Berlin Metropolitan Area
Nikolas Woischnik dedicates his time to supporting the growth of startups and their ecosystems, both through the companies he builds and the capital he invests. Nikolas’s passion for supporting the tech ecosystem began in venture capital, leading him to create TechBerlin, Germany's first English-language blog on technology and startups. Nikolas founded Tech Open Air (TOA), Europe's leading interdisciplinary technology event with more than 100,000 past visitors attending IRL. Past sponsors include companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Daimler, McKinsey, SAP, Accenture, BCG, Red Bull, Coca-Cola, IBM, Telekom, E.On, Nike, and Apple. Examples of past speakers: Sergey Brin (Founder of Google), Yuval Harari (Author), Fred Wilson (Founder Union Square Ventures), Adam D'Angelo (Board Member of OpenAI & Founder of Quora), Matthias Doepfner (Chairman of Axel Springer), Paula Antonelli (Chief Curator at MoMA NYC), Werner Vogels (CTO at Amazon), Steve Huffman (CEO at Reddit), Gavin Wood (Co-Founder of Ethereum), or Jürgen Mueller (CTO at SAP). Nikolas later founded Ahoy!, a co-working company that grew to encompass over seven locations, spanning more than 17,000 square meters and providing workspace for over 1,000 founders and operators. The company was eventually acquired by Knotel. Nikolas also co-founded Openers, a communications agency serving top-tier clients like IBM, Spotify, Deutsche Bank, Atomico, and Coop. Collectively, the companies founded by Nikolas have generated over €35 million in revenue and created hundreds of full-time jobs. At TOA, Nikolas raised investment from the founders of almost all German Unicorn companies (Zalando, HelloFresh, Delivery Hero, Auto1, SoundCloud) as well as Axel Springer SE (owner of Business Insider) and leading VCs from Project A to Point Nine Capital. Together with wefox and finleap, Nikolas co-founded the HealthyTogether Initiative and Future Perfect accelerator to boost solutions against the Covid-19 crisis. The open ecosystem was joined by dozens of leading technology companies such as Salesforce, AWS, Stripe, Ada Health, Delivery Hero, or Deloitte. Nikolas previously worked at Amazon as a Business Development Manager EMEA and founded Reduti.de, which was acquired by DailyDeal, Germany’s largest couponing company (later sold to Google). Nikolas also serves as a Mentor at Techstars and a Board Member of the Zeitbild Foundation, which develops educational projects to support immigrants.
Tech Open's mission is to help people and organizations become futureproof. Our two core products are: 1) Klub (www.toaklub.com), a cohort-based learning platform for Web3 skills.With Klub we are growing user adoption and expanding the talent pool that is building our future in Web3 2) Interdisciplinary Technology Conferences in Berlin, Tokyo & Mexico City (www.toaberlin.com)
Investing in early-stage companies with a mission worth supporting and am currently raising my first Angel Fund. Initially, the thesis was not clearly defined but soon enough a pattern emerged based on the products that I am most drawn to. In short: I am passionate about helping founders democratize access. Whether it is access to learning, better health, self-determination, financial opportunities or artisanal Mezcal! ;-) I typically invest in the early stages (Seed and Series A) but since I often team up with a group of founder friends we can also write bigger checks and have done investments up to Series B. Please reach out if you see your product fit into the ethos of the products below and would like to get a group of experienced executors to support your mission.
Co-Working Company that started with spaces in Germany and Brasil. Acquired by Knotel. Together we will bring flexible office spaces across the world and help digitalise the real estate industry.
A charity with for education and integration for children with an immigration background.