Fortify

Nikolas Samios is a serial entrepreneur, long-time expert for transformational startups and venture capital and early sustainability advocate.

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He founded his first company around 25 years ago in parallel to doing A-Levels in Munich, Germany, and was quickly sucked into the grand new thing called "the Internet", mainly helping traditional industries like print publishers, TV stations, retail chains or banks to digitise their businesses. Around 15 years ago, he increasingly focused on the transactional aspects, financing, buying and selling startups. He set up a special family office for like-minded Internet entrepreneurs and venture capital investors that, for example, built up and managed the personal investment holdings of MP3 inventor Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg and AOL Europe founder Jan Henric Buettner.

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After many years, participating in more than 100 venture capital transactions and co-authoring the German standard reference book on venture capital methodology DEALTERMS.VC, he co-founded PT1.

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Nikolas was also appointed “Co-Chairman” of the PropTech platform of leading German real estate association ZIA and former Deputy Chairman of the Young Digital Economy Advisory Board to German federal minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck. Currently Nikolas serves a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Green Parliamentary Group in the Bundestag.

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Furthermore, Nikolas is part of the committees of multiple leading industry awards and events (e.g. QUO VADIS, ZIA TDI – Tag der Immobilienwirtschaft). He was awarded “Head of the Year 2023” by Immobilienmanager magazine.

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Nikolas is living with his wife and two kids in Berlin, is privately supporting many NGOs around sustainable transformation and is a member of Leaders for Climate Action. In his rare spare time, he is an enthusiastic musician and music producer.

Bryony is an international investor and entrepreneur with a long track record of building bridges between the corporate and startup world, creating value for both sides. Originally from the UK, she has spent 15+ years working with private and public stakeholders across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as co-founding businesses in London, Berlin and Warsaw.

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Bryony understands venture capital from end to end with a 360° view of the fundraising process. She raised investment for startups multiple times, set up and ran an innovation lab, and since 2018 has been investing in early-stage tech startups as Managing Partner of Arkley Brinc – a VC fund co-created with PFR Ventures (the largest Fund of Funds manager in the CEE region) and Group One (part of ServicePlan Group – one of the largest owner-operated advertising agency groups in Europe).

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During her time leading Brinc’s accelerator for the MENA region, Bryony collaborated with corporate partner Batelco (Bahrain’s leading TelCo provider) and the Economic Development Board to boost the local startup ecosystem, as well as supporting Brinc’s HQ in Hong Kong.

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Bryony is passionate about entrepreneurship, environmental sustainability, and gender parity (as featured in the book Dear Female Founder). Her interview was the #1 most shared episode on the podcasts ‚Wickedly Smart Women‘ and ‘Speak like a CEO’ in 2023; she is often found speaking on stage at international tech startup events such as SXSW, Web Summit, and TNW.