin, as he was passively following the movement for a while.

Zebras stand for a company model countering the existing startup and venture capital culture. Instead of striving for fast exits and exponential growth at all costs, Zebra companies want to grow sustainably, honor diversity and inclusion, and work both towards profit and benefiting the public (read the manifesto). It’s something we desperately need in a society increasingly overtaken by the centralized services of tech giants bowing to shareholder interests rather than serving the public.

The first meetup of Zebras Unite in Berlin took place on December 4th in Mozilla’s office. After almost 30 registrations, Zebras Berlin had the pleasure to convene a group of 10 who made it through the grey Berlin weather to Kreuzberg.

After a short introduction, the round anonymous faces revealed themselves to be a diverse mix of founders, activists, consultants, and ex-academics experienced in financing their ventures with the help of Kickstarter, micro-investors, or entirely bootstrapping it. All were determined not to lose control of their businesses, but at the same time struggling with navigating the bureaucracy and fundraising landscape. Women founders shared their struggles with bias against women in tech, which led us to discuss the systemic issues behind the horrendous statistics on the diversity in the European startup scene (93% of all funds raised by European VC-backed companies in 2018 went to all-male founding teams).

We discussed how the idea of a Zebra company translates into the German and European reality. Entrepreneur and activist Evgeni Kouris introduced us to a cause he is leading, tailored to the German market and closely aligned with Zebra values: #NewMittelstand.

We wondered how we can encourage the often conservative investors with access to the “old money” in Germany to open up to new kinds of companies. We mentioned the challenge of measuring impact versus profit and the need for innovative investors who “get it” and are willing to take the risk, as well as founders who stand by their values, even under pressure. Because a pressure for exponential impact can be as detrimental as the pressure for exponential growth of profits.

We discussed the role education can and needs to play in this context. We joked we need a “sustainerator” instead of an “accelerator” in the startup ecosystem. Lastly, one of the founders wondered if there is a way to grow your business without taking any external money, which started a discussion about scaling and its challenges.

All in all, we all saw the need to unite in a smart way and raise visibility for the ideas that are already growing in different sectors and communities. Through events, education, meetups and emotional support and skills sharing, Zebras seemed like a great umbrella to talk about a change that is cultural at its core.

We know that once we get people thinking, actions will follow.

We would like to extend an invitation to local founder communities, and investors to talk about what we can do together.

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You can contact us at ZebrasUniteBerlin@gmail.com

If this is the first time you hear about Zebras and it sounds awesome, read more at Zebras Unite.

If you’d like to join our Berlin group, do it here and subscribe to our newsletter. It’s the safest way to hear about the next meetup (probably at the end of January).

Let’s Dazzle!