October: Community Highlights Before Lockdown

If there’s anything that the last 9 months have taught us, is that’s together we can pull through some serious s***. That’s what community is all about.

To keep the positive energy going despite the uncertainty that faces us with COVID-19, let’s take a look back at some community highlights from the last few weeks, and get excited about what’s to come this November.

But firstly, welcome to our newbies.

Gorillas have just joined our community – it’s been great to see how the grocery delivery service has grown over the last months. Also a warm welcome to the Leadership.sprouts team – we’re looking forward to their co-founder, Rolf Schrömgens’ Fireside Chat at the end of November. We’re also proud to announce our partnership with Black Brown Berlin, which aims to provide safe spaces for Black and Brown people and give their community equitable access to opportunities in our ecosystem.

Reaching program milestones

Our Artist in Residence program with Sónar+D powered by Beats by Dr. Dre is well under way. Get to know the artists in our recent blogpost, or take a look at our social media channels where we’re learning what inspires them, and what they’re hoping to achieve on the residency. The artists are also getting to grips with our 360 XR Room, a space that offers a range of possibilities for their work.

New resident Aaron Jablonski, and program alumni Cibelle Cavalli Bastos were recognised by Facebook as Official Spark AR Network Partners for their work on AR filters on the platform. Harriet Davey was featured in It’s Nice That, and Cora Novoa had an interview with Mixmag Spain. Studio Above&Below launched Digital Atmosphere, their XR sculpture influenced by air pollution.

Our Stealth Mode program powered by Google for Startups is now over halfway. Program partner, McKinsey & Company, hosted a design thinking workshop with the mentees, sharing best practices and tips for designing products that are user-centric and solution oriented. W Lounge spoke about personal and professional development for positive leadership in their workshop. Judith Dada, from La Famiglia, shared insights into the investor and VC world as well as advice on raising funding.

Program mentee Emily McDonnell, Founder of The Staycation Collection, made some predictions on how travel startups may need to shift their operations to continue thriving during COVID-19. Read her expert perspective in this article.

Focus on Founders

ICYMI: I spoke to Alina Bassi, the founder of Kleiderly, for the next episode of our Founder Focus series.

The interview format gives us an opportunity to learn from the ups and downs of startup founders from the Factory Berlin community. Alina explained how her experience working for startups, and her time on programs such as the Google for Startups Female Founder program informed her founder journey. Plus, we touched on her experience as a founder of color, and learned how she is supporting others access mentorship and investment opportunities with Tech in Colour.

Watch the full interview.

Next up is Zakaria Jaiathe, the CEO and co-founder of Xibit. Mark your calendar for the Facebook livestream.

Hot off the press

Our team has been busy sharing the vision for the future of our community this month. Our Co-CEOs Nico Gramenz and Martin Eyerer, our CRO Catherine Bischoff, and Factory Berlin Founder Udo Schloemer, spoke to Alexander Langer from Business Punk earlier in the year for the cover story of the magazine’s October edition. Udo also spoke to Fabian Tausch for the Jungunternehmer podcast about his vision for the community.

Catherine sat down with Samsung President and Chief Strategy Officer, Young Sohn, for his interview series The Next Wave. She spoke about her experience of the Berlin ecosystem over the years, in comparison to her time in Waterloo, Canada. They also discussed the importance of programs that focus on giving female founders access to the network and funding opportunities they lack. Watch it now.

Factory Berlin events stay virtual

It’s been great to host hybrid events at Factory Berlin over the month of October. We returned to our On The Red Couch series powered by Beats by Dr. Dre with LA-based artist Jen Stark, interviewed by Artists in Residence alumni Tabitha Swanson. Jen shared her journey as an artist and gave insights into the inspiration for her vibrant technicolor work.

We were delighted to host Christian Lindener, Head of Airbus BizLab for a Corporate Venturing Masterclass. He took us through the process for working with external startups and intrapreneurs on innovation projects. We also got a glimpse at to how innovation teams such as Airbus BizLab curate startups to collaborate with. Catch up on Factory Berlin TV if you’re a startup founder or corporate looking to nail collaborative relationships and innovative processes.

Here comes November…

This month make sure not to miss out on our Payroll for Founders Masterclass with Payfit’s Stephan Weber, plus our aforementioned Fireside Chat with trivago Co-Founder, Rolf Schromgens, ‘Unlocking Intrinsic Motivation’. You can hear about events, programs and updates from Berlin’s tech ecosystem on our social media or newsletter.