Hey, dear reader!
After I shared my critical take on Hamburg's illusory startup success story in the last newsletter, I took a week off and flew to Galicia to walk the Camino de Santiago.
Honestly, I had no idea the post would resonate so much within our community and beyond. It even got noticed by Hamburg Senate representatives from different parties.
While walking the Camino, I had a lot of time to reflect on the feedback and what this all means for found.
Our community spoke up, and we got heard. What we need now is an amplifier, one that makes our voice louder, impossible to ignore.
I want to make found that community amplifier: a platform that shares problems openly, pushes for solutions, and backs the community over the institutions. Community-led, not institution-led.
On the Camino, you collect stamps along the way to earn your completion certificate. You need at least 10. It’s a good metaphor to describe where found stands today. We've just passed the first kilometers and picked up our first one. But the road ahead is long and dusty, with a lot of stamps still to collect.
¡Buen Camino!
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Our newsletter comes out every Monday, but so much happens in Hamburg in between. That's what we're showing on Instagram: hot takes, founders on camera, the people behind the events, and lots more from around the community.
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Save the Date 🗓️
The events I'm most excited about in the weeks ahead.
Wednesday, October 7
n8n Meetup (English) — Trade practical automation and AI workflow use cases with the local n8n community.
Thursday, October 8
Defence Tech Meetup (English) — Meet the people building, funding and supporting defence technology across Germany and Ukraine.
Tuesday, October 13
Revenue for Breakfast #1 (English) — Dig into GTM engineering and how automation and AI are rebuilding the sales engine, over breakfast.
Thursday, October 15
Autonomous Intelligence Forum #2 (German) — Work through which AI model belongs where, and what European sovereignty means when you run it yourself.
Sunday, October 18
agentic coffee (English) — Talk through what you are building with AI agents over Sunday morning coffee, in the monthly edition.
Weekly Picks 📍
All the events on my radar for this week.
This Issue’s Gem 💎
Wednesday, September 30
AI Mavericks: Launch Event (German) — Launch of the House of AI and etribes community for the people getting AI running inside real German companies.
AI Everywhere 🤖
Tuesday, September 29
Is This the End? The Hugging Face Hack by OpenAI Agents (German) — Unpack how OpenAI's agents infiltrated Hugging Face's infrastructure this summer, and what it means for everyone shipping AI.
Wednesday, September 30
AI Mavericks: Launch Event (German) — Launch of the House of AI and etribes community for the people getting AI running inside real German companies.
Tech Bite 🧑💻
Thursday, October 1
Rethinking Data Teams in the AI Era: exmox & Databricks (English) — Hear how the lines between analysts, scientists and ML engineers are blurring, and how teams restructure around it.
Sunday, October 4
Claude Code Sunday for Beginners (English) — Pick up Claude Code and AI agent workflows over Sunday coffee, in a session built for people just starting out.
Startup 101 🔨
Monday, September 28
Co-working Day (English) — found's own monthly co-working day for founders, operators and everyone tired of working from home.
Tuesday, September 29
Business Plan Workshop: Financial Planning in Practice (German) — Build the financial plan behind your business plan in a full day of hands-on work and direct feedback.
Wednesday, September 30
Impact Lunch: Social Entrepreneurship City Edition (German) — Trade ideas over lunch with the impact community, in the Social Entrepreneurship City edition.
Friday, October 2
build fridays (English/German) — Work on your own startup alongside other founders doing the same, and end the week with something shipped.
Get Inspired ✨
Wednesday, September 30
Female Founder's Breakfast (German) — Swap early-stage notes with other women building companies over a women-only breakfast.
Wednesday, September 30
Health Network Apéro Vol. 17 (German) — Meet the people pushing health and innovation forward in the city, at the monthly apéro.
Thursday, October 1
Deep Tech Afterwork (English) — Meet the iF team and the wider deep tech community at the second edition of the afterwork series.
Thursday, October 1
Resilience Forum Vol. II (German) — Dig into China's tech race and the role of drones in modern defence, with the deep tech and security crowd.
Saturday, October 3
Founders Running Club (English) — Run an easy weekend loop with founders, investors and startup people, then stay for the networking half.
Open Calls 📣
Grants, programs, and opportunities waiting for your application.
Techstars London Accelerator — For early-stage founders in any vertical, applying from anywhere in the world. Three months of mentorship-driven support inside one of the largest accelerator networks there is, with the Spring 2027 cohort starting in March and Demo Day in June. Deadline: November 18.
Hamburg Copenhagen Startup Forum — For fintech, RegTech and InsurTech startups headquartered in Hamburg, up to ten years old and past product-market fit. Twelve startups are selected, six from Hamburg and six from Copenhagen, for two days in Hamburg on December 2 and 3: curated introductions to banks, financial service providers and corporates from both cities, plus pitch training. Free to apply and free to attend. Deadline: October 11.
Job Picks 💼
3 open roles worth a look this week.
Engineering Manager at FREENOW, the multi-mobility app for taxi and ride-hailing across Europe.
Senior GTM Engineer at Boardwise, a startup building scheduling and meeting software for executive boards and their assistants.
Entrepreneur in Residence at MUVN, a logistics startup whose platform lets people book spare cargo space to move things cheaply.
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That’s a wrap!
Check out the tune of the week from the found playlist
🏄♂
Share found Hamburg with your friends
See you next week,
Kyrylo from found Hamburg