Hey, dear reader!
After a short summer break spent in the Alpes I'm back with a fresh issue of the newsletter.
Unlike many, I discovered the beauty of hiking just last year, after joining DAV (the German Alpine Club). One trip was enough to realise it was my thing. Being in the wild, completely offline, with one simple goal, to get from point A to point B, got me hooked. It was liberating.
During the hike you quickly learn to greet everyone with "Servus", and you watch the distance between people, the kind you'd feel in a big city, vanish entirely.
At the end of your 5-6 hour hike you finally arrive at a hut (Berghütte) and get yourself a cold glass of radler. Sitting outside, taking in the mesmerising view, a stranger next to you wonders where you're headed next. And just like that you strike up a conversation with other DAV folks about hiking and life.
On my way back to Hamburg, I kept reflecting on this experience, and on what makes a community like DAV so great.
Today, lots of startups are betting on organic growth as part of their strategy, alongside paid marketing. When you look at CAC, which in many cases is up 40-60%, it's not surprising that companies are looking for cheaper channels that also retain and monetise better. In this context, community-led growth is getting a lot of attention, with marketing teams trying to make it work.
In most cases, their strategy is some online community paired with IRL events and discounts. I see it especially in B2C: community is understood as bringing people together, handing out some free stuff, and posting everything on socials while claiming this is a community (see: running clubs launched by companies with overblown marketing budgets, dressed up as community building). No measurable ROI, just hype.
It's not a community. It's a waste of your company's resources and people's time.
If you or your company is serious about community-led growth, you need to get the fundamentals right. And DAV shows exactly why they matter. It's the largest mountaineering association in the world, with over 1.6 million members, and it added roughly half a million of them over the last decade.
Looking at DAV, I see three things that make it stand out:
Identity. You're part of a bigger alpinism movement, and it becomes part of how you see yourself. Discounts and perks are a nice bonus, but not the reason people join. They join for the mountain sport itself.
Values. You share the same values as the community: a deep care for nature, freedom, and self-improvement.
Belonging. You belong to something greater that unites you. That is what every great company should strive for: a vision that inspires people and binds them together.
The ethos your company and your product communicate is arguably the most important thing. To get it right, you need to know your customers: their values, their principles, their beliefs. Skip that, and you jump straight to the tools: events, online chats, webinars. Those are just tactics, some more in fashion than others, and they only work once the fundamentals are in place.
Building a community takes years of effort, and strong communities create brand loyalty, probably the most valuable asset a company can have. Inspiring examples of great communities are everywhere. Ironically, the best one I know didn't come from a marketing playbook. It came from a mountain hut.
Does your company bet on community-led growth? And if so, what do you actually mean by community, and how are you building it?
P.S. That was a long one! I feel like I need to start a new blog :)
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Save the Date 🗓
The events I'm most excited about in the weeks ahead.
Friday, July 17
AI Breakfast (German) — Get perspectives from founders, community builders, and industry pioneers over morning panels on building AI startups, plus surprise-guest talks.
Monday, July 20
found Co-working Day (English) — Spend the day working alongside Hamburg's founders, operators, and techies, no membership, no application, just drop in.
Wednesday, July 22
Impact Lunch: Körber Start-Hub Edition (English/German) — Swap ideas over lunch with the Impact Hub and Körber Start-Hub founder communities in a relaxed midday meetup.
Thursday, August 6
AI Builders Hamburg (English) — Connect with Hamburg's AI builder community for hands-on demos and talks on actually shipping AI products.
Wednesday, August 26
Autonomous Intelligence Forum #2 (English) — Explore autonomous systems and deeptech with founders and decision-makers at the DEEPTECH Campus Circle.
Weekly Picks📍
All the events on my radar for this week.
This Issue’s Gem 💎
Wednesday, July 8
iF Pioneers Demo Day Summer '26 (English) — Watch nine student and researcher startup teams from seven universities pitch after three months of building, then connect with investors and builders.
AI Everywhere 🤖
Tuesday, July 7
Agentic Coding Meetup #6 (English) — Dive into two deep talks plus a lightning-talk round with people who build AI and agentic apps, not just talk about them.
ARIC Brown Bag: AI Deepfakes and Digital Violence (German) — Unpack how generative AI fuels new forms of digital violence, with a look at the German and EU legal landscape and current deepfake research.
Sunday, July 12
Claude Code Sunday for Beginners (English) — Get hands-on sharing how you use Claude Code and other AI tools to build fast, in a relaxed beginner-friendly session.
Tech Bite 🧑💻
Wednesday, July 8
Hamburger Indie Treff #49 (German) — Trade honest lessons with Hamburg indie makers and bootstrapped builders shipping their own products.
agentic coding studio (English) — Get hands-on building products where AI agents do the heavy lifting, with short demo drops followed by open co-working.
Startup 101 🔨
Friday, July 10
build fridays (English) — Ship your product alongside other builders, demo what you shipped, and get unstuck with feedback from fellow founders.
Get Inspired ✨
Thursday, July 9
12min.me IGNITE #120 (German) — Get inspired at the 120th edition of the IGNITE talks: three speakers, three topics, and great conversations after.
Saturday, July 11
Founders Running Club (English) — Kick off Saturday with founders and the Health Network crowd for an easy-paced run, fresh air, and coffee conversations after.
Open Calls 📣
Grants, programs, and opportunities waiting for your application.
Gunnar-Uldall-Wirtschaftspreis 2026 — For founders in the Hamburg metro region whose business embodies social-market-economy values: a sustainable idea, courage, and social responsibility. A €15,000 prize pool split across the top three (€10,000 for the winner), plus visibility across Hamburg's business network. Deadline: September 30.
Startup Wise Guys Founders Club — For early-stage B2B founders, pre-MVP welcome. A three-month online program to find a co-founder, sharpen your idea, build your MVP, land first customers, and secure initial funding, backed by one of Europe's most active accelerator brands. Deadline: July 12.
Slush 100 — For Seed to Series A founders ready for the world's most coveted startup competition. Pitch onstage at Slush in Helsinki (November 18–19) in front of top global investors. Applications open in August, so line up your materials now.
Job Picks 💼
3 open roles worth a look this week.
Founding AI Engineer at CARA8, an AI-native dealer OS for automotive retail.
Embedded Rust Engineer at Anori Tech, a climate startup building battery management systems for the energy transition.
Full-Stack Engineer at Orbio Earth, a climate-data startup tracking methane emissions from oil & gas via satellite imagery and ML.
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That’s a wrap!
Check out the tune of the week from the found playlist
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Share found Hamburg with your friends
See you next week,
Kyrylo from found Hamburg