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Zebras Unite: Berlin Chapter

For sustainable entrepreneurship of all stripes.

Zebras Unite calls for a more ethical and inclusive movement to counter existing startup and venture capital culture. We believe creating an alternative to this status quo is a moral imperative.

Read more about the mothership movement:  https://www.zebrasunite.com/

The Berlin Zebras community has been rapidly growing since our first Meetup in December 2019 – it is clear there is need for a space to meet, discuss and do for Berlin entrepreneurs, investors and activists who are looking to change the existing venture capital driven startup culture.

We put a special emphasis on paving the way to responsible funding for women founders and founders from underrepresented communities.

If you are fed up with the exploitative unicorn- and exit driven startup culture and you’re asking yourself if and how is it possible to fund and build a sustainable business with purpose and profit (or maybe you are building a Zebra business already?), join us. No matter if you are a founder, a wanna-be founder, an investor, researcher, activist, tech worker or just an interested Berliner – let’s get to know each other.

We are the Berlin Chapter of Zebras Unite but really, we welcome anyone who wants to dazzle with us. We started off small with 10 people at the first meetup in early December 2019, now we have over 100 people on Telegram and more than a hundred subscribed to our newsletter and are regularly registering for each of the meetups. But don’t be mistaken – we are all about the right amount of warmth and coziness. Community first!

 

Who are these Zebras — we get this question a lot!

So, we took initiative and created 2 editable landscapes in collaboration with Berlin Senate, New Mittelstand co-pilot reframe.ventures and dealroom platform:

Contact us in case you’d like to add yourself to the list.

 

Berlin Community

  • Zebras Unite Berlin is powered by New Mittelstand community — applying the zebras identity to define a future of German Mittelstand and family businesses. Join us and empower sustainable growth of our movement in Germany!

  • We’re calling for volunteers to help build the Chapter into the gravity center for all things Zebra in Berlin and Germany. No matter if you have 1 hour a week or 3 hours a month. You are good at organizing, researching, analyzing, networking, communicating? Contact us – there are many fun ways to get you involved.

  • Join our Telegram group for local conversations

  • Join the Berlin group at Mighty Networks to connect to the international community

  • Subscribe to our mailing lis

  • Attend one of our community meetups (see section below, now online!)

 

Upcoming Events

  • 28.02.2023 - Virtual information session jointly with Founder Institute Berlin — register here

  • 25.-26.04.2023 - Hybrid New Mittelstand Summit 2023 (2-days event in German) — get your ticket

  • Several events are in the pipeline — stay tuned and sign up for our mailing list.

  • Contact us in case you’d like to co-host an event around your work or your purpose!

 

Past Events

08.09.2022 Meetup No. 10: Zebras Unite Berlin Day

30.11.2021 Meetup No 9: Exploring new capital and ownership structures with Remagine and Rekursive - minutes - recording

10.08.2021 Meetup No 8: 24 types of Zebra business models with Leon Seefeld (Reframe.Ventures) and Astrid Scholz - minutes - recording

14.12.2020 Meetup No 7: “How to set yourself up for remote work (+ end of the year meet & greet!)” with Wildling Shoes, Lacewing Tech and Acework.

(notes including tool recommendations from our community, video and audio recording).

26.08.2020 Meetup No. 6 “How to carry a culture of activism into a business - the story of mimycri” (recording available under the link) as part of the “Season of the Dazzle” event series.

25.06.2020 “Why do we need Zebras Unite in Germany” by Kasia Odrozek at the #Waterkant20 Festival (start around 23.00)

24.06.2020 Meetup No 5 with Naomi Ryland and Lisa Jaspers, co-authors of “Starting a revolution“. Kim Gerlach from mimcri  was the lucky book winner and will get a signed copy shipped right to her home! (notes including book recommendations from our community, video and audio).

27.05.2020 “Let’s Talk, Zebra: Wie wir zusammen das Morgen gestalten können“ by Tomorrow Bank (German)

27.04.2020 Masterclass with Julia Profeta Johannson (Conscious Growth).

23.04.2020 Meetup No. 4 “Investing in Zebras” with Zebras Unite movement co-founder Astrid Scholz, Achim Hensen and Camille Canon from Purpose Ventures and Ramona Liberoff, an SDG investor (notes and recording: gallery view or speaker viewaudio file).

March 2020 Meetup No 3, Let’s get philosophical with tshirt consulting, ecoligo and Ranking Digital Rights (notes and recordingaudio file)

January 2020 Meetup No 2Impact investing with Julia Profeta Johannson and Sebastian Neumann from Sharkbite/Mobility Accelerator Imagine2030

December 2019 Meetup No. 1: What does a Zebras need in Berlin

 

Berlin Community Resources

Zebra-aligned investors and accelerators we’re friends with:

Ragnarson is crowdsourcing this amazing list of impact investors in Europe: have a look and add to it!

Help in times of covid-19 (Berlin or/and Germany related)

Related movements:

Inspiration

 

Favorite Zebra Tools built by Zebras

 

Press

Journalists got word about ZebrasUnite in Berlin!

More to come (podcasts, interviews!)

We are always looking to highlight local Zebra entrepreneurs to the press. Get in touch if you would like to be our go-to example of the way of Zebra.

 

Chapter Leads

 

Evgeni Kouris

New Mittelstand Founder & Co-Pilot

LinkedIn | Website

 

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. Ask us questions, share ideas, complain about how hard it is, brag about your success. We want to hear it all and we’ll spread the word via our famous newsletter.

Email: [email protected]