Berlin?s Startup Innovators Create A Factory To Call Their Own

There is a chapter in the history of technology startups, or perhaps more a book, that will be dedicated to Berlin. As with other cities, but particularly those that, in 2012, are attracting what I like to call The International Brigade of startup entrepreneurs, Berlin is plowing its own path? its own, distinct, ecosystem. But there is something uniquely Berlin about how this history is playing out. For if this were the Middle Ages, we'd be talking that time when the villagers began demanding more rights from the feudal, Teutonic knights. Perhaps rising up to reclaim their destiny. Just as Berlin started out with a handful of entrepreneurs dominating the scene - sometimes unwilling to share the wealth with their serfs in the field - now a new wave is bringing a new, collaborative and organic approach. To that end, this new wave has already begin to manifest itself physically. Two years ago, on a winter's day in Berlin, I sat in a coffee shop with Alexander Ljung and David No?l of SoundCloud talking about this new breed of startups. "We're mentoring each other. It's starting to happen," said Ljung, excitedly. Then, earlier this year, I met a man sitting behind me at a dinner in Munich. He tapped me on the shoulder. "I have something to show you," he said. I turned around and he proceeded to show me pictures of a giant building that sat on the old border of East and West Berlin. "We're building a factory," he said, with a smile. This week, that 'factory' breaks cover.

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