The One Percent Who No Longer Fit — and Still Keep Going
Why NEXUS Werkstatt had to come into existence
On Wednesday, March 18th, we founded NEXUS Werkstatt GmbH in Berlin.
No ceremony. No champagne. Just a signature under something that needed four years to become clear enough to exist.
Those four years weren’t about building — they were about peeling away. About doubt, frustration, starting over, and sometimes wanting to quit. Not because the idea was wrong, but because it refused to be squeezed into existing structures. NEXUS needed to make sense internally before it could take shape externally.
Why Berlin?
Because Berlin has space. Space for difference, for rough edges, for things that aren’t finished. Not everything is fixed here, and that makes it possible to create something that isn’t immediately pulled back into existing patterns.
What NEXUS is — and isn’t
NEXUS is not an agency.
Not a consultancy.
Not a classic community.
It is a workshop for people who no longer fit into systems — and who keep building nonetheless.
This becomes tangible: a physical place with a barista, where people work, think, and have conversations that don’t happen anywhere else. Where the Norwegian 1926 Speedcykkel is not a product but an expression of a way of seeing and moving.
A field, not a network
We’re building something that isn’t meant for everyone.
No mass audience. No open door.
But a small group that immediately recognizes what is happening here.
Call it the one percent.
Call it high bandwidth minds.
It isn’t a network — it’s a carefully cultivated field.
Independence as a foundation
We are doing this ourselves. Including the financing.
No dependency. No external pressure. No investors steering the direction.
That makes it risky — but the risk of not doing this is greater.
The months ahead
We’ll open a bank account.
Find a space in East Berlin.
Build the first workshop.
We’re deliberately starting small while building the structure under NEXUS: not for scale, but for load‑bearing capacity. Quality over reach. Precision over growth.
There is still doubt — but not about the ‘if’
Doubt is still there, but no longer about whether this should happen.
Only about how big we allow it to become.
We’re not building this to grow.
We’re building it because there is no other choice.
If this resonates, you already know
And if you’re reading this and feel that you too are caught somewhere between systems…
if you sense that you always fall just outside the familiar frames, yet you keep moving…
then you probably already know.
Welcome
NEXUS makes sense precisely because it refuses to scale in the conventional way.
Think of it as an intersection on a long desert road. Not a destination or a place to stay (aka, a community), and definitely not a massively chaotic roundabout like the one at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
A field doesn’t grow by taking over the entire road. It holds its shape by taking what surrounds and supports it. It’s a clear, precise, and intentional process.
What looks like risk to the sheep is simply just a wolf’s clarity. And that’s the only viable way to operate in today’s day and age.
If this resonates and you’re coincidentally (or perhaps not so coincidentally) in Berlin, do reach out. It’s a joint venture, and support is always welcome!