![\"Berlin](\"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/assets\/les-hipsters-ont-leurs-propres-jo-e1378720240226.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Last week, a \u00a0post entitled \u201cEnough with the Berlin Startup Hipster stereotype. We\u2019re here to do business<\/a>\u201d appeared on Berlin startup blog Venture Village, which underlined a sentiment that has been growing in Berlin since the beginning of the year, namely that being the \u201ccheap place\u201d or the \u201chipster startup scene\u201d might not be the appropriate image for the city.<\/p>\n The article displays frustration that a stereotype, which the author claims originally was created in jest and irony, has come to be taken seriously by the entrepreneurial community. Curiously, I\u2019m pretty sure that, if there were one, the definition of \u201chipster\u201d would include doing something out of irony at first, but ultimately adopting it as your identity.<\/p>\n The author<\/a>, a serial accelerator mentor, keynote speaker, and former Deutsche Telekom employee, argues that, while companies like Berlin-based EyeEm and 6Wunderkinder often are used as examples of companies founded by startup hipsters, the reality is that, in fact, these companies\u2019 founders are hard-working individuals.<\/p>\n While I applaud the author’s effort to declare being a \u201cstartup hipster\u201d no longer cool, he may want to look at the societal group that the term borrowed its name from \u2013 declaring being a hipster no longer cool is just step two in hipster-dom, it separates the weak from the committed.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the noteworthy point in this story is not so much the debate over what is and isn\u2019t \u2018hipster\u2019 \u2013 I\u2019ll leave that to the sociologists \u2013 but rather, to pose the question \u201cwhat will be left if you take the startup hipster out of Berlin?\u201d<\/p>\n Berlin-based VCs like Ciaran O\u2019Leary have championed the \u2018you just wait, Berlin is going to knock your socks off\u2019 argument in recent months, similar to how Soundcloud CEO Alexander Ljung championed the city two years ago when the startup began getting global attention.<\/p>\n In terms of brand identity, Berlin may face problems as it tries to dig beneath its cool factor to find something of substance to bolster to the top. Berlin is home to very few, if any, headquarters of major technology companies \u2013 it has always fallen back on its ability to attract artists as a strong-point. But an ecosystem of artists seems to be the very thing that produces the \u2018startup hipster\u2019 problem in the first place \u2013the problem being not necessarily that the city has trouble shaking off its inappropriate stereotype, but that the stereotype might be accurate.<\/p>\n Thus far, a mix of consumer apps like EyeEm & Soundcloud, eCommerce giants like Zalando & enterprise solutions like 6WunderKinder\u2019s WunderList have left the ecosystem torn in terms of how to identify itself. The problem with eCommerce is that every country has its own eCommerce giant, and then there\u2019s Amazon. For consumer apps, the exits are all in the Silicon Valley, so that ultimately the outliers who succeed see their efforts exported to California, much like Paris-based mail app Sparrow.<\/p>\n Berlin needs to leave behind its cheap, hipster reputation if it hopes to create a startup ecosystem \u2013 no startup ecosystem is complete without a billion dollar company that will aggressively acquire startups in order to prevent new competition from arising \u2013 however, I\u2019m not sure that many of Berlin\u2019s current champions will like what they see when they peel back the band-aid.<\/p>\nThe Business end of the Berlin Startup Scene<\/h4>\n
![\"Earlybird](\"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/assets\/timthumb.jpg\")