Re 2) Hiring in Berlin is indeed difficult. There's a great influx of talented developers from southern Europe though, and as long as your employees come from w

Re 2) Hiring in Berlin is indeed difficult. There's a great influx of talented developers from southern Europe though, and as long as your employees come from within the EU hiring them is not a problem. Re 1) Not entirely true for startups - most developers joining startups know what they're at and are not unionized; still you can't fire people at will. Typically this problem is solved by limiting contracts to a couple of months and extending as long as there is money left.